2 C2. Azral Org

Ryan walked out of his room and entered the shared bathroom his apartment had by the end of the hallway. His was a two-bedroom apartment at the far end of town in a relatively safe, yet cheap neighborhood.

The time was just around 3 AM but he decided it was best if he washed up and got ready for the job he had luckily secured for today.

Rather than wash up immediately, he went through an extended exercise routine to properly wake himself up. This job would require him to bring everything he has, perhaps that was the reason for his early rise.

After roughly an hour of exercising and then cleaning up, he finally left the bathroom he walked into the kitchen and began to prepare breakfast and lunch for his younger siblings when he suddenly heard the door to their room creak open as someone groggily walked out of it.

The tiny figure walked passed Ryan as he went straight for the fridge and poured himself a glass of water before turning around to leave when he finally noticed Ryan.

"Uh, Big brother? Why are you up so late?"

'I should be the one asking you that!', Ryan thought but did not voice it out.

The person standing before him now was a young dark skin boy with big light brown eyes and a buzz cut. He wore a fluffy-looking cartoon character pajamas and looked no more than 10.

Sharing a slight resemblance to Ryan, this was his younger brother Ray. He was the youngest of his twins and a bit of a crybaby, constantly needing to be helped by his sister Ryla.

Their parents had been low-ranked Rifters who had died in a Rift collapse, leaving Ryan the responsibility of taking care of his younger siblings who were a boy and a girl twin, who were now in the 5th grade.

Ryan sighed.

"It's not that late it's already past 4 AM and I think I told you not to drink so much water at night cause you'll wet the bed."

"HEY!! I don't- do that anymore!"

"Yeah because you listened to me duh…"

"Why are you being so meannn… I don't do that anymore lemme alone…."

With a quick chug of the full glass of water, the kid ran crying back into his room and Ryan just shook his head chuckling to himself as he proceeded to finish off making breakfast.

He also packed their lunches and kept them in the refrigerator with their names labeled on them else they would fight over a single lunch box for no reason.

Not that Ray had any hope of winning against his sister though.

By the time Ryan was done with his chores and fully clothed— having already prepared his Rifting equipment beforehand— the time he thought he had a lot of had flown out the window and before he knew it, it was already past 5 AM.

'Fuck! I'll end up being late if I don't hurry.'

Rushing through the last of his preparations, Ryan hurried out the front door with a duffle bag in hand when a soft voice suddenly called out to him.

"Big brother!"

Ryan immediately stopped in his tracks as he turned back around and saw the tiny figure of a young dark skin girl with watery big brown eyes, wearing a fluffy-looking bear's pajamas as she fidgeted with her fingers while staring at Ryan with a somewhat sleepy expression.

"Hmm… oh hey Ryla, I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

The girl slowly shook her head as she wobbled her way toward him and Ryan couldn't help but sigh. He then walked back into the apartment and shut the doors behind him before meeting his little sister halfway and picking her up, gently sitting her atop the kitchen counter.

"What's wrong then? Did you have a bad dream?"

She nodded her head adorably as her eyes seemed to water but she didn't cry as she obviously tried to hold herself back.

"Hey don't cry… it was just a bad dream there's no need to be scared anymore."

"I know… *sniff, *sniff… I wasn't scared at all."

Ryan chuckled inwardly at his sister trying to be strong. This seems to have become a common interaction between them anytime he is about to leave for a Rifting trip.

He felt bad leaving them all alone every time as a rifting trip Generally took days and for higher-ranked rifts, it could even take weeks to close.

Leaving two kids by themselves for that long was never a good thing even if he hired a babysitter and was being assisted by his neighbors.

"There you go, that's my girl. It's still a bit too early but since I'm running a bit late I'll let you watch your shows for an hour. Don't forget to get you and your brother ready for school after that okay? I've prepared everything you'll need. You know what to do right?"

"Wh-why *snob… why do you have to go out so early? Can't you still walk us to school?"

"We've been through this Ryla, your big brother has to go close a big Rift so his guild can get promoted. When I'm back I'll buy you anything you want for being so responsible. So you have to take care of your little brother okay?"

With a bit of hesitation, Ryla nodded her head in affirmation as she cutely restrained her tears and tried to puff her chest out after wiping her face with her sleeves.

"That's my girl."

Patting her on the head, Ryan picked her up from atop the kitchen counter and placed her gently on the ground.

"Alright, I've got to get moving so be a good girl for the babysitter okay? If all goes well I'll be back by tomorrow and we can have a big party to celebrate your birthday."

"Okay."

While Ryan felt a bit uncomfortable leaving the two of them alone. He really had no choice as being a Rifter was the only thing he was able to do in this day and age.

With the appearance of the seven pillars more than 40 years ago, the world was thrown into chaos as spatial rifts began to appear all across the world at regular intervals, and before the world could figure that out, all hell broke loose.

Because of this, even after the world had managed to adapt to their new reality, every job gained an increased level of danger and companies could not afford to pay high amounts of death benefits to workers who made no tangible contribution to the companies' bottom line.

Thus, the employment requirements for even the most uninspired jobs were impossible for a college dropout like Ryan to attain so when he awakened to his ability, even when he only tested as an F-rank Rifter, he was overjoyed at the opportunity to take care of his siblings as the benefit they received from their Deceased parents could only cover those two's education.

He needed to be able to pay their yearly rent and cover their living expenses. Although it wasn't pleasant, he also chose to become a Rifter because it had the highest rate of life insurance in comparison to any job out there.

That was why it was very important for his guild to be promoted as the higher ranked it was, the better security it provided for his siblings.

'Damn, I shouldn't be considering such things.'

The moment Ryan left his apartment building, he casually strolled up to the main Street, and as though on cue, a large white van suddenly pulled up in front of him and the door swung open.

The driver was a young girl with a pretty face and short red hair that was styled nicely to the side. She leaned towards the opened door and then smiled at him before speaking:

"Sup babe, you ready?"

"Of course. I woke up earlier than usual just to be extra."

"That's so you. Hop in, I'm sure most of the gangs are already waiting for us. They've all been really excited about this job."

At her invitation, Ryan hopped into the front passenger seat of the van. The moment he got in and shut the door, the red-haired girl pulled closer and locked her lip with his.

Although Ryan had been a bit startled, he did not attempt to pull away as he simply reciprocated the kiss that seemed to go on forever.

"That's fucking annoying, please, get a room you two. This is not the time for that anyway."

Just as the pair were begging handsy with each other, a crisp voice that sounded a little annoyed suddenly interrupted them from the back of the Van where a young man with short blonde hair and a muscular build sat by himself as he polished a large greatsword that seemed as though it was glowing in the dark.

"Mourning to you too Ben. What's up with you? You are a lot more annoyed than usual. What? Woke up on the wrong side of the bed?"

"Ptttf. Don't mind him, babe. I think his girl broke up with him again so he's just jealous of our love hehe..."

The girl drove the van as she scoffed at the young man's annoyed response before proceeding to tease him.

"Again? Why do you keep getting together with the same girl then? You never even bothered to introduce her to us, what's up with that?"

"Please don't put the wrong idea in Ryan's head Val. I broke up with her, not the other way around. I'm just done with the pointless games."

"Hehe… yeah you wish. Dude, you say that all the time. I bet you came to go a single day without calling her."

Ben retorted to Val's biased explanation of his mood but that only served to excite her the more as she just cheekily replied while chuckling and slamming her feet on the accelerator.

Since Ben wasn't strapped in, the sudden acceleration caused his body to jerk back forcefully but he had superhuman balance and was able to avoid any dangers.

However, his head had still slammed into the metal walls of the van even with his high pain tolerance. This has still stung a bit.

"Ow… What the hell is wrong with you!? Are you picking a fight!"

"Hahaha…. Relax man, you need to lighten up a little. We have a very important job to do today, after all, so just take a chill pill."