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Watching the messages roll in one after another, Ethan felt increasingly certain that something was wrong.
These things in the group... don't look human at all.
He checked the member list. The group owner was the System itself, and there were 17 Administrators — Calamity 001 through Calamity 020.
Calamities 006, 011, and 019 didn't exist.
Below the Calamities, everyone else was a numbered Rift Administrator.
If he wasn't mistaken, this was a monster chat group.
He knew about the Calamities. Every few years, one would appear somewhere in the world. Within its range, people couldn't get in and those inside couldn't get out.
A massively powerful creature would manifest — Immortal-grade, if measured by card ranking.
Either eliminate the Calamity, or wait for it to disappear on its own.
But so far, there had only been one recorded Calamity kill in history.
If Ethan remembered correctly, the last Calamity had struck New York. Level 6. The monster was called the Hydra.
It lasted an entire month. Almost no survivors in the central zone.
The Rifts made sense now too. They'd been appearing all over the world since the System emerged — tearing open in random locations, sucking in every living thing within range on initial activation, then staying open for anyone to enter voluntarily.
The inside was essentially a dungeon. Monsters, natural treasures, and a BOSS. Kill the BOSS, and you could leave.
Over a hundred Rifts appeared domestically every year — roughly one every three days.
And there were over eight hundred Rift Administrators in this chat group, meaning eight hundred entities capable of opening Rifts.
By the looks of it, each one could open a Rift once per month.
Wait — over eight hundred?
If they all opened in one country at the same time, wouldn't that be game over?
More importantly — why was he here?
Ethan checked his own display name: [Rift Inspector 001]
He didn't understand what it meant, so he tapped his profile.
His personal description read: Rift Inspectors may enter dimensional Rifts at will. After clearing a Rift, the Inspector can conduct an evaluation. If rated "Excellent," the Rift Administrator's next Rift opening will have no cooldown. If rated "Poor," the Rift Administrator's status will be revoked.
Ethan read it twice to make sure he hadn't misunderstood.
"So the System thinks they're opening too many Rifts? It needs someone to evaluate them, and it chose me?"
"As long as I clear it and think they did a bad job... I can shut them down?"
It was a nice perk, but he didn't particularly want to risk his neck. He just wanted to make cards, compete in tournaments, earn money, and coast through life. Rifts weren't really his thing.
But... Rift 803 was opened in Bayshore City?
His Bayshore City?
Ethan checked Jake's location again.
He hadn't come back all night. Could he have been sucked into the Rift?
Ethan pulled up his phone and searched the news.
[At 7:50 PM last night, a dimensional Rift appeared on Anchor Street in Bayshore City. Detected level: Tier 3. Citizens are advised to avoid the area...]
It was real.
Anchor Street was only a few hundred yards from campus.
No. Buddy.
Ethan was speechless.
Why does something happen every time I'm not around? Two days ago, I leave to make some money, and you get me a rival. Yesterday, I decide to stay in and work on cards, and you crawl into a Rift.
While he was fuming, someone in the group pinged him.
[Rift Admin 409]:Speaking of which, didn't two newcomers arrive? What's this one? @Rift Inspector 001
[Rift Admin 408]:Not good. I just checked his profile. This guy is an auditor.
[Rift Admin 803]:What? Auditor? I thought Rift Admin was a stable job! I worked so hard to pass the exam!
Seeing he'd been spotted, Ethan decided there was no point hiding. He typed directly.
[Inspector]: @Rift Admin 803 — Is the difficulty of the new Rift in Bayshore City high?
The group went dead silent.
A full minute passed. Just as Ethan was starting to feel awkward, 803 replied.
[803]:That... Inspector, I deployed the monsters strictly according to Rift specifications. The environment is a forest. Tier 1 on the periphery, Tier 2 in the middle, and the BOSS is a top-tier Tier 3 Three-Headed Wolf.
[Inspector]:Can you repeat the Rift specifications?
[803]:All Rift Administrators can only deploy Junior Rifts in the first three years. Internal radius cannot exceed 6 miles, maximum monster level cannot exceed Tier 3, no more than 100 Tier 1 monsters, no more than 50 Tier 2 monsters, and no more than 10 Tier 3 monsters.
[803]:Among them, except for the Tier 3 BOSS, other monsters cannot exceed Epic grade. Some rewards must be placed inside the Rift for participants to obtain.
[803]:Report! I strictly followed specifications: 9 Tier 3 monsters, 49 Tier 2 monsters, 99 Tier 1 monsters, radius of 3 miles. Tier 1 monsters are all Common grade, Tier 2 are Rare grade, the Tier 3 BOSS is Epic, and the remaining Tier 3s are peak Rare.
Nobody else in the group said a word while the two were talking. Even five seconds after 803 finished, the silence held.
Ethan's jaw tightened as he read.
Tier 1 and Tier 2 were manageable. But nine Tier 3 monsters?
Real combat wasn't like training simulations. College students rarely exceeded 1,000 Psionic. In real fights, they could summon two Tier 3 cards at most.
And Psionic recovery was nothing like the hundreds-per-minute rate in simulations — in reality, you got maybe a hundred per hour.
In a Junior Rift, the strongest summons were Tier 3. Most people only had one or two Tier 3 cards, usually White or Blue quality. Anyone with a Purple was almost certainly from money.
Going in there for the average student was practically suicide.
And if a summon died in a Rift, it was gone. Truly dead. The card just... disappeared.
Ethan looked at his own Psionic.
Should he go?
The authorities would send people to clear the Rift eventually, but the standard cleanup time was about a week.
Not because the government lacked strength — but because high-level Card Masters were unwilling to enter. Their Tier 4 and Tier 5 cards were their primary combat power. What if one died in a Rift? That would be catastrophic.
Going into a junior-level Rift purely limited their strength.
Meanwhile, junior Card Masters had limited Psionic and limited card quality.
Another critical detail: only a hundred people could be inside a Rift at once. If a slot opened up when it was full... it meant someone had died.
Ethan sat on the bed and thought for ten full seconds.
The chat group had gone back to cautious small talk, apparently assuming the Inspector had left.
He typed.
[Inspector]:Very well. I'll find an opportunity to check it out in the next two days.
Dead silence again.
Everyone knew: unless broken, a Rift lasted at minimum 48 hours. 803 had opened his just last night.
Even if 803 wanted to flee, he'd have to wait another day.
He'd barely started his career and was already being audited.
[803]:...
[803]:Awaiting your arrival, Inspector.
Plz Throw Powerstones.