Ten years had passed since the first incident.

Ten years of strife, ten years of anguish, and ten years of unity.

When the first Gate had descended upon the world, humanity was not prepared for the horrors that lay within. The first exploration group had been almost immediately wiped out; the weapons they had brought ineffective and their morale drastically decreased. No one made it back.

The second group held more luck, taking it much slower and cautiously than their predecessors. And it was due to this group that the System was discovered. An eerie holographic image, only visible to its owner, the System turned real life into a video game. Stat points were earned, levels were gained, and skills only thought to exist in novels and shows began to emerge within the world.

Capitalizing on this discovery, the governments passed down a unanimous mandate that forever changed the lives of the world. At the age of 16, every person was to enter a gate and receive the Systems benefits. As long as the Gate’s boss was not destroyed, the Gate would never close, and thus could be used for training grounds for eons. Research teams began moving bases of operations into the gates, hiring groups to restrain the boss and keep it captive, allowing for decades of time and research inside.

-----

Cain woke up upside down, which for him was not an entirely new occurrence. What was new, however, was the fact that he was tied up, something like a fish at the local market he had seen once.

“Ariana! Let me down before I’m late!” he shouted, struggling and wiggling around, trying to undo the ropes and duct tape that were binding him. A giggle from the doorway halted his movements and after a minute of spinning around, he leveled a glare at his sister who was trying to not fall over with laughter.

“Well, if you had woken up with your first, or second, or even THIRD alarm, I wouldn’t have had to resort to such measures, now would I?” she responded, pulling scissors out from behind her back and moving towards Cain in a menacing motion.

“Wait, wait, wait! Set me down gently first before yo-“

Thump

“Before you drop me on the floor…” Cain mumbled, unceremoniously curled up into a ball.

‘I swear I am going to have a bump on my head after that one’ he thought, letting Ariana finish cutting him free. Stretching his arms and waiting for the dizziness to stop as the blood rushed from his head, Cain narrowly dodged the clothes thrown at him and glared in his sister's general direction again.

“Now hurry up and get dressed and get your ass to the Gate! You can’t be a mooch forever, so go and get a useful rating!”

“Go and get a useful rating,” Cain muttered back, contorting his face in an effort to mock Ariana as she left the room. Picking himself up off the floor, he quickly got dressed and headed out of the house, careful to make sure there weren’t any more traps lying around. Ever since his sister received her System, she had become obsessed with constructing all forms of traps and defense systems and had turned their house into a minefield. Becoming a testing dummy right before his test, again, was not on his to-do list today.

-----

“Group A, please move to the entrance hall, Group B please form up at the stairs!”

A clear voice bellowed across the courtyard, teeming with teenagers and their parents. Cain had always hated his birthday for this reason; any event that happened was always overloaded with people who happened to share the same day, and it infuriated him to no end sometimes. Sighing and unfolding his ticket, Cain stared at the bright red and bold ‘A’ before getting up and moving into the entrance hall. There were too many people around, and the sheer nervous air within the room, as spacious as it was, weighed heavily on him.

Rubbing his temples slightly and closing his eyes, Cain leaned up against a nearby wall and tried to stay out of the middle of the gaggle of people. When the Gates had first descended and been cleared, the government had offered an option to all those above the age of sixteen: to activate the system, or to remain normal. The older generations were not required to undergo these tests and could remain part of society if they wished. However, in order to increase the defense of humanity and deal with the ever-changing economy, the A-16-G mandate was passed. While this opened quite a few million jobs up in the market, the division of labor was as normal as if the mandate had never happened. Those without ratings were designated as useless, and the higher the rating, the higher the prestige one could earn, which eventually turned into more money and better living places.

“Ah, capitalism at its finest still,’ Cain thought, watching their instructor move towards the podium in the front of the entrance hall.

“I will keep this brief, as there are quite a few of you today and we need to keep on a timely schedule. After I am done speaking, the Gate will open and teleport everyone within this room inside. Keep your bearings and do not try and explore the area, as we are not going to go find or rescue you should you go too far out. There are still many powerful beasts inside that have not been subdued during this week’s respawn cycle.”

Looking over the room, the instructor nodded to himself slightly as no one uttered a peep. Everyone’s eyes were focused directly on him, and hopefully they were paying attention to what he was saying carefully.

“In order to activate the System and receive your rating, you will be provided with a Rank E beast. Within all of our research thus far in the past decade, the easiest and most efficient way to activate is to kill a creature native to the Gate inside and make it back through the entrance alive. As soon as you finish your task, please directly leave. The System will then activate and you shall receive your rating. Any questions?”

Silence

“Good. Then let’s get started.”

With that, the instructor raised his hand and a bright flash of light filled the room. Closing his eyes quickly, Cain opened them again as soon as the light subsided and felt his jaw drop open as he stared at the inside of the Gate for the first time.

“Whoa….”