The boys didn't return to their hideout — not immediately. Their hearts were still pounding from the earlier encounter, their minds racing with the thrill and fear of holding the Harpie.
Instead, after selling the scraps for a few penta coins, they dragged Leo along the cracked pavement of the slums, weaving through narrow alleys and worn-down shops.
"Where are we going?" Leo asked.
"You'll see," Vince said, adjusting his broken tech glasses as if they were the most important possession in the world. "This time, big brother, you're doing something important."
They walked farther than usual. Past the boundary where familiar trash heaps ended and the buildings began to look less rotten. Still dirty, still broken—but a different kind of broken. Not slum decay, but the decay of abandonment.
Then Leo saw it.
An old office building stood crookedly at the edge of the district. Its windows were cracked, its walls layered in dust and faded posters. Above the rusted double doors hung an old board, the paint half chipped away.
Rangers Registration Office
The words were barely readable.
Leo blinked. "…Are we all going to register?"
"Nope," Nick said, pushing him from behind.
"Only you," Levi added with a smug grin.
"We'll wait outside," Vince said proudly, adjusting his useless glasses again like a professional manager. "Go on, big brother."
Leo looked at their eager faces, sighed, and stepped inside.
---
The office door creaked as Leo pushed it open. A faded poster hung beside the entrance— Rangers in high-tech gear standing triumphantly over a defeated mechanical beast.
For a moment, Leo stared at it.
And somewhere in the back of his mind, memories of the world's history began to surface.
The world had been normal —at least until the end of the 20th century.
Then came the 21st century glitch.
A real, physical glitch.
Thin cracks in reality appearing like shimmering rips in the air across different continents. Not illusions. Not visual tricks. Real distortions— like the fabric of the world was overlapping with something that wasn't supposed to be there.
Scientists later discovered the truth:
These fractures were pieces of another world—a parallel plane vibrating at a frequency dangerously close to our own.
A world of advanced technology, strange creatures, and impossible architecture.
The Alternative World, or simply—
Alt-World.
People threw themselves into these shimmering zones—some for money, some for research, some out of desperation.
And what they brought back changed everything.
Machines that operated on unknown energy. Weapons powered by glowing cores instead of bullets. Cybernetic limbs with impossible complexity. Droids that seemed alive. Creatures that were part flesh, part machine.
Altwares— also called Alties— became priceless commodities.
And the people who went into these dangerous zones to retrieve them became known as—
Rangers.
Hunters, explorers, scavengers, mercenaries—everything rolled into one. Half heroes, half lunatics. It didn't matter what they were called; the world depended on them.
And today, Leo was about to become one.
---
Inside the Rangers Registration Office
The place looked more like a half-destroyed bar than an office. The ceiling was cracked, the floor uneven, and half the letters on the signboard outside had already fallen off. If not for the symbol of the Ranger Association hanging crookedly on the wall, no one would believe this was an official government building.
Behind the counter sat a young man slouched in his seat. He wore the Ranger staff uniform but looked anything but professional. His cheeks were flushed pink from alcohol, and an open bottle sat not-so-discreetly under the desk. He flipped lazily through a magazine, not bothering to look up when Leo approached.
Leo cleared his throat. "I came to be a Ranger. May I do my registration here?"
The staff member clicked his tongue in annoyance. With exaggerated slowness, he put down the magazine and finally acknowledged Leo.
"…Name?"
"Leo."
"Mm."
The man typed something into the transparent screen before him. The machine whirred. After a few seconds, the printer beside him spat out a thin sheet of paper.
The staff snatched it, tossed it toward Leo without even lifting his eyes, and immediately returned to reading his magazine.
Leo blinked.
He looked at the certificate. Then at the staff. Then back at the certificate.
That was it?
"I-Is that it?" he asked.
The staff exhaled sharply through his nose—the universal sound of someone who wanted to be anywhere else.
"That's all. Go home."
"You only needed my name? Don't you need any other information…?"
This time, the staff looked genuinely irritated.
"Since you'll be dead soon anyway, why would I waste time collecting useless details?" he said bluntly. "Honestly, I don't care about your name either. I only asked because the rules say I have to. Whether it's real or fake doesn't matter."
Leo froze.
There it was —the reminder.
A slum boy like him had no worth in their eyes.
He swallowed his pride, nodded silently, and walked out.
---
Outside the Office
The boys rushed to him immediately.
"Did it work?"
"Did you get it?"
"Show us!"
Leo held up the certificate. It looked real enough. Date joined: March 26, 2297.
But something felt wrong.
Vince stared. Levi blinked. Nick covered his mouth.
Then—
"Pfft—"
"Hahaha—!"
"It says Leak! Not Leo!"
Leo's face twitched. He used all of his will power to not tear the certificate , "That idiot…"
Vince slapped his knee laughing. Levi nearly fell over. Nick wheezed.
Leo rolled his eyes. "Aren't you guys going to register too? It's free."
"No." Levi stepped onto a small wall to look taller before declaring proudly, "Even if we register, we don't have guns or skills like you. I'm gonna get a job inside the city and marry Anya."
Vince puffed out his chest. "I'll become a Techie. Maybe marry Tessia."
Nick blushed. "I… I want a job too. And maybe… marry Rem."
Leo eyed them all skeptically.
"Hmm… why do I feel like none of those girls see you that way?"
Levi's eyebrow twitched dangerously.
"Who do you think is responsible for that, Mr. Leak?"
"Gahaha—" Vince burst laughing again.
Leo sighed and shook his head, but a small smile appeared at the corner of his lips. He knew the truth anyway— those girls adored him. But romance wasn't something he could think about now. His only goal was survival—his, and the siblings
Always the siblings.
Leo parted with the boys and went toward another place.
The boys walked home cheerfully, joking and arguing along the way.
Until they reached the building.
A sleek, pitch-black bike stood parked directly in front of their hideout.
Their smiles vanished instantly.
Slowly, they turned to look at each other.
Then—
They broke into a sprint straight inside the building.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.