Chapter 9: Gate

"We came to help you as soon as we realized that something was off but to our surprise, you didn't even need it. I guess my choice of making Rhino, one of our strongest examinees test your strength was a good idea." Hana looked towards Alex with a small smile.

Alex laughed awkwardly, 'She is a scary woman and that smile can kill.' Alex was once again flabbergasted by Hana's small smile.

"I don't know what to say…" Alex replied, scratching his head.

Hana turned to Alex and looked him straight into his eyes.

"Alex, I don't understand one thing though. How powerful are the people in your world? I wouldn't call anyone weak if they could defeat a C-Rank, or are the people from your world all just powerful and C-Ranks here are considered as powerful as F-Ranks there?"

Alex was astonished by Hana's question. He had an idea that such a question would pop up if he used abilities but he hadn't readied any answers yet.

Alex thought for a while and said, "I don't know, After exiting the gate, I felt different. I felt like I had more power and more speed."

Hana nodded when she heard Alex. She could see that he was telling the truth just by the sincerity of his voice.

"It seems like you have awakened… That means that you have gained a special ability while you were inside of the gate and thus you might have powered up. But I do want to know what your ability is, I don't think it's just an enhancement in strength and speed."

Alex smiled awkwardly, 'It's like she already knows that I have a system. I get why this woman is the head of Investigations, she truly has a scary intuition…'

"I… I don't know." Alex replied, acting oblivious.

Hana looked outside the car window and replied, "Well, I don't have any more questions for now. The rest will be in the questioning. So, for now… Do you have any questions regarding this world? You just arrived here so it must all be confusing."

Alex nodded, he did have a few questions.

"Does this world have superheroes? The world where I came from had many, they all worked to keep peace… Well, some did and as I found out the hard way, some only acted like heroes but did the opposite."

Hana shook her head, "No, the concept of superheroes is only in stories. Superheroes don't exist here. The awakened ones who kill the incoming reapers from the gates are the closest to heroes but they aren't there for saving people or creating peace. They are there to do it for money. The awakened never thought of themselves as heroes so they just do their job, earn money, and go back home."

Hana's words disappointed Alex. Seeing Alex's face, Hana then continued.

"In my opinion, the closest people we have to heroes aren't the ones who kill the reapers but are the medics who stay back and heal those who got hurt by them. They save lives. But other than that, we have no beacon of hope like the ones in stories."

Alex had mixed feelings when he heard Hana. Ever since he was young he loved the heroes and wanted to be just like them but now, Alex wasn't in his world anymore. He was in a world where heroes were just fiction.

Hana put her hand on Alex's shoulder "But having a hero wouldn't sound too bad. I do envy your world, I've always wanted to save people and beat up the bad guys as heroes did in stories. And technically, I am doing that right now. The world might be different in concepts but if you look at it like that, they aren't that different after all."

Alex nodded when he heard Hana. A sudden smile appeared on his face, Alex had an idea. 'If I can be more powerful by using this system, then I can be the first hero of this World. I can make my own hero council, filled with people who want to help and save people And ultimately create this world into one where people have someone to look up to as Superheroes.' Alex felt motivated.

"Now, Alex… Do you have any other questions? We are close to arriving at our destination." Hana said as she looked out of the window once again.

Alex also glanced out of the window and to his surprise, there were huge skyscrapers far off in the distance. A large body of water was between them and the city.

He nodded, "I do have another question, What are the gates and where do they come from?" He was very curious about the gates. The first time he saw one was when he was told to scout it. Before that Alex had never even heard of something like it.

"Hmm, that is a good question. If you want a straight answer, even we don't know. We have sent volunteers inside the gate but only a few returned so we know as much as you about what the gate is on the inside." Hana thought.

"But we from experience, I can answer a bit of your question. Gates are portals that join different universes. Like I told you before, You entered a gate that appeared in your world, and thus, you were taken to the intermediate fields of the gate, an empty space where men can't survive that long. If someone does survive, they have a chance of getting a special power. How it happens, even we don't know."

"Gates appeared in our world out of nowhere. It was random and caused a lot of confusion. We did what was obvious, surround the gate with the military. But before we could do more, it just suddenly disappeared into thin air. That time, I was just a small baby but the appearances of the gate seemed to have affected me and gave me enhanced abilities. It wasn't just me, a few hundred were similarly affected."

"Before that time, no human in this world had powers. We were experimented on. But as time continued, more gates appeared then disappeared. As this happened, more humans became awakened. The experiments were also stopped because of human-rights protests."

"It just seemed like an unknown phenomenon in the beginning and as more people got powers, the gates were welcomed by many. But a few weeks after the first gate appeared, something different happened. A gate appeared in the middle of the city but it was significantly bigger than the ones we saw before. What happened next changed the views of every human who had been wishing for more gates to appear… Strange beings walked out… They rampaged through the city, completely destroying it. Hundreds of thousands died. After destroying the cities, they just returned inside… From that moment onward, the ones with powers were gathered and created a pact with the world leaders. We get money if we deal with the monsters that exit the gates."

Hana explained slowly. Alex could see the fear in her eyes when Hana spoke of the big creatures that initially exited the gates.

"What creatures were they? The only ones that I saw were long-limbed humanoid creatures which I called reapers cause they just slashed everyone that they saw…"

Hana nodded, "Reapers are the weakest ones that you will see in the gates. We have only experienced a few of the huge ones but when they did appear, it was a complete disaster. We can do nothing but watch. Reapers and similar are pretty common and easy to deal with in comparison. The one who controlled Rhino was a higher form of a reaper, one with a high level of magic. It's a relief that it didn't go after more people. They are very difficult to deal with and we humans still don't have the proper tools to deal with magic yet. There are some awakened who can cast magic but they are all kept safe from the rest of the world. They are all top weapons of humanity if another Big calamity is to strike us."

Hana replied slowly. She seemed to have a personal grudge for the creatures from the gate."

"Oh and, we classify the gates according to their size. The one you entered to come into our world was an E-Class gate. Large enough to fit a person at once. The larger the gate is, the higher they are classified. The smallest gate is F-Class, no creatures exit from this one. The biggest gate is Catastrophic-Class, where those huge vile demons come from. The higher the class of a gate, the stronger the creatures that exit out of it. If weak creatures exit out of a large gate, that's even worse. A few S-Ranks can deal with a big creature but we can't deal with hundreds of small reapers attacking at once, it's next to impossible for us. The only reason we are hiring more awakened to help us is for that case."