For an entire week, Lea stayed indoors.
It wasn't that she was having trouble adjusting to her new environment. On the contrary, she was busy unpacking her stuff out of the boxes and buying new clothes online with express delivery.
After she was done organising her room, she started binge-watching dramas she missed from six years ago with her brother keeping her company.
The first time Lea left the house was to go to her weekly physical therapy session with Alan staying around because he drove her.
"Have you been doing your stretches?"
"Yes, every morning."
Stretching has now become part of her daily routine despite how much she struggled with it in the morning. The day feels oddly unfulfilled if she forgets to do it.
"Did you walk at least one hour each day?"
"Yes."
"I have the data on my phone," Alan interjected by showing his phone to the physical therapist; the data was linked to the fitness tracker he bought for Lea.
With a satisfactory nod, the physical therapist started the session.
"After the warm-up, we're going to do something different today."
'Please don't let that mean increasing the intensity,' Lea earnestly prayed in her heart.
After barely making it through two exhausting hours of physical therapy, Alan took Lea to a cafe and treated her to two pieces of cake.
Sitting across from her, Alan took a few sips of his coffee and said, "Let's get you some new shoes after this."
"I already have new shoes, I'm wearing one now."
Lea showed her new pair of shoes to her brother but he only gave her a disapproving look.
"I mean proper running shoes, not sneakers."
Then, Alan went on talking about the benefits of exercising with proper gear while Lea ate the rest of her cake in silence.
From time to time, she looked out the cafe window and watched the unfamiliar scenery.
She was still grasping this new reality, the reality that she was having cake in a cafe in Awakener City.
Initially built as a fortress after the land was destroyed by monsters which was later reclaimed by Awakeners. Over time, the fortress had grown into a large city to accommodate the overwhelming presence of Awakeners. That was how the city got its name - Awakener City, because it was built by Awakeners for Awakeners.
Lea continued to sit in a daze, drinking from a tall glass of peach iced tea.
According to her mom, their family moved to this city about five and a half years ago because New Hope Hospital specialised in treating Awakeners and rift-related injuries.
'I didn't just wake up six years into the future, my body was also moved to a futuristic city.'
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Suddenly, Lea found herself in a forest.
"What just happened?"
A second ago, she was coming out of the restroom and then, her surroundings suddenly distorted.
A familiar hologram screen floated above her head as she was about to look around for answers.
[Welcome to Dimension XXXXXX 'Cerby Town']
"Seriously?"
The word escaped her lips, expressing just how dumbfounded she was feeling at the moment. However, unfortunately, this wasn't the time to be standing around.
Grrr Grrr Grrr
The increasingly loud growling startled Lea. She hurriedly hid behind the nearest thicket and crouched down while tightly gripping her cane, ready to use it like a defensive weapon.
She waited with bated breath until whatever was growling sounded distant.
'Okay, okay.'
When her mind became calm enough to think clearly, Lea thought of her brother.
'Al will come find me, but how long until then?'
Then, she recalled the three rules of survival her brother had made her memorise a long time ago just in case she was ever in this kind of predicament - assess danger, secure a safe base, and wait for rescue.
But how was she, a weak girl with a cane, to do that?
The gloomy atmosphere brought by the grey clouds wasn't very helpful in her dilemma.
'What would Al do if it were him in this situation?'
Out of several possible answers that came to mind, the most obvious was to rely on skills.
And that was exactly what she did.
'System, status open.'
Lea glanced at the skill section when her Awakener status screen appeared. She skipped the passive skill and only looked at the active skill that can be used at will.
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[Active] Eyes of an Eagle
> The ability to see targeted prey from far away
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'Do I just have to say the skill name to activate it?'
"[Eyes of an Eagle]," Lea whispered the skill's name instead of wasting time pondering.
Her eyesight became sharper, much more sharper that she couldn't stop herself from exclaiming in amazement, "Whoa."
She only let herself be amazed for about thirty seconds.
Through the [Eyes of an Eagle], she peeked her head out of the thicket and assessed the immediate vicinity for anything that could possibly be a danger to her life.
Dense thicket and leafless trees.
Zero glimpse of typical forest creatures scurrying about. It was uncertain whether they were scared off by whatever had been growling earlier or if the forest was absent of such forest creatures from the beginning.
After confirming that it was somewhat safe, she searched for a better place to hide and lay low for the time being.
Unfortunately, no matter how far she could see with [Eyes of an Eagle], there were only leafless trees everywhere. A cave or something similar was nowhere in sight.
If she couldn't secure a safe base then there was no point in waiting for rescue.
Lea took a deep breath in, deep breath out.
'This is not yet the stage to wallow in helplessness.'
She hypnotised herself like that and refocused on her present situation.
When she had yet to find out the danger level of this rift, hiding behind this thicket was only a temporary solution.
'If waiting for rescue is not feasible without securing a safe base, find an alternative.'
Before Lea could change her mind, she slowly stepped out of the thicket.
'This is a rift, so there should be an exit of some kind.'
With that goal in mind, she walked forward with [Eyes of an Eagle] guiding her.
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Around the same time Lea found herself inside the rift, Alan was playing with his phone when he received an emergency dispatch alert on his x-watch.
When he checked the location, he cursed under his breath and rushed out of the case.
'Please don't be there, please don't be there,' he repeated the same words over and over again in his heart as he sprinted through the shopping plaza.
Ignoring the shoppers' startling gazes, Alan arrived at the spot where the rift was reported to have appeared in less than a minute.
Yes, a rift appeared inside the shopping plaza.
"Attention everyone, the Awakeners Association has ordered an emergency evacuation in the vicinity. Please remain calm and head to the nearest exit. Awakeners will be arriving shortly."
When the emergency evacuation was announced throughout the shopping plaza, customers and employees alike hurried out of the stores despite the announcement telling people to remain calm. Predictably, paths to the exits turned into over-congested traffic.
Alan, unaffected by the chaos, was solely focused on checking his phone for Lea's current whereabouts via the location tracker of her fitness tracker.
'She should be around here.'
When he saw that there hadn't been an update on Lea's movement since a couple of minutes ago, he started to get anxious.
"Let me find my daughter!"
In front of the indoor kids' playground, a middle-aged man was raising his voice at the security guard.
"I'm sorry, sir, you can't. Unless you're an Awakener, we can't let anyone go near the rift until the people from the Awakeners Association get here."
"My daughter was near the rift. I need to find her!"
Two more security guards had to hold back parents who were desperately trying to get back inside the indoor kids' playground while frantically calling for their children's names.
Seeing the scene personally struck a chord for Alan.
His conscience and his duty didn't allow him to delay it any longer. He quickly sent a message before approaching one of the security guards who was busily barricading the area.
"Sir, I'm an active-duty Awakener."
As he spoke, Alan presented his Awakener ID card.
"The rift is inside. I'll take you there."
The security guard let Alan through without delay.
When they were out of earshot of the parents, the security guard opened his mouth, sounding distressed, "We found out through the security camera that three children, all under ten years of age disappeared the same time the rift appeared including two adults."
Alan frowned after hearing that and asked, "How long has it been?"
"About ten minutes ago."
When the rift was in sight, Alan felt just a little bit relieved that the rift was illuminated in brown.
Brown rift was ranked second in terms of lowest difficulty. That meant the possibility of the children getting out mostly unharmed was high.
"I'll make sure they return safely," Alan spoke confidently to reassure the security guard.
Then, he entered the rift despite not being properly equipped.
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Since it was a brown rift, the forest terrain was easier for Alan to navigate through compared to the last rift he was in. In less than an hour, he found the children huddled inside a hollow trunk, trembling and terrified while being protected by a bespectacled man and a young woman.
When Alan appeared as their rescuer, their faces especially the two adults, brightened up with relief.
As for Alan, he wasn't sure whether to feel relief or disappointed that Lea was not amongst them. In the first place, he couldn't know if she really was dragged inside the rift too.
'I should've gotten her a phone first,' Alan thought regrettably.
After confirming they were all unharmed, Alan and the two adults carried one child each and successfully made their way to the rift's exit without encountering any event that could be traumatic for the children.