Thank you for clicking this novel. If you like Rebuild World, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, and Kara Is Here To Please You ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) , this is kind of a mix of all those cyberpunk world settings…
Only the world settings.
Well, if you've never seen those, it doesn't matter. Let's have an emotional and not-boring journey through this cyberpunk world.
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Static crackled as the AR comic glitched in front of the little kids' eyes. The little girl, around nine or ten, held the tattered book with her small hands.
"It's only a matter of time before the fire you set also burns you," the girl read the lines in a high-pitched voice.
The panel showed a white-haired boy holding his own head in his hand. He was using a white comb to fix his hair. He was clearly a cyborg.
"I'm waiting for that to happen," said the man standing in front of him. He was looking at his mobile phone. Suddenly he paused and pocketed it.
"It's time," he said. Then he pulled the rifle from his back. Though it looked like an old brown rifle, only those who had faced it knew the real terror of that weapon. Too bad they weren't alive to tell the story.
The cyborg boy put his head back on. His left wrist split in two, revealing an electric effect as it filled with plasma light, ready to shoot whenever he commanded.
Both of them charged toward the cloud. These were not ordinary clouds. They were clouds of beetles with mechanical and biological parts, swarming toward them.
"'Boom!' Then they fought and destroyed the swarm. Let's skip twenty pages. I mean… the AR pages are missing. After the fight, the cyborg boy kissed the man," read the little girl.
"Huh?!" the boy beside her shouted, his face turning red. "When did this turn into one of those yaoi stories?!"
The girl giggled and waved the book at him. "They say it's based on true events. Isn't that wild? A love story between a human and a cyborg! Both of them are… male. I wonder if the cyborg has modified extra holes." Her cheeks flushed.
Another boy rolled his eyes. "Ew. You read the weirdest stuff. Also, this is not a romance storybook. The last page AR is not even working. Are you sure you read the right words?"
Before she could argue further, a firm voice cut through their chatter. "Shrimps. Move."
The group froze.
They turned to see their Big Brother, a boy of twelve or thirteen. He smiled at them while holding a stick like a gun. Despite being barely older than them, he was the leader of this small group.
The little girl hastily hid the book behind her back.
"What are we going to do?"
"Brother Leo, we're going to, um… steal mangoes!" she declared.
"We're gathering resources," Leo corrected, pointing the stick at the girl.
The girl raised her hands in the air but accidentally dropped the book.
Leo picked it up. "Did you steal this from home again? Sister said one copy was missing. We found the culprit."
The girl just stuck out her tongue.
"Alright… we're leaving. Operation Secret Mission Mangoes starts now!" Leo shouted.
"Roger!" the children chorused.
They sneaked toward the old building near the inner city wall. It was dark, but the kids moved naturally, as if they were used to it. This wasn't their first time stealing mangoes here.
Big Brother guided them easily, seeing through the dark more easily than the others. Compared to them, his vision was slightly sharper. It was even sharper than most adults'.
Through a small hole in the fence, the kids entered the old building. There was a small yard with a big mango tree in it.
"Now… the weapon." Leo stretched out his hand.
One of the girls placed the slingshot in his palm.
"Ammo."
One of the boys handed him a stone.
"Aim… fire." Leo casually shot at the tree. A bunch of mangoes fell.
"Reload."
The kids handed him another stone. Their big brother shot down mangoes one by one. Everyone watched him with admiration.
"Brother's aim is always great."
"He rarely misses."
They whispered in awe. Leo felt smug and touched his nose. He really liked it when his siblings praised him.
"Secure the resources," Leo ordered with a smile.
"Roger!" They saluted in a disorganized way and scrambled to pick up the fallen mangoes.
Leo glanced at the book. "She definitely read the last line wrong."
A boy picking mangoes in the dark suddenly froze at a low growl. He turned and saw a dog as tall as he was.
The dog barked and leaped at him.
Bang.
A stone flew past its eyes and the dog stumbled.
"Enemy detected! Retreat!" Leo shouted. The boys and girls grabbed the mangoes, stuffed them into a sack, and ran.
"But there are more mangoes on the ground," a girl pouted.
"If we move any closer it'll be bad! Retreat at once!" Leo shouted.
"R-roger that!"
"I'll cover you, run!" Leo said, grabbing a few mangoes.
"Big Brother Leo, you have to come back!" the girl cried, tears in her eyes as she ran.
It felt like Leo was sacrificing his life to save them from a warzone.
The drama continued in a hilarious way.
"This kid's aiming skill is something… He isn't even wearing any cybernetics, yet he can hit his target clearly in this darkness."
A man watched everything from the roof of the building with an amused smile. From his point of view, it was just kids playing a game of chase with a dog. But what impressed him was Leo's accuracy.
His eyes turned serious when a notification appeared on his eyewear.
A message blinked:
[Emergency Alert: Fire in Slum District 7.]
He turned his gaze toward the direction the kids had run.
"Fire in the slum?" he muttered.
The kids climbed back through the fence. The dog tried to follow, still barking. Suddenly a mango flew straight into its mouth and got stuck in its throat.
The dog stopped chasing and coughed up the mango.
The man watched the kids disappear, then jumped off the building and ran.
The children laughed and ran through the maze of narrow streets, clutching their bag of mangoes like stolen treasure.
"Hehe… I'm pretty sure Sister will scold us," a boy said.
"Don't worry. We'll tell her we just picked them up from the ground," a girl added.
"The crowd is huge," another girl noticed. The streets were more crowded than usual.
They turned a corner and froze.
The dark alley turned orange as they reached their destination. Smoke rose into the air along with screams. They stopped dead in their tracks.
"Fire! Fire! Someone help!" a voice shouted.
The children stared, eyes wide. Their home, Dream Orphanage, was in flames.
The small wooden sign bearing its name cracked and fell as the roof caved in. The flames reached toward the night sky, painting everything in cruel shades of red and gold.
"No…" whispered the girl with the book.
"Sister…" said another boy, voice trembling.
"Sister Natasha…" Leo's eyes locked on the inferno. Tears blurred his vision. The sound of collapsing wood drowned out their sobs.
The flames lit the night, but Leo's world felt darker than ever. While crying, Leo's eyes turned toward one of the buildings. But there was no one.
Someone had to move, so he forced his legs to obey. He slowly dragged the kids away and blended into the crowd.
After Leo left, a small drone flew away from the building.
Soon, many red drones appeared in the sky, blinking red and blue lights. They sprayed water on the burning orphanage.
And even more vehicles flew toward the orphanage.
---
The next morning, the streets were silent except for the low murmur of guards in black uniforms bearing pentagon symbols as they examined the burned orphanage site.
"No survivors," one of them said grimly, flipping through a small datapad. "But records show seven children are missing. Four boys and three girls."
The other guard sighed. "Even if they survived… I don't think they can survive in this world easily. Especially in the slum. Even though Old Morrow City is supposed to be one of the safest cities in the world."
"Shhh… that's only for the inner district…"
They glanced at the charred remains of the sign, Dream Orphanage.
The wind blew, scattering ashes across the empty lot. Among them lay a burnt scrap of paper, a page from a storybook.
The last line read:
~> After the fight, the cyborg boy 'killed' the man. <~
There was no humor in the story, only a tragic ending.
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A day later
The six surviving kids were hiding in an abandoned house in the slum. They sat there, eyes red from crying.
They hadn't eaten well since yesterday. Fear kept them awake more than hunger did.
They heard a sound outside.
"Big Brother Leo?" one of the boys looked up and walked toward the door.
The door opened suddenly with force, knocking the boy down as a gang of thugs appeared. One man's eyes lit up when he saw the three girls.
"Nice… unripe food…" he said in a lewd tone, his mouth already drooling.