Chapter 1

"dialogue" - will be used when a character speaks.

'dialogue' - will be used when a character thinks.

"'dialogue'" - will be used when characters speak telepathically.

[dialogue] - will be used when the system speaks.

(dialogue) - will be used for onomatopoeia.

Warning, offensive languages ahead. I've already mentioned this in the 'WARNING' chapter in the aux, and i will not edit them out even if there are people who are offended.

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"(haah... haah)"

In a dark alleyway in this godforsaken city, aside from the repulsing stench coming from questionable puddles of questionable mixtures of questionable substances that is questionably colored yellowish green if shone with light that are littered across the place, a boy, can be seen leaning his back on the dirty wall to support his entire body while clutching his throbbing stomach, while desperately chasing his breath.

The boy seems to be not older than 16 with his small stature. His long, unkempt raven hair cascades down his shoulders. It also covers his dark blue eyes that scream pain and desperation. His tall, sharp nose, coupled with thin, perfectly pink lips and round, handsome face cannot be hidden by his disgusting state.

"Find and bring me that ungrateful bastard, otherwise I'll cut off your heads and feed your bodies to my hounds, you useless idiots!" A gravelly, deep, and obviously angry voice sounded from a distance from the boy's position, followed by the quick blinking of the only light source that illuminates the alley, and the thundering sounds of footsteps coming from the frantic men who are rushing to find the mentioned boy.

The boy, unable to muster the strength to remain standing further, slid onto the ground while still clutching his stomach.

'Fuck, that bitch Ombre and his entourage of faggots disguised as thugs really did a number on me this time,' the boy, Alluna, mutters in his mind while wincing in pain, 'still, all this is worth it for this little treasure'.

He takes out an object from the pocket of his shirt with a triumphant smirk etched on his handsome face, and lets out an audibly painful chuckle, regretting it immediately as a shooting pain rose from his injured stomach and shoulders.

'Would you take at this beauty,' he almost whistled in satisfaction, but stopped himself in fear of the thugs locating him because of the sound. The object was a gorgeous golden ring with a sizable diamond sitting pretty on top, seemingly shouting 'I'm hella expensive', that he stole from the angry man.

Alluna put the ring back into the pocket of his shirt before hoisting himself up. He knew he cannot afford to stay here, lest he risks being caught by Ombre's men. With a limp on his steps, he ventured further into the dark alleyway.

After a few minutes of walking, and a good amount of avoiding the questionable substances, Alluna came out of the other end of the alley, revealing a bustling street with cars often passing by from both sides and gorgeous lights that seem to obscure the vile truths of this city. The boy knows this street well, so he had no trouble navigating through it, to go to his only solace.

Alluna reached an old, abandoned church that is not far from crumbling into itself. This rundown church has holes in the walls that were the only thing holding the entire thing up. It is truly a wonder how this still stands. The boy enters through the holes in the walls, like he usually does ever since he found the place. He was afraid that opening the huge doors would demolish the whole thing.

What it is on the outside is pretty much the same inside... maybe worse. The first thing that greets the boy is the fallen big chandelier in the middle of the room. It is, of course, broken, but not to an extent because apparently, it still lights up, although barely. This serves as Alluna's only source of light inside, except from the moonlight that is equally elusive as money in his pockets.

The wall-sized stained glass art at the back of the altar has holes in places, signs of some bastards throwing rocks through it, ruining the whole thing. Pews were all over the place, some are even on top of others, some broken down from the middle.

Alluna goes to the small hallway on the right side of the altar where a switch can be seen. He flicks the thing and the chandelier's few light bulbs turn on, weakly illuminating the room. Beside the chandelier, at the direction of where the most of its light bulbs are turned on, pews that are stacked on another formed a mini-cave whose opening is covered in a dirty, tattered green blanket that made he somehow put to make it into a tent.

Brushing the piece of cloth that served as the opening of the makeshift tent, Alluna makes his way inside, crawling as the space that the pews gave him was quite modest.

In the thing, only a few things can be seen. Clothes neatly folded tucked in the small compartment on the lower pew on the left, and a day old hard bread and a few bottles of drinking water on the pew on the right. A bed made from the ripped off cushions from the kneelers of a few pews that scatter around the church.

"Welcome home, Alluna." The boy whispers to himself, sadness and loneliness dripping from his eyes. It has been a year since he made this home that he calls it, but he still isn't used to the deafening silence that permeates inside the church. He longs for a someone, even something to share his loneliness with, he longs for a semblance of change from this shitty life of his. "But its better than staying at Ombre's, I guess."

Alluna is... or was, Ombre's 'pet' or so he claims it. The man is the boss of this small but influential gang in the city, called Shadow Claw, and when the boy was 9 years old, Ombre found him under a bridge that he had been staying, in a noticeably disgusting state, and offered to bring the boy with him. Poor Alluna, who was but a small, naive boy at the time, mistook the man's intentions as care and love, and agreed.

For a brief amount of time, Alluna was happy, because Ombre fed and clothed him, and even taught him a few things. However, he was slapped hard by reality when Ombre revealed his true intentions. He was raising the boy to be his main source of income, namely teaching and forcing him to the streets to steal from the people bustling around the city.

Of course, being a small, mentally broken child, did not know how bad what he was doing truly is, he was just determined not to disappoint Ombre, because he doesn't want to live in the streets again. However, it isn't until he was caught one day, when he was 12, that he realized the moral nature of what he was doing. From that day on, Alluna rebelled against Ombre, often going against his orders. From that day on, Ombre began to hurt Alluna when he went against his orders. From that day on, Alluna grew hatred towards Ombre.

Now, fast forward, he screws the man up by stealing his most prized possession, with nothing but a victorious smirk in his lips.

Alluna picks up the hard bread and started eating his supper. Halfway through the thing, he felt his eyes sting as tears borders it. He stops eating, the bread falls to the floor as he covers his eyes with his hands.

"All that, for what? I'm still alone, nothing changed. Just that I am literally one glimpse away from dying from Ombre's men."

The truth is, although Alluna hates Ombre's guts, and he wants to get his revenge, even though he wanted to kill Ombre, he can't as he is still just a little boy that is just a few months shy from his 16th year in this godforsaken world. And even though this little heist of his may make the man suffer, the reality that he is alone.

Tears stream down from the boy's eyes as he dwells inside his own mind. Suddenly, a peculiar sound reaches his ears.

[(Ding!)]

In surprise, Alluna quickly raised his head, to see a blue, transparent, and floating box appear in front of him. It has that classic dots for eyes and a straight line for a mouth, and somehow, the boy knew that the thing was...sleeping?

"W-what is this?" Alluna asks no one in particular in disbelief. Suddenly, the dots that make up the eyes became slits, and the straight line that make up the mouth, bend upwards forming a smile.

[Good Evening, Alluna. I am your system. I was not supposed to awaken until you were of the right age, but your desperation has triggered my awakening,] It said. [Now, let me ask you, dear host. Do you want to be free from this life?]

"No! No! Please, don't kill me!" Alluna shouts, pleading the strange box for his life. It seems that the boy misunderstood the System's words.

[I am not going to kill you, Alluna. I apologize if my words caused a confusion,] the boy slightly calmed down when he hears what the System said. [Let me rephrase my words, do you, Alluna, wish to have a better life? One where you will not feel sad, nor alone?]