The bright glow of the morning sun shined upon the small, peaceful neighborhood below. The fall air was cool, and the leaves gently fell onto the grass. Amongst the quiet neighborhood, a chubby, glasses-wearing boy typed and clicked intensely on what seemed to be a gaming PC. His desk and room were both extremely filthy and filled to the brim with garbage. Many empty bottles and cans were on his desk, trash covered the floor in piles like mountains, and the stench radiating around the room was unbearable. The only sounds heard were the intense typing from the keyboard, the mouse, and the sound effects coming from his speakers.
That was until he paused, letting out a soft huff as he stared at his monitor screen, which was displaying a message.
[The player has died! Would you like to retry?]
[Yes/No?]
"Ugh..."
The young man rubbed his tired eyes and didn't immediately choose to respawn in the game. His mind was all over the place. Kino Asa had stood up all night, again, gaming his life away day by day. 'It's not like my life had any worth to drain in the first place...' He thought, sipping the last can of soda he had left on his desk. Amid his deep thoughts, the door leading to his room was suddenly kicked in by a girl one year older than him, which startled Kino out of his chair. The girl stood at 165 centimeters, wore a neatly adjusted school uniform, and had peach-colored hair and silver irises. She also had an air of disgusting superiority drenching her entire character.
Upon entering, the girl covered her nose as the terrible stench inside of the room escaped its square prison and assaulted her nostrils. "Ugh! Jesus Christ, dude! When was the last time you got off of your ass and took a damn shower?!" She exclaimed, gaging and looking at her brother in sheer disgust. However, there was no surprise on Kino's face, having dealt with that response on multiple occasions. "I don't know..." He muttered, returning back to his keyboard and resuming his gaming session. Seeing this, his older sister, Isabelle Asa, stormed over and suddenly snatched the chords of the PC out of the wall. "What the hell, Izzy?! I didn't save my data yet!" Kino shouted, looking up at his sister in disbelief. However, when looking up, Isabelle's silver eyes were gleaming with threatening power. "Watch your tone, fat, powerless bum." She spat harshly and coldly, causing Kino to immediately backtrack and raise his hands in surrender. "Y-yeah...S-Sorry." His voice trembled, and Isabelle smirked in response.
"Good, good. I guess you do remember your place as trash, little bro." She laughed, confidently striding deeper into Kino's room while mugging him in disgust. "Ugh, sometimes I feel ashamed to share the same blood as you. No wonder mom avoids you and dad straight up hates you! Ha!" Isabelle's mocking words tugged heavily at Kino's heart, but she didn't seem to car whatsoever. "And look," she poked a few bandages covered his face and arms, "this is why you've been skipping classes again, huh? Your still being bullied. I mean, no surprise there, it's just so sad that my brother is such a huge sack of garbage."
"Your just... garbage."
"Trash."
"Nothing."
"Useless."
"Powerless."
"Fat."
"Ah, you were born with all the worst traits. Choose one curse, dude."
Deafening Silence engulfed the room for a while, Kino looking down at his desk with a dark expression. Seeing this, Isabelle was satisfied. She came here just to mock her powerless brother. She hadn't come here for any other reason. Meanwhile, Kino's own silver eyes were dark and lifeless, not even a single tear dripping from his eyes. Each degrading insult replayed over and over again in his consciousness. Sadness, shame, and a wave of other emotions coated his fragile heart. But there was also a nagging feeling of deep-rooted rage, resentment, disdain, and hatred for this entire world and the power-holding pricks who always beat and mocked him. He had no one to trust, no one to call his friend, and only scars on his chubby body to further mark his weaknesses.
"It's not my fault that I was born this way! It's not my fault that I'm so terribly weak! It's not my fault that I was even born in the first place!" Kino slammed his fists into his desk, causing the empty cans and trash to fall off onto the ground. His breath was ragged and heavy, reflecting the emotions rumbling in his chest. "Why am I the one always being mocked and beaten?" Tears wanted to escape his eyes, but yet again, they remained stored in his eye sockets. "Why can't I be strong too..." Kino slowly sat back down, sighing deeply in resignation while plugging his gaming equipment back into the outlets. His PC flickered, and his monitor screen flashed back to life. With a sigh of relief, Kino typed in his password and logged back in, eager to forget about reality again and dive back into the virtual world.
But when logging into his PC's main screen, Kino noticed something strange. In the middle of his screen resided a singular file titled "READ ME" in all bold letters and text. "What the..." He muttered to himself in confusion, allowing the cursor of his mouse to hover over the unknown file. He was hesitant at first, not sure if he should open the file or not. "How strange...When did this file get here? But it wouldn't hurt to open it, right?" Kino pondered, conflicted on what he should do. He felt a sense of deep unease and a strange amount of anticipation. After a moment of thinking, he eventually forced his finger to press down on his mouse, opening the strange file in a quick hast.
Once opened, Kino slowly opened his eyes, but all he saw was a message.
[Hello there, human. You are the lucky chosen one for a test who currently resides on the planet 'Earth.' Now that you have opened our message, an automatic download will be made.]
Before he knew it or could process what he just read, the monitor screen suddenly went blank and didn't turn back on. '"Huh?! What the hell?" Kino pressed the power button on his PC repeatedly, but it had no results as everything on his setup seemed to have shutdown entirely. "Come on, come on, come on! Ugh! That damn file must have been a virus!" He exclaimed in panic, flopping back in his chair and letting out a groan of frustration.
However, in the midst of Kino's panic, he failed to notice a strange blue gleam coming from his mouse...