Welcome to Ryte City

"So, how much further before we're able to get out from this tunnel?" Luke asked in boredom as he gazed at the same road for almost an hour. Having no cellphone to play games and tried talking to the ice statue Arian really make the journey feels longer.

Shooting him a disapproving look, Arian chided, "Stop complaining, we almost there."

Pursing his lips silently, Luke pulled the tiny suitcase and played with it by repeatedly bouncing it and catching it.

Just then, his eyes fell on the rear-side mirror where computers and various other things present. Glancing at Arian, Luke asked politely, "Can I check the equipment on the backside?"

Nodding his head in approval, Arian adding, "Also, you better check those papers. They consisted of information about our current mission."

"Okay," Luke agreed immediately as his body began to move to the backside of the van.

Sitting comfortably, Luke reached out his hand and picked the pile of papers beside him.

"This.." Luke muttered under his breath. The notes turned out to be a transcript of someone's record.

"Day 1."

"We've arrived at Ryte City safely without any hindrances. Upon arriving, I and my subordinates were caught shocked by how small the city is. This trip was planned because of someone report stating that the city isn't safe anymore. The reporter said there was a terrible accident that occurred within Ryte City. Surprisingly, it was a digging accident, where many graves suddenly get excavated without their family's consent. The resident was suspecting there was kind of cult practical going on inside their town since the corpses were gone without any traces, except for the digging part."

"Now we planned to stay at the nearest hotel, waiting for the sun to arrive to make our investigation work smoother."

Luke paused before asked Arian in doubt, "Is a weird cult still exist these days?" For him, creating a cult in the middle of a crisis where humans could get invaded by a foreign race at any moment was such a ridiculous act.

'Why can't humans unite in any world? Not only Earth but also Aine also had this type of people.' Luke mused silently.

A glint of coldness flashed across Arian pair of eyes as he replied, "Yes, they do exist. And they slaughtered many innocent lives to satisfy their own inner desires or sacrifice it to Notorn Race."

"Sacrifice? What did they get?"

"Power, of course. With power, you can achieve anything in this world. Notorn Race source of power was coming from how many people they have butchered. That's why they like to attack other races. The more people they kill, the more powerful they'd became." As he explained, Arian hands involuntarily tightened on the steering wheel.

Not noticing Arian's weird behaviour, Luke continued his asking, "Then, if they were really that strong, how can the Human and Joyn alliance fight them back? I mean, we only have a little amount of time to prepare in those days."

Arian stunned for a moment before he broke his gaze from the front view. Turning his dumbstruck face to Luke, Arian replied hesitantly, "That...I don't know."

Staring at Arian's face, Luke didn't know whether he was pretending or not. Nevertheless, he didn't want to dig deeper since his standing currently wasn't sufficient to inquire further about such matters. Swallowing his doubt and curiosity, Luke muttered while waving the papers, "I'm gonna continue my reading."

Averting his eyes from Arian, Luke eyed the papers once again.

"Day 2."

"After asking for pointers from the owner of the hotel regarding the matter. They introduced us to one of the residents, who kind enough to escort us to one of the graveyards where the mishap happen.

"Having a thorough investigation of the catacomb. We finally found some lead about what might actually happen to those corpses. Using TRFF, we discovered some traces that Transcenders might stay here for at least a few hours before leaving."

Luke paused his reading at the moment before asking a question once more, "What's TRFF?"

"Transcender Radiation Field Finder. After consuming a potion, our body would undergo transformation into an inhuman with a superpower. Once we become a Transcender, our body would start to emit unique radiation, different from the rest of normal people. Hence, Transcender that worked as police would always bring this TRFF device to check whether the case they handle were involving a Transcender or not."

"Oh..." Luke responded when a thought struck his mind. Since I'm not consuming a potion, wouldn't TRFF won't work against me?

He literally gets his abilities from the system instead of a potion. Using that logic, surely TRFF won't work against him.

'But that's only a hypothesis. There's a slight chance of me also transformed the same as other Transcender.' Luke wondered inwardly before his eyes spotted the various devices that exist not too far away from him.

"Are there TRFF among these devices?" Luke asked while secretly hoping Arian would answer yes.

And Luke pray didn't disappoint him since Arian replied immediately, "Yes. I'll give you later when we arrived."

Secretly rejoicing, Luke thanked Arian before resuming his reading.

"Initially, we intended to continue our investigation by following their traces. Unfortunately, the sun already set and venturing at night isn't a good idea, knowing we faced against a villain Transcender. However, we already outlined our plan for tomorrow's action, so there's nothing to worry about."

Luke then creased his forehead not because he wasn't satisfied with their playing safe decision. It's because the transcript ended.

"What the hell?" Luke mumbled in confusion. How does the transcript ended with such a bad cliffhanger? It was as if he seeing a movie where the climax about to happen, and then the movie abruptly ended without any prior warning.

"Hey, where's the next page, senior Arian? Are the notes slipped?" Luke asked while trying to find the papers on each spot he suspects the papers would most likely fall into.

Arian looked at the scattered papers before replied, "It's the last notes."

Luke halted his action and stared at Arian bewildered, "What do you mean? The transcript still looks hasn't ended yet."

"It's the last message we have received from him. Why do you think they send us on this mission?" Arian smirked before replying to his own question, "It's because the previous personnel they sent went missing."

"You mean..." Luke gazed at Arian horrifyingly.

"Yes, that means our mission is literally a death mission." Arian smiled whilst Luke's face goes paler.

At this moment, the tunnel suddenly changed into a narrower path with a mountain breathtaking view. If Luke comes across such a scene in another circumstance, he would definitely exclaim in happiness and shouted along the way. But now, after hearing Arian's explanation, he wasn't sure about that anymore.

"Welcome to Ryte City." Arian's voice echoed within his ears.