Outside somewhere in the world, there was a city named Dreamland. The place was condensed packed with buildings and skyscrapers everywhere, and there didn't seem to be a place of open land that could be seen. A large wall also stood surrounding it around a hundred meters high.
On top of the walls, were several turrets and mechs standing guard day and night patrolling for any danger. Because of these things, Dreamland was considered one of the safest cities to live in. But it came at a cost.
Security was a significant issue, and so was habitable land on Earth. After the war, many of the old cities were obliterated and destroyed. Too much damage had been done. Parts of land gone missing, blown into small pieces, too small for humans to live on.
This was what caused the Humans to create shelters on other planets. It was a lot cheaper than living on Earth, and often many travellers from different associations and families would live there protecting the place.
But planet Earth would always be home to many, and it was hard for them to leave. They hated the fact if they lived on another planet, they might have to live in fear of beasts attacking them at any moment.
Because of this, the few places left on Earth were only for the very top.
There were only two ways to live in the city of Dreamland. To either be really rich or to become a part of the Truedream family. Swearing absolute loyalty to the leader and doing whatever was asked.
In the centre of the city, there was a skyscraper bigger than any of the others around it. The whole building had been made of Glathrium, the hardest materiel known in space.
Inside, on the very top floor was a bald-headed man in a nicely fitted suit was sitting down in his large armchair at his desk. His name was Jack Truedream. The leader of one of the big four families.
Just then, a female wearing business attire had entered the room.
"Sir, there has been a report that one of our family members have died?"
"What Rank was the Traveller?" Jack asked.
"Rank D sir."
Once students had left the academy, they were able to become Travellers and either work for a Faction, Family or as a freelancer. The world government issued these travellers with a Rank depending on the difficulty of tasks they can complete.
At some point, power levels didn't matter too much on the outside. The attribute that high-level beast gear gave you was much more useful. It was more important how you used your ability in conjunction with the beast gear.
When starting out as a traveller, everyone started as a rank F. The more tasks you would complete the more points you would be awarded. Usually, it would take a couple years between each Rank to level up.
Ranks went from F, all the way to A +.
Because of the way the system worked, it was always hard to gauge an F's ability, but the strong would usually move quickly through the ranks.
Therefore, travellers seemed to care less for power level and often looked at Rank instead.
���Our Rank D's die often out in missions, why the need to tell me?" Jack asked.
"Well sir, this one was received to us from one of the military bases, and it was one of our hopefuls named Ian."
Jack sat there and thought about it for a while. It was usual for him to get reports from other families and organisations when they found the dead bodies of his family. They wanted to do anything to get on his good side.
What troubled him, though, was the person who had actually died. To give a person an ability that he had taken away, he had to touch them and meet them in person. The low-level abilities he usually didn't remember too much.
But he remembered giving Ian quite a handy ability. He had also only taken a year to go from a rank F to a rank D and was hoping for better things for him in the future.
"Send me the report. I'd like to take a look?"
The female then clicked a device in her hand, and in an instant, a holographic display appeared in front of Jack. He used his hands to navigate through the pages and quickly read through the information.
There were also some pictures attached of Ian's body.
"Woah what a bad way to die," Ian said as he looked at the picture of his body cut in half.
But then he spotted something that interested him and started to zoom in, right on Ian's Neck.
"Alexa bring me up the report of two years ago on Danny Fletchmen."
"Report has been found." His computer system said as it brought up another file.
He looked through them once again and noticed that another family member had the same mark on his neck. Usually, Jack wouldn't remember details like this, But Danny Fletchman was a level 8 user and was a B rank traveller.
One of the strongest men that the Truedream had in their family. When he had died, it had come to a shock to him, and no one knew who or what had done it.
'Could these two cases be linked somehow?' He thought.
"Apparently they coincidentally came across Ian when they out looking for two students. I don't know much of the details."
"Do you know what military base they are from?"
The worker then placed her hand on her glasses, and images could be seen in the reflection. Words and articles started scrolling past her eyes.
"Military base two sir."
"Perhaps its time I pay a visit to them. It has been a while, and I could find out more information. In the meantime, find out what you can about Ian's last mission."
Jack then stood up from his chair and closed his eyes. Inside of him, he could see around ten little flames swirling around his stomach. Each of them looking slightly different from the others.
'It looks like I'm running low on abilities again, I guess it will also be a good chance to stock up as well.'
*****
We hit 22,000 Stones last week and unlocked 6 chapters mass release.
New mass release goal! I will also increase chapter length for mass release chapters to 1500 words instead of 1000 words for fast pass users.
20,000 Stones = 2 extra Chapters
22,000 Stones = 4 extra Chapters