章 1: The Beginning (I)
Brrrrrrrrt~
Brrrrt~
In the dark depths of the night, a sound that was distinctly that of a motor bike was heard throughout the large expanse of wasteland terrain.
Brrrrrrt~
Vroom~ Vroom~
There, on top of the bike was a rough and ragged clothed figure wearing a gas mask and a hazmat suit which seemed to be modified to be more agile and efficient, although it was a hazmat suit, there were many parts of heavy leather and all sorts of fabric crudely sown in showing their age and how they've been used.
VROOOOM~ BRRRRRRRT~~
The bike increased in speed despite the low visibility in the night.
The bike itself wasn't very clean, its metals had rusted and it was visible to onlookers how worn out the machine was.
By looking at the junk and seemingly random metals tied or forced into the machine, one could infer that it was barely functioning.
Despite the aged look on the bike, it was contrastingly stable on speeds that reached eighty to ninety kilometres per hour while riding on rather rocky terrain.
Whoosh~
Heavy winds whistled through the night, passing through and by the bike forcing the ragged clothed figure to lower their head.
Brrrrt-screeeeeet!
As the bike kept going, a sudden burst of light came as the clothed figure immediately stopped the bike by weighing pressure on one side creating a loud and horrible screeching noise.
Ziiiiipppp~ Whoosh~
The bike rider immediately got off his bike, unzipping a pocket from his ragged clothes with quick movements, he took out an old and worn out green card that had a bit of mold and wrinkle grown over.
The ragged-clothed figure then held out the green card towards the flashing light, showing his name.
Lord Wan
Moments passed by as the man named Lord held out his card, waiting patiently for something to occur.
Voom~ Vimm~
The previously white light turned green and slowly dimmed out.
Several seconds pass, the sound of the wind whooshing past through the terrain are heard.
Tgrrrrrrrrrrt~ chiiiiing~ schhhhhinggg~ Creeeek~
Several noises are emitted; a giant wall appeared from seemingly empty space, the giant wall that looked to be of immeasurable height soon opened with ear-grating sounds of machines working and wood creaking.
As the wall door opened, it revealed structures and lights deep inside, seemingly looking as if it would be a night market.
A few meters inside the wall were 5 figures who looked well clothed with bits and pieces of fabric sewn together, nearly falling off.
"Haha! You're late again little Lord.." as Lord went into the gates and was about to take off his gas mask, one of the guards suddenly said.
"Oh, shut up! you know the usual bullshit us Scavengers go through, there was another pack of jackals at the normal route again, damn shits appear so much nowadays." Lord replied to the guards in an irritated eye-rolling tone.
"Hahaha! Ya sure got some bad luck running into Jackals again! Wait…Come to think of it, isn't tomorrow your sixteenth birthday and possible Awakening. What if yer bad luck is an ominous sign?" Another guard said trying to sound mysterious while teasing.
"Shut that trap of yours Olaf! I have enough worries already, don't need your ass to put another; besides if you had used that mouth of yours properly to please, you'd still have a wife!" Lord responded to the guard named Olaf by mentioning some gossip.
"Don't bring Marisa into this! Besides! She was a bitch! What am I supposed to do when her bitchy personality gets to me?!" The guard named Olaf tried to defend himself.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever hypocrite!" Lord rolled his eyes at the hypocrisy of the man.
As Lord finished his banter with the guard, he took his rusted bike and entered what seemed to be a city, it had people; much different to the wasteland he treaded where life was hard to find. Besides most wouldn't even want find life out there since everything's so hostile.
As he entered, Lord looked around the city, this was where he had lived for fifteen years of his life. It was his home.
The city had a modern yet Roman aesthetic, made as if specifically chosen.
As Lord roamed through the city, his mind couldn't help but recall what he knew about this city.
He knew that there were two regions, eight districts, and two areas.
The two regions preferably called the West and East, were parts of the city where in the West lay people of western descent while in the East were where those of Eastern descent lived.
This divide did not happen officially, it was rather an understanding and silent agreement.
The eight districts were the eight proportioned parts of the city, they were set in an spin-wheel shape that covered the West and East regions including the two areas.
All eight districts had different names and callings; they were not named in any standard order so that allowed a lot of creativity for the inhabitants.
The two areas were called the Outer and Inner areas; the Outer area was commonly termed as the economical area where most of the trade and residents lived in.
It encompassed seventy percent of the city, leaving thirty percent for the Inner area, or commonly termed as 'Luxury Area'. It was the area where most of the influential and important people that were essential to the city lived in, it was also a safe area in the city because it was surrounded in a circular shape by the Outer region.
Lord turned his head around as he watched the lights flickering around with people moving, children with barely any clothes playing, sometimes falling onto the dirty streets.
There were vendors selling barbecued rat, barbecued beast meat, and all kinds of things from here and there.
The place was lively, with dozens moving around.
Lord looked at this quietly and observed.
How was it possible that in a time where the world was barren and with the monsters and beasts who had ravaged the world still out there, there was such a beautiful and calming place here?
Lord wasn't too surprised about it, after all it had been sixty years since the Chaotic Era had ended; everybody had simply adapted to the new life.
The Chaotic Era referred to when everything first changed and the apocalypse came.
Humans were indeed an adaptable race, when there was time of peace, humans would grow weak and require higher living standards such as entertainment and comfort, but in a time of chaos; humans slowly but surely adapt to the new living standards and soon accept it as their reality.
Of course, you couldn't live well in an era where the world was but a barren wasteland with dangers unless there were ways to protect yourself.
And he, knew who were the defenders of humanity.
They were the Awakeners.
Awakeners were humans who had their bodies and minds grow and adapt alongside the apocalypse, becoming superhuman with powers from that of sci-fi and fantasy.
As of yet no one had truly understood what an Awakener was; even after sixty years of relative peace.
All that humanity truly understood was that an Awakener was a supernatural existence with physical abilities that could crush normal humans and sometimes gifted with special powers such as Fire manipulation and in some very rare cases; abilities such as Space manipulation, Dimensional Barrier, Time Warp, and all these fantastic and reality breaking powers.
With these abilities and superpowers, Awakeners were able to push the monsters and beasts back and build the [Ark]'s with the power of the High-level Awakeners, making safe havens for humanity to rebuild the population.
An [Ark] was like a circular shaped city that was in a sub-dimension; the land on earth was too uninhabitable with its ferocious terrain and terrifying monsters.
Lord recounted the knowledge he had about Awakeners and the [Ark]'s.
He himself wished to become an Awakener, it was the most supreme position a human of his time could have, it was a position filled with responsibility yet the sheer power and respect an Awakener commanded made up for every flaw.
Thankfully, he had been able to keep his life for nearly sixteen years and now he had an opportunity to become an Awakener.
It was now common knowledge for everyone that at the age of sixteen, a year after the brain stopped developing, the awakening could happen.
Although it was rare; a chance of one in fifty, everybody would be excited for their sixteenth birthday.
Awakening represented hope for change in their situation, hope that they would rise above the rest and enjoy a life of lavishness filled with food and pleasure.
Thud-
"Ahh! watch where you're going dumbass!"
Lord was so deep into thoughts that he wasn't being perceptive of his surrounding, leading him to walk into a passerby.
"Sorry," Lord replied calmly, he was a scavenger, he regularly met all kinds of monsters and beasts, rarely fighting them, so he wasn't intimidated at all.
Lord helped the man up and picked up the things the man had dropped.
"Gah! Kid you better watch where you're going, or else you're gonna walk into trouble" The man said in an irritated threatening tone. Clearly acting like he was someone more than he could chew.
"Whatever…" Lord whispered in a sigh as he apologized to the man, picked up his bike and went on.
...
After a few minutes of walking with his bike, he came upon a dark and worn down building seeming as if a haunted house with spiderwebs, but instead had a rusted sign showing the words [Trade Center] in English.
Lord looked at the sign for a few seconds and then parked his bike against the wall, took a white sack that was on the bike and walked inside the building as he inspected it.
"Hey! Gorman! Come out! I got goods!" Lord shouted at the empty counter that was in front of him.
Soon after, the sound of a heavy door slamming along with rustling noises came.
Thud~
Boom~ tiiinnggg~
With a loud crashing noise, a large framed man fell down a few meters behind the counter.
"Ahh! Fuck those stairs! MELISSA I TOLD YOU TO FIX EM!" The large framed man who fell down yelled to a person upstairs. He was wearing a robe with most of it's buttons open, showing the haste he had putting them on; thankfully because of the dim lighting, the man's genitals were hidden.
"WE DON'T HAVE THE MONEY YOU IDIOT!! YOU SPENT IT ALL ON GAMBLING!" An even louder voice came from upstairs as it shut up the large framed man.
"That wasn't gambling! it was an investment for our future!" The man defended himself with conviction, "I am being honest!"
'What the hell! There's always so much drama here, if it wasn't for the discount I would never come here!' Lord thought but didn't say out loud to anyone.
Lord was the kind of person who talked behind your back but wouldn't trash talk upfront.
"YOU LYING SON OF A B*TCH, WHY DID I EVER MARRY A CONMAN?!" The voice of the woman from upstairs said in dismay and regret.
"I, hey-!"
"AHEM!"
Just as the man was about to argue back; Lord coughed and got his attention, he had enough of this pointless drama, he just wanted to get his money and go to sleep.
"Ah! Lord! You're here?! I didn't know!" The loosely robed man turning to Lord, said without a hint of shame or blush on his face, this wasn't his first rodeo.
"Finally! Gorman I got some good metal and beast scraps, see them and give me the money for it," Lord sighed, he was tired from a long day and didn't have the energy to deal with any banter.
"Oh! Let's see, let's see!" Gorman said with a greedy shine in his eyes, as he opened the sack and saw the materials inside.
"OH! you got some good stuff, a Klaxo-sapien skull? A Second-generation Metal Titanium Alloy? Hehehe!, This his stuff is good!" Gorman said with excitement as he examined the things inside the large sack and appraised them.
Gorman was an appraiser/trader, he traded with scavengers and sometimes hunters who brought in a good haul and paid them with BAM, the currency most commonly used in the "New World"
One BAM if compared to previous currency systems would be equivalent to ten USD. This was because the materials and items in the "New World" were much harder to make, find, or produce, inevitably leading to demands with short supply, which had then made the worth of BAM rise.
"Hmm, this is good, some of them are a bit broken so that's going to lower their price a bit, but most are generally useable and recyclable; the things that aren't can be just thrown out or scrapped." Gorman said as usual, he judged items and things things by their value of use rather than value of thought or artistic design, meaning that if the Mona Lisa was presented to him, he would only give ten BAM because of its wood and colors.
In this era where life was at risk for the normal joe, and money was a precious commodity, only the most high-level who had their safety assured could enjoy menial things like artwork or creative pieces.
"Mmhmm, that's understandable, but remember the discount." Lord was used to trading, he didn't find anything wrong with the appraisal and so continued on.
"3% tax discount making it 4%, so the total is 456 BAM" Gorman said monotone.
Tax in the "New World" was far less structured than the times before the Chaotic Era; as the rise of Awakeners had caused massive changes to the hierarchy and ruling system
Nowadays, there were people who, if had connections or had done meritorious deeds, would be allowed "exceptions" from the World Government.
Although he didn't know how Gorman had an "exception" Lord was aware to not ask about private things; to him, as long as it benefited in the end, he didn't mind not being privy.
He had personally witnessed why the saying "curiosity killed the cat" was true.
"Okay, hand me the money." Lord nodded and told Gorman to finish the trade.
"Ah, yes! I don't have any money as of now because I had done some investments that were unfortunate with their results, but in exchange, you can have this dark blue globe."
Gorman said quickly, he pushed the dark blue globe the size of his palm onto Lord.
"Huh?! Wai-!" Lord couldn't finish his sentence before Gorman started speaking again.
"Treat this globe as an insurance, I'll get the money to pay you back soon! GOODBYE!" Gorman said loud and fast as he pushed Lord out of the building.
BANG!
Gorman slammed the door shut right after.
"W-what! What the hell?!" Lord said in disbelief!
Lord had done many trades but this was the first anyone had ever just thrown him out right after saying they didn't have money to pay.
This was the first time for Lord as he looked at the dark blue transparent globe in curiosity and anger.
"What the fuck?!" Lord yelled in frustration as he threw the globe on the ground hard.
Crack~
Surprisingly the globe didn't crack but the ground concrete certainly did.
Lord quickly came over and picked the globe up.
"What the hell is this made of?" Lord said in wonder at how weird this globe was. It looked fragile like glass but was stronger than concrete; this made the already tired Lord fall in silence.
He was too tired for this and besides he would have his sixteenth birthday and possible awakening tomorrow, he didn't want to spend his remaining brain power on a globe that was just a bit harder than it looked.
"Bah! Whatever! I'll figure this out tomorrow, I seriously need some peace and sleep!" Lord said in a loud and tired voice; he understood that he should leave figuring out this globe for another time.
Lord put the globe into the large white sack, got his bike up and walked to an alleyway 5 minutes away from where Gorman's Trade Centre was at.
...
Finally lying down on his bed, Lord thought of the day he had and what he was going to do tomorrow.
Remembering the globe, he turned his face to the sack in the corner.
Holding up the globe on top of his face, Lord looked at it and thought deeply.
'This globe... it gives me a really weird feeling, I can't describe it, but it just feels odd.' Lord thought along this line and soon sleep took his exhausted mind.
The hand he held the globe with slowly and gently laid down on the small dirty bed.
ZzzZzZzz~
While he fell asleep, Lord wasn't aware of how the globe in his right hand glowed and formed a stream of multicoloured-dust that went inside him; the stream seemed to change colors from black to purple to blue and finally white as it quickly entered his body and nestled deep inside his unawakened dantian.
...…..
Author NOTE: Hey guys! So this is the revised version of the 6 chapters, lot of grammar boring stuff got fixed, I hope you enjoy! Please leave a comment about your thoughts on this revised version!
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