I sigh out loud as I check the hour on the terminal on my right arm. Living in the slums meant there were few jobs you could actually get. The one I ended up choosing was recycling trash from the city.
That is, putting it lightly. Recycling trash actually means I need to move mountains upon mountains of stuff nobody wants and drag it around through the whole slums till I reach the incinerators. Sometimes that stuff is an old watch, other times it is a whole refrigerator.
It ain't cool, but it is what it is.
In this city, if you don't have cards, you don't have a life. And, yeah, I guess you could just sit back and 'enjoy' a life of misery and no expectations, but that's not the kind of life I want for myself. Plus, my little brother deserves more than that.
Daydreaming. That is the summary of my Monday to Saturday morning schedule. Working my ass off here so that I can get enough money. Just enough not to drop dead the very next day. So let me cope by daydreaming, 'kay?
That's the only way I can pretend I hadn't realised I've been pushing this kitchen sink 'round for 5 minutes now. It's tiring; I need to prevent myself from thinking about it. I ain't tired, I ain't tired, I ain't ti-
"Dammit!!"
I let go of the sink. Denial is not my strength. And I need to catch my breath. So I do what they always tell you: inhale, exhale - and cough twice. However, that last part might not actually be taught.
I wipe the sweat off my forehead, leaning forward, looking at the ground. My long hair flows down my shoulders and my cheeks. Messy from the four hours I've been pushing furniture along the outskirts of the slums under the sun.
I want to clock out already, holy.
I pull a hair tie out of my pocket, run my fingers around my ears, grabbing my hair as I pull it up and back, tying it into a high ponytail. I might be poor and not have a good Deck, but at least I got some fucking cool hair, aye?
I might have digressed. These thoughts only get wilder the more tired I get.
I drink some water I sto—borrowed. It tastes good, probably because it was free. Regardless, feeling a little bit better, I decide it is due time I stop slacking. I grab the kitchen sink and go back to my moving-disliked-furniture-towards-the-incinerator job.
[3 Hours Later]
I stop walking again, it's fine. I have already reached the incinerator and thrown all the trash I had been moving. Fine, everything's fine. I check the terminal to see the hour, out of habit. Perhaps a bad one. They die hard.
The other thing that dies hard is me; I am still alive. Survived yet another day doing this shitty job. Maybe I'm too good at this.
I check the time again, perhaps I'm expecting it to just automatically increase by 10 minutes every time I check it, regardless of how long I wait. Well, it doesn't. It had only moved one minute.
Which actually meant my shift will end in one minute. Nice.
I'm not the type to like physical labour; I am the brains, not the muscles. Yet, here I am. Why? Cuz there's no other way. Plus, it made me find cards to make my deck. Maybe I could find more.
Though I gotta say I don't need any more cards now, I already struck gold. Once, the only time I have ever gotten lucky. Being lucky feels good, though I don't know if the deck can even be considered that. Fake gold? Maybe. After all this deck sucks ass.
I sigh, taking it out from my pocket. I skim through it, my monster with the highest ATK has 2300. The one with the highest DEF has 2600. To be honest, they're not that bad on paper. It's just that- their effect actually makes them... worse.
It's an interesting case I will not delve too deep into. Look, all I need is to win some duels to get some money. Dueling equals money, and money equals power. Power, for what? I dunno... It's not my main objective.
If you win in a duel, you get points; those points rank you in the city's ranking system. Then, you get to use those points to buy food, cards, etc. That is my objective. Points for shopping, which translates into no more moving furniture around the slums for money.
Those points spent shopping aren't deducted from your rank anyway, so I can use them all while I keep climbing the ranks.
I guess they're just a mirror of the total amount of actual points you've gained. I haven't asked too much, so I can't know for sure.
While I'm thinking about all of this, I suddenly trip, but I don't fall. My feet quickly act to prevent me from kissing the grass below. I never fall.
Wait, where am I?
"Fuck"
I got lost again. I was way too deep inside my own thoughts. I was walking around the incinerator when I ended up walking into the woods. A forest. Beyond the city. I think it's called the Dark Woods?
Well, that doesn't matter. The point is, I don't know how to get back...
Well, wait, am I stupid?
Of course I know how to go back. Heh.
I just need to turn around. Right? Simple.
I turn around and immediately feel something is wrong. My feet miss the ground. Wait, the ground? I look down, I just walked through this very same spot ten seconds ago.
Shit. There's nothing below my feet. Gone. Nada
"Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuuuck!!"
I'm falling, man. I'm fucking falling.
And it's high, I don't even see the bottom.
I fall for too long, long enough for me to panic. That's how long it takes for me to reach the bottom, which I 'hug' hard upon reaching.
THUMP
I slowly stand up, coughing. My head hurts, my body feels numb. Yet, I'm somehow... alive?
Whatever, I start looking around. There's gotta be a way outta here.
From what I can gather by just staring at the walls that surround me, this seems like some sort of temple. No, ruins. Wait, yeah, probably the ruins of a temple, its vault. I have the feeling they hid something down here so no one could find it.
Yet I did. Or, well, the temple found me? The ground opened under my feet so...
Anyways, I'm not a lucky person, so whatever they hid here, they hid it for a reason. And finding it is probably not good luck. Rather, the opposite. Yup, I should just leave already.
So I turn around again, trying to forget the last time I did I fell down the hole.
Wait, right. The hole! I look up, it's right there! Maybe if I jump and crawl up, I could reach the top? I'm getting more chills every second I stay down here; staying is not an option.
"Kay, fuck it. We crawlin'." I mutter
The ground trembles and rumbles below my feet. 'Not again,' I tell myself. However, (un)luckily, I don't fall any deeper. Instead, the hole I fell through closes immediately. No going out, I guess. Now what?
"Underwhelming." Something, no, someone speaks.
I squeak, with a high pitch I didn't know I could produce.
So, I slowly turn around, repeating to myself, 'he's right behind me, isn't he?'...
Yeah, he was.
A tall, huge man, impossibly wide and tall. He's covered in bandages. The ones on his face, near his right eye, are peeled down back. Revealing his right eye, or rather what should be his right eye. Which is replaced by some sort of ancient-looking golden eye-shaped accessory.
He looks like some sort of mummy. Which means that this isn't a temple. It is a tomb, here in the middle of the woods, somehow. That's it, let's try something.
"Let me be, and I'll bring you cookies; I'll throw them through the hole. Sounds good, aye? You gotta be hungry."
"Cookies? How dare you, piece of shit, talk to me like that?"
Gulp.
The negotiation didn't seem to work. What else can I do? Running? Yeah, fucking run away.
My legs start running in the opposite direction, as fast as they can. I look for an exit out of here, turn a left, a right—Yeah, no.
I ain't fooling anyone. My legs don't even move. Some sort of dark pool has already sunk my feet.
I am completely unable to move. And he knows it. He's probably why I am sinking in the first place.
He smirks behind the bandages. Even though I don't see it, I know it.
"Let the Millennium Eye measure your worth in the shadows."
He flickers his fingers, and a deck appears floating next to his hand.
Which is a cool magic trick. Almost makes me forget I'm trapped down here with someone who gives me chills.
"Let us enjoy this Dark Game."
Yup… Great. Heard about that.
With this shitty deck. I am completely cooked.