“What was that?”

  Some strange sounds were coming from somewhere in the vastness of this frozen forest.

  Even though I kept walking, I didn’t let my guard down. I knew I should be hurrying toward the teleporter and that I shouldn’t be wasting time on something like this.

  But deep down, I already knew I wouldn’t make it in time.

  I still had a long way to go, and my instincts told me that even if I rushed right now, I wouldn’t get there before it disappeared.

  So, with nothing in particular stopping me, I decided to take a small break and follow the source of the noise, which was—clearly—a trap.

  Even knowing what it was, I headed there anyway, mostly to vent some of the frustration I was feeling.

  “I hope they have something valuable. If not, this is going to be a waste of time.”

  Well, that sounded a bit darker than I intended. But can you really blame me?

  I’ve been stuck in this godforsaken world for almost twenty years, and for a little over eight I’ve been searching for the teleporters, ever since I found out they even existed.

  The worst part is that they appear and disappear on the planet at random. They’re never around for more than three days and always in random locations. And once again, I won’t make it in time.

  I’m really frustrated right now, so my next prey had better be entertaining.

  The closer I got to the place, the clearer the sound became. It seemed to be some kind of sound playback device, probably a TV, judging by the white noise that could be heard every now and then.

  A few kilometers away, I could see the TV from behind a rock. I also saw the hundreds of ambushers who thought they were well hidden.

  “Ah, how weak...”

  I was a bit let down by the apparent capability of my future attackers. Mostly because, being that weak, they probably wouldn’t have anything valuable.

  They’re around 300 Rank 3s, 14 Rank 4s, 3 Rank 5s, and one Rank 6.

  From the way they were organized and the overall weakness of the group, I already had a pretty good idea of who they were. I’d fought groups like this before.

  I could see the exact moment they detected me: how the lookout saw me and immediately went to warn his superior, who then gave the order to take positions.

  I watched them all come out of their praying stance and get ready for the ambush. And not a single one realized I was watching them.

  Near the TV, only a boulder ten times my size separated me from the target.

  Without slowing my pace, I kept walking and passed straight through the gigantic rock. It parted around me as if it were air; it didn’t even manage to slow me down.

  In front of the television, I took a quick look to see what show was playing. And yes, it was exactly what I suspected. Apparently, one that had been very popular a few years back.

  When I was ten meters away from the TV, the trap finally decided to trigger. Everything around me lit up in red.

  BOOM!

  An explosion several kilometers wide swallowed the frozen forest. When the smoke cleared, only I remained, standing in the middle of a massive crater. No television in sight.

  “HAHAHA! A Rank 5! Only a Rank 5 could come out of that explosion unharmed. The Great Dinamo will be pleased.”

  Although I’m not sure your average Rank 6 would walk away in such good shape.

  “Look, brothers! If we offer this sacrifice, surely the Great Dinamo will reward us generously.”

  Cheers could be heard all across the area.

  Ugh… They had to be Dinamo’s followers.

  At least, judging by their appearance, they were from the “Acolita” faction. It was the weakest faction among Dinamo’s followers; they didn’t have the military power of the “Belicista” faction or the wealth of the “Coleccionistas.”

  They were just hopeless fanatics with no real power.

  “On top of that! The all-powerful Dinamo has granted us the great honor of hunting one of those filthy demons that hide behind the domes. We have been given a… a human! May our victory exalt our lord—glory to Dinamo!”

  “Glory to Dinamo! Glory to Dinamo! Glory to Dinamo!”

  “They’re so irritating.”

  The worst thing about dealing with these insane fanatics is how much they love praising their “almighty” lord. They’re so annoying when they start babbling that it makes me want to just walk away.

  But it was already too late for that. Once, I left the weakest ones alive in a group similar to this, and not even a day later I had three “Belicista” squads on my tail. Their pursuit lasted almost seven months.

  It was an unpleasant experience I’d rather not repeat. So, they were all going to die. That was the idea from the start.

  I decided to stop wasting time and start the fight; I wasn’t in the mood to keep listening to sermons.

  I stopped suppressing my Rank 5 aura and unleashed it in all its glory. Like flipping a switch, everyone went silent. The weakest ones even fell unconscious.

  “Do not fear, comrades! I, the mighty Captain Yuei Fei Chu, am here!”

  It seemed the captain quickly realized the team’s morale had plummeted when I released my aura, and he couldn’t allow that.

  So he attacked me immediately after finishing his speech.

  A series of powerful water blades shot toward me.

  So, a user of the Water concept.

  Everyone was born with a conceptual ability, and my opponent was a conceptual water user, or some similar variant.

  With a simple jump, I positioned myself above my enemy’s attack, which continued on for at least five kilometers, devastating everything in its path.

  While I was in the air, I saw one of the Rank 5s use his ability—something related to waves—to propel himself toward me and try to crush me with the massive hammer he was carrying.

  To me, this Rank 5 had just handed me his life.

  Using my ability, I amplified the concept of space between us.

  Didn’t I tell you? Everyone has a conceptual ability, and mine is “Amplify.” I can amplify anything.

  The next thing I did was amplify the density of the air to make it solid and use it as a foothold. I kicked off toward my opponent and decapitated him while he was frozen in space.

  “One less.”

  I sheathed my sword coldly as I landed gracefully on the ground, a corpse behind me, all without taking my eyes off my next opponents.

  That allowed me to see how another Rank 5 flexed his ability to suddenly make a dozen mouths appear all around me.

  Without flinching, I distorted space again, amplifying the distance between me and the mouths while increasing my speed and the acceleration of my time to get away from the area quickly.

  Taking advantage of my lack of focus, the last Rank 5 lunged at me with claws. Apparently, he had some feline-related concept.

  Dodging his attack, a trail of wind shot out from his claws, tearing my clothes and leaving a few wounds on me.

  As I jumped back to try to put some distance between us, a barrage of attacks arrived. It seemed the few Rank 3s and 4s who had managed to escape the prison created by my aura launched a counterattack. And more were on the way: the Rank 6 had started using his own aura to wake them up.

  Seeing the incoming attacks, I once again increased the density of the air to create a wall dozens of meters away from me, while at the same time increasing the instability of the projectiles, making them collide with each other and explode, or crash into the wall.

  None of the attacks managed to reach me, all while I calmly dodged the flurry of blows from the tiger in front of me.

  But it couldn’t stay like that: two water whips pierced through the air wall with ease, heading straight for me. Apparently, the Rank 6 didn’t want to let me rest while he was waking up his subordinates.

  Though he made a mistake sending those attacks at me.

  By slightly altering the space and time of the whips, I positioned myself in front of them while narrowing the tunnel vision of the Rank 5 in front of me so he would attack me without thinking about his surroundings. Not that he was paying much attention anyway.

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  Just as he reached the right position, only a few meters away from me, I stopped slowing down the incoming whips and instead amplified both their speed and their damage, making the miserable Rank 5 get impaled by his own captain’s attack.

  He was left hanging in the air: one of the tentacles pierced his chest, while the other went through the lower left part of his abdomen.

  When the last of his power faded, the tentacles dispersed, letting the Rank 5 fall to the ground. Before he had any chance of recovering, I ended his life.

  Another one down, two left.

  I know it sounds really unfair to the low Ranks, but the difference in both power and quality made it hard to even consider them.

  Dodging another dozen mouths and attacks raining down on me, I casually swung my sword and killed a Rank 4 who thought he could catch me off guard.

  “You’re…!”

  While I was dodging a few more attacks, I heard the stunned, almost screaming babble of the Rank 6 in front of me. Everyone harassing me stopped their attacks, confused by their captain’s reaction.

  But I knew better: he was terrified. I could see the concept of fear invading his body, practically canceling out the rest of his concepts.

  With a visible tremor and cold sweat running down his forehead, he kept speaking with a broken voice:

  “You are… the Child of Perdition.”

  The concept of fear had already taken over his entire being, even overshadowing his faith in Dinamo. Even though his words were barely a whisper, they shattered any trace of courage left in his subordinates; some even fell to their knees to pray for their ‘God’s’ salvation.

  I never asked for that nickname. You’re the ones who gave it to me.

  It wasn’t my fault that, ever since I appeared in this world at the age of six, every inhabitant saw me as a monster that needed to be wiped out.

  What did they expect? For me to stand still and die?

  With no desire to waste any more time, I amplified every aspect of my speed while also intensifying the paralysis brought on by fear.

  Then, with a movement that tore up the ground, I appeared in front of the paralyzed captain and ended his life. After that, I moved on to the last remaining Rank 5… and killed him too.

  Now only the weakest ones were left.

  Maybe I should’ve done this from the start.

  That’s how this damned world was: the strong could crush the weak whenever they wanted, and the weak had no way to resist such a cruel fundamental law.

  It was unfair, but that’s how this world worked.

  “I’ll finish everything now.”

  I said it more to myself than to them. I had already gotten used to being cold, to feeling no compassion in moments like this.

  Just as I was about to finish them all off, to keep them from reporting this to a stronger faction, something happened.

  Thanks to my heightened danger sense, I reacted in time to an imminent attack from behind.

  Turning around, I blocked a vine with my sword, but it still sent me skidding hundreds of meters.

  When I focused on my new attackers, I saw they were blue trees and iron owls, all of them Rank 5 and 6.

  Apparently, they’d been drawn in by the brief fight and were now planning to feast on everyone present.

  Without hesitation, I amplified my speed to the maximum, moved toward the dead captain’s body, grabbed his bag, and ran away as fast as I could, dodging the thorns and vines of the trees as well as the sharp feathers of the owls.

  Even if I could kill them all, it wasn’t worth the risk. Who knew how many more creatures would be drawn in if the battle dragged on?

  The best thing to do was get out of the area as soon as possible.

  Since my attackers didn’t seem too interested in stopping me from escaping, getting away wasn’t difficult at all. In a couple of seconds, I was already dozens of kilometers away from the area.

  “That didn’t go so badly.”

  It could’ve been worse. A Rank 8 could’ve shown up—that would’ve been terrible. It was a shame I couldn’t loot the rest of the bodies, though.

  I approached the riverbank, where I decided to take a break and check the belongings inside the bag.

  Although calling it a bag wasn’t entirely accurate: it was more like a space-distortion device shaped like a bag. Pretty much everyone Rank 5 or higher had one of these.

  Once I was close to the water’s edge, I couldn’t help taking a look at myself.

  I was wearing a black hooded cloak, a hoodie with a long-sleeved black shirt underneath, black jeans, black boots, and black gloves. And the most distinctive feature: a black gas mask, partially hidden by the depth of my hood and, in part, by my ability.

  In the reflection, I could also see the last traces of the tear in my chest disappearing. The self-repair function of this outfit was very effective; in a few more moments, there would be no trace left of my earlier fight.

  Sitting on a rock at the edge of the shore, I began pulling items out of the spatial bag, discarding the ones that were useless to me and storing the useful ones in my own spatial device.

  My spatial device was more like a pendant; after all, that was more convenient and easier for me to use.

  Most of what I threw away was anything related to Dinamo’s cult, since I had no use for that kind of item.

  Among all the objects I was pulling out, one caught my attention: a small green bottle. I decided to open it to see what was inside.

  I didn’t sense anything noteworthy about the bottle—until I removed the cap. That’s when a blue gas started coming out of it.

  “Damn it!”

  Panicking, I threw the bottle as far as I could and moved to the top of one of the tallest trees in the area.

  That was the “blue liquid,” or at least that’s what I called it. Each region had its own name for it, but everyone generally knew how dangerous that compound was for life: for the übermensch, it was both a poison and a gateway to ascend in Rank.

  For humans, on the other hand, it was the worst acid ever created: an amount as small as the half-liter inside that bottle was enough to dissolve thousands of people without leaving a trace.

  That’s why my reaction was so extreme; I didn’t want to end up like the people I’d seen suffer its effects.

  Calming my breathing at the top of the tree, I decided to take a short break. I had lost all interest in the bag; I’d already taken the most valuable stuff anyway. What remained was mostly food and water, and I usually sold those resources, since thanks to my ability I didn’t need to eat, drink, or sleep.

  I could stay active almost indefinitely without resting. Only the strain of keeping my ability active for so long could stop me, and that only happened about once every ten years.

  It was then that I felt the teleporter disappear.

  I’d been right: I wouldn’t have made it in time. Well, not without increasing my speed—but doing that would’ve attracted, at the very least, Rank 7 creatures, or worse, a Rank 8.

  Just remembering it made me tremble. Once, I’d been completely desperate and tried to reach the teleporter as fast as possible; that had been a terrible mistake that almost cost me my life.

  I still remembered the tense weeks I spent running from that Rank 8. It had chased me almost without rest until, finally, it got bored and left me alone.

  Since that day, I’ve been more moderate with the speed I use when heading toward teleporters and have focused more on improving my concealment.

  Now I would have to wait a few days or weeks until the next one appeared.

  “What shitty luck… Should I have gone faster?”

  That probably would’ve landed me in an even worse situation.

  “Well, this could be worse…”

  I wanted to see the bright side of things, but that’s when it came—without any warning. From the sky, diving straight down, a set of powerful claws tried to tear my head off.

  Luckily, thanks to my enhanced senses, I reacted at the last second and escaped the target zone.

  “Damn beasts! Can’t you give me a little break!?”

  It was a marking bird. Well, that’s what I called it, since I didn’t know its real name.

  A kind of bird that, when it missed its target, emitted a sound to mark it, so that other powerful predators would hunt it down. That way, they’d kill each other, and it could eat the leftovers.

  It was an opportunistic predator.

  Hearing its distinctive cry, I knew things were going to get complicated. Not only could I see the mark on my body, but I could also see several predators quickly approaching this area.

  And the worst part was that among them there was a Rank 7.

  At least there’s no Rank 8… but better not push my luck.

  With its job done, the bird took off immediately, eager to see the results of the upcoming battle and harvest whatever it could.

  I didn’t have any more time to think about my next move, because the Rank 7 had already arrived.

  With a deafening crash, it sent dirt, snow, and trees flying everywhere. And with a powerful roar, the Rank 7 polar bear made its grand entrance.

  The roar wasn’t just a show of strength; it also obliterated the terrain for dozens of kilometers around, leaving behind only a barren valley for the two of us.

  Clearly, this bear wanted it to be a one-on-one fight, with no one else interfering. That was due to another feature of the mark: it worked on several targets at once, making them feel hatred toward each other.

  I’d already prepared for this, so I was perfectly calm, but the bear in front of me seemed to have been carrying the mark for years.

  Which wasn’t exactly encouraging—it meant it probably had some kind of arrangement with the bird, where they shared promising prey.

  I could see all kinds of beasts lurking in the shadows, but it was obvious none of them wanted to ignore the bear’s warning.

  When the bear laid its eyes on me, I knew it was underestimating me, which made sense: I was a Rank 5 and it was Rank 7. Clearly, it was wondering why I was prey worth its attention.

  That was also thanks to the Rank 6 bird that had attacked me. It probably didn’t know either how a Rank 5 had survived its ambush.

  That worked in my favor.

  With no other choice, I amplified my opponent’s confidence, making it believe that just a fraction of its power would be enough to finish me off.

  Then, with a disdainful snort, it charged.

  I had succeeded: I could see how the bear didn’t doubt for a second that a single swipe of its powerful claw would be enough to end the fight.

  With its claws raised to crush me, it didn’t even bother putting up a defense against my attack.

  Knowing this, I didn’t bother defending myself either; I focused everything on boosting my offense. I wanted to finish this enemy as quickly as possible.

  I could see pure contempt in its eyes as my attack connected. That’s why its surprise was so intense when it was cut cleanly in half.

  It probably couldn’t understand why it died, even at the very end.

  This was my favorite trick, although it was getting harder and harder to pull off thanks to my infamous reputation. But with beasts, it was different—they only cared about Rank.

  At least I got rid of the biggest threat quickly, I thought.

  That gave me a bit of peace of mind as I took up a new fighting stance.

  Even though the beasts were currently stunned, I knew it wouldn’t take long for them to recover and come at me.

  I’d been through this before: once you killed the strongest, the other beasts would attack you en masse until there was only one living creature left.

  Then I saw confusion and disbelief start to fade, replaced by bloodlust and madness.

  I just want some peace… Is that too much to ask?

  It was always the same in this shitty world. Everything had to turn into an endless slaughter where, as soon as you finished one battle, you already had another one waiting.

  At least, that’s how it was for humans.

  Complaints about this hellhole of a world would have to wait. The beasts surrounding me had already run out of patience.

  They charged en masse into the clearing left by the corpse of the Rank 7 bear I’d killed. Most of them were Rank 6; a few were Rank 5.

  This wasn’t going to be easy. I was surrounded by a hundred hungry monsters, and I knew that without a miracle, I wouldn’t get out of this except in pieces… or completely exhausted.

  As if fate wanted to make sure it crushed me, rain began to pound the ground.

  With the same instinct, the beasts and I turned toward the horizon.

  In the distance, a blue storm was carving its way forward at terrifying speed, devouring everything in its path.

  That’s when I understood: my luck was a bad joke. And that was after I’d spent weeks strengthening it.

  One look was all it took. Without the need for words, we agreed on a silent truce.

  They knew I was marked; they could hunt me later, if we survived.

  Fleeing at full speed, we left that cursed clearing behind.

  A blue storm of that size left no survivors. Not beasts, not humans. Especially not me.

  With fear gnawing at my bones, I focused on running. I reached Mach 15 in the blink of an eye and kept accelerating.

  I didn’t look back. I dodged trees, rocks, crevices—any obstacle—knowing that one second of distraction meant death.

  The storm roared behind me, but little by little I began to pull away from it.

  I would’ve liked to cut my way through the plants, but their blue sap was just as deadly as the storm itself. I couldn’t touch anything.

  When the distance finally became acceptable, the smoke caught my attention.

  A small village was bleeding out beneath black clouds.

  It was one of those miserable settlements trapped between two kingdoms at war: reduced to rubble, corpses, and ash.

  I should’ve ignored it.

  I should’ve kept running.

  That’s how this world worked: you see tragedy, you lower your head, you move on.

  But then I saw it.

  Among the charred remains, I sensed a small concept beating: a baby.

  I almost managed to convince myself to leave it. Almost.

  But I couldn’t.

  I accelerated, swept the rubble aside without harming her, and rescued her.

  She was a newborn girl. Rank 1.

  Maybe that’s why they abandoned her: too weak to matter, too insignificant to live.

  Before taking off again, I reinforced her resilience. I couldn’t allow her to die in my arms before reaching a safe place.

  With the girl protected, we took off once more, getting farther away from the storm with a single question echoing in my mind:

  When will I be able to enter a dome?