The first thing Henry noticed was the scent—sterile, almost artificial. Not quite bleach, not quite ozone. Something between a hospital and a space station. The Traveler's Hub was nothing like Earth.
A massive dome of glowing blue glass hung over the central plaza, shielding the outpost from the spinning black void beyond. Platforms hovered in slow, gravitational orbits, ferrying supplies and weapons. It looked like a city built inside a collapsing star.
[New Location Discovered: Traveler's Hub]
System Message: You are now inside a Tier-1 Safe Zone. No combat. Sanity drain halted.
Henry let out a breath. Finally.
He walked past a pair of guards in gleaming armor, their eyes like static. One of them, a red-skinned woman with braids, gave him a once-over.
> "New meat?"
"First Rift survivor," the other muttered. "Barely."
Henry didn't respond. He was still haunted by the whisper that had followed him since his blink spell.
At the center of the Hub stood a towering structure—a white obelisk with glowing veins. Its base had terminals. Maps. Mission boards. Traders. Travelers. Soldiers. Some laughed, others looked half-broken. Everyone had a weapon.
A voice called out.
> "Hey! You the kid from Chicago?"
Henry turned. A tall boy with a baseball cap and a sleeveless vest jogged over, chewing gum.
> "Name's Dex. I watched your Rift run on the feed. Clean kill on the Harbinger. You got guts."
> "I didn't feel brave," Henry said.
"No one does. Not at first. But if you lived, it means the System picked you for a reason."
---
🎮 SYSTEM UPDATE
Party Unlock: Travelers may form teams of 2–6 members.
Synergy Bonus Activated: Shared Madness Resistance +2% per bonded teammate.
---
Dex threw an arm around Henry's shoulder. "Let me show you the squad."
---
They walked past the Rift Archive, past a garden with floating stone benches, and into a lounge made of flickering holographic walls. Three others sat waiting.
1. Asha – a dark-eyed girl with an obsidian knife and metal rings lining her wrists. She nodded without smiling.
2. Jun – slim, pale, always reading. He wore a blindfold. Henry didn't ask why.
3. Beetle – a grinning tank of a man, face tattooed with code. Said he used to be a prison hacker.
> "The Madness showed me freedom," he said. "And I'm gonna burn every dimension until I find the one I lost."
---
Dex clapped his hands. "Alright, rook. This is your new family. You die alone out there. You live together."
> "What's next?" Henry asked.
Jun tilted his head. "Did they tell you about Rift Classifications yet?"
---
🌪️ RIFT TYPES: (Quick Overview)
Rift Class Description Threat Level
Minor Glitches in low-tier universes. Scouting, fast rewards. Low
Stable Balanced chaos, standard missions. Moderate
Instable Warped timelines, deadly terrain. High
⚫Abyssal Unmapped Rifts. Madness spreads faster. Extreme
---
> "We got assigned a Yellow Rift next," Dex explained. "Stable. Some kind of fractured science realm—Newtonian physics doesn't apply inside. Bring boots that stick."
Henry blinked. "Physics doesn't apply?"
> "Not all the time," Asha said. "Sometimes gravity falls up."
---
Before they could leave, a System ping echoed.
Mission Alert:
Incoming Rift Surge – Interference Detected.
Proximity Rift forming in Zone Delta. Evacuation in progress.
The Hub shuddered. Henry gripped the wall.
> "It's not even our mission—"
"Rifts don't care," Dex said, grim. "You'll learn that quick."
The light outside the dome turned red. Sirens wailed. Henry's eyes met Jun's, even through the blindfold.
> "You'll learn," Jun whispered, "that this is the price of power."
The Rift opened like a mouth.
One blink, and Henry's boots slammed onto a metal platform floating above a bottomless pit of sky. No stars. No sun. Just blue—flat, unnatural blue—stretching in every direction like a sideways ocean.
> "Welcome to Newton Falls," Dex muttered, adjusting the scope on his rifle.
"We're not in Kansas anymore," Beetle laughed. "Gravity's on mushrooms."
[System Sync: Yellow-Class Rift – Mission Zone: Newton Falls]
Objective: Recover the Stabilizer Core. Estimated Time: 28 minutes.
Warning: Physics laws are randomized every 5–10 minutes. Sanity drain: Moderate.
Henry's HUD flashed red, then yellow.
> Stabilizer Core?
> "It's the heart of this Rift," Asha said, checking her obsidian blade. "Keeps it from collapsing too fast. If it's removed or destroyed—"
"Boom," Jun finished. "And not the fun kind."
---
The team crossed a tilted bridge made of magnetic rails. Henry tried to step lightly, but the pull on his body shifted from left to up then diagonally in a way that made his brain scream.
> Don't throw up. You just got here.
Jun raised a hand.
> "Pause. There's movement on the lower strut."
Beetle dropped into a crouch, pulling out a disk-like device. It hovered in the air, scanning down into the mist.
> "Got something," he said. "Humanoid. Alive. But... glitching."
Before anyone could ask what that meant, it came into view.
---
ENEMY SIGHTED: Riftborn (Fragmented Soul)
Description: A traveler consumed by the Rift. Sanity corrupted. Exists in multiple unstable timelines at once.
Weakness: Rhythm attacks. Coordinate strikes.
---
The creature flickered like bad video—split in two, then three, then one again. It let out a rasping cry as if three versions of it were screaming at once.
> "It's a failed Wanderer," Dex said grimly. "Probably someone like you, Henry."
> "Wait, what do you—"
"He means don't freeze up," Asha said. "Move."
---
They fought.
Henry ducked the first swipe—a claw made of shattered glass—and struck out with a pulse from his Madness System.
[Active Skill: Spiral Latch (Tier 1)]
Effect: Links the target's position across timelines for 4 seconds. Cooldown: 15s.
The Riftborn jolted, frozen in its duplication flicker.
> "Now!" Dex barked.
Three shots hit its spine. Jun slashed through its echo. Asha followed with a kick to the head that seemed to ripple through reality like a dropped pebble in a still pond.
Then silence.
The creature disintegrated into pixels, then... a scream.
But it wasn't from the Riftborn.
---
They turned. Someone was running—real, alive, and very much not supposed to be here.
She wore a torn flight suit and carried a bag clutched to her chest like it held her heart.
> "Don't let them take it!" she cried.
Jun caught her before she collapsed.
> "She's from the Nexus plane," he whispered. "Look at the emblem."
Henry stared at the silver triangle on her sleeve. "She's a Rift engineer."
> "What's your name?" he asked her gently.
> "Kara," she gasped. "I hid the core… I thought I could get out, but it followed me."
> "What did?"
Her eyes went wide.
> "The thing that rewrites."
---
[System Alert: Tier Shift Detected.]
Rift Status: Unstable. Gravity spike in 30 seconds. Brace.
---
Dex cursed and waved them behind a gear-pillar.
The air bent.
Henry felt himself being pulled sideways—and then up—his body lifting off the metal as the world spun on a different axis. The dome above cracked. A chunk of steel drifted past like a leaf in wind.
Kara screamed.
> "It's here!"
---
From behind a broken strut came a shadow.
Twisted. Smiling. Featureless face, but dozens of eyes blinked open across its torso like poppy seeds. It hovered rather than walked, its feet rewriting the surface below it into corrupted code.
> "A Watcher," Asha said, voice deadly calm.
> "Can we kill it?" Henry whispered.
> "We can try."
---
☠️ MINI-BOSS ENCOUNTER: The Watcher of Newton Falls
Classification: Rift Entity (Corruptor Class)
Traits: Sanity Leech, Area Rewrite, Memory Eater
Reward: Rift Stabilizer Core, Rift Sync Upgrade
---
Beetle hurled two shock mines. Jun raised a prism blade. Dex opened fire—and Henry followed, launching Spiral Latch again. The Watcher laughed through teeth it didn't have.
Then its madness hit.
Henry's vision shattered into fragments. One version of him screamed. Another fought. One just... gave up.
> Get up.
Don't let go.
You can't win.
This is pointless.
You're broken.
> "Shut up," Henry whispered. "SHUT UP!"
The Madness System pulsed.
---
System Surge: Madness Resistance Check Passed!
Trait Gained: Fragment Focus – Minor sanity loss restores 5% ability cooldown.
Henry's Core Sanity: Stable (85%)
---
He moved like lightning.
His blade sank deep into the Watcher's eye-chest. Dex's bullet pierced its back. Asha danced through the air, blades like meteor shards.
> "KARA! THE CORE!" Beetle shouted.
She tossed the bag. It landed at Henry's feet. He jammed the chip inside the Rift stabilizer console at the base of the zone's control tower.
The platform shuddered.
The Watcher screamed.
Then everything turned white.
---
When Henry blinked again, they were back in the Traveler's Hub. Safe. Standing. Breathing.
Dex clapped him on the back.
> "You didn't freeze. Welcome to the team."
Asha actually nodded.
Jun only whispered, "Next time, it won't be that easy."
Kara was gone—taken by the medics. But Henry wouldn't forget her eyes.
> "It followed me."
Whatever it was… it had marked him now.