Impatient to get out, Zack ran through the portal, emerging out into the slums in a stumbling motion. Someone else may have felt disoriented exiting an entirely new world, but Zack took off his headset every night as a currency mining slave and was numb to the disorienting process. Stepping through the portal felt like taking his headset off.

But enough for that. He needed a phone to call his sister as soon as possible and warn her about those human traffickers.

It was night time, and the portal closed behind Zack right as a druggie stumbled around the sidewalk. The druggie gaped his mouth open at the strange portal that just blinked out of existence behind Zack, but was otherwise too intoxicated to register what he’d just seen.

Zack paused for a moment as if caught red handed, then decided to ignore the man after seeing how inebriated he was, knowing that he wouldn’t remember a thing later on. Right now, there was a more pressing matter at hand.

The loan shark could’ve started driving towards Faith Girl’s Highschool by now to abduct Shanna. He needed to call her before it was too late.

Zack began to sprint back home, the only place where he still had a phone. In his pocket was that small bit of gold ore that he pried from the scorpion’s claw while in the other world. He was surprised to see that it was still in his pocket, noting that materials from the other world could be brought back home. This particular concept would have far reaching ramifications for his life in the near future, as well as for the whole world.

He ran fast and hard back out the alleyway and towards his share house flat, the only thing on his mind being his phone.

Arriving back at his sharehouse entrance after an intense run, Zack noticed a black foreign car parked outside. That was strange. Nobody in this sharehouse could afford a foreign car. Actually, not a soul that lived in this dump could afford even the cheapest car with broken windows.

He began to put together the implications immediately. The loan sharks were already here.

“I’m telling you, I haven’t seen him since this morning!” said his deadbeat roommate to someone that was out of sight. In his roommate’s hand was a wad of cash.

That bastard, Zack thought to himself. Even in this kind of situation, his deadbeat roommate sold him out for some easy zed. He was infuriated, but not surprised at how low he would go.

Right at that moment, he saw one of the surgical masked men emerge from his room into the common area.

“He’s not here, chief,” the man said to Bruce, who was in the kitchen rummaging through his refrigerator.

“Let’s go,” the golden toothed loan shark replied. “You and you, stay here. That rat has nowhere to run.”

They turned around to leave, just in time to lock eyes with him. Zack began to run for it as Bruce and the surgical masked man flinched in surprise.

“Did you see that?”

“It’s him! Chase him!”

The loan shark’s crew bursted out of the sharehouse, slamming the glass door, but Zack had already hopped the fence into the slums.

This was a tricky situation, since he was unable to go back to his flat for his stuff anymore, and he highly doubted that the loan shark and his crew would allow him back there anytime soon. So right now, he was effectively homeless and completely possessionless, and without a way to contact his sister.

Zack ran through the slums without pause. He felt a bit dejected at first, but then he realized that there was one place he could go that could solve both his homelessness issue and his contact with his sister issue.

He needed money, and right now the sole possession worth anything on his body was the little piece of gold ore that he managed to pry from the scorpion’s claw before leaving the other world.

He sprinted down the shabby slum streets, completely out of breath but still stubbornly refusing to slow his pace until he finally reached his destination, a jeweler. This was where he sold off his mother’s golden bracelet several years ago, the last thing of value that his parents passed down to him and his sister.

“Oh, a customer! Welcome to Jade Dragon Jewelry! How can we help you?” a seasoned male voice said from the inside. He was an elderly man, and his expression of surprise at there being a customer quickly turned into one of disdain when he saw Zack’s ragged attire.

With a ragged long sleeve shirt that he patched himself after a hole appeared on his elbow, and a pair of pants that was barely better than a potato sack, he looked very much like a beggar. Not to mention his hair was long and unkempt, and his overall griminess after his struggle against the scorpion.

The owner of the Jade Dragon crossed his arms, thoroughly displeased by his new customer’s presence.

“We’re closed,” the short white haired store owner said tersely, shaking his head.

“Please, just hear me out–”

“Closed.”

Zack sighed, knowing that words would never be able to convince the store owner otherwise. He took out the small gold nugget from his pocket and placed it on the counter.

The store owner’s left eyebrow raised in surprise at the small piece of golden ore glinting luxuriously in the dimly lit store’s light.

Zack let the faintest glint appear in his eye, before wiping it away immediately and returning back to his poker face. He knew absolutely nothing about jewelry, but the store owner’s expression gave it away immediately. The last time he was here, the owner only showed half as much surprise when he produced his mother’s bracelet.

“How much?” Zack asked, motioning towards the golden nugget.

“I’ll have to examine it,” the store owner said, producing a magnifying glass from his cabinet. “My word… this is high purity gold. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

The graying store owner tapped the gold ore nugget on his countertop, then hammered it lightly with a mallet while peering at it through his magnifying glass. He could hardly contain the excitement in his voice.

“In my thirty seven years working in this jewelry store, I have never once seen gold of this quality.”

A dark expression appeared on the old shopkeeper’s face. He looked up at the young man, who was fidgeting before him impatiently. “Where did you get this, boy? Did you steal it?”

Zack was about to defend himself, when he realized that there was no way he could explain himself. What was he supposed to say? I pried it off of a giant scorpion’s claw in another world. There was a fat chance that he’d believe him, and even in the off chance that he did believe that story, this was something that was better kept secret.

“Yes, I stole it.” He had no time to spare right now, and it was easier to convince the man that he stole it than that he found it in some kind of strange portal universe.

“I see, I see,” the store owner said bemusingly, still with a strange look on his face. “Stolen goods. Ah, how the youth of this world have sunk this low.”

“I had no choice,” Zack replied. “Nicked it off of one of those wealthy bastards at the harbor. Some eccentric collector.”

The store owner gave a devilish smile at that statement. “An eccentric collector, eh? Well, let me know if you ever find out his name. This gold ore here is something else.”

“Normally, I’d give you five thousand zed for it, but since it’s stolen goods and all… four hundred is the most I can give you for it.”

At that lowball offer, Zack felt every fiber of his body cry out in anger. If his sister wasn’t in danger at this very moment, he would haggle with all his might and wring out this stingy store owner. He was a veteran haggler from his days as a currency miner, selling rare ashes and ores that he collected during his collection. But right now, his hands were tied and he could not unleash his full haggling might.

“Nine hundred. That’s the lowest I’m willing to sell it for,” he said adamantly.

The store owner shook his head. “Five hundred.”

Zack’s eye twitched in irritation. “Seven hundred is the lowest I’m willing to go, and that’s final.”

A smile spread across the store owner’s face, his imperial moustache bouncing up and down. It was the expression of a store owner who had successfully scammed his victim. “You have a deal.”

Handing over the ore nugget with a hand shaking in anger, Zack grit his teeth as the store owner handed him the cash in return. It was only enough for a few days of hotel hopping and food. But there was one more thing he needed from the store owner.

“Can I use your phone?” he asked meekly, pointing at the old beige phone sitting on the counter.

“Be my guest,” the store owner said, pushing over the landline. “I’ll be in the other room.” Taking the gold ore nugget with the smirk of a scammer on his face, the bells chimed as the store owner went into the back of his shop, the smell of lotus leaves wafting out from within.

Zack grabbed the landline hastily and dialed his sister’s number.

Ring, ring…

“Hello?” answered his sister. She was a rather pretty girl with dark brown hair and with a similar eyeshape to Zack’s, sixteen years old and in her third year of highschool. Staying at boarding school on a near full scholarship, Shanna was a caring sister who cooked for him and never once complained about the drastic decline in her quality of life moving out of her ritzy boarding school dorm and back to a crummy sharehouse with him for the holidays and over the summer. All Zack wanted was for her to enjoy as normal a life as possible, and he worked hard to cover the rest of her tuition.

“Shanna,” Zack replied with a breath of relief. “It’s me. Listen to me carefully–”

“Hello? I can’t hear you,” she answered in a confused tone.

“Shanna? Hello?” Right at that moment, Zack looked down in horror and realized that his body was beginning to disappear into a digital matrix. It was at that moment that he understood the true severity of the notification ‘the next examination will begin shortly’ that he had glossed over.

He desperately shouted into the receiver, hoping that she’d pick up at least something.

“Shanna! There are criminals coming to kidnap you! Be careful when you’re walking back to your dorm!”

But his breath was wasted. As those words left his mouth, the old landline in his hand fell with a clank against the wooden counter.

—--------

Right as a certain someone was dragged unwillingly back into somewhere not-of-this-world, the prime minister was having an absolutely hectic phone call with his nuclear scientists.

Mr. Minister, I assure you that our detection signatures are not off. We have seen an energy signature the likes of which has never been seen before appear bright orange in the middle of Tanteck City, near a lower income sector. And it’s not just us. The Russians have called us as well. You need to take this seriously!

Prime Minister Markalov took a puff of his cigar. He’d been hearing the same hectic story all day. Something about an unprecedented energy signature that blinked in and out of existence for a split second. It had to be some kind of error in the system.

But the Pan-Russian Federation was blowing up his phone tonight as well. Given these circumstances, he had to take this a lot more seriously.

Markalov sighed, this time more heavily. He could only hope that it wasn’t some kind of cosmic radiation incident again.

—------

“We’ll go for the girl.”

“Do we get to fuck her first before we sell her? I haven’t had the pleasure of tasting a sixteen year old before.”

Bruce laughed. “Normally I’d say not to damage the merchandise… but I’m pissed off. Let’s enjoy ourselves tonight.” His tongue dragged across his gold plated front teeth.

The unmarked black foreign car circled around Faith Highschool, a photograph of the target’s sister in school uniform perched on the dashboard.

—------

Cursing, Zack could only allow himself to experience that full body warping sensation of teleportation once more. It was just like last time, except the place that he found himself after teleportation was nothing like his previous examination. In front of him was the arch of an imposing campus entrance, and from the corner of his eye he could see that a section of the fence had been suspiciously mauled by some kind of beast. He swallowed nervously, not liking the look of that.