"Finally, over."
He was relieved. It was all over. He could finally look at the sky and accept that he had taken his revenge and let his family rest in peace.
Walking out of that blood-soaked room, he went somewhere with a little fewer bodies strewn across the floor.
Though he was glad it was done, something felt off. He had been so hell-bent on revenge for so long that now, with nothing left to chase, he felt lost.
"Well, at least let's get cleaned up."
Now that everyone in the building was dead, he could technically stay here and use it as a base.
But he had no intention of doing that. For Raven, this place held too many painful memories. It was just a temporary shelter until he figured out what his future plans were.
Raven cleaned up the building and dragged all the bodies into the meeting room, which was already in such disrepair that it was beyond saving.
He shut the door to that room for good and headed off to wash.
After living here for three years, he knew exactly where everything was, including the safe where they had kept all their money.
Naturally, he had no idea what the password was, but that was unnecessary when he had a D-rank sword, which could cut through it pretty easily.
Raven was now extremely wealthy. He had 'inherited' all of the mafia's local assets.
Of course, this wasn't the entire organisation; they had branches elsewhere, but this had been one of their key strongholds, and it held a great deal of value.
It wasn't just about money either. Raven now owned land, a helicopter, an auction house, and a number of high-value items stored within or around the building.
His favourite was a collection of premium watches, amassed by one of the members. A black and gold diamond-encrusted piece stood out—absolutely stunning. Now that it was all his, Raven didn't hold back from enjoying any of it.
After cleaning himself up and throwing on a plain shirt and pants he found on a shelf, he sank into the sofa and flipped on the TV, checking for anything interesting in the news. This was the most relaxed he had felt in years. Though a part of him was wary of police intervention, realistically, when had law enforcement ever managed to touch the mafia?
As Raven flipped through the channels looking for anything of interest, he came across a news channel that he recognised, and since they were just about to go into the latest reports, he decided to stick around.
"This is RBC news Vladivostok with the latest." A female anchor faded into the screen as the broadcast started.
"Firstly, we have some emergency news, the gates that started appearing all around the globe from about 2 hours ago have finally started to slow down; however, there are already way too many to be contained."
"The authorities have said to call in any gates that have been spotted and to move as far away as you possibly can."
"The police have reported that they are trying their best to contain as many gates as possible, but with them still not having any methods to clear them, all they can do is restrict the area and protect the civilians to the best of their abilities."
'Useless as always.' Raven thought back to what happened to him and how the system, the police, and even the whole country had failed him.
"Now I'll hand over to our correspondent, Daniel, from Moscow, who has been assigned to report on the outcome of the raid that started just an hour ago."
"Yes… Hello, this is Daniel, reporting from Moscow." He began, but his mouth seemed to visibly tremble, as well as his grim tone was unnatural to say the least.
"As you know, the government has been gathering as many awakened as possible to be able to overcome this crisis. Just an hour earlier, a group of such individuals, aided also by a heavily armed special division from the army, entered this gate.
The camera panned to a swirling darkness, exactly like the one that appeared in China a week ago.
It was surrounded by armed forces and police who were tasked with protecting, but also securing the surroundings of the gate.
"Mhhh, these gates seem quite interesting," Raven whispered as his mouth curved into an amused smile.
'Hopefully, I can get stronger by going into them.'
Then the perspective zoomed in, just off to the left of the gate, onto a convoy of ambulances and a whole army of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, clearly treating some people who weren't identifiable.
"As you can see," Danie continued.
"This is the result..."
"Complete failure… Less than half of that team even made it out, just barely hanging on."
"We don't know what they saw inside that gate, but whatever it was, it just decimated the greatest force that the Russian government had been able to put together in this window of time."
"Just to remind you, we have less than 7 days left until these gates break, and the resulting events could be even worse than the cataclysm."
The reporter paused, not only to catch his breath but also to calm himself down. Clearly, he was indeed as stressed as he was letting on, considering that the world could indeed almost come to an end, again.
The female anchor, seeing the uncomfortable state that her colleague was in, decided to take over.
"That was our correspondent from Moscow with what is an extremely horrific and pressing scene."
"Before we leave, I have one final message to play, this one being directly from President Alexandr himself."
Then, a prerecorded video of the president at a press meeting started to play.
"To survive the chaos that threatens our great nation, we need power. Not from broken systems or cowardly diplomacy, but from those like you. The awakened. The strong. The chosen."
"You've proven yourselves in the tutorial. Some of you even reached the rank of legends. And now, your country calls upon you—not as beggars, but as partners. As allies. As leaders."
"We're prepared to reward that strength handsomely. Mansions, millions of dollars, immunity, influence. Your families will be under the personal protection of the state. No one will dare touch them."
"And for those who rise above the rest... positions in my cabinet, in our new order. Positions of real power. Together, we will reshape this nation. Not for the weak, not for the traitors, but for the worthy."
"But let me be clear, without unity, we fall. Without your loyalty, this country crumbles. I will not allow that. The only path forward is through absolute strength under a single banner."
"Mine."
"Anyone who stands against that is no ally of the Motherland."
"This is your moment. Rise... and claim your place in history. Or be forgotten with the rest.
Players now existed, and most people assumed that would solve the problem. But how could the government just hand that much power to random citizens?
To fix that, they began trying to recruit players into service, pressuring them to clear the gates. But what newly awakened person would want to be the government's pet?
When that didn't work, they tried blackmail and coercion. That backfired spectacularly. Players resisted, and naturally, they grouped together with others in similar situations.
These groups began to refer to themselves as guilds.
The guilds ultimately became too much for the government to handle.
'It's only been a couple of days, and the world's already gone to shit.'
'But it does seem fun.'