The armored transport vehicle tore through the torrential rain, its engine emitting a low, guttural growl that drowned out the rhythmic weeping of the sky.
Inside, the atmosphere was suffocating, thick with the sharp scent of ozone and the sterile, cold smell of reinforced metal.
Ash sat motionless, his back pressed against the cold leather seat.
As the vehicle jolted over a deep pothole, Ashfei's mind drifted back to the history that had become humanity's shared nightmare—a history that began on January 1st, 2025.
In a world where eight billion people lived, "The Doors" appeared.
Ten thousand doors simultaneously appeared across all continents, with no exceptions.
They were massive monolithic blocks made of ancient iron and wood, nearly ten meters tall. Ashfei recalled a theory from an old, tattered book:
People at that time explained that it was because these enormous portals were looked as though they were built for giants., leaving us—the small and powerless—to look up in awe.
By calling it a 'door,' humanity makes a bold statement: it is a reminder that, despite our insignificance, we have the potential to stand on equal footing with the giants themselves.
But the Doors were not invitations.
They were maws.
Ashfei shifted his gaze to the window.
The building of the outer city blurred past—a gray wasteland of concrete that served as a constant reminder of the first catastrophe.
According to the archives, opening a Door meant being dragged into a "Place."
These were fractured realities: ancient ruins swallowed by time, endless forests where sunlight was a myth, or shoreless oceans beneath alien stars.
And inside every Place, there were monsters. Creatures that tore flesh and crushed bones the moment they sensed the slightest tremor of human weakness.
The only way to make a Door disappear was simple in theory—
Enter it, reach the Place beyond, and destroy its Core.
Cores were spherical objects whose locations could not be predicted.
They might lie at the farthest end of the Place.Be hidden within the body of a colossal monster.Or exist somewhere no one would ever think to search.
And monsters were not the only danger.
Within many Places existed entire civilizations.
Races different from humanity.
Sometimes even humans themselves.
To the inhabitants of these Places, the Chosen were invaders.
Enemies.
Because once a Core was destroyed, the Place itself would vanish.
When a Chosen successfully destroyed a Core, they would gain power.
What kind of power depended on many factors—
How they fought.How they survived.What talents they displayed.What kind of person they truly were.
The Core judged all of it.
He looked down at his bare hands, currently resting on his knees. They were pale, thin, and—most importantly—empty.
He had heard the stories of "The Chosen."
It was said that a Door would randomly claim one individual within a fifty-kilometer radius.
A black, key-shaped mark would burn itself into the back of their hand—a permanent brand that acted as the only "key" to the gate.
No tank, no bunker-buster, not even the combined nuclear arsenal of the old world could leave a single scratch on those surfaces. Only the Chosen held the power to enter.
Ashfei let out a shallow breath. To the world, the mark was a death sentence. To the Alliance, it was a resource. He wondered if that was why he was here.
Were they checking him for a mark that hadn't appeared yet? Or were they waiting for a Door to claim someone in this very transport?
The archives were clear about the cost of failure. In 2025, ten thousand Doors opened. Ten thousand Chosen entered.
Not a single soul returned.
When the time limit expired, every Door released its monsters. Three billion people were slaughtered in three months.
Countries lay in ruins, and the survivors united under the desperate banner of the Human Alliance.
The vehicle slowed as it entered a grand plaza, where the city's ancient splendor had been partially preserved. In the center stood a statue that loomed through the mist—a man leaning on a heavy sword driven deep into the earth.
'The First One'
Hallibert Greymond. Ashfei stared at the statue as they passed. In 2035, Greymond became the first human to destroy a Core and survive.
He was the first "Opener," the man who proved that the "Step Beyond"—a qualitative evolution of the human soul—was possible.
He became a symbol and a legend.
He founded the Greymond family—a lineage that still existed to this day.
Following his example, more Chosen began to succeed.
Humanity entered the Era of the Chosen.
Worse yet, the appearance of Doors caused the Earth itself to expand—tripling in size.
tripling in size as the alien "Places" began to stitch themselves into our geography. Half the planet was now a Forbidden Zone, a paradise for monsters where humanity was no longer the apex predator.
This was the world Ashfei had inherited—a world that had already taken his father in a "workplace accident" and had slowly withered his mother until she was nothing but a memory of exhaustion.
"Please... live... Ashfei..."
Her final words whispered in his mind, louder than the roar of the engine.
He had promised to live, but as the transport began to descend into a subterranean tunnel, that promise felt increasingly difficult to keep.
The city lights disappeared, replaced by the rhythmic flicker of overhead fluorescent lamps.
He exhaled slowly.
'So this is the world I'm stepping into.'
The vehicle hummed, echoing off the concrete walls like the heavy breathing of a beast.
This tunnel led to the military research facilities—the place where the Alliance "processed" those they deemed useful or dangerous.
Ashfei leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He felt a strange, chilling sensation in his marrow. He didn't have the mark.
He wasn't a hero like Greymond. He was just a boy from the slums with a hollow heart and an iron will.
'Figures,' he thought, a faint, dangerous twitch tugging at the corner of his lips.
Then another thought surfaced—quiet, practical, and dangerously calm.
'What will come for me next?'