“Ninety… five…” I counted, grunting as I pushed myself up, feeling the strain in my arms.

“Ninety… six…”

“Oh my god, can you please put a shirt on?” Willow asked, barging into my room uninvited. I let myself slump to the floor. “Ninety six, you don’t have to pretend to count higher to impress me, idiot.” She was dressed in casual clothes today— a button down blouse with jeans, fit with visually noisy patterns and contrasting colors. It looked like a designer line— not that I had much memory of those anyway. It wasn’t that I forgot— I just never cared to look at them.

“Hey sis.” I said, rolling over onto my back. “Go easy on me. I’m hospitalized here.”

“Oh yeah, yeah, you’re doing a morning work out routine. You were good to go a week ago, clearly, if the doctors weren’t so strict. I knew those healing potions would help.” She smiled way too widely, teeth showing.

“Speaking of… is today the day?”

“Can you get up from the floor?” She rolled her eyes. “Uh, yes, todays the day!”

I leaned up, then jumped to my feet with a ‘hup’, stretching and rolling my arm.

“Okay, lets go.”

Willow smiled. “We’ll be home in no time!”

“Alright, thanks, now sign here, and here, aaaaand here!”

“AaaaAAAH!” Willow screamed, grabbing her hair. “I just signed twelve times! Are you serious?”

“Uh, Ms. Gold, just a few more and we’ll be—“

“No, forget it.” Willow stood, grabbing my shoulder and beginning to drag me out of my chair. “I’ll send my assistant! Bye!” She said as I stumbled out of the chair before standing to catch up with her. “What a waste of an hour!”

“Ms. Gold.” A doctor nodded as we passed him.

I had to power walk to keep up with her as she led the way. She was rapidly pressing a text into her phone as we ducked through halls and turns— this medical complex was sprawling. We took the stairs over the elevator, dashing down them.

“I’m used to these being faster than the elevator.” She said, rolling her eyes as we made our way down. “I’ll cut you some slack today, though.”

We quickly made it to the lobby.

“Ms. Gold!” A receptionist waved. “Hey! Can I get your autograph for my daughter?”

Willow pivoted on the spot, nearly flying to the counter. She pulled a tube from behind the desk, opening it, turning it upside down, and tapping the bottom. My eyes widened.

“What, you’re a celebrity too?” I asked. “What do you do? Sing?”

The receptionist laughed. “Oh my god, you’re her younger brother! I didn’t even recognize you… have you gotten taller?” The receptionist did a double take, eyes scanning up and down and widening in surprise. She whistled. “You must be an awakened too. Oh my god, I wonder if you’re going to reach a high rank like your older sister. Hey, maybe I should get your autograph too?” She laughed as my sister signed the poster.

“No, oh my god, you’re the best though.” She carefully rolled the poster back up. “I hope I see you again! I mean, not that I hope you have to come back to the hospital, or anything, but—“

“Here, my number. Lets do lunch sometime.” My sister offered her phone up. The receptionist’s eyes lit up, and she raised her own phone, tapping them together. There was a honk outside. “Thats for us!” Willow said, looking back at me meaningfully, and then we were walking through the door.

“So what was that? Fancy new smart phone thing?” I asked.

“What? No, NFC has been around forever dude.” She smiled. “Shotgun!”

Stepping towards the street where a car waited, I watched as the doors of a silver rolls royce swung open on their own.

“Ms. Gold.” A valet said, nodding at her.

“Rose!” Willow shouted, waving! “Oh my god. Do you know how much paperwork there is in a release from this place!”

I stopped, turning to observe the complex. It was towering, spanning across a campus that stretched all around me.

“Its a good thing you got it all filled out, then.” I heard Rose talking from behind me, and turned to make my way into the car, sinking into the leather as I closed the door.

“Yeah… about that…” Willow said.

“You… you did fill out all the paperwork, right?” Rose asked.

“Sorta?” Willow smiled.

Rose groaned. “I’ll take care of it.” She looked in the mirror towards me. “You must be Rain, right? I’ve heard a lot about you. I’ve scheduled that Raid for you.”

“Rose! It was supposed to be a surprise!” Willow leaned back in her seat, groaning.

We pulled off from the hospital and into the main road, and my eyes scanned the horizon as it changed. We were in the city.

“A surprise? Raids are serious business.” Rose said, her eyebrows knitting.

“Ugh, its the Safari Rose. Its not that serious!” Willow played with her phone, the radio switching between songs as we rode. “You liked this artist, right?” Willow asked, looking back.

I looked up at the ceiling of the car. It brought back memories— this was the song they played at my high school dance. Five years ago in this world. It was centuries to me, the span of time between them removing almost any emotional attachment I had to my now past. It felt like a different life entirely.

“I like them. Nostalgic, really. Pardon, but what is this… Safari?” I asked.

“Nostalgic?” Willow snorted. “This song came out a month ago!”

Rose met my eyes in the mirror. “The safari is a… its like a power leveling exercise, since most hunters start out at Iron Grade even they have the potential to be Platinum… your sister here started out as an iron just like you. But even though its a controlled exercise, its still dangerous!” Rose gripped the wheel.

“Every part of being an Awakened is dangerous. It wasn’t like we had Safaris when I started.”

I nodded. A controlled combat exercise— we did something like that for the junior members of my sect. Well, it was sort of controlled, in that the candidates couldn’t get away. It was relatively safe— we controlled the threats that were released into the arena and let the survivors join the sect.

It culled the weak.

I nodded my assent. It would be a good opportunity to observe the monsters in this new world as well as learn about these gates, and their relative power levels— all from safety. I also had a suspicion about the nature of the Qi in this world.

I was betting it would be denser beyond the gate.

“That sounds interesting. Let’s go.”

“Huh?” Willow looked exasperated. “Not until tomorrow! Today we drive home.”

I widened my eyes, blinking. “Why wait?”

“Why wait? You just got out of the hospital, idiot! Come and let me give you a tour of the house! Its awesome! You can meet my pets.” Willow smiled. “You have to relax a little!” She said, leaning back out of the seat.

“Shouldn’t you have your seat belt on?” I asked.

“He’s right. You might kill someone when you crash into their car.” Rose joked, her hand reaching over the center console to grab Willow’s. She pouted.

My eyes scanned the changing skyline— there were a lot more skyscrapers than I remembered as we made our way towards Denver city center. I noticed something on the horizon, a glowing, swirling pillar of light. It looked like a laser was falling from the sky, blasting into the earth.

I leaned until my breath fogged the window, wishing I didn’t have mortal eyesight. I would have to cultivate far enough to fix that soon.

“What… is that?” I asked, speaking over the dead silence that filled the car.

“That’s… uh, its a gate break.” Willow said, punctuating with a swallow. The song had turned off in the car, and she seemed too distracted to turn it back on. She fixated on the pillar, staring at it.

“It’s Greeley.” Rose said, looking over her shoulder for a second before turning back to the road.

“Greeley?” I jogged my memories, frowning. “That little city? What…”

Rose toggled from bluetooth to radio, and news came on, which seemed to wake up Willow.

“Yeah, uh, anyway. Its fine. Theres a military cordon around it and the monsters don’t try to storm out. Now that they have that little town. Shithole anyway.” Willow very pointedly looked away, fiddling with the rings on her fingers as she stared down the road.

The conversation lapsed into awkward silence for a few minutes, and then we were turning off the highway and into Denver proper. The cities had changed.

Downtown, people crossed the street in armor. Store fronts glowed in neons, and new types of businesses popped up.

“We’re almost there. This is the Awakened district.” Rose said.

On the street, stores opened like designer clothing stores, but instead of hidden windows, they proudly displayed equipment. Medieval and modern armors were on display, alongside weapons ranging from futuristic looking rifles and grenades to ancient and wicked swords.

Groups in armor or carrying bows and spears looked at window stalls. Restaurants served plates of food that radiated Qi so strong I could sense it passively from inside of the car, and the people sitting at the tables outdoors leaked killing intent, as if they were untrained on how to hide it. It looked like…

A city full of amateurs.

“You know, sis, I thought you meant our childhood home.” I said, leaning forward in the seat as the car drove down below street level, into a parking garage. An impressive looking gate of thick steel slid open before we even began to approach it.

“Huh? Nah, I’m rich! Also… I have a… lets say, small contractual obligation to be on call in the city most of the time, so. There’s that.”

“She hates it.” Rose said. “We spend almost every week off in a cabin in the woods. She probably just wants you to stay here so you can pet sit.”

Willow squealed. “That’s— thats not true! But I mean, if you want to stay here on the weekend… Its pretty sweet. We have spare bedrooms! I literally couldn’t fill them all if I tried. And it would free up my weekends a bit.” She said.

“How many pets do you have, Wil’?” I asked.

“Ugh, you know I hate when you call me that.” She groaned as the car flipped off. “Just like, a couple.”

Inside of the elevator, instead of a panel of buttons, there was a digital screen showing different floors of the building. Most of them were grayed out, but others were lit up with little icons to indicate what they were. Crossed spoons and forks for eating, weights for a gym, waves for a pool… this was a luxury apartment building, a skyscraper where every floor was a self contained apartment.

As Rose tapped her phone to the screen, it lit up with her name, and one of the dark rooms turned bright green. She tapped the touch screen, and the elevator dinged, closing and bringing us up.

Rose stood in a corner of the elevator, arms crossed, and Willow stood beside her. She stretched, yawned, and reached an arm around Rose, crashing into her. Rose smiled, returning the hold around her as Willow closed her eyes.

The elevator door opened and I slammed into the wall, the breath flying out of my chest.