Kapitel 1: The day
Ivan woke up excited. Today was the day. Today was finally the day. The day where he would finally be free. The day where he would finally be able to escape this hellhole. The day he had waited more than twelve years for. In fact, he had waited for it as long as he had been able to understand just what kind of place this was.
Ignoring the alarm, that at usual, woke up everyone at 6 o'clock, he instead checked his character screen. Just to make sure that it was truly, today. That today was truly the day where he was finally of age and thus able to escape this hellish place.
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Name: Ivan King
Age: 18
Class: Mechanic (Lvl. 1), Mage (Lvl. 1)
Professions: Smith (Lvl. 1), Metalworker (Lvl. 1), Farmer (Lvl. 1)
Skills: Growth Acceleration (Lvl. 1), Hammertechniques (basic)(Lvl. 1), Summon Flames (basic)(Lvl. 1), Heat Resistance (basic)(Lvl. 1)
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There it was in the second row. "Age 18", this was the magical words, that ensured his freedom.
He wanted nothing more than to shout out his happiness but knowing that it would just piss off his roommates and especially Greg who not only was one head taller than him but also liked to fight, he exerted his self-control and held it in.
Getting up from his bed, which was one of eight in the small room, he hurriedly grabbed his bag with wash utensils. Every morning they would have to hurry or the washrooms which were much too small compared to the number of people living in this dorm would already be full.
Besides him, the other seven had also jumped out of their beds. They too grabbed their bags and then pushed out of the room, with Greg leading. Just as they had been doing ever since Greg had reached age 14 and asserted his dominance.
The other twenty rooms on this floor also emptied and the hallway was instantly filled with young men and children. Each room contained a mix of boys with ages from 6 to 17. Those younger than 6 lived in a separate building since they needed more care and those older than 18 would leave the orphanage.
That's right. This place, where Ivan couldn't wait to escape from was an orphanage. It was controlled by the Sunsiert Corporation and used as a source of new talent, cheap labor and more.
Ivan had lived here, as long as he could remember. He didn't know how old he had been exactly when he had been brought here, but he had been a toddler back then.
The first six years of his life hadn't been bad. Children below six had to be cared for by a professionally trained caretaker, as stipulated by Imperial law. And each caretaker would only take care of ten children at most.
And because they were still so young, they couldn't work or had to be taught, so they were free to spend their days playing around. Creating friendships and enjoying their life.
He wasn't sure why, but the Sunsiert Corporation had provided for this section of the orphanage surprisingly well. But judging by their other policies, this had to have something to do with them being healthy enough later on.
Then at age six, the hard life would suddenly destroy everything. The mandatory class wasn't that hard. After being woken up at six o'clock they had to wash up and then eat, so they could be in the classroom at 7. And woe those who came late. The creative and cruel punishments of the teachers would make sure that you wouldn't dare do it again.
Not only the sudden strict day plan but also being thrown into the unfamiliar dorm rooms would make a huge change in the children's life.
Anyway after class until 12 it was time for lunch. And after that, the worst part started. From 13 to 21 o'clock it was time for mandatory work. The reason why the Sunsiert Corporation even managed this orphanage. Boring but easy manual tasks. Each day was filled with them. One after another without any break except Sunday, where they would have the afternoon free.
For those children who were still young and weak and thus not fit for the more strenuous jobs a large part of the work was taking care of all matters of the orphanage. Cleaning, cooking, washing clothes, washing dishes. Besides that, there were jobs such as sewing, assembling, and coloring.
For the stronger ones, there was farm work and work at the workshops, of which the orphanage had many different ones. Ivan had worked mainly in the smithy and the farm.
While the smithy mainly produced products that would be sold for much more than its cost, the farm mainly produced for the needs of the orphanage. Just about any food, they had gotten was grown by themselves.
At 14 the mandatory classes would end. They would then have learned everything that the Imperial law dictated they had to learn. And the orphanage never did more for them than the law dictated.
Ivan guessed that the only reason they even got the activations ceremony, which enabled them to interact with the System and thus check their character screen and learn skills, was that they could work much harder this way. Because if they didn't, then children would be completely unable to withstand their workload. And it wasn't like the ceremony was expensive.
Because of some Imperial law, dictating that they couldn't force them to work more than 8 hours a day, they now had free time before dinner. Well although it was called free time, everyone had to fill it with something. Either with additional tasks to earn credits or with additional lessons.
Credits were what they had to use to buy anything that went beyond basic necessities, which according to Imperial Law the orphanage had to provide.
You want to read in the library? Every hour would cost 5 credits.
You want to eat sweets? Pay credits and you would get some.
You want to take a relaxing bath instead of one of the free short showers? Pay credits and you could.
Someone once said that without credits you would get nothing and with you could get anything.
The same with the additional lessons. They provided knowledge that went further than the one taught in mandatory class. Without the knowledge taught in them, it would be almost impossible to gain a profession. And without a profession, it would later be almost impossible to get a job after leaving the orphanage.
Thus they weren't as much voluntary as they were obligatory. And of course, they would cost credits.
But unlike other ways of spending credits, the orphanage would lend one credit for those lessons. Of course, that also meant that even after one reached the age of 18 one would be forced to work for the corporation until all loans were paid back. Still, most children choose to make use of this offer.
Ivan had always avoided any form of loans. There was no way that he would bind himself to this corporation if he could avoid it. Luckily for him, he was talented enough to gain professions from the work he was forced to do. Thus he could avoid the choice between owing the corporation or living a shitty life after coming of age.
Instead, he had focused all his power on earning credits from tasks and used them to read as much as possible in the library. Reading by himself, while less effective than taking lessons, was also much cheaper and could be done by earning the credits himself.
At the same time, he had hidden his ability to learn professions without going to the lessons since it would have only brought problems to himself if the managers would have learned of it. There was no way the corporation would let someone go if he was this talented. And if they wanted to they would surely find a way to force him into debt.
Thanks to his carefulness, the manager responsible for him only knew him as a, while handsome, unremarkable young man. Thus he had successfully avoided falling into debt and would thus be able to leave today freely.
Of course, that was only because Imperial Law dictated that while it was alright to get the children in the orphanage into debt it wasn't lawful to do this with basic necessities. And all work besides the allowed 8 hours a day had to be paid in some way or another.
The hard work and the minimal necessities provided made living in this orphanage a hell for most children. But in this world, that was filled with danger and was ruled by the powerful, nobody cared about those parentless children. Thus allowing a system such as this to exist and thrive.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein