History Repeats Itself

SLAM!~

"FUCK! What did I tell you? What the FUCK did I tell you?"

Leonidas "Leon" Morningstar was curled up on the ground, already bloodied not two minutes into his beating. His crime? Having the best grades in his district– something Herschel Myers had resented for years on end.

"Orphan fuck! Respond to me when I ask you a question!" Herschel yelled out, not before kicking Leon in his stomach, winding him. 

Despite this, Leon continued to protect his head. It was a reaction he deemed most efficient for his situation, and one that had visually evident examples to explain why. The most prevalent injury that fully led to his strategy was when Herschel and his "gang" nearly cut out his eye. Straight up.

Had he not gotten home in time, the wound might well have led to him losing an eye. As a result, Leon's "manslut" face (as Herschel had decided to call it- cringy as all hell) was scarred. Sadly for both Leon and Herschel, each scar he had only made his visage more handsome. 

Long ago when he could still fight back, Leon was prideful in standing his ground against those more fortunate than him, those with Strands. But now that they had gotten past puberty, he had no choice but to protect his vitals. 

At this point, Leon had grown accustomed to the pain, welcoming it as proof he had still managed to stick it to everyone. 

WHAM-WHA-WHAM-WH-WHAM!

In a fit of rage, Herschel and a few others began to kick and stomp on Leon with supernatural strength. As individuals with Strands, their physiology was enhanced by the latent mana they could now absorb. If Leon wasn't as conditioned or dedicated to staying alive, he definitely would have died tens of times over by this point.

Eventually, the beating subsided, splotches and pools of blood littering the nearly crippled body still curled up on the floor. By now, his breaths had become labored and slow, almost imperceptible. 

"Let's go," one kid said, Leon recognizing him as the usual lookout. "A few people saw, so soldiers are probably on their way."

With one last kick, Leon was finally left alone. After a few minutes of recuperation, he finally found the strength to stand up. '...fuck… they found it.'

He had noticed his backpack opened and emptied, and his worst fears were answered. They had found his money. As someone without a W.A.T.C.H (Wearable Auxiliary Tera-Communication Hub), he had to carry around cash. And that cash was meant to feed him and his aunt for the next two weeks. 

Leon looked down at his pocket and sighed. One week ago, he met the man who had gotten his parents killed in an illegal Gate raid, and he had the fucking audacity to invite him to one. Leon took his card just to appease the man, but now he had no choice.

'I have to go.'

.

.

.

To put it bluntly, Leon was fucked. He had nearly broken his back getting that cash, yet what did it amount for? Nothing.

"Fucking typical," he groaned, resisting the urge to scratch at the bandaging on his arms. 'At the very least, I have what might be the biggest score I'll ever get coming up today.'

Not that that was a good thing. In fact, it was an Illegal thing. 

For today, Leon was going to join a raid. A gate raid. Not as a raider, mind you, but as a porter. 'Thankfully, that was the second most deadly of the two jobs… if you only look at total deaths.'

…

'Who am I kidding? I'm fucked.' "Leon Mourningstar! Born on a Mondy~ Dead on a Sundy~" he sang to himself, feeling the sleep deprivation and exhaustion kicking in. 

Eventually, he snapped out of his crazed stupor after noticing he had arrived at his destination: An abandoned warehouse. 'It's surprising a place like this still exists…'

At a makeshift door on a more secluded side of the warehouse stood an imposing man eyeing Leon like he was going to kill him, and he definitely would have had Leon not shown him the card he had.

"My name's Leon, I'm here to port for the raid," Leon said in his best 'I definitely am not dead tired' voice he had. "Yarn hired me."

The man nodded and opened the door. Yarn was the shameless fuck who, as stated before, got Leon's parents killed, not that he really knew them. According to his aunt Io, around when he was 2 years old, his mother and father "needed money", and joined an illegal gate raid just as he was now. Naturally, it ended in disaster, and the two of them never made it out.

"Apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, does it Mr. Mourningstar?" a rat of a man chuckled. A few others around him laughed along with him, evidently amused at the morbid statement. 

"Yarn… nice to see you too," Leon said, ignoring the comment. He really had no attachment to his parents, so it didn't get under his skin.

"Aww! You're no fun," Yarn said, feigning sadness. "Well then, it seems you're the last one of the group to arrive!" he said, tossing Leon a frankly enormous backpack. "You and Georgie over there are our porters. Suit up and stay out of our way," he said, gesturing over to a wiry guy, probably three years older than Leon.

'He definitely has some sort of minor strength or endurance focused Strand,' Leon surmised. 'Without one, there's no way he could even carry the clothes on his back, let alone port a gate raid.'

Shaking his head, Leon put on the pack. 

"Alright! You all know what to do!" Yarn said, tapping on his W.A.T.C.H (a/n: now will be referred to as a watch). "We have twelve hours in the gate before we close it. Any longer and the military will detect its fluctuations. This is a smash and grab."

Everyone nodded, even Leon. Gate logic was something everyone learned in high school, and as the best student of the district, he was very well aware of how one might practice illegal raiding. 

Seeing their acknowledgement, Yarn nodded at a guy near a switch. 

Whrrrrrrrr~

The whole dreary warehouse instantly lit up with the light of the portal. It was a drab red color, typical of most E-rank gates. "Let's go!" Yarn shouted, leading the group of 15 into the portal; swords, magi-guns, and numerous other tools in hand.

Georgie shivered his way into the portal ahead of Leon, looking more and more sickly with each step.

'I guess it's my turn. Let's not start a familial cycle here, yeah?'

Stepping through was an unnerving sensation. If Leon had to describe it, it felt like the sudden pitfall feeling one gets on a vehicle when the ground suddenly slopes downward… just on every part of your body, and in all directions. Slightly nauseating, yet oddly satisfying.

The group of raiders were already fighting a couple monsters dozens of meters away from the portal. The creatures were strange quadrupeds with no hair nor torso. They were basically just legs attached to a head. 

Since there were so little, the group made short work of them. Without speaking, they pressed forward, leaving the monster's corpses on the ground. Following their lead, Leon and Georgie too continued onward.

'Hopefully, this is a nigh extinct world. I was signed on with a set rate, so no matter how good or bad we do, I should get something… though…'

Leon began having doubts about his choice. 'What's stopping them from just offing us right when we leave the portal and dumping our bodies back in before they close it?'

Mentally berating himself for not thinking of this obvious course of action, the thought of which making him even more on edge than before.

After almost two hours, the group found the first vein of mana crystals. They were short and of similar color to the portal, but valuable nonetheless. As the predominant fuel- or ingredient to make the fuel, of current day Earth, their value and demand is always high. "Mining team, get to work. Porters, leave nothing behind," Yarn ordered.

Three massive men used their hammers covered in monster remains to smash the crystals up like rock candy. Leon and Georgie, naturally, had a difficult time following orders, since the shards of the crystals got pretty small after being shattered. Ever the detail oriented guy, Leon did pretty well in spite of the difficulty. 

Soon, he was finished, and after a few more minutes, Georgie was too. The group moved on, though something went unnoticed– Georgie falling behind. It wasn't far enough where he was out of sight, but it was just far enough for him to quickly enter something into his watch without anyone noticing. 

As the group continued to explore, the lack of monsters was strange, particularly due to the relative abundance of mana crystals in the area they found themselves in. 'Based on the mana to life formula… there should be at least 230% more living beings present here… possibly more,' Leon calculated. 'What is going on?'

Some more perceptive people in the group also noticed something was off, but the efficiency of the operation paired with their latent greed overwrote their worries soon after they appeared.

.

.

.

~3 hours later~

Behind the group, Georgie had once again typed something in on his watch.

{We're far enough away, you're good to go.}

{Roger that.}

Outside of the portal, and after those two short messages were exchanged, chaos ensued.

BOOM!!!~

The walls of the abandoned warehouse crumbled all at once, exposing the interior and the few individuals left behind to guard the portal from prying eyes. This small group of goons weren't any match at all for the blitzkrieg of military personnel, especially due to the fact that they were led by an A-rank awakened and an officer of the World Military.

"Capture them all! I want no word to reach those rotten traitors in the gate," he roared.

"""Yes sir!""" they all shouted in response, acting faster than the goons could pick up their weapons.

The officer walked up to the portal with his hands crossed behind his back, unbothered at the screams of pain around him. "Strange… this portal…"

He inspected it for a while. So long, in fact, that despite not finding anything, he still called a technician over to do a diagnostic.

Fiddling with a tablet for a few minutes, the technician nearly dropped it. "S-sir! T-that is a horde-world!"

"Okay, what does that matter? An E-rank is an E-rank, horde or not," he responded, confused at the technician's panic.

"What? E-rank? That's clearly a B-ran-" he looked up from his screen, only to tilt his head. "Red? But…"

He continued to fiddle with the tablet, recalculating and regenerating the results multiple times over. "That's not right… these readings… what the hell?"

Ignoring his unprofessionalism, the officer swiped the tablet from the technician's hands. "If you're not going to come up with an answer, I will lieutenant."

A few minutes later, the officer's eyebrows shot up. "PRIVATE CHARLES!" he roared. "GET ME THE GENERAL IMMEDIATELY!"

Unconsciously, private Charles followed orders under the mental pressure the officer emitted. Contacting higher ups in the military wasn't an easy feat, as they were constantly busy with training, managing, and strengthening Tera day in and day out, the General especially. Thus, one person in each squad was designated to have them on a speed dial of sorts to contact them in case of emergency. Private Charles was that person.

This situation was an emergency all-right. A planetary one, in fact.

Sealing off the area with a wind spell, the officer awaited the General to pick up the call.

Chhht~

"Is this officer Reynold's squad? State your business," General Henry Cain said in a clearly irritated tone with a heavy Australian accent.

"Sir, I am at an illegally opened gate-"

"Officer Reynold, I'm sure you-"

"Readings indicate a SSS-rank Strand is on this planet!" officer Reynold cut him off.

Instead of being mad, General Henry Cain jumped up from his seat, startling his secretary out of her own. "Clara, clear any meetings I have right now."

"Yes sir."