Chapter 59: Uncontracted Human

Some time before the Titan’s hands came down upon the realm.

Orson had just finished checking his status before sighing. He looked at his hover bike. He wasn’t sure if he knew how to drive it, but it was the first time for everything. So he moved.

Getting on the hover bike was easy enough since the bike was hovering in mid-air. But now he first had to balance himself on the damn thing.

Orson took a deep breath. Well, here goes nothing.

With that, he climbed on the hover bike. Weird enough, he did not fall, nor did the bike twist. He looked at the handle—the first one was to push forward and the second was to push back. Forgetting that he had to be careful with how sensitive the handle was, he just pushed it all in. The bike jolted forward, and Orson fell off it just as he pressed it.

"Ahh, damn."

He scratched his hand, hoping it didn’t cause a bruise, and got back up from the sandy ground. He looked back at the bike again.

Here we go again, he thought as he got back on the bike. But this time, he moved the button slowly forward. It took a while—after a near miss that almost sliced Orson’s head off and some turning and braking disasters. But Orson was getting better control of the hover bike as he sped through District 12.

The sun was already high in the sky as Orson moved. The landscape changed from old houses to broken skyscrapers and rusted ruins of buildings to just rubble and then just a wasteland of dirt and sand.

Orson’s mind was still on the demon. And the Astral Plane itself. And according to how people gain power in this new world, he would also have to enter the Astral Plane.

Aww. I should have just made another coffee for the road, he thought as he reached the checkpoint of the district.

As he reached it, police stopped him.

"Your ranker’s ID, please."

Orson looked at the police officer, and the man who asked for his ID looked back at him. Orson—of course he knew he needed a contract license to enter any breach. But this was Corvin’s work before. Corvin did all this, and Orson just had to come, and Corvin would talk the police head off, and then they would be let in.

He looked up at the virus wound in the sky that was dealing polluted air into the world.

Orson sighed. If he wanted to advance, he had to get creative.

"Look, officer, what is your name again?"

The man did say anything and just look like, sir. "If you do not have an ID, you will not be allowed into the breach, so I suggest you move back."

Orson sighed before climbing off his hover bike. There was a transparent force fence around the breach, and the only way in was through the checkpoint.

Orson looked at the officer. Most times, he would have just used his fist to answer the officer. But this was not something fists would handle. Orson was smart—he knew that—and he always had crazy ideas to get him out of a lot of things. Even his opponents. He either used his words or his fists, like they say. Words are mightier than swords. Or what was it?

Shaking his head to remove all confusing thoughts, he looked at the officer and smiled.

"Look, officer, I was not planning to come here, but I have no choice. You know—orders from the higher-ups. So I forgot my ID card. And besides, there’s no way to check my ID card in your system with my face alone."

The officer looked at him before another officer spoke. "Oh, sorry, but the breach is interfering with systems, so we can’t confirm an—"

"Andrew, will you keep your mouth shut? This is why no one tells you any secrets."

The officer in front of Orson sighed before looking back at the guy. "Look, man, I do not know who you are or what higher-up ordered you here, but no ID, no entering."

Orson just sighed. "Look, everyone is after the weapon, and you stopping me here for some dumb ID will just get you fired. Okay? So what is your name, officer, so I can have someone to blame if my guild loses a weapon worth billions."

The officer was taken aback. He was already losing his nerves, but he kept his cool as Orson continued.

"Look, just let me in. I am an Awakened."

With that, he looked at the officer. The officer looked at him. "And who how should I know you? You’re a contractor?"

Orson sighed and moved. He was an afterimage as he appeared beside the officer and reappeared again on the hover bike.

"So what do you think?"

But just then, a private transport suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the sky. The ship looked to have appeared past the breach inside. The officer looked up in shock. And Orson used the loud sound and air blowing all around from the ship hovering above the ground.

"So, Andrew, can I go in?"

Before the officer could say anything, Andrew let the man pass. The officer wanted to say something, but he felt like there was nothing to say.

Dumb contractor. Thinking they are the only special people in the world.

Orson was not allowed to use his hover bike, so after passing the checkpoint, he dropped his hover bike and looked up. The Eternal Breach looked back at him—like a wound in reality pulsing with emerald light.

Just then, Orson saw Sen enter a man-made rift with a blade. He wanted to shout for him, but Orson was too far. He could only watch as Sen entered.

He sighed to himself. As he walked toward the breach, he reached it and looked at it. The breach was large, reaching high into the sky.

He sighed. Well, here we go.

And with that, he entered the breach.

The polluted air and sunlight changed as he entered. A system notification appeared.

Hello, uncontracted human. Welcome to the Eternal Breach of the Golden Sun Realm.