Just like with the goblin world corrupted crack, the moment Michael stepped through, his vision shifted, and in the next instant, he found himself in a completely different location.
Beside him, Mira and Lilian immediately assumed defensive stances as they arrived.
Teleportation within cracks was random, and teammates could occasionally find themselves separated.
However, there was a trick to minimize this: everyone had to enter the crack within one minute of the first person; any delay beyond that risked teleporting to another location entirely.
Currently, Michael wasn’t focused on his surroundings.
After ensuring there was no immediate danger, he became more aware of the air in this world.
It felt… different.
Compared to the chaotic nature of the goblin world, the atmosphere here was more complete, as though the world itself was more stable.
The mana in the air wasn’t as turbulent either, though it was still far from the real world or the Land of Origin.
‘Cracks are a mystery in themselves. The time difference in the goblin world was ten hours inside for every one hour outside. Here, it’s eight hours instead, yet it feels more… whole and alive,’ Michael thought.
This realization puzzled him, sparking intrigue, but he quickly brushed it off.
Now wasn’t the time to get lost in thought, nor did he possess enough knowledge to truly understand these nuances.
In truth, it wasn’t just Michael who sensed these differences. Awakeners with even modest perception could feel the contrast between cracks, particularly when they were weak. Only those with truly dull senses would fail to notice.
For now, Michael set aside the strange feeling and refocused on the task ahead.
“The trees here are quite huge,” Mira remarked, observing her surroundings.
She didn’t seem to notice anything odd about the crack, but Michael couldn’t be too sure.
Either way, he wasn’t too interested in finding out.
It was time to make money!
The thought had just formed in Michael’s mind when two circles appeared beside him, and two undead emerged, startling the girls.
Both Mira and Lilian instinctively leaped into action.
“Wait, they’re mine!” Michael yelled, breaking out in a cold sweat.
Mira already had a red mushroom potion clutched in her hand, ready to throw, while Lilian had suddenly appeared just a meter away, katana drawn and glowing with a crimson aura that made Michael’s heart race.
The threat he felt from that blade was very real.
Thankfully, both of them stopped just in time—one narrowly avoiding blowing up his undead and the other refraining from slicing them into pieces.
“These are your… summons?” Mira asked, raising an eyebrow with clear interest.
She tucked the potion back with a disappointed look, as though hoping for some action.
Meanwhile, Lilian quickly stepped back, almost fearfully—like she wasn’t the same person about to carve something in half moments ago.
‘These girls are not normal!’ Michael groaned internally as he tried to calm himself.
“Yes, they’re my summons,” he replied.
“Only these two?”
“No, just a part of them.”
“Figured.”
Mira gave a slightly complicated look as she activated {Detect} on the two undead. Her brows twitched. The first one was of a higher level than her, while the other matched her exactly.
[Undead Forest Wolf Lv. 6]
[Undead Goblin Lv. 4]
Of course, as an Awakener—even though her class wasn’t explicitly combat-oriented—Mira was still far stronger than the two undead in terms of raw stats alone.
However, their appearance hinted at the potential of the Necromancer class, and the realization was terrifying.
Mira, though wild by nature, had spent years tempering that part of herself to focus on intelligence and achieving good grades. It had become second nature to her to seek knowledge.
This habit persisted, especially after she gained access to the Super Association Forum, a treasure trove of information about the supernatural world.
Compared to the ignorance of her first 18 years, she now knew much more about how this her new reality operated
Right now, Michael could only contract common-rank monsters, which were far weaker than most Awakeners(she has no idea..)
But the horrifying part was the potential for growth.
As Michael got stronger, so would the rank of his undead.
For most Awakeners, there was only one of them. For Michael? There could be dozens—no, hundreds—of powerful beings under his command.
It was an intimidating concept, but Mira scoffed internally.
‘So what? When I get stronger, no matter how many undead he has, I’ll blow them all up!’
She didn’t feel inferior at all.
In fact, her wild confidence stemmed from both her personality and her special class.
Though it gave the same attribute points as general classes, its uniqueness and versatility made it far superior to some rare classes.
Mira fully believed in her own potential and future.
However, this confidence also led to a common flaw among intelligent people—overthinking or over-reasoning based on existing knowledge.
In this case, Mira had done the latter, evaluating Michael through the lens of common sense.
She didn’t realize just how wrong she was or how terrifying Michael would eventually become.
For now, though, the three of them were focused on one shared goal—earning money.
It was a shared problem. They were all too broke for this profession.
Michael had summoned two undead from the netherworld to scout the area.
He wasn’t about to test his health bar against a creature that was likely rank 1, unlike the goblins in the previous crack, whose attacks he could shrug off.
After “explaining” his plan to Mira and Lilian, Michael led the group away from their initial spot, using {Share Senses} with his undead to gain a better understanding of their surroundings.
A few minutes later, the trio encountered their first monster in this crack—one of its native creatures.
A Black Ape.
“Mira, did you check the price of a complete corpse for this monster?”
Michael whispered, his voice low but tinged with excitement, as they crouched behind a massive boulder. At this point he had withdrawn his Undead back to the Netherworld.
He occasionally peeked around its edge to observe the towering Black Ape just a few meters away.
The creature lay sprawled on the earthy ground, deep in slumber.
“Yes, I did,” Mira replied, her tone calm and measured despite her own alertness. “A complete corpse, regardless of the ape’s strength, is priced at $4,500.”
“And how many apes do you think are in this crack?”
“At least a few hundred—definitely more than 200.”
Michael quickly did the math in his head, and his breathing grew heavy as the numbers began to add up.
“So… we’re talking about a million dollars if we wipe out every single monster, yeah?”
Hearing his question, Mira turned to him with a sharp gaze, her wild instincts momentarily overshadowed by genuine concern.
Excitement seemed to radiate from Michael’s entire being, an energy so palpable it made her uneasy. Your next chapter awaits on empire
She may be wild, but she wasn’t suicidal.
Taking on over 200 Rank 1 monsters, even with a strong team, was an idea bordering on madness.
Just as she opened her mouth to dismiss any dangerous notions Michael might have been entertaining, her breath caught in her throat.
Her heart clenched tightly as she noticed something emerge beside him—a shadowy, menacing figure.
[Undead Verdant Wolf Lv. 11]
[Rank: Rare★]
A rare-ranked undead.
Mira’s eyes widened as she stared at the wolf.
Beside her, Michael whispered something in an almost inaudible tone, his words strange and disjointed, as if spoken in a forgotten language.
She couldn’t quite understand what he was saying, but amidst the whispers, Mira swore she caught a phrase like:
“Evolution points… they’re all evolution points!”