Truly A Bizarre World…

Dobby, an elf boy, nudged Jin in light of waking him up. "What the hell, man? You're sleeping again?!" he snapped.

Jin bolted upright once again, and quickly peered up at Dobby who stood next to him as he remained seated.

Jin's eyes quickly swept the room. The class was empty. He could see no students present except for Dobby and himself.

"The test," he uttered, "Has it finished?"

"The test finished ages ago," Dobby grimaced, "And you slept through the whole thing. What are you, Dracula?"

"What time is it?"

"It's time for you to stop sleeping on shit," Dobby folded his arms, "There was a fight between an Orc, and a Hobgoblin a while back. You miss everything. Seriously, you should see your face right now."

A drawing of a male reproductive organ lingered on Jin's cheek. On top of this, there was a moustache drawn above his lips, with what appeared to be the same black marker.

He raised a brow, "What's wrong with my face?"

"Gook drew on your face while you were asleep. I swear, Jin, you can probably sleep through the Big Bang."

"Fucking goblins," he looked around to make sure no one else heard him, "Why are they so annoying? Why don't they grow up already and stop doing stuff a middle-schooler would?"

"Like drawing penises on your face?"

"Yeah, Dobby," Jin stood, "Like drawing penises on my face…"

"Can't blame em'—sleeping like that…it looks as if you're asking to be fucked with…"

"But why mess with the cripple kid. Isn't his life too sad already," jested Dobby.

"Screw you," Jin raised a middle finger, "Just tell me what time it is…"

"It's time to go home. School's out for summer!"

Jin's wheelchair was right next to his desk; simply he sat on it, and started rolling his way outside of the classroom alongside the elf.

First they went to the bathroom, because Jin insisted on washing his face to get rid of the drawings. Then, they started walking through the hall.

They went through the hallway, passing many students of different fantastical races. Goblins, Elves, Orcs, Centaurs—you name it.

Another human boy then started walking alongside them. He was quite short, with curly brown hair, and freckles all over his face. His socks were high as his knees, and his shoe-laces were untied.

"Hey, Dobby. Hey, Jin," he said, smiling at them both.

"What's up, Ashton?"

Ashton was the most popular among the three boys. His name spreaded like fire after he pissed his pants when an Orc threatened to kill him for spilling its drink.

"I can't believe it's the last day of school," he frowned, "I'll miss school…"

Dobby narrowed his eyes at him, "Bro, you see why you can't have friends?"

He adjusted his glasses, "Aren't…you guys my friends?"

"Who told you that?"

Dobby grinned, "I can't believe it's the last day of the school term! I love this time of the year?"

Jin then remarked, "That'll be summer, just so you know, Dobby."

"Whaddya mean? I know."

"Yeah, I just figured I'd tell you, because your summer tends to mean an entirely different thing…"

"Summer equals game on! Get your keyboards and mouses ready," Dobby smirked, "It's GRIM time…"

Ashton then unbiddenly added, "I study all summer. I'm trying to learn Japanese and French. Also, my mom's a teacher here at this school, so she was able to get me the syllabus for school terms yet to come.

"Y'see, the Hobbits are naturally smart, and I can't hope to surpass them academically unless I put in the extra work…"

"Nobody asked you that, Ass-ton," snarled Dobby.

Dobby continued, "So Ashton studies like the huge nerd he is. I mean, we all are—but Ashton's literally the embodiment of the thing."

Jin giggled.

"Seriously. Who studies all summer? So Ashton studies, I play GRIM all summer, Tristan jerks off to Elf e-girls, and Jin…uh. Wait," he peered at Jin, "What do you do all summer, Jin?"

"To be honest with you, not much. I kinda just go with the flow when I'm not procrastinating. But I do enjoy reading manga and stuff."

"That's kinda boring if you ask me," confessed Dobby, "Why did you stop playing GRIM with me and Tris?"

"Long story…" drawled Jin.

They passed a girl in the hall who was staring at Jin as if he was a TV screen. The girls' eyes always land on him like sniper scopes; gawking perpetually until it triggers you off.

"Jin," coquettishly called Dobby, "Jin, baby. I think someone likes you…"

"See what I mean by all the odd looks I get?"

"The girls. I think they like you, Jin," opined Ashton.

Jin crimonsed, "No, I think they just pity me given that I'm crippled, and have to move around on this thing."

Dobby looked at him, "They probably just feel sorry for you. I mean, I do…"

"Exactly! That's what I don't like. People reminding me that I'm disabled is the last thing I need right now!"

"Chill, bro, that accident happened like five years ago, didn't it?"

"Six," Jin replied, "Six years ago. "

"You were only ten at the time. That's a long time if you ask me. Forget about the past. Are you upset about not joining me as a soldier in the military or something?"

"Look, Dobby, I never said I wanted to serve in the military. Never. More than half of the teenage boys in this school want to be law enforcement officers and soldiers, just to regain mana that was locked away from them at birth as per the law."

"My reason for being upset," continued Jin, "was never because of the sheer fact that I can no longer serve in the military, and use supernatural powers. Having the ability to walk means a lot. In the eighteen hundreds, they estimated that crippled people only had a two-year lifespan!"

Dobby sneered at him, "Chill, man. I understand you…geez…"

"This is why you need to get back on GRIMM this summer," said Dobby, "You too, Ashton. GRIMM kills stress…"

Jin grimaced at him, "What are you talking about? Playing an MMORPG like Grim is like walking on a bridge to stress. Practically every player that plays it rages like some asshole."

"Speaking of Grim," Ashton looked at Dobby, "Where's Tristan?"

"Don't ask me. I don't want to hear about him."

Jin looked at Ashton, "He didn't show up for the entire school term. Why would he change his mind on the last day of school?"

"True."

"Anyways, guys. I'm heading home now…"

"See ya', Jin."

"Yeah, have a pleasant day, Jin."

Jin left the school on his wheelchair.

***

After eight long sessions of absolute torture that felt like an eternity, Jin grew excessively riled. He had not an iota of fun at school today.

He never did. He was always a straight-A student from the beginning, and merely saw School as a waste of his time anyway.

After all, they were in 2024, and he found that this old Education System was getting old.

He exhaled loudly, uttering, "At least I get a vacation now…"

Jin was dwelling amidst a multicultural urban city—a city abundant in numbers of various distinctive races.

He was at the grocery getting his grandmother some Greek yogurt—her favorite snack.

The grocery was as busy as any other grocery in the area. First, he went to the Candy and Snack aisle, using his hands to roll the wheels of his wheelchair down the long grocery path.

Jin essentially always savored salty snacks such as potato chips, so he had decided to pick up a couple packs of those for himself, before getting Greek yogurt for his Grandmother—her favorite.

His eyes then quickly met a huge bag of salty all-natural potato chips, which was on the highest shelf.

A freakishly tall Titan, about ten foot tall, wearing a long red shirt and black pants, white AirPods in its ears; then walked up to Jin.

Slowly, Jin looked up at the gigantic figure before him. He felt as if it would take him minutes to trace from the Titan's feet up.

"You need help getting anything there, bud?" asked the Titan, looking down at him.

He had obviously asked this question because Jin seemed in no shape to reach for the item himself, given that he was in a wheelchair of course.

Then again, this was his Job. Teenagers would often hustle to make themselves a few coins. They typically get these jobs depending on their races.

For instance, this Titan was very tall, and so, they paid him scraps to reach items for the shorter races in their grocery.

"You need help or not?"

The music escaped the AirPods and could be clearly heard even from two or three meters away. It was crystallized that he was listening to Hob-rap.

As ridiculous as the name sounded, the Hobgoblins were still the greatest rappers in the game.

Quickly, Jin got up from the wheelchair, standing and reaching for the bag of chips himself; uttering, "No, I don't help—thanks."

As he sat back down on the wheelchair with the bag of potato chips in the grocery basket, the Titan looked at him with freakishly widened eyes, as if he had just seen a ghost.

"Y-you just stood? Aren't you crippled?"

To Jin, people needed to know that paraplegic doesn't mean some sad person unable to move his legs.

He then left the bewildered Titan there. He got the yogurt from the fridge, and deliberately rolled to the cashier. This cashier was a female elf. He stood, rested the basket on the Cashier Desk, and the machine brought the goods to her.

There was a Wristband on Jin's right wrist. On this black watch-like device, there was a display.

"Six E-Coins," said the Cashier, chewing gum audibly.

He simply put his finger on the large fingerprint scanner before him, and his watch displayed, 'Transaction Completed', then his money that was once 129, went down to 123.

He took the bag of items, sat in his wheelchair again, and started steering himself to the exit.

Before he could make it to the door, a little goblin boy then suddenly darted in front of him, and burst through the exit, causing him to quickly stop rolling his wheels.

The goblin boy, wearing a black hoodie, ran at a remarkable pace, trying to get as far away from the grocery as possible.

The glass door at this grocery was beeping, and glowing red. Suddenly, the goblin boy was oddly back at the grocery again, as if he had been taken back in time.

It stood next to Jin, scratching its head with a bag of groceries in its hand.

A male, green Orc; in uniform, who was supposedly working at the grocery, then showed up, folding his arms and callously looking down at the small goblin boy.

"What!?" snarled the boy, with furrowed brows.

The green Orc glared at the goblin, "Naive little punk. Don't you know that stores all around the world have had new upgrades since twenty-twenty? Try running away with unpaid goods, you get teleported back into the store to make the transaction."

The only way to escape the Burglar Detection glass doors, was to get rid of your wristband, which was assigned to you at birth, and grows with you as an adult.

There was no removing this wristband, unless you sever your dominant hand.

Feeling sorry for the Goblin, Jin ultimately ended up paying for its shopping, and had left the grocery.

He knew who that Goblin kid back at the grocery was. This boy was but a homeless kid, with no food whatsoever. Struggling to feed his mother who had grown sick. Jin would oftentimes see them on the streets, and simply pity them.

In this world, the poor only wavers further, while the wealthy gets stronger. There were no ordinary robbers, because the fucked up system of this said world would not allow it.

Beings were supressed of their abilities to utilize mana at birth, and could only regain them by serving the government law enforcement officers.

This only applied to people whose Abilities were deemed dangerous.

After learning that anyone who becomes one of these things could regain their abilities, people started making it their goals to become one of these.

Which in turn, gave rise to extreme abuse of power, a tyrannically oppressing system.

For Jin, suppressing the world of abilities did make it a thousand times safer. In fact, it was only because of this inauguration that different races could coexist, and live in serenity.

However, the Government keeping the abilities to themselves, and meshing abilities with technology was but a huge blunder to Jin.

Many fantastical races could no longer exist or be the same because of the Government. For instance; Dragons in this world needed magic to revert from human to dragon form.

At birth, magic suppression pills were given to the Dragon babies, suppressing them of all their magic, and permanently limiting them to human forms.

Thousands of young people were becoming soldiers and police officers to simply reawaken their abilities that were suppressed at birth. Abilities they would then use to take advantage of ordinary citizens.

They would be overly engrossed in overpowering ordinary beings.

They used technology and magic to take control over everything. Overpowering the entirety of the world.

A fucked up system it truly was.

***

The sky was grey instead of blue, and the day was strangely cold despite it being summer. In this grim bizarre world, the sky constantly hinted at what seemed to be a thunderstorm, but this storm never came.

Even the weather forecast could not, by any means, predict the weather as accurately as before—despite many of the reporters having Prediction Abilities.

Jin was on the pavement waiting to cross the busy road. He, eyes slit, sat on his wheelchair with the groceries on his lap. His curly black hair gently blowing. Light bouncing off of his roundish glasses.

There was a large crowd of people waiting to cross the road. And, there was this one woman, who kept gawking at Jin as he sat there in his wheelchair.

Looking up at the woman, he could see that she was a troll, with a dark green hijab covering her hair; and her nose conspicuously aquiline. She also had a strange tattoo on her face that showed the number, '618'.

While distracted, a hobgoblin suddenly rammed its huge fist into the back of Jin's black wheelchair, quickly knocking him over.

Jin had fallen face-first. His glasses shattered. Blood trickled down from his nose. On the floor, the group of teenage Hobgoblins trampled over him, like they would walk upon leaves.

Jin groaned aloud, while writhing in pain, as the heavy figures walked upon his back.

One of them uttered, "Stop dozing off on yourself, people behind you are waiting to cross the road, human."

"Fucking Hobglobins," muttered Jin, watching while still on the floor as they crossed the road.

Instead of crossing the road, the troll woman had stopped to help Jin. She bent over, picking up his wheelchair.

"All they do is use their inborn physical strengths to bully others," Jin said, as the woman helped him up.

She was also considerate enough to pack his belongings back into the grocery bag, and give it to him.

Jin stood in one spot, looking at her.

"Ohh," she uttered, "You can stand."

"Yeah, I can."

Jin looked down at her as she smiled softly.

"Thanks," he said, still standing and looking down at her.

Her arms were covered up until her wrist, her legs were covered up until her ankles. Jin had quickly deduced that she was a Muslim.

"It outright sucks being crippled, this right now is just messed up. I'm the one who's supposed to be the gentleman. Thank you, really."

"No problem at all," she replied, walking closer to him.

As she put out her hand, Jin flinched remotely. Slowly, he then looked at her again, putting down the hands he was going to use for defense.

He felt incredibly embarrassed having realized that she simply wanted a handshake.

Just a mere handshake though?

He scratched the back of his head, and chuckled a bit.

"All I want is a handshake," she grinned, "I'm not gonna hurt you or anything."

He then slowly put his hand in hers. When suddenly, she firmly squeezed this hand. Her eyes were glowing green. A smirk trickling on her face.

The trees around the area were now doing limbos. Whistling tussling gusts of cold wind aimlessly flew around, blowing everyone's hair; and shrieking in their ears.

Terror-stricken, Jin watched as the tattoo on the troll woman's face dwindled away as she juddered his hand.

Furthermore, her face slowly morphed into that of a human's. And as this happened, he started to feel a powerful sensation surging through the fullness of his being.

"What the fuck?"

Quickly, he aggressively hauled his hand away from her powerful grip, looking down at it.

"What a damn powerful grip," he said, still looking down at his agonizing hand.

He then heard a female voice say, "Ascend to divinity…"

When he looked up again, however, the woman was gone. Her confusing words lingered on in his head.

He heard the disembodied sound again, "Ascend to divinity."

He stood there bewildered. Trying to make sense of what had just transpired. When suddenly, a hovering translucent screen appeared before his eyes as the wind continued to rage on.

[You have been bestowed: Loki's Successor System]

Grimacing at the screen before him, he could amount to utter no other words but, "What the fuck?"