Everything around me was white, mostly, blurry, and cloudy.
"Hey, stop running, I'm gonna catch you."
I turned, and through the whiteness, I saw a woman. I can see her, but I can't see her. Her face wasn't clear like it was being erased, even as I looked, but deep inside, my heart grew warmer. It was a soft feeling.
As clouds covered her, and soon I saw myself running from her, I looked at my legs, they were tingly like a baby's.
"My boy…" she whispered, and the sound cracked through the silence. "You're such a good runner?"
Suddenly, I am all alone, no feelings, no sound.
Then, nothing. What the hell was that dream? I could not recall a single thing, as my head was spinning, but it soon calmed down when I looked at my pouch.
As the heavy coins burden my heart, I know if I continue to sleep on the random streets. Someone would definitely steal it from me, just as I stole it from others.
I tightened the pouch, tucking it deep into my shirt like it was part of me. I couldn't let go of it, not even for a second. My fingers brushed the fabric over and over every moment to make sure none had stolen it, but do not do it continuously to attract the attention of thieves.
I looked at the sky, it was nighttime, and I saw a glimpse of a moon among the black smoke. As cold air enguff ..what a perfect time to stroll the city in the nighttime, which in the day is full of crime, as also it's cold as fuck and all I have is this thin cloth.
So I began my nighttime stroll. As my mind occasionally wanders off to the stores, the thought of buying things always crosses my mind, and why not? I have enough money.
I began my footsteps towards the store.
Then it hit me, wait a minute, tomorrow's beggar coming to a store buying clothes, is really suspicious,...the constant anxiety of buying the things was on my nerves..
Do not panic, Danny, let's just listen to the price. I can not read the prices written on the board because I am fucking illiterate.
I stand beside the shop and immediately, "Go away, beggar, we have nothing to give you," remarked the dusterboy
"I am not here to beg, but ask for the prices you are selling the goods." I angrily remarked, but no expression came across from the boy, as if I did not exist.
I have money, so why not sell me the things? I screamed. "Listen, idiot, you can not read what's written on the board. Wait, you are an illiterate and also a retard. Listen, this shop is only for nobles."
The hell hole of poverty and crime was not enough; they also have segregation here.
Disheartened, I again walk along the street.
[CONGURALUTAIONS, YOU UNLOCKED 5 PERCENT OF IRONVALE]
100 EXP+
I take a nearby wall for support from the sharp pain, but now the pain is less; it looks like I am adapting to it.
[CONGURALUTAIONS, YOU UNLOCKED SKILL TOLERANCE TO PAIN]
[YOU HAVE LV.0 PAIN INTOLERANCE, WHICH GIVES EFFECTS TO NULLIFY SLIGHT PAIN ]
That's it, that's my breaking point, after a while of lying down and begging, some random gives me a copper coin to impress his chicks, as another coin to my pouch.
So after that, I just walked along the street, now that I knew walking would give me EXP, and also I would understand my new world better, and hopefully myself too. So, what I know about this world till now, I am stuck in a world which has achieved industrial revolution but still uses swords and heavy armour, and also an old coin system. Interesting aesthetic, I might say. So what I know about this hellhole of a city is that there are gangs like Hollow that own certain areas, and I also hear from a drunkard that this area belongs to some group called Silver Fangs, with questionable reliability.
Now I learned there are nobles, and so logically there would be a king. After the thinking of this world my legs started to hurt from all the walking, I looked upto the sky as sun was rissing, as the orange rays enguff the black cloud, it was beautifull and still Ironvale was bustling with people, but something was different; the beggars were getting rounded up and put in a cage that was on a cart by soldiers.
Some were crying, but mostly went inside the cage without much of a fight.
As I was looking, a soldier glared at me. As he started to walk towards me, my heart started to race."Get in the cart, boy," said the soldier.
"Why?" I asked.
"You are bloody questioning me, get in the cart," the soldier screamed at me, as he grabbed my collar and started to push me towards the cart. I tried to resist, but my frail, skinny body was no match.
A few moments later, I am in a cage, taken somewhere, and surrounded by strangers. They were wearing rugged clothes, the same as mine, long hair, and long nails, which I do not have. There was also a person who was one-armed and was gone and was screaming from the bottom of his heart.
"MY NAME IS SIRE HAN HOOK., I AM A FUCKING VETERAN.
YOU FUCKING PIGS I HAVE KILLED LOADS OF SCUM LIKE YOU ON THE BATTLEFIELDS OF SCROVINGER, YEAH I FOUGHT IN THE SCROVINGER WAR AND HA HA HA AND THESE IS HOW MY COUNTRY TREATS ME!!!"
What the fuck, man, why the fuck does everything go wrong for me? And on top of that, I have a man telling the truth or a lie about having fought in a war.
The cart jolted forward away and away as we left the city walls for a huge building, which was packed with carts like ours.
The one-armed man kept screaming until his throat went raw, then settled into a hacking laugh but never stopped. The stink of sweat, piss, and despair thickened inside the cage.
I pressed my pouch tighter against my chest, hidden under my shirt. The coins felt like both my curse and salvation. If the soldiers found them, they'd take them. If these beggars found out, they would open my gut in my sleep.
THUD
The cart stopped, as I was again surrounded by cages of beggars inside them.
"Hey, mister!! What a lovely coincidence," said a voice from behind my back. I looked behind me, and it was that scrap seller boy. "Do you like the place I recommended?" the boy asked with cheerful eyes.
"Yeah, it was good," I lied. I hate blue snake.
I know, right, that place is so good, and the shopkeeper so kind, sometimes he threw away food in scraps for me/" as the boy continued smiling.
I don't know much about this world, but I know that the shopkeeper does not throw away the food for him. What a weird kid.
Anyway, at least there is someone who is talking with me, " So you know why we are here?"
"You new here, mister?"
I nodded slowly.
"We are here because of the festival that happens every 5 years, and the city is decorated with flowers, and all the filth is cleared. As the great Emperor visits us--"the boy is interrupted by the screaming guy," Yeah, understand we are filth, an eyesore to them, that's what we are to them, ha ha ha fucking pigs."
As he continued screaming more at the troops.
The boy's words rattled around in my mind.
Festival. Flowers. Emperor.
For a moment, I almost pictured it: the streets cleaned, lanterns strung between iron poles, the stink of coal smoke hidden under garlands of white lilies. The filth was removed. By filth, they meant us.
I laughed, a dry, broken sound. "So we're decorations too? Just not the pretty kind."
The boy tilted his head, still smiling. "Don't worry, we are going to leave after 1 or 2 days when the emperor leaves the city."
The cage shuddered as soldiers slammed their spears against the bars, silencing Hook's ranting for a heartbeat. One guard barked orders as all of us were cramped into tight rooms, and I do not even have space for standing.
The boy tugged my sleeve through the crowd as we were getting cramped. "Can I sit on your lap, mister. I am getting cramped by them."
I nervously say yes as he sits on my lap.
"It's looking like you are a baby kangaroo", I said to the boy.
What's a kangru? as his curious eyes expected an answer.
Hook, slamming his stump into the dirt. "YOU THINK WE'RE CATTLE? YOU THINK—" A soldier's boot drove into his stomach, silencing him in a second.
And finally, there was some silence.