One Man Closes a Portal to Another World

Upon hearing the conditions Andre laid out, John found no reason to refuse.

Before his rebirth, the ranking system of the guild was established about a year after the formation of the Awakeners' Guild.

The crisis posed by the portals to other worlds was a crisis for all of humanity. Awakeners capable of closing these portals and stabilizing society naturally held a very high status.

To encourage the progress of the Awakeners, a grading standard naturally emerged.

To become an S-rank Awakener, according to the rules before his rebirth, one must reach the sixth transformation and successfully conquer five S-rank portals to other worlds.

Either of these requirements was a significant hurdle.

But now, the situation was entirely different. Everything had returned to five years ago, right after the establishment of the Awakeners' Guild. The higher-ups had also adopted the document he had written, aiming to cultivate a group of the strongest forces from the early stages.

Andre spoke again, "An S-rank Awakener is not only a pinnacle of combat strength but also a role model for other Awakeners and a beacon of hope in the eyes of the ordinary populace."

"As of now, only two portals in Star City have been closed." Andre said, lighting a cigarette with a grave expression. "You two might just be the strongest among all the Awakeners at the moment."

He flicked the ashes, looking at them seriously, "You are entirely worthy of the S-rank, but you must also accept the consensus. After all, so many Awakeners are watching."

John is noncommittal about Andre's analysis. With the information he had from before his rebirth, he indeed was far ahead.

"I accept your commission, President Andre." John nodded in agreement.

Andre smiled joyfully. Initially, he was somewhat pessimistic about the arrival of the portals to other worlds.

The monsters from other worlds represented an incredibly terrifying force. Moreover, monsters could directly arrive on human territory through the portals and even resurrect if killed outside.

All humanity could do was resist, but the monsters from the portals would only get stronger. Inevitably, there would come a day when resistance would fail.

However, after meeting John, Andre felt there was still hope for humanity.

John laid out his requirements, "I plan to set the operation time in two days. I need a bit of time to prepare."

"Of course, no problem. Everything will go as you've arranged." Andre readily agreed.

John suggested, "During these two days, we could issue some missions to allow other registered Awakeners to replace the armed officers currently blockading the area. This way, they can level up by killing monsters."

"Of course, by 'replace,' I don't mean to withdraw the armed officers but to expand the blockade. This is to prevent any that slip through from threatening the safety of nearby residents."

Andre nodded, showing a sincere smile, "John, I think you're more suited to be the president than I am."

John grinned, "Cut it out, I'm not one for overseeing everything..."

...

John and Victoria left the president's office, walking together along the corridor on the second floor of the guild.

Victoria sighed lightly, "John, I have a bad feeling about this."

"What's wrong?" John stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Victoria beside him. Her stunning face bore a tinge of difficulty.

After organizing her thoughts for a moment, Victoria finally spoke, "It was with your help that I was able to level up to 10. To put it bluntly, it's all your merit. Facing those level-ten-plus monsters, I couldn't even lend a hand."

"I know that you alone could easily close those two portals to other worlds." Having witnessed John's strength firsthand, Victoria knew he was fully capable of doing so.

Victoria confessed, "All the merit lies with you, yet I also became an S-rank. I feel guilty about it. Do I really deserve it?"

John was taken aback for a moment. After all, he had only known Victoria for a day.

His impression of the future's strongest swordswoman was mostly from before his rebirth.

She was the one who could solo A-rank dungeons, fight against over a dozen level-50 monsters on her own, her graceful and stunning figure like that of a goddess of victory. Even before his rebirth, John, having achieved an S-rank after the sixth transformation, could only look up to Victoria, who had reached SSS-rank.

Meeting Victoria through COCO yesterday and bringing her into a portal to another world was indeed unexpected for John.

Now, because of his appearance, the future's favored daughter began to feel a sense of inadequacy.

Indeed, a small change triggered a series of butterfly effects...

Moreover, the battle yesterday was an unnatural boost to Victoria, which could indeed rapidly enhance her strength in the short term.

But for her future, it might not be a good thing.

Without ample combat experience, without those life-and-death situations, it's impossible to forge a strong warrior goddess.

If he interfered too much, Victoria might not reach the heights she was meant to achieve in the future.

However, these issues could be adjusted later.

What urgently needs to be solved now is how to close those two gates of the alien realm while hiding strength

After all, a lone pharmacist soloing two portals to other worlds would be too shocking, likely attracting global attention immediately.

John also always suspected whether the controllers behind the portals had some means of monitoring Earth.

They might directly drop several S-rank portals and unleash a horde of high-level monsters to tear him apart before he had grown strong enough...

Moreover, even if the monsters did not take action, h-country had many enemy nations. The emergence of Awakeners, in a sense, broke the original balance. Before his rebirth, there had been an incident where a genius mage from e-country named Sofia was assassinated by another country.

John took a deep breath, pondering how to counsel Victoria.

After a long while, John spoke helplessly, "Victoria, I hope you can understand two things."

"With your current strength, you are undoubtedly in the first echelon among Awakeners. Becoming an S-rank also means taking on more responsibilities, it's not all about the benefits." John said seriously, looking at Victoria. "Just tell me, do you despise those monsters?"

"Of course." Victoria's eyelids drooped, and her right hand unconsciously clenched into a fist. She naturally harbored deep hatred for those monsters.

John smiled slightly, "Since you detest them so much, then there's even less reason to refuse."

Victoria bit her lower lip, her voice stubbornly saying, "But I want to catch up to you through my own efforts, not by depending on your help!"

John readily agreed, "I understand. So my plan is that we each close one of these portals to other worlds."

"What?" Victoria's eyes widened in shock.

John chuckled and asked, "Are you scared?"

In fact, inside the Murloc Den, John had observed that Victoria, already at level 10, was fully capable of closing a portal to another world by herself.

With some more potions prepared by him, even if she encountered monsters beyond level 10, she could easily kill them.

"I'm not scared, it's just..." Victoria hesitated for a moment, then lowered her head and spoke softly, "What if I fail and drag you down..."

Seeing Victoria's aggrieved look, John couldn't help but flick her on the forehead.

"Why did you flick me?" Victoria rubbed her forehead.

"We are comrades in arms. Don't talk like that anymore." John turned and walked away slowly, softly saying, "If you don't want to drag me down, then become stronger quickly. I hope that one day, I can confidently entrust my back to you."

Victoria watched John's retreating figure, a flicker of determination passing through her beautiful eyes. Then she quickly followed after him.

...

After greeting the principal, John left the team.

He hailed a taxi at the side of the road and headed to a nearby shopping mall.

Wanting to demonstrate his strength without revealing his identity, John, after much thought, came up with a perfect solution...

That was to buy a mask!

He had wanted to buy one before but never had the time. Today was a good opportunity to browse the mall and also buy a new set of clothes.

Ten minutes later, John, wearing a face mask, arrived at the mall.

He remembered that on the fourth floor, there was a shop selling special costumes. His ex-girlfriend Anna liked cosplay and had bought clothes for comic conventions there before.

Moreover, this place had a wide variety of masks of pretty good quality, so he should be able to find what he was looking for.