Year 2051...
Sector B-21.
"Man, I hate my life."
He just left the junkyard after his scavenging today bore no fruit and now he was into the worst situation he could have ever wished to be in—stuck in the crossfire between two super freaks, as he called them.
They fought without care in the world, like there was no one around them, or was he just the only one stupid enough to be there at such a time?
No, of course, people were screaming.
Leo crawled over to the wall, resting his back against it and breathing in short uneven gasps.
He pulled back his threadbare hoodie, revealing a bloodied face twisted into a bitter smile.
His red eyes went to his legs, a fractured ankle on his right and the left completely unresponsive.
He sat there watching the two morons fight—throwing fists, energy beams and anything they could grab—at each other.
A thrown car went wide and slammed into the building Leo was leaning on. He tried moving away from the spot but the rubble from above fell onto his already destroyed legs.
"AAAAAAARRGGHHHHHH!" Leo screamed as he heard his bones snap. "Ah, damnit!" he muttered with a cracked voice, tears gathering in his eyes.
He just wanted to get some scraps he could sell to by medication for his ill sister and then this happened.
Eighteen years old, powerless in a world where more than 60% of people had Ginxes—techs made to give humans supernatural powers. It was a neural link implanted in the brain that does genetic modifications to tap into true human potential and the framework of reality itself, creating powers that were once believed to be childish imaginations or fictional.
At first, the world government tried to fight against this thing, but greed got the better of them when prices were named.
It simply was a means of world domination, but no one would believe it.
Today Ginx users walked the streets freely , making normal humans feel more like the outcasts.
They never wasted time in exchanging blows, wanting to show superiority over each other by any means possible, not caring who gets hurt in the process. Today was a sound example.
These Ginx users split themselves and decided to play the good old Hero and Villain game.
The sudden rise of the Dawn of Shadow hit the world unexpectedly, and these guys actually had enough might to put the entire world into a state of apocalypse.
The heroes took as much time as they wanted, before deciding to stand up to the Dawn of Shadows.
Through three months of war, the Dawn of Shadows were pushed back and the world was now in a post apocalyptic period. Though such could only be said for these parts of the world where the "new government" never decided to fix properly.
These parts of the world were basically modern day slums that were out of the fortified advanced cities. Unsafe places considered battlegrounds for any couple of fools who chose that it was the right time to fight
They had successfully taken over the world and the only time when humans could actually speak up to stop this, they decided that was the best time to keep their eyes shut.
Now people like Leo had to suffer, passing through this kind of life.
Leo lay on the ground, losing blood in large amounts. After losing their parents, Leo had been the one to take care of his sister who suffered from a new sickness known as Cersil.
Its symptoms were a mixture of seizures, partial paralysis, hair loss, memory disorientation and weight loss. It came as a pandemic that forced people to either by drugs that stabilized the effects or get their Ginx, which would fully cut it off.
Leo never planned on losing his younger sister to such, so he decided to get money by all means so he could keep on buying her drugs.
But these few days had been unlucky and at some point he wondered if he should have just let her get a Ginx implant for free.
Despite being sick, his sister hadn't eaten for two days because he couldn't get her anything. He was going to go back today with something, even if he had to take more debts—if they will give him again, that is.
But how?
He was bleeding out now, for a reason he wasn't even involved in to begin with.
Leo's dams broke and the tears streamed down the side of his eyes. His expression looking ugly and utterly pathetic. "I'm sorry,"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was a bad big brother. A really really bad one. Look at the state you're in just because of my own made-up fears." Leo's shaking hand clutched the dirt. "Please… please forgive me."
Then blackness.
… …
"Shut up, his vitals are picking up. He's awake."
"It was a success?"
"We can't confirm."
"Did someone eat my burger?"
Leo could hear the noises but he was unable to open his eyes.
First of all, wasn't he supposed to be dead? And what were these people talking about? Was it him? Where was he?
His mind fired several questions he had absolutely no answers to.
Then everywhere went quiet.
The next time the sound came back, he jolted awake. "Aahh!"
He was in his room.
The first thing he looked at his legs first, slowly taking off the blankets to see them fit and in shape.
He touched his face—no bruises at all.
Was everything earlier all just a dream? But it felt too real to be a dream.
Either ways, if it was, he needed to go scavenging or trying to get a job again.
He was about to mark today's date on the calendar when he paused. "This isn't the calendar I was using," he muttered.
That was all he thought, until his eyes landed on the calendar's date, causing him to freeze in place.
Year 2056...
"What tha," Leo squinted, wondering if he was seeing things, but then his view got interrupted by a sleek glowing interface and sharp sound.
[ Ding! ]
[System Initialization Complete!]
[Welcome to the Hero's Ascension System!]