May 27, 2048.

Eighteen years have passed since the giant wormhole opened up over the Pacific Ocean.

What followed was the decrease in earth's population from 8 billion, to only 3 billion.

After the yellow gas started to spread from the giant wormhole, it caused a chain reaction leading to smaller wormholes appearing around the globe.

The increase in the number of wormholes wasn't the cause of the earth's decrease in population though. The cause was the yellow gas that each of them spewed out.

When the yellow gas came in contact with humans around the world, their body's cellular structure started to evolve. Humans with superhuman abilities started to appear in society.

Some of them had the strength to lift cars and trucks, some had the ability to fly in the air, while others gained psychic abilities.

The superheroes told in fiction were starting to appear one by one.

However, when everyone was focused on the evolved humans, they forgot they weren't the only species on earth.

Tigers, snakes, sharks, some of the planet's deadliest animals, and more began to evolve as well.

Brazil, home to the world's most poisonous snakes.

Australia, known for having the funnel-web spider that can kill a human in 15mins.

And even vampire-like insects like mosquitoes can be found almost everywhere.

Within a week over a hundred million people lost their lives. Guns became useless to the now 60meter long snakes, their scales became stronger than tungsten metal and more flexible than rubber. Tigers and leopards became stronger, faster, and more vicious.

Humans couldn't use their most prized possession, the nuclear bomb.

They were only created to target each other, so when the animals began to evolve within their own country, unless, they're willing to bomb themselves, then the nuclear weapon was out of the question.

As for the evolved humans that gained superhuman abilities, what can they do?

A tiger lives in a harsh environment where being able to survive depends on how successfully it can kill. Due to this, they've honed their strength and speed to hunt their prey with precision. Even if humans gained abilities that match or surpassed the now evolved tigers, they still can't compare to a tiger's natural instinct for killing.

And this goes for all the other evolved beasts.

By the time it reached the third year since the wormhole appeared, half of the world's population was gone.

The larger countries such as the United States, and Russia was where the most death occurred. Smaller Islands and countries that were surrounded by water were somewhat safer as the evolved beasts on them were fewer in numbers.

The fifth year since the wormhole opened was when the situation took a turning point.

A group that called themselves the 'Heroes Raising Guild' appeared and started gathering the evolved humans to counterattack the evolved beasts.

The group was led by a man called Danzel Stein.

With his ability to manipulate gravity, he led the group across the northeast region of Asia, all the way to the southwest region.

Along the way, the group gather other evolved humans and slaughtered the evolved beasts.

As the group's momentum grew, this sparked a chain reaction that caused other guilds to pop up all around the globe. In every country, several strongholds were created.

Scientists at this time had thoroughly studied the new characteristics of the evolved beast and came up with countermeasures.

By studying the scales and hides of the evolved beasts, they were able to create a stronger metal that was able to resist their attacks. They then went on to erect walls made from the new 'Alevium' metal around the strongholds to stop the evolved beasts' advancements.

Within the next few years, humanity had adapted and evolved far more than it ever did for the past millions of years.

The UN acknowledged Heroes Raising Guild as humanity's savior and declared them to be viewed as an independent country, while also allowing them to become a member of the United Nations.

The Heroes Raising Guild, not only became the undisputed number one guild in the world, it became a conglomerate organization that spread to every country's stronghold.

Following that, more and more guilds started to appear, while schools began to introduce programs that focused on training children to use their superhuman abilities.

The threat of the evolved beasts wasn't solved, most of the strongholds would face beast hordes on a large and small scale. To keep humanity from becoming extinct, new generations of strong evolved humans needed to be created.

And what's even more, humanity's threat isn't only their evolved animals, they also have to watch out for what's on the other side of the wormholes too.

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Seoul Stronghold, Gangnam Lab 19.

17:18 

"Beep… beep… beep, click… click… click"

The sounds of computers making noise and keyboards being clicked echoed in the lab. Various people in white lab coats could be seen moving around the room.

At the entrance, two military soldiers could be seen with assault rifles standing guard.

Suddenly, the door slid open allowing a bearded man wearing a military uniform to walk through it. By his side was another man wearing a white lab coat with a pair of glasses on his face.

The two military soldiers saluted the bearded man as he walked past.

"Professor Kim, remind me why you've called me all the way here from HQ."

The man in the lab coat named professor Kim adjusted his glasses before saying,

"As I said on the phone General. Gangnam's wormhole is showing signs of instability. If something like what happened in Australia happens here, not only Gangnam, but the whole of Seoul could kiss its ass goodbye."

"Hmm" The General hummed in agreement.

Both of them began walking down the flights of stairs before coming to a stop in front of a huge monitor on the wall.

The military General was stroking his beard while he watched the monitor that was showing people wearing Hazmat suits while circling a miniature wormhole with various devices in their hands.

Without taking his eyes off the screen the General asked, "How long has it been since it started becoming unstable."

Adjusting his glasses again professor Kim responded, "The first signs started to show around May 2nd."

"What?!" The hand that the General was using to stroke his beard pulled a little too hard causing strands of hair to come off in his palm.

"You mean to tell me it started to become unstable nearly a month ago, but your only now reporting it?!"

Professor Kim diverted his gaze away from the General's and said, "At first the instability was minimal and wasn't anything to worry about, but since an hour ago the instability increased three folds."

The General's intense glare lingered on professor Kim for a moment, before he turned to look back at the monitor screen.

"If it were up to me I would've dismissed you from your position as the Chief Scientist for withholding information."

"Well I'm glad it's not up to you." replied professor Kim as he adjusted his glasses once more.

"Chief!! Something's wrong, the instability just jumped from 32% to 68%!!"

"What?!!"

Professor Kim swerved his head around so fast his glasses flew off his face and landed on the ground, shattering into pieces.

Not caring for that, he ran towards one of the many computers in the room and stared with squinted eyes at the data results being shone. In the top right-hand corner of the computer screen, a flashing red 68% could be seen steadily increasing.

"Fuck me!! It's still increasing!!"

Professor Kim raised his head from the computer and shouted at the many scientists in the room, "Someone hurry to tell professor Soo-jin and the others to evacuate from the portal!!"

Professor Kim then turned towards the General and said, "Gener…"

Before he could finish though, the General cuts him off by saying, "No need to tell me, I'm already on it."

Saying that, he put the communication device that was hanging by his side to his lips and pushed a button on it with his thumb before speaking into it, "Squad B, make sure you destroy anything that comes out of that hole."

On the other side of the two-way communication device, a voice could be heard replying, "Roger that General!!"

Looking at the large monitor, the wormhole could be seen shrinking and expanding, which caused the space around it to be torn apart.

"The instability just reached 92%! "98%!!" shouted professor Kim.

The General turned to look at the monitor with a serious expression, while he mumbled to himself, "If something really comes out of that shit hole like in Australia, then one-third of South Korea would be whipped out before help arrives."

{You know those transitions in movies where the camera slowly moves towards a tv screen and then enters through it? Picture that happening here.}

As the camera came through the monitor screen, five people could be seen standing in front of the wormhole, three were men while two were women.

The person situated in front of the group was a man with a cleanly shaved head, wearing military pants and a black vest. He had a two-meter-long blade made from Alveium strapped to his waist and was nonchalantly chewing a piece of gum with crossed arms.

On his left were the two remaining men, and on his right were the two females.

One of the men on his left wore similar clothing as the bald man, and instead of having a single blade, he had two one-meter-long swords strap at his side.

The other man was a lot taller and muscular than the two men. He held two machine guns in each arm, while two straps of bullets were wrapped around his shoulders.

One of the two females on the right wore skin-tight clothing that outlined her deep curves and assets, while the other wore similar clothes as the three men.

Popping his gum, the bald man who seemed to be the leader of the group said, "We're going with our second tactical formation, if it turns out to be something we can't handle, retreat and regroup!"

"Roger!!" The four behind him shouted in unison.

Following that, the two-meter wide wormhole that was sixty meters in front of them suddenly contracted to the size of a pin, then expanded to five meters before going back to normal. This began to continuously repeat.

Back in the lab, professor Kim was standing beside the General looking at the huge monitor.

"It's reached 99%. It's going to continue contracting and expanding like that until it fits the size of whatever is coming out of the other end. And based on research, the wormhole size is like a power indicator." Professor Kim stated, but it sounded like he was just speaking to himself.

"What was the size of the wormhole in Australia when that 'thing' came out." The General asked from the side.

Adjusting his newly worn glasses, Professor Kim replied, "It was fifty-two meters, making it a rank 5 evolved beast."

"A single rank 5 evolved beast was able to destroy an entire stronghold protected by dozens of rank 3 and 4 evolved humans. Right now the only evolved humans we have are those five, four of them at rank 3 and one at rank 4. If the portal is anything like the one in Australia then we're all dead."

Turning to look at professor Kim the General's eyes turned cold as he continued, "If it weren't for you withholding information, then there would've been plenty of time to prepare for this. I don't know which guild your secretly working for, but, let me tell you something... if I see that there's no chance of me surviving this, I'm going choke you to death with my own two hands."

Professor Kim's face was calm, but, his back became soaked with sweat.

"Instability has reached 100%"

A female at one of the computer desks shouted out.

On the monitor, the wormhole contracted to the size of a pin before it expanded to five meters.

Ten meters.

Fifteen meters.

Twenty-five meters.

Thirty-two meters.

.

It stopped at thirty-two meters.

Professor Kim released the nervous breath he was holding before he smiled and said, "Thirty-two meters, that's probably around a rank 3 evolved beast. I think your men can handle that Gener…."

Professor Kim's sentence became stuck in his throat before his eyes went wide with shock and horror.

Falling onto the floor, with his glasses barely on his face, he pointed at the monitor with a trembling finger and shouted.

"Th...th...that's impossible!!!"

What he was pointing at was the increasing size of the wormhole.

After it had stopped for a while, it started expanding again.

Forty meters.

Fifty meters.

Sixty meters.

Seventy meters.

Eighty meters.

Ninety meters.

Hundred meters!!

Without pause, the wormhole expanded to a frightening size of a hundred meters.

Professor Kim was trembling on the floor as kept on mumbling the same something over and over again, " It's rank 10, it's rank 10, it's rank 10"

The General who was by the side gritted his teeth and lunged himself at professor Kim.

"It's all your fault, you bastard!! watch how I'll choke you to death!!"

Professor Kim's face started to turn red from the lack of oxygen going to his brain, but he still managed to struggle out a few words.

"E..ven if a..ll the ev..olv..ed hu..mans on th..e pla..net we..re here in Ko..rea, it sti..ll wou..ldn't have ma..tter..ed."

The now hundred-meter wide wormhole suddenly released a blinding white light that caused everyone to close their eyes.

After the intensity of the light was diminished, everyone slowly opened their eyes and looked at the monitor.

Standing in front of the wormhole that had now shrunken to its normal size, was a young man that looked around twenty years old.

He wore a strange combat suit that had designs unrecognizable to any on earth, while on his shoulder rested a snake-like creature, that had four legs and wings that were folded onto its back.

The young man looked around and saw the group of five on the ground, not too far away.

Walking over to them at a leisurely pace, he came to a stop in front of the bald man before he opened his mouth slowly asked a question,

"What is today's date?"

The bald man was still slightly dazed by everything, but he still instinctively answered,

"It's May 27, 2048"

When the young man heard that, his eyebrows came together in a crease, as he mumbled under his breath, "He was right, time moves slower over there than on earth."

The bald man was closer to the young man so he was the only one that heard him, and when he did, his dazed expression just became more bewildered.

Sensing something the young man turned to look in the direction of a camera.

In the lab, the General was still over Professor Kim, but he had stopped choking him, and the both of them were watching the young man.

When they saw him turn to the camera, they felt as if he was looking directly at them.

Turning to Professor Kim, the General asked, "Is that what a rank 10 evolved beast should look like?"

Professor Kim shook his head and said hoarsely, "I don't know, no one has ever seen a rank 10 evolved beast on earth, or, from the 'other side'. "