Empire Building With Infinite Warehouse

Before Aiden could even grab a piece of broken cobblestone from the street to throw at the creepy shadow hiding near the barrier, the entire situation changed completely without any warning.

The unnatural red sky above the gothic town suddenly tore wide open with a blinding flash of bright green light that forced everyone to cover their eyes and stumble backwards.

A swirling portal exactly like the Green Gate from the military bunker formed right above the public square they just sneaked away from, and the system interface instantly exploded with flashing red warning screens right in front of Julien’s face.

[Critical Alert: Unauthorised Dimensional Breach Detected.]

[Notice: Multiple high-level hostile entities are currently bypassing the regional barrier using forced blood-magic stabilisation.]

"Are you seriously telling me that paranoid warlord actually figured out how to open the anomaly by herself?" Maya shouted over the roar of the magical portal, gripping her dual daggers tightly while she stared at the glowing green sky in total disbelief.

"Her crazy scientists must have scraped Aiden’s leftover blood right off that operating table," Julien explained frantically, watching armed soldiers start dropping directly out of the sky.

"They used it to reverse engineer the portal formula while we were busy fighting vampires!"

Commander Lena was the very first person to step completely out of the swirling green energy, and she looked furious as she surveyed the dark, gothic city with cold, calculating eyes.

Her entire personal death squad dropped right in behind her, but they were not holding the standard military rifles anymore.

They landed on the cobblestone streets with highly advanced energy spears and glowing mana-crossbows already raised. The elite soldiers immediately started launching explosive magical bolts at the nearest vampire aristocrats who were standing in the open market, trying to figure out what was happening.

The sudden military invasion threw the entire region into pure chaos because the armoured local knights instantly rushed forward with their long swords to defend their territory from the human intruders, leaving the rescue group completely trapped right in the middle of a dangerous turf war.

[Area Alert: Regional hostility parameters have reached maximum capacity.]

[Warning: Survival odds are currently dropping below one per cent. Immediate evacuation is strongly advised to prevent party elimination.]

"The system is literally telling me to run away right now, but we have absolutely nowhere left to go!" Julien yelled over the loud sounds of shattering stone and clashing steel echoing from the main square down the street.

Kyle stepped right in front of the group and raised his sword to make a desperate final stand, looking ready to fight both the angry vampire army and the paranoid military soldiers all by himself just to protect them.

"We cannot fight a war on two fronts when we are already this exhausted and severely outnumbered!" Maya yelled, pressing her back against the brick wall as stray magical blasts hit the nearby buildings and sent sparks flying everywhere.

"We are going to run out of luck and get surrounded by enemies who want to slice us to pieces for trespassing in their city!"

Just as the mercenary braced himself for the incoming attack from a stray patrol of soldiers running down their alleyway with energy spears drawn, that dark shadow hiding near the glitching dimensional wall finally decided to reveal itself completely.

A tall figure stepped right out of the fractured digital static and walked casually into the eerie red light, completely ignoring the chaotic war zone erupting just a few blocks away.

The stranger was wearing an expensive, high-tier merchant coat that looked like it was woven from pure starlight and monster silk, which was an item Julien had only ever seen locked away in the very bottom pages of his catalogue because he could never afford it.

The mysterious figure was also wearing a pair of highly advanced mana-tech gauntlets that were filled with a dangerous blue energy, looking like a seasoned professional who belonged in a much higher-level zone.

"Put the sword down before you hurt yourself, Kyle, because fighting that entire army is a terrible business decision that pays absolutely zero dividends," the stranger said with a very familiar, sarcastic voice, raising a hand to slowly lower the dark hood covering his face.

Julien felt his jaw practically unhinge, and his heart skipped a very painful beat when he finally saw the stranger’s face clearly illuminated in the dim red twilight.

The guy standing in front of them was completely identical to Julien in every single physical way, except he looked just a few years older and had several pale scars running right across his cheek and jawline to prove he had survived a lot of terrible fights.

’I always knew I was the most handsome guy in the apocalypse, but seeing it in person is honestly very unsettling,’ Julien thought to himself in pure confusion, staring at his older reflection while his tired brain tried to process the impossible situation standing right in front of him.

"Are you some kind of shapeshifting vampire trying to trick us into a trap, or did the magical system just decide to clone you because you spent way too much money in the premium shop today?" Aiden asked nervously, picking up an iron pipe from the street and pointing it defensively between the two identical merchants while the giant bat-hound let out a confused whimper.

"I am definitely not a clone, and I am certainly not a bloodsucking vampire," the older Julien replied with a very heavy sigh, looking at the terrified rescue group like he had done this same rescue routine a million times before and was getting completely tired of repeating himself.

"You guys are going to ruin the entire timeline and get everyone in the multiverse killed if you do not follow me through this glitching wall right this second."

The older Julien did not even wait for them to argue or ask any further questions about his identity, simply turning around and walking right back into the swirling digital static of the fractured dimensional boundary.

The system alarms kept blaring in Julien’s ears as Commander Lena started shouting orders to her death squad just down the street, demanding they secure the perimeter with their energy spears and capture any surviving humans they could find in the gothic city.

Julien looked back at the green portal, continuing to dump more armed soldiers into the ruined city, and then he looked at his friends and his new giant pet bat, knowing deep down that they had no other choice but to follow the crazy traveller into the unknown void if they wanted to see tomorrow.

He took a deep breath, grabbed Maya by the shoulder, and pulled her right through the glitching static wall as the sky continued to burn red and green behind them.

[End of Volume 1]