It was Sunday, do you know what that means?.
Well, it means two things, first my paychecks,
Second I get to go home early.
Tick - Tock, Tick - Tock.
Just one more minute.
My shift was almost over, and my eyes were practically glued to the clock
50...
40...
30...
20...
10...
5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
Freedom.
I reached for my painfully uncomfortable work uniform, it was way to small for me, as I was ready to peel this cursed thing off-.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The shop doorbell rang, ... indicating a-..
....A customer.
...
..
.
I looked at her,
She looked back, coughing as she awkwardly looked away.
..... We both know this is now personal.
I glanced at the clock.
6:00 PM.
She glanced at the clock.
6:00 PM.
"..."
"..."
Without breaking eye contact, she slowly checked her phone.
"Wow," she said. "You close at six."
"...Yes."
"So you're still open."
"Yes.." I sighed before swallowing out my pettiness, and with the enthusiasm of a man attending his own execution, I forced the brightest customer-service smile my paycheck could afford. "How may I help you?."
"Oh, I'm just here for a drink and a bag of chips. Sorry for coming late. I'll just take those and go."
Thank God.
I watched her grab the nearest bag of chips and drinks.
walking toward the counter.
I could almost hear angels singing.
She placed the chips down.
"I'll pay with cash."
Even better.
She reached into her pocket, then another pocket, then her bag, then another pocket that I was fairly certain hadn't existed five seconds ago.
"..."
"..."
"Oh."
She looked up.
"I think I left my wallet in the car."
...
"It's fine, Just, please hurry up"
"Thanks, i'll be super quick." She hurriedly said, as she sprinted outside
The manager walked by.
"Hey kiddo, do you still have a customer?"
With a tired smile, I nodded "...Technically."
Hitting me on my back, as some sort of encouragement... He snorted. "Tough luck..."
Nvm.
Seeing my annoyed face the patting on my back becomes more aggressive as he laughed laughing like a rich man laugh, I can't put a word to it, but it's annoying.
"Anyway do me a favor, i gotta bounce somewhere important, itll be a pain if I missed it, so can you closed this shop for me?"
Raising one of my eyebrow while furrowing my eyes, I suspiciously accuse. "...You mean a nightclub?."
He smiled giving me no answered as he gived me the keys to the shop, before swiftly disappearing into the back door. "Cya"
Groaning I stretched my back, "that ragged oldman" it was strange, goddamit I'm starting to reminisce.
Every time I looked at him, I remembered that rainy afternoon 10 years ago.
A skinny fourteen-year-old kid had walked into this very convenience store after spending days asking for work anywhere that would listen.
Every answer had been the same.
"Too young."
"Come back when you're older."
"We can't hire you."
After some time, i was considering whether I should break the wish I made with my mother, if I fail one more time I'll call it quits.
...
The manager looked me up and down before scratching the back of his head.
Then
"...You look old enough to pass for eighteen."
He'd grinned. "You'll do fine."
Maybe it wasn't the most legal hiring process, maybe, I probably shouldn't ask.
That single sentence Did kept a roof over my head and food in my stomach, So no matter how much he overworked me...
I'd be grateful to him for the rest of my life.
Afterall, he still accepted me back, after I quit and all that crazy shenanigans happened to me, after I broked my mother wish.
Another minute later, the doors burst open.
"I FOUND IT!"
She proudly held up her wallet like she'd just recovered a national treasure.
I almost cried.
She paid.
The receipt printed.
I handed her the bag.
"Have a wonderful evening."
"You too!"
She left.
The doors closed.
I locked them with the speed of a medieval castle under siege.
Click.
Freedom.
...
Ding! Ding! Ding!
I froze.
A man stood outside, staring through the glass.
He pointed at the sign.
"Hey! You guys still open?"
I slowly turned the sign from OPEN to CLOSED, maintaining eye contact the entire time.
"...No."
....
By the time I finished fully closing the shop, the sky had surrendered to the deep blue of evening.
6:26 PM.
My right leg protested as I stepped onto the sidewalk, a familiar ache tugging beneath the old bandages wrapped around my calf. It wasn't anything new. It hadn't been for a long time.
I simply adjusted my pace and kept walking.
Step, Drag, Step, Drag.
The city was beginning its nightly transformation.
Office workers flooded the sidewalks, loosened ties hanging around their necks as they chased buses that were already too full. Street vendors called out to passing pedestrians, the scent of grilled meat and fried noodles drifting through the air. Neon signs flickered to life one after another, painting the streets in reds, blues, and yellows.
People laughed.
Cars honked. "Ay! I'm walking here!, I'm walking here!, Up yours you son of a bitch!,
You don't talk to me that way!."
... Have I heard that before?.
Someone argued over taxi fare.
Yadi yare yada, you get the point, the city was as alive as ever.
My phone vibrated.
"Oh right.."
Without stopping, I opened my banking app and transferred $250.
Recipient: Clary.
Transfer Successful.
Almost immediately, my phone buzzed again.
Clary: You sent too much again...
A few seconds later.
Clary: Make sure you're eating properly this time.
Another bubble appeared.
Clary: And don't skip meals just because of me.
... A small smile escaped me, typing with the keyboard of my phone and simply sending.
"I'm eating fine."
I slipped my phone back into my pocket and continued walking.
My phone vibrated again, I ignored it.
Soon, the crowded streets gave way to quieter roads.
The towering buildings slowly disappeared behind me, replaced by aging apartments, then rows of modest homes whose porch lights glowed warmly against the approaching night.
Eventually, the road led to an old steel bridge stretching across a wide river.
I slowed.
The water beneath reflected the city lights like shattered stars scattered across its surface. The current carried them away without a sound, each ripple distorting them before they vanished downstream.
For a brief moment...
I simply watched.
Then I kept limping home.
On the other side of the bridge, the streetlights became fewer.
Concrete turned to gravel.
The sounds of traffic faded until only the chorus of crickets remained.
Tall trees gathered on both sides of the narrow path, their branches swaying gently in the evening breeze. Moonlight filtered through the leaves in scattered patches, dancing across the ground with every gust of wind.
The forest wasn't large as it used to be.
After another ten minutes of walking, a familiar silhouette emerged between the trees.
A small wooden house.
The porch steps creaked beneath my weight.
Not the original steps, those had rotted away years ago.
The porch railing caught my hand as I climbed, also replaced, the old one had collapsed during a storm.
My fingers brushed the doorframe before I reached for the handle, and what do you know it's also been replaced, the termites had won that battle, thank God they only got my doorframe.
I paused.
The brass doorknob reflected the porch light, the third one, the first had rusted, I broked the second.
The roof overhead no longer leaked, i'd spent an entire summer replacing every last siingle waking up to rain "You gotta be kidding me"
dripping exactly where my bed is.
Just thinking about it pisses me off, my poor mattress.
The windows were newer, the fence had been rebuilt twice, half the floorboards no longer matched.
Thought the mailbox standing crooked outside was somehow still the same one, frankly I don't know how it survived to this point.
One by one.
Year after year.
Whenever something broke...
I fixed it.
Whenever something wore out...
I replaced it.
My hand rested against the door, the wood was smooth, not because it was new, because I'd sanded it so many times.
I have replaced everything so I wonder, is it still the same house?.
...
For a moment, I could almost hear it.
"Take your shoes off before you come inside."
A gentle laugh followed.
a rich, savory, and tangy combination smell drifting from the kitchen.
The rhythmic creak of a rocking chair.
Silence answered instead.
The night breeze stirred the trees.
I lowered my gaze.
There wasn't much of the original house left anymore, not the roof, nor the walls, neither was the porch and not even the front door.
...
Yet my hand still found the same place on the frame before I stepped inside.
Just as it always had.
"...I'm home, Mom."
The key turned, the old house welcomed me back without a word.
The door creaked shut behind me.
Home.
I slipped off my shoes at the entrance and nudged them neatly beside a worn mattress leaning against the wall. It had been waiting to be cleaned for... months.
Maybe longer.
"...I'll figure out how to wash you eventually."
The house wasn't dirty.
The inside was basically a square. Not a big one.
A faded curtain in the far corner separated the bathroom from everything else, granting just enough privacy to pretend it was another room.
Across from it sat my bed.
Beside it, two electric fans stood shoulder to shoulder, humming like overworked soldiers... I forgot to plug it off damn,
One fan wasn't enough during summer, not even close.
Against the right wall rested a single cabinet whose doors protested every time they were opened. Every piece of clothing I owned was stuffed somewhere inside...
Or hanging above.
A rope stretched from one side of the house to the other, sagging under shirts, towels, and socks that had dried hours ago.
There wasn't exactly a backyard to hang them.
Near the cabinet sat a big blue palanggana.
It was full.
Plates.
Bowls.
A spoon somewhere in the bottom probably crying, I was fairly certain had been there since... And there was maggot in there.
"..."
"...I really should wash those."
I'd probably say the same thing tomorrow.
My gaze wandered across the room.
"...What a messed-up layout." I chuckled to myself.
Then my eyes found the only thing in the room that was perfectly straight.
A family photograph.
The frame leaned ever so slightly.
Without thinking, I walked over and nudged it until it sat perfectly level.
Mom smiled from the picture.
Dad stood beside her, trying and failing to look serious, "He was still shining in this photo"
Clary was making a face at the camera.
And I...
"...There." I perfectly adjusted it
Satisfied, I turned away.
Well.
That's beside the point.
I took three lazy steps toward the bed before surrendering to gravity, throwing myself forward.
Flop.
The mattress groaned beneath me.
"So..."
I stared at the stained ceiling.
"...Today's over."
I let out a long sigh.
"...Guess I'll unwind for a bit." I fished my phone out of my pocket
The screen lit up, already displaying the game I'd left open before work.
RPG Academy Of Heroes.
Yeah...
Generic name.
I wasn't exactly expecting a masterpiece.
Then I played it.
Somehow, this ridiculously named game ended up becoming one of my favorites.
An Interactive Story Turn Based RPG where every decision mattered.
It has 8 playable character, with their own unique storyline.
I wouldn't call the story great however, the replayability was insane, An absurd number of endings.
Good endings.
Bad endings.
Secret endings.
Bittersweet endings.
Even after hundreds of hours, people were still finding new dialogue and hidden routes online.
Anyway I picked Barry, The academy's only student born without magic.
Generic name I know.
His unique skill was called Consumption.
Anything he ate monster meat, magical plants, enchanted minerals had a chance of granting him one of its traits.
A fire lizard could grant resistance to heat.
An iron beetle could harden his skin.
A giant wolf might sharpen his sense of smell.
It sounded ridiculously overpowered.
In practice...
Barry had the slowest progression in the entire game.
He couldn't use spells.
Magic tools were glorified paperweights.
Secret overpowered item, required mana to activate.
Enchantments refused to recognize him.
Blessing from the god cannot embed themselves into Barry without him dying.
Healing magic?
Didn't work.
Support buffs?
Dont work.
Any benefits that the other character had, Barry simply had no access to it, and despite coming from a noble family he's dirt poor.
As far as the world's laws were concerned...
Barry shouldn't exist.
Mana was life.
Every living thing possessed mana.
If something had none...
It was dead.
Yet Barry was alive, So if anyone ever figure out Barry have no mana, he will die, beacuse hes a very valuable testing subject.
Game over.
Almost every route where someone learned his secret ended in an unavoidable bad ending.
Fortunately...
The game explained that nobody could naturally detect someone with zero mana
For all his disadvantages, Barry had one thing the others didn't.
Potential.
Given enough time and enough things to eat he could become absurdly powerful, even stronger than her.
I rested the phone above my face, my thumb hovering over the New Game button.
"...Alright."
I wanted an Ending that no one has achieved yet, the route with Mei mei.
One of the eight playable protagonists.
The academy's top student.
Ridiculously talented.
Ridiculously important.
Ridiculously...
Dead.
It didn't matter whether I played as Barry or another protagonist that can interact with mei mei.
She always died.
Poisoned.
Assassinated.
Executed.
Caught in the crossfire.
Sacrificed.
It didn't matter.
If I wasn't controlling Mei Mei herself...
She died.
Every.
Single.
Time.
And the moment she did...
The continent fell apart.
Kingdoms blamed one another.
Old alliances shattered.
Wars ignited.
Cities burned.
By the time Barry was finally strong enough to make a difference...
There was rarely anything left to save.
The developers wouldn't make an ending impossible.
Right?
Unless...
I had overlooked something, a seemingly insignificant choice made twenty hours earlier.
Wouldn't be the first time.
The screen flickered.
"...?"
Once.
Twice.
Then my phone erupted into pure white.
"What the..."
The light swallowed the room.
I instinctively threw an arm over my eyes.
It didn't help.
The whiteness seeped through my eyelids.
The floor disappeared beneath my feet.
My stomach lurched.
For one impossible moment, it felt like I was falling...
And standing perfectly still at the same time.
...
Silence.
I slowly opened my eyes.
White.
Above me, below me. Around me, no walls, no ceiling, no horizon.
Just an endless sea of white stretching farther than I could comprehend.
"..."
I looked down at my hands, pinching my cheek.
"...Ow."
"...Where am I?"
Suddenly, a floating rectangle border appeared before me, almost making me stumble on my back, their was no design on it, you could go to a trashcan find a cardboard and it would look better than this,
In it is the word that spell.
[RPG Heroes Academy.]
[Contract.]
...
"The font sucks, Who designed this?."