15 I'm in

Far from Alex, on the city's outskirts, a tall, handsome young boy with a musculature build could be seen training in the middle of a park.

He punched and kicked the air as if someone was fighting against him.

Though the boy seemed tired, he didn't seem to want to stop.

After more than an hour, the boy finally stopped. He sat on the floor cross legged in a meditative position and started breathing slowly.

Little by little, the exhaustion seemed to leave his face, and soon he was back to normal.

The boy stood up and walked out of the park towards a small old building near the park.

As soon as he entered the building, three children, one girl and two boys ran to him with happy faces and surrounded him.

"Max, you're finally back."

"I was only gone for two hours," said Max and kissed the kids on the head before saying, "how is aunt Leyla?"

The kids' complexion turned sad, and one of the boys said, "she is sleeping now, but she coughed a lot. thankfully nothing happened."

Max tapped the boy on the shoulder and said, "I'm back now, so you can go play."

The kids seemed reluctant to leave his side, but Max assured them that everything would be fine, so they finally went to the yard to play.

After watching them play for a few minutes, Max went to a room on the second floor and took off his clothes before going to the bathroom to shower.

Five minutes later, he came out, dressed up, and went to the next room to check on his Aunt Leyla.

Aunt Leyla was actually the orphanage manager, and the three kids were the only orphans in the orphanage.

As for Max, he once was one of those kids, but after turning 18, he had to leave and find work.

After getting a relatively good job with steady pay, he returned to the orphanage to help his aunt Leyla run the orphanage.

The orphanage was very poor and was about to be closed, but aunt Leyla did all she could to keep it open to prevent the kids, that were practically like siblings, from separating.

The three kids were raised in the orphanage since they were newborns.

When Max entered the room and saw his aunt Leyla sleeping, a gentle smile appeared on his face.

He loved her like a mother; though he never knew who his parents were, sometimes he felt like thanking them for leaving him care of such a good person.

He came out of the room and was about to go to the kitchen to make dinner when one of the kids came running to him, "Max, there is a guy looking for you. he said he brought dinner."

_ _ _ _ _

In front of the orphanage, Alex and Emily were standing, waiting to be invited in.

Alex had been here once before in his previous life, but there was only a ruin left of the place when he came here before.

Emily looked at her brother and asked, "does your friend really live here?"

"yes, he does. He must have three siblings the same age as you, so you can also find some new friends." Said Alex.

In his previous life, one of the reasons why Alex and Max got along very well was because they both had lost their family and could understand each other's pain.

"Really? Can they come live with us too?" asked Emily, happy that he was about to find some new friends.

"of course, they can. We have a lot of space in our new home,"

As Alex and Emily were talking, Max appeared at the front.

He looked at Alex and Emily for a second before saying, "yes? Can I help you?"

"lea.." Alex almost called Max 'leader' before collecting his emotions and saying, "Hello, my name is Alex Adams, and this is my sister Emily. I'm here to make you an offer. May we come in?"

At first, Max didn't want to invite them in, but when he saw that they were only two kids with food, he let them in.

"Emily, you can go play with the kids," said Alex while pointing at the three kids standing by the stairs and looking at them.

"ok," said Emily and ran to the kids, "hello, my name is Emily, and that's my brother Alex. do you want to play?" Emily has never been a shy girl, so she straight went to the point.

Max looked at the kids, that seemed to get along, and turned to Alex, "may I know what business you have with me?"

"as I said before, I'm here to make you an offer." Said Alex

Max looked at the boy in front of him with a raised eyebrow and asked, "then may I know what offer exactly are you going to make me?"

"I'm currently staying at the Royal hotel in the city center. I have a whole floor to myself. I want you and your family to come live with me."

Max was surprised at the generous offer. He didn't think the boy in front of him was so wealthy, but the offer was too fishy for him to accept, "and why should we do that? We are good where we are; we don't need any help."

Alex looked around with an incredulous look. "I see," then he said, "then how about this.

As you may already know, the system that appeared two weeks ago can make you stronger.

But you don't know that just like games, you can have skills, and one of the skills that my sister has is a healing skill.

I know that the person that runs this orphanage is badly sick and doesn't have much time. How about you come with us, and I will ask my sister to heal her."

Max didn't know what to say. He already knew about the system. He was actually at level 10 right now, but Games? Skills? Heal? they all seemed unreal, even more than the system that suddenly appeared, but if there was the slightest chance ….

"Prove it." Said Max with a suspicious look.

Alex activated his skill shadow clone, and two identical clones of himself appeared next to him.

Max almost jumped in fright and couldn't believe his eyes. But there were really four of Alex in front of him.

It took him a few seconds to come back to his senses, but then he looked at Alex and asked, "what's in it for you?"

"I know that you are a strong martial artist. I want you on my team. The skill part isn't the only similarity between the system and the game. Just like games, you can also form guilds with the help of the system."

At this point, Max wasn't even surprised. He just stayed silent and looked at Alex before saying, "how should I trust you?"

Alex moved his hand, and a piece of paper appeared out of thin air, "one of the other functions of the system is called 'contract,' if you sign a contract generated by the system and you don't follow the terms of the contract, you will be punished accordingly by the system."

Max took the contract and looked at it for a second before saying again, "but how do I know that this is not another one of your skills and you are not going to …."

Alex sighed and thought, 'this annoying personality of his....' then, with an annoyed tone, he said, "you can just confirm it with the system. Just ask it, and it will answer."

Max did as he was told, and when he heard the system answering him, he looked at Alex again, "but how do I know …."

Alex snapped and shouted, "oh, for the love of God, you're making me crazy. Shut up already and take the deal." Then he called Emily, "Emily, come here."

Emily ran to where they were standing and said, "what is it, Alex? we were in the middle of a game."

"Emily, there is a sick person in here; I want you to heal her." then he looked at Max and said, "if you don't believe me, fine. See it for yourself."

Alex didn't let Max answer and took Emily's hand, went upstairs, and opened the doors one by one until he found aunt Leyla in the third room.

When Emily saw aunt Leyla's weak body and sickly pale face, she didn't wait for Alex to say anything and ran to the woman in the room and stretched her hand before saying out loud, "healing hand."

"wh-what are you doing?" asked Max, that just came out of his daze.

But the next second, as if by magic, the complexion of Aunt Leyla improved, and she sighed as if a heavy rock had been lifted from her chest.

Max ran to her and grabbed her hand when he saw her face relaxed for the first time in a very long time, and tears started dropping from his eyes.

"I used all my mana, but she still looks sick." Said Emily, worried that she might have done something wrong.

"no, you did well. With your skill level at only level 1, that is all you can do for now." Said Alex and turned to look at Max.

"I'm in," Said Max, without even turning to look at Alex.

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