A new sub-specialisation of the Cleaner Department that Old Man Sid proposed to Chairman Heihachi. Its function was twofold.
First, to map the terrain inside the RIFT. There was a popular rumour back in the days whereby the dimension inside the RIFT mirrored the real world. How true was it, no one knew. But to those who had spent half of century of their life working in hundreds if not thousands of RIFTs, Old Man Sid was about to put that rumour into a workable theory.
But mapping alone wouldn’t convince the higher-ups to grant funding or infrastructure. So, the second major role of the Cartography Department was to transform raw exploration data into a powerful informational tool. This would enable efficient resource acquisition and strategic planning. In short, within forty-eight hours before the RIFT closed, they could mine, gather, loot, and scavenge far more effectively.
But as the current batch of Cleaners were recruited from civilians without power of their own, they needed protection. That was where Players who weren't cut out for frontline combat or deep exploration would step in.
Eustace didn't say anything when he was given the lead to four Cleaners, but Jin caught his discontented look. Preliminary reports from classes and the earlier two exam phases showed that Eustace had deliberately tried to shirk his scouting duties. No reason was given.
So, the two leaders wanted to give the failing scout one more chance to change their minds. Meanwhile, Emilia was tasked with another group of Cleaners.
“Why should I babysit a bunch of unawakened?!” The Lowenhald princess, unlike Eustace, wore her thoughts on her sleeve and never minced her words.
“I should be clearing the RIFT instead!”
“You’re our main support,” Jin reasoned. “So, you’ve got to watch over your team members.”
“Support?! Hah. Don’t make me laugh. I’m far better than any support. A much better fighter than all of you put together!”
“Oi, Emi-bitch! Don’t lump me together with those deadweights!” Ka Fei shouted from the side.
Emilia scoffed. “Whatever. My point stands.”
“There’s no point to stand on. Do as you’re ordered to. Or is the Lowenhald family full of people who don’t obey orders?”
Emilia shot a glare at Jin but turned her head away almost instantly, a smirk dancing on her face. “Fine. Watch over them, you say, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll watch over them. Definitely, I will. As a Lowenhald, we follow our orders to the letter.”
Something about her words made Jin uncomfortable, but he dismissed it. There was one more problem that needed his immediate attention, and it was a big one, too.
“Huh? The fuck are you on about? No way in hell, man. Fuck off!”
Wong Ka Fei exploded after being assigned as the leader of the final Cleaner group of four.
“You want to go back home, then? Sure. Go on. Don’t waste my time or Sid’s. Act like the big, mouthy coward you are. But then, I’ll fail you the moment you walk away. Understood?”
“Are you threatening me?!”
The man was about to square up to Jin, but Old Man Sid intervened. “Enough. We’ve got work to do. Save your squabbles for some other time. And Ka Fei, we’ve got our orders. Everyone’s going to follow them.”
Ka Fei spat on the ground in disgust. “Whatever.”
He turned around and barked at the Cleaners under him to follow. They were reluctant at first, but Old Man Sid was not having insubordination from his crew members.
“Remember. Keep it to a one-kilometre radius! And please, avoid the wadi!”
Ka Fei sped away without acknowledging anything. Jin shook his head, watching him and his party move out. There was one thing left to do.
"Fenrir. Assign one pup to each group. Observe from the shadows. Do nothing unless they’re in danger. Contact me immediately if anything changes."
“Yes, my lord. As you command.”
The Shadow Wolves were the embodiment of their species. Masters of stealth, they could shadow anyone Jin wanted by using the skill
Jin tried it a few times, and it always left him amazed; there was a full domain inside a shadow. It felt like swimming inside a dark sea, where you could clearly hear and see the world above, yet remain hidden underneath. Though the shadowsea realm felt endless, outside, it was still that one patch of someone’s shadow. A very useful skill indeed. Besides espionage, one could also become an assassin stalking their prey.
Hopefully, Jin didn’t need to come out of the shadows and strangle that poor bastard to death. Especially Ka Fei, who seemed to be a walking disaster waiting to happen.
As the three groups left for their respective areas, Old Man Sid and Jin began their own foray.
“Got our work cut out for us, alright,” the veteran Cleaner said with a bittersweet smile. “What went through the Chief’s mind, assigning these troublesome brats to a newbie Player?”
Jin cracked a short, dry laugh. “That’s my karma, old friend.”
And his karma did arrive in waves.
***
“My lord!” Fenrir’s warning slithered into Jin’s mind. “A swarm of scorpions. Around three hundred of them. Two kilometres north.”
Stolen story; please report.
“North? That’s where Eustace’s group are!”
Still well within the Cryscomm range, Jin tried to message Eustace in the party chat. But there was no answer. As a scout, there was no way that he didn’t notice the enemies coming their way. Jin feared the worst.
“Fenrir, where is that boy? What is he doing?”
“On route to the west.”
“What the hell is he going there for?! Are the others with him?”
“No, my lord. Should we chase after the boy or guard the four left behind?”
Jin cursed under his breath. “Guard the four. We’ll deal with that coward later.”
After telling Old Man Sid what happened, he rode on top of Fenrir’s back to the north, where Eustace and his group were. It took him less than a minute to reach, but it was still a minute too long.
Across the horizon, the Twin-Tailed Desert Scorpion’s swarm boiled over the dune’s crest – a living tide of black carapace and twitching stingers, their segmented bodies glinting like oil under the sun.
Eustace disappeared. The Cleaners, now leaderless, panicked. Old Man Sid had briefed them on the monsters native to this place, especially on what to do when approached by one, but none of them recalled or took the appropriate action.
The Twin-Tailed Desert Scorpions were passive, yes. But they only required one reason to attack.
Sound. Especially when footsteps drummed the desert sand.
Stand your ground, and they’d pass you without even a slight hint of hostility. The unnerved – and maybe crazy – would love such an experience. A moment of a lifetime, watching a monster’s procession within an arm's reach without getting killed.
Unfortunately, Eustace's Cleaners didn't see it that way. Jin would never blame them, though. Even he would piss his pants if approached by a car-sized insectoid monster. And three hundred of them? No sane person would stand still.
“RUN!”
The moment their boots hit the desert sand, sending a shockwave that Twin-Tailed Desert Scorpion could detect, the swarm charged ahead, stringers up high and ready to strike.
Jin didn’t have the time or the abilities for heroics and the absurd. Riding towards the group, he wove Cattleya’s threads into cocoons, sealing each Cleaner inside, then shoved them into the shadowsea realm. Fenrir’s pack would then drag them to safety, far from the swarm’s reach.
But it wasn’t over yet. Even though he had rescued all the Cleaners on time, the Twin-Tailed Desert Scorpion continued with relentless speed and aggressiveness. But their direction has changed.
West.
Where Emilia and her group were. But one thing Jin couldn’t understand. Her team was at least three kilometres away from Eustace’s. And judging the distance and whatever they were doing, the shockwave would never reach the swarm.
What gives?
“Oh fuck! That coward! He’s leading the whole bloody swarm to that girl!”
After returning the four Cleaners to Old Man Sid’s side, Jin made his way toward Emilia’s group post haste. He reached them just as the Twin-Tailed Desert Scorpions swarm scorpions broke the horizon of the dune.
“Don’t move!” he barked. “Stand your ground, and they’ll pass!”
The Cleaners froze with terror in their eyes, but Jin’s order came on time. None tried to escape. Once again, Jin wove the threads, but this time, into a cocoon barrier around the group. It should be able to last them until the enemy passes.
“Emilia! Have you seen Eustace? He was supposed to come your way.”
“You ordered me to watch over my group. So, I did exactly that. Like I say, we Lowenhald follow our order.“
Jin cursed her under his breath, but her smirk curdled the air. This was payback, pure and petty. A malicious compliance. In a way, she was the worst enemy he could have, as nothing was more dangerous than an ally who faked incompetence to score a hollow pride point.
“Fenrir. Order one of your pups to track that coward down.”
“Without his scent, it will take some time, my lord. One is not enough. He could be anywhere.”
“Then take all of your pack. We are safe-“
A Cleaner’s scream shredded the air, cutting off Jin’s link to Fenrir mid-sentence. He turned around and, to his horror, one of the Cleaners, perhaps still overwhelmed by fear, tried to escape from Cattleya’s cocoon barrier, clawing and kicking his way out.
His movement alerted the swarm, and now, instead of passing through without attacking anyone, the monsters started hammering on them. Stingers, claws and bites.
The barrier soon cracked. But that wasn’t the only danger waiting for them. Through Cattleya’s abilities, a few of the large insectoid monsters were burrowing underneath the desert sand.
“They are craftier than I first thought. We’d be dead if we didn’t escape this place.”
Fighting head-on was out of the question. So was running away. Being surrounded by the swarm limited their option even further.
Yet, there was one way out for them left. A risky manoeuvre. Jin would need to release the cocoon barrier, and in the ensuing chaos of the scorpions’ attack, he would enclose the Cleaners individually, toss them into the shadow, and let Fenrir and his wolves snatch them to safety before they even registered the rescue.
And to increase his chances of success, Jin had no choice but to ask Emilia to provide buffs, especially speed-related buffs.
“No. I won’t.” Emilia shook her head. “I hate you, and they’re Cleaners. Why should I waste my mana on trash?”
“What fucking nonsense are you talking about? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for speaking such a thing?!”
“Isn’t this the truth?” Emilia smirked. “This is what happens when the weak rely on others. And I can’t be everywhere to clean up their mess.”
“You’re far worse than I thought!” Jin spat in disgust. “And to think I even vouched for you at one point.”
“Whatever,” Emilia shrugged. “I follow your order to the letter. You tell me to watch, so I watch. You even confirmed it. And now you’re telling me to clean up someone else’s mess? Who do you think I am?”
Before Jin could say anything else, Cattleya’s barrier was finally broken through. A couple of Twin-Tailed Desert Scorpions climbed in and lashed wildly. Although it missed by a wide margin, the force still injured a couple of Cleaners. Blood oozed onto the ground.
And to turn everything into a cesspit of trouble, the ground beneath them trembled. Jin released his cocoon barrier in the nick of time before four scorpions tore from the desert sand, their pincers slicing the empty air where the Cleaners had stood earlier. If it were not for Jin’s timely ‘puppet play’, their blood would dye the sand red.
With lives hanging by his thread, Jin couldn’t afford to play with ‘what ifs’.
Come what may, he needed to save the Cleaners fast. Once again, he wove his thread, enclosing each of the Cleaners in an individual cocoon before throwing them out of harm’s way, where the shadow lay the widest and the furthest.
Instead of landing on the desert sand with a thud, the cocoon sank into the shadow as Fenrir and his pack dragged them from underneath. The flawless teamwork, born from chaos, made Jin smile with relief as the Cleaners reached the safety of the shadowsea.
Only Jin and Emilia remained. The Lowenhald princess, as expected, cast buffs and a barrier on herself, rooted to the spot. The swarm ignored her. Jin, meanwhile, never moved from his starting position, letting his hands do the work. The scorpions spared him from further trouble.
As the Twin-Tailed Desert Scorpions passed through, Jin and Emilia resumed their stare-down.
“You are despicable. Worse than a piece of shit. At least, being shit has its uses as fertiliser. But you? You are useless beyond hope.”
“Says every weakling ever. Tell me something new, will you?”
Jin waited until the swarm was out of their sight and beyond. Once done, he walked to Emilia and grabbed her by the collar. “One of these days, you’ll be at the end of shit stick yourself. And then you’ll know what it means to be helpless.”
“Can’t wait.”
Jin pushed her away in disgust. With nothing else purposeful left to do, he rejoined Old Man Sid and the others back at their temporary campsite. By dusk, everyone, bar Eustace, had returned. Jin started a new headcount.
From the twenty Cleaners that Old Man Sid brought with him, fourteen remained with four Cleaners escorting their two injured colleagues back to the real world earlier. However, from that fourteen, four still hadn’t reported in. Even when dusk turned to night, Ka Fei’s team still hadn’t returned. He didn’t even reply to Jin’s team chat.
But Old Man Sid’s words provided the solace. Words from his crew mentioned that they were advancing faster than planned, having cleared up to five kilometres before they took their rest. Also, with the Shadow Wolf assigned to that team not alerting Jin to any dangers befalling them, he did not need to worry.
At night, they had a quiet dinner. Emilia retired early – the Cleaners didn’t offer her any food. And neither did Jin. Instead, Old Man Sid and he discussed their plans for the next day until late at night before the former took the first and last watch. Fortunately, it was uneventful.
Then, as dawn bled into the sky, Fenrir’s voice slithered back into Jin’s mind. This time, dripping with urgency.