"But the portal only lasts so long..." A dude sighed.

"Yes. We have so little time..." The other guy shook his head in sadness.

"We must be efficient!" The first dude suddenly became pumped again.

"Yes! We must be fast. And smart!"

"High energy items are the best!"

"Like nuclear warheads!"

Jeff's cheek twitched a little. 'Don't tell me...'

"But we don't have any of that..."

"Monster drops work great as well!"

"But there is so little..."

"We can submit live beings!"

"Yes! We get a lot of points for submitting live beings to the void. There, these beings will become immortals! There, they will also ascend to the void race!"

"We are doing a good thing."

"We are doing a GREAT thing!"

Hearing this, Jeff felt a chill running up his spine.

"One day, everyone will become one of us!"

"And that day won't be long off!"

"Submit a city to the void, and we will become invincible in this world!"

"Submit this planet to the void, and we will become a deity in this universe!"

The two started to chuckle in ecstasy.

A bell tinkle sounded. The two quickly cooled down.

Their fervor was directed to Jeff now. It's as if Jeff was their purpose of living.

"Is there any way to reverse this void race process?"

"No sire. There is not."

"Sire. Why would anyone want to return to an inferior, fragile, mortal, human being?" The two looked genuinely confused by the question.

"Is there any way to get people out of the void?" Jeff knitted his brows.

"Yes sire! We can welcome the void lords into this world! By opening a stable portal!"

"But we need more crystals for that. Much more crystals."

"Yes yes. Much much more crystals. But we are making progress."

Hearing this, Jeff stopped walking. The two followers halted behind Jeff as well.

The three stood still in the middle of the road in rain.

By now, based off sheer prejudice and gut feelings, Jeff felt that this void thing sounded like a scam. To be honest, this plot seemed a little familiar. Except this time, it's not a game. This time, it's a real life situation.

No saves. No restarts. No walkthroughs.

'I'll need to go all out. I can't give these guys any windows of opportunity.' Jeff's gaze became determined.

'At least not around Berrystone... I don't want to be the guy who drops the ball.'

'Looks like I can't slack off for a while now... But, at least this way, I won't leave any regrets...'

'Sure, it's tedious patrolling work. I'll face a lot of small guys who can't leave a scratch on me. If they exist at all. Sure, I won't get to test if I have plot armor.'

'But to be honest, I'm not interested in finding out.' Jeff squinted. 'Sure. I'm the strongest here. But I'm not exactly invincible either.'

If a void lord arrived through a portal, and that void lord had game-like powers...

The outcome might be between fucked, and totally utterly fucked.

So. Nope. Not taking the chances. Not happening on this turf.

Before, Jeff just wanted personal revenge.

However, now...

Jeff took in a deep breath. 'No room for error this time.'

For all those innocent people whom these thugs have harmed...

For all those people whom these thugs pose a threat on...

These guys weren't just thugs anymore. They were traitors of humanity!

This threat had to be eliminated!

Jeff walked forward again.

A crisp bell sound...

The thugs' gazes became blank. Those two started to robotically follow Jeff again.

...

...

Gradually, their consciousness had returned.

They blinked a few times. However, they couldn't remember anything fishy.

The two thugs looked at Jeff with suspicion.

"Don't let me catch anything funny on you." One guy menacingly smiled.

"I'm watching you." The other growled.

Down the road, two Jeffs stared at each other.

This was yet another one of Jeff's abilities.

[Mist Clones]

Clones? Kind of. Not really. These clones were just empty shells with stored energy. Got no stacked abilities and no access to Jeff's storage space.

Jeff needed to multi-task and control them like drones.

Nevertheless, with a psychic level that's half-way into sage-tier, and Liam's necklace, this was not a tough task.

"Hey." One Jeff nodded at the other Jeff.

"Yoh."

"Good luck man."

"Same to you. And me. What the heck am I doing..."

Leaving this, the two Jeffs parted ways. Leaving a small pop in the air, the two disappeared in a blur.

In seconds, these two reached their positions.

Without being detected, Jeff did a detour. He easily reached the backside cliff of the hilltop mansion. On the cliff, there was an undisguised vault entrance. It's one of those large circular vault doors. About 3 meters in radius. It looked rather sturdy.

Inside, there were unusual high-energy signatures.

At the same time, following a small pebble path, the other Jeff reached the entrance of a wine cellar. Apparently, the captives were held in there.

"Wh-!"

Dogs started to breath in, readying to bark.

A bell tinkle.

The patrolling thugs kneeled on one knee. The dogs laid onto the ground.

"Follow me."

"Sir! Yes sir!" The patrolling thugs stood up wearing ecstatic smiles.

Around the same time, the Jeff in purple armor reached the hilltop mansion. 'Looks like I'm the last guy entering position... Let's get this party started!'

The front glass doors slid open. Dry hot air blew into Jeff like a hairdryer.

"If boss doesn't like you, you are a goner, you hear me?"

"Awww... Are you too scared to talk? Am I being too scary to you?"

The two thugs walked into the hall. Passing through this brightly lit front hall, this group left three watery trials of footprints.

Passing through a door, this group had arrived the indoor pool at the back.

Some thugs were swimming. Others were enjoying barbeque or having a drink.

All of these guys had some sort of purplish-black 'seeds.'

Sitting on a beach chair, Dilbert Reed was in furry pink pajamas. Apparently, this gang boss was sunbathing under a sunlight lamp. This guy's entire head was swollen in purplish-black now.

Pulling down his shades a little, the gang boss looked at Jeff. "A Smite member? What a rare guest. Kakaka. Would you like a drink my friend."

Jeff took off his helmet. Target in sight!

It's action time!

...

Looking at the circular vault entrance, Jeff lowered himself. 'Well. Only one way to find out who's harder.'

In an instance, Jeff emitted a golden glow. Leaving a trail of golden light in the air, Jeff smashed into that gate.

Like a bullet punching through a sheet of metal, Jeff shot right through that gate.

'Yeah. Me.' Jeff looked around.

This place was about the size of a tennis court. Smaller than expected.

Wooden boxes and crates were messily stacked against the walls. Also, in a corner, there was a pile of mana weapons and projectiles.

At the center, there were 4 thugs here. 1 S-rank. 3 A-ranks. Sitting around a table, they were playing poker. As usual, these guys had the purplish-black markings as well.

The A-ranks were frozen in space like wax statues. The S-rank was moving in slow-motion, at snail-pace.

Ignoring these guys, Jeff fixated his gaze in one direction. He knew his objectives. Walking over, Jeff opened a wooden box.

Inside, it's void crystals stacked on thick foam sheets. 20 in a box. There were 10 boxes of them.

Without hesitation, Jeff pressed his palm onto a box. That box instantly popped out of existence.

[ Unique Quest: Energy Collection (Incomplete) ]

'Close interface.'

That S-rank had finally turned his gaze to Jeff now. This big dude was slowly getting up.

Too slow.

Jeff popped all the void crystals into his storage. Since he was already here, Jeff went to the other crates as well. One after another, Jeff popped them into his storage space.

No idea what's inside. Jeff decided to find out later.

'Objective secured. Now.' Jeff turned to the thugs.

Jeff raised his hand at them. The weapons on these guys unsheathed by themselves.

Jeff flicked a finger. The weapons pointed at their owners.

Jeff pointed up. Those weapons shot through their owners, bringing out spurts of purplish-black blood.

Well. Telekinesis sure made Jeff's life easier.

Being halfway into sage-tier, even S-ranks couldn't put up a fight anymore. SSS-ranks, S-ranks, A-ranks, E-ranks. They were about the same to be honest.

Remaining in this standstill world, fixing up his suit a little, Jeff walked out that opening in the vault door.

Looking back, like a zipper being opened in space, void rifts opened up behind those dead thugs.

Like a vacuum, the rifts sucked those thugs in. A strong wind quickly formed, blowing into those rifts. Poker chips and cards streamed into those rifts. The table and chairs started to slid in that direction as well.

The fluorescent light on the ceiling exploded into sparks. The electric sparks and the light-tube shards flew into the rifts like a cloud.

A strong wind pulled on Jeff towards the vault opening. Yet, even without his wind resistance abilities, this level of force was not enough to move Jeff.

Looking through the void rift, Jeff clenched his fists. 'Wha- What's happening...'

Jeff had seen healed-up rifts up-close.

But this was his first encounter with a 'live' rift.

---

[ Unique Quest: Energy Collection (Complete!) ]

[ You Have Gained: ]

[ Passive Ability - Void Energy Absorption (Common) / Toggled Off ]

[ Ability Description: You can now absorb Void Energy for Mana Level growth. All negative side effects are removed during the conversion ]

[ Cost: N/A ]

[ Thank you for contributing this data to the system. The system wishes you a great day ]