188 - fox

As Ryan stepped out of the portal, two thoughts were running through his head. The first was the hatred that was consuming his mind as he fought the beetles. The second was a doubt he'd had for a long time.

'What are the portals...'

If Ryan already had access to the second world, he could report that the place was different from the versions presented in the portals. This meant that the portals were a kind of time copy of the second world, a frozen fraction of the place. But how they came to be or who controlled the flow of portals were questions that were still hanging over his head.

Opening his system window, Ryan once again stared at the timer running on his mission screen. At times, the timer would go down for days, at others, it would go up again. As much as he couldn't understand what the guardian of the void wanted with it, he wondered if he could accept her help.

'She must be treacherous'