Chapter 2: Portal World!
Miles had finally drawn the little white furball out.
With dilated pupils looking at it, the psychic rat couldnt believe that it had been tricked.
It smelled human blood before surfacing, making certain that the human was dead before it approached it. Unfortunately, it was not the case.
The psychic rat did not wriggle too long and died in a few seconds.
Dealing with these kinds of beasts in Portal World is truly troublesome, even for Miles.
Portal World is a world within a portal. It is in a separate dimension than Earth, and Miles had traveled here to hunt these monsters.
From the old records, Miles had learned that the first portal opened to Earth was as big as a skyscraper and as wide as a lake. Through it, monsters poured out to threaten everything in existence.
At first, humans did not know what this giant dark maw was. It was only later that it came to be known as portals. Not long after, beasts of all shapes and sizes poured out from the abyss.
The monsters were stronger than anything humans had encountered before. Their skin and scales could resist against their strongest weapons. Humanity had no feasible means of counter-attack against them until a later new type of weapon made of alloys came to exist.
Miles sat on the ground, remembering the old books he read about the portal world and looked at the wounds all over his body. He had to let rats injure him to force the psychic rat out. If he wasnt injured enough and feigned death, the psychic rat would have bolted right away.
He took a rest while being attentive to his surroundings. The last thing he wanted was for any armored rats or any other monster stronger than rats nearby.
In Portal World, monsters were abundant and there were millions of different kinds with different abilities in different areas. When they first invaded Earth, the lack of information tied humans' hands as much as lack of weapons did. But what caused the most damage to humanity wasnt the threats coming from the outside, but it was internal strife among major ruling parties.
Long before the portal appeared, three parties fought over hegemony. All of the planets resources were sucked dry because of their greed. Earth was about to collapse in on itself.
Humanity had no way to save their home, thus they had no other choice but leave the planet.
The bloodbath and war continued as they fought over what limited resources were still left. They were brandishing their weapons at each others throat when the great calamity had fallen over them causing their uncivilized war to cease to exist.
When the monsters threatened every single life on Earth,the three ruling parties had no other choice but to gather under one banner and create a science center compromising the greatest minds of each faction.
Through their research, they deduced the vulnerabilities of these beasts and the remedies for a variety of diseases that had ravaged the human world. Alongside tank piercing bullets, laser weapons were the only weaponry that could hurt the monsters that invaded the Earth, invented in this very science center because of collaborative work of the ruling parties.
Humanity had a new hope, and endless vigor to open a path through the battlefield even with this little spark. But it was what came after that truly allowed the humans to win the war.
When the first titan beast was killed, a piece of the orb was found in its brain.
At first, people did not know what this mysterious orb was meant for or how important it was to humanity. But after endless experiments, they figured out its functions. By supplying them with electricity, the orbs could change their shapes to pre-recorded items.
Scientists could not crack the orbs composition but theorized its constituents to be some kind of memory alloys. These memory alloys could take the shape of an item, be it a sword or an armor. They could adjust their size to suit the needs of their holders. They were magical-like weapons that could be found in the brains of the monsters, but they were stronger than any weapon humans could create.
By using these orb weapons, humans fought back against the beasts and pushed them back to the portal world. The more they killed, the more orbs they found and got stronger through blood and sweat.
Not long after, Miles stood up from where he was sitting and collected the orbs from the beasts he slaughtered. He cut open their heads and removed the orbs and cores from their brain.
The man in front of him then said with a threatening tone, Tian Ling, you know who he is, right?
Miles's pupils contracted when he heard the name, Tian Ling. Tian Ling was the youngest grandson of General Tian Ying, one of the three generals of The Unity. He had great influence over the sole nation on Earth.
The Unity was created after the monsters had been pushed away. The remaining superpowers of the world decided to put together their resources and manpower to unite. Thus, the name Unity. It had three generals from three ruling parties before the monster invasion. One of them was Miless grandfather, Cruel Heart Cross.
Because of his choices, Miles left his family name behind, so he wasnt as influential as Tian Ling.
As the youngest grandson of the general, Tian Ling could indeed name a part of the Portal World as his. Because in Portal World, Unity Laws are null and void. But it also meant Miles could do whatever he wanted too.
Since when do people own the land in this world? Miles asked while looking around to see if there were anyone else hiding. I came in and fought with my blood and sweat. I received no help nor advantage from your Tian Faction. Why do I have to pay you anything?
Cut the crap! You are going to pay because we ask you to! One of the men said angrily.
It has been more than a year since they had been stationed in this forest, and no one ever rejected it when they used the name of Tian. Now that they had come upon some unlucky bastard, they wouldnt let him go.
What if I refuse? Miles said to stall the time. He could already hear the roars of the beasts. It wouldnt take long for them to arrive.
"I ran a face recognition on them and learned their powers." Coin's voice came just in time. It wasn't common for AIs to do face recognition search. It was only able to do so because Coin was more advanced than any regular AIs.
It was at this moment that Coin had finished facial recognition on the two men and had acquired their information.
"What are their powers?" Miles asked as he cautiously backed away with eyes on the two of them.
"The one on the left can use Wind Blades, and the one on the right can use the Earth Dome." Coin had summarized their abilities.
All elemental powers have equal potential, but some were superior. There was no distinct ranking to separate them, but people could still branch them depending on their conception.
"Hmm." Miles nodded and started to strategize the fight.
He was at quite a disadvantage. It was two against one.
He wasnt fighting against monsters but men. There was also some disparity between them.
'All I have to do is dodge their attacks and approach them. The forest is dense with trees but the hill will further slow my approach. It would take three seconds to arrive and two seconds for them to attack. I have to slow them down.' Miles thought.
Alright, I cannot fight against the two of you in my injured state. Miles said and raised both his hands with items on both. He held the psychic core on one hand, and the armor orb on the other. With an improvised plan, he began to slowly walk towards them.
'Wind Blades can travel no more than 5 meters, and Earth Dome can only be created 3 meters further from the user. I will get in close proximity to the wind user, and let the other dude trap us together first.
Stop right there! The wind user said to Miles when he was three meters away from them. He had entered their attack range.
How can I hand over these items without approaching? Miles said without stopping.
I said stop! The wind user shouted once again and a condensed grey ball of air started forming in his palm. The wind whipped at their clothes and hair. The other man also readied his hand.