1 Help!!

"Hey, Red. Wake up you're going to be late again," A familiar voice spoke.

"Mhm..," Red mumbled as he struggled to get out of bed.

It wasn't that he didn't want to get up, it was just when he tried moving it felt like his limbs weren't responding.

"I'm gonna pour cold water on you, that'll wake you" the voice spoke annoyed.

"No no... I'm up…. Mom," Red answered sluggishly.

Red moves the covers away from himself and lifelessly gets up with a big sigh. His mother stood next to him, dressed and ready to go to work. She wore a blue business suit with long black hair resting on her shoulders.

"I'm tired of this Red. You need to stop playing till the late hours of the night, you're not a kid anymore" his mother said with a hint of anger in her voice.

"Yeah okay." Red felt a bit annoyed. He looked around his room In a daze, the room is on the second floor of the house between the rooms of his parents and sister.

Red's room is small and mostly empty, but in her, he has everything he needs. The bed is right by the door. On the bedside table a family picture of him and his dad, and a small alarm clock, though it broke last night.

Opposite to it is a large window with white curtains, under it stands a desk and chair. On the table, a Computer and 2 screens stand with some of his school books, But he rarely touches those and only plays games on the computer hence it taking up most of the space.

On the left side of the desk is a closet with one of the doors broken, having been broken for years, his clothes hung in plain view. A gray carpet lay in the middle of the room and on the walls some game posters were hung.

He gets up, walks to the bathroom, and tries to open the door but fails. it was locked.

"Just a second." a voice came from behind the door.

That was Liz, Red's little sister. She opens the door and smiles.

"Good morning red." Liz was 13. black hair, blue eyes. wearing a little funny but cute rabbit themed pajamas.

"Morning Liz. Did you sleep well?" Red asked.

"yep. I'm already used to your yelling." She said with a giggle.

"Oh, yeah sorry about that, new game." Red answered apologetically. He plays online games with his friend all night, but him having a bit of a temper, he ends up screaming whenever he dies or loses.

"hehe, no problem" Liz smiled and said "well, I'm done here, go ahead."

After getting ready, Red heads downstairs wearing his school uniform, black jacket, and dark blue pants. His mother prepared breakfast. She was running late so she left for work already.

He sat down in the living room at a huge wooden table where the food was placed, he ate then left for school.

Red is a senior high school student with above-average intelligence even though his grades didn't reflect that.

As he walked on the street, Red started looking around out of boredom. cars sped by and people chatting going to work, the usual.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eyes, Red notices some movement from an alley down the street. He slowed his footsteps and looked over. Multiple military vehicles and soldiers were closing down the place with barricades and warning signs.

"Another dungeon huh. and so close to home." Red sighed.

dungeons are tears in our realm. they are portals to a world never seen before, and like any fantasy shows or comics, horrifying creatures resided in them. When a dungeon forms it creates a barrier where whoever enters can not leave, not until all monsters have been exterminated inside. Research is still being done but hasn't gone far.

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Red reaches his school and navigates his way to class. The hallways were crowded with students as he tried his best to avoid contact with any of them.

He sits at his desk and puts his backpack down, He had the same desk for two years now, he can still see a faint outline of his old drawings and scribbles. Although a bit faded as if someone tried to clean it but failed.

Red looks around his class, he was a bit early so not many students were there yet, the ones that arrived huddled in flocks talking about god knows what.

"Morning Red. Good game yesterday." a boy approached Red with a smile, he pats him on the shoulder and sits next to him.

The classroom is similar to a Japanese class with each student having a seat partner.

The boy that sat next to Red is Sam, a good friend, or his only friend to be precise.

Sam was a little tall, average face, and wore old shoes. His family wasn't doing very well, but he never complained or hinted at it.

"Good morning Sam. yeah, same time today as well?" Red asked.

"you know it. Did you see the news today? a new C rank dungeon opened not too far from here." Sam said with enthusiasm.

"Yeah, I passed by the location while coming to school." Red answered.

"WHAT? Really? did you see it?" Sam asked excitedly.

"no, I just saw the army closing down the spot. they're probably preparing for a raid."

"That's so cool, I can't wait to Awaken my powers. I'll be so rich." Sam laughed.

"I think what you should be getting is a good beating, dumb-ass." An obnoxious voice spoke from behind them.

Red and Sam looked over, seeing a familiar face. It was Stan, Short brown hair styled like your typical rich kid with a smirk on his face.

This is your stereotypical bully with some goons following him, he was rich and they liked that, one was bald, looking like an egg with a body, the other had short brown hair with a scar on his cheek and the last one was fairly average. They were a part of the group Stan hangs out with, some went to the same school and others were wannabe gangsters that you find running around.

Stan was the son of a ranker. his father was a C rank, so that meant he was rich, you might be thinking a C rank isn't that high right?

Well compared to a normal male adult he's much stronger, adding his skills even hundreds of normal people won't be able to touch him.

Ranks Are used to differentiate between rankers. They are people that awakened a power, they defy common sense. appeared hundreds of years ago not long after these portals suddenly started appearing all around the world.

people didn't understand what these odd portals were, and every connection was cut with all the drones and cameras sent inside one. That's when a scouting unit was dispatched.

People waited for days but nothing came back out of that thing. they lost all contact the moment they stepped inside. so the government canceled any plans that involved entering the portals.

but with time came disasters. these portals exploded and a swarm of creatures seeped through, many innocent lives were lost, including territory. They found out the hard way that weapons were ineffective against these things, small bullet holes seemed to not be enough, the wounds would heal or the bullets would bear no results as they reflected off of their skin. All humans could do was defend, until a miracle happened.

'Rankers' people that awakened special powers out of nowhere. it was god's gift, a way for humanity to fight back. and that they did.

All creatures that stepped in our world were killed and things went back to normal. well, that's what everyone tried to do. new laws were made for these special people.

They were deemed heroes, the saviors of humanity. guilds and rankings were invented.

Ranks were as follow: F, E, D, C, B, A, and S.

The weakest ones were the F rankers, the new awakened, they needed experience and control over their powers, and as they gain such things they will rise in rank as they complete more raids and accomplish greater feats.

Well, let's get back to Stan.

"You idiots want to be rankers?" Stan laughed.

he always mocked them, this was not something new, it was always one thing or the other. But this time Sam did something he regretted. This has been going on for a long time and something ticked, making fun of his dream made him unconsciously glare towards Stan.

Stan disliked his look. He lifted his arm and swung it.

BAM!

A hard smack to his head. it was not painful or anything but it was loud. all the class looked at them, some tried to hide their laughter. and others just watched.

Well, our protagonist and his friend were not the most popular, it was all Stan's fault. from all the mockery and humiliation he made them go through, that even their classmates started showing signs of disrespect, and they distanced themselves from them.

It's not like they could fight back. Stan's father was quite influential, he was a businessman as well as a ranker. He managed to rise in both influence and wealth. so even if they snitched on him no actions will be made against him.

Red had enough, if even the school staff won't do anything, then he would do something himself. Lifting his right arm and as hard as he could, Red threw a punch aimed at Stan's face.

Smack!

It landed, but our hero wasn't a tough guy, so not much physical effect other than Stan's angry expression.

Stan took a step forward, god knows what he was going to do when the classroom door opened.

Thankfully, the teacher came in.

"Alright, everyone take your seat." The teacher ordered.

Red sighed in relief, "i'm safe" He thought to himself.

He sat down and looked over, Stan was glaring at him, Red knew from Stan's stare what was going to happen after school.

He wondered why he did such a thing, he was never violent and always ignored him, but something in him clicked, and he acted without thinking.

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After school Red ran. He was not an idiot, he knew what was gonna happen to him. He hid in an alley and slowly started making his way towards his house. His pace was slow but steady, he moved from an alley to another, running across streets trying to be as discreet as he could.

Unfortunately, before he knew it, it was getting dark.

You might be thinking maybe he's exaggerating, Stan is probably already home by now. But you're wrong, Stan was a stubborn asshole, he would not let Red go after what he did until he beat him.

Stan was arrogant and stubborn, these were traits he slowly developed when he learned that he was a future Ranker. if one is a child of a Ranker there is a higher chance for him to become one as well.

Very unfair.

Red was close to home, but to his misfortune, at the end of the alley, Stan appeared. The moment Red saw him he turned around and started running.

Well, Red was out of shape, which allowed Stan to catch up with ease.

Red begged him but Stan laughed louder as he kicked and punched.

"hahaha, what a fu**ing moron, you think you can punch me? you fu**er" Stan yelled Angrily.

"haha show him his place. fu**ing filth." goon N°1 spoke.

"HAHAHAHA"

Red was beaten and humiliated. It's like he wasn't having a hard time already.

At home, his parents are divorced and he can feel his mother blaming him for it, his father passed away not too long after, it was a dysfunctional family.

He was uncomfortable at school and at home as well. His only anchor was his little sister, he adored her.

She was one of the reasons why he didn't end his life.

He loved video games. being someone else, competing with others, winning, and losing, it was fun. But even that was considered as childish and a waste of time by his mother.

Being hit and punched from all angles, Red started to slowly lose consciousness... When he heard something.

"There they are" a voice yelled.

Sam and a policeman were running towards Red. Stan and his buffoons ran away laughing, they knew no problem would befall them. especially over a poor student without any backing.

"Hey Red, you ok?" Sam asked with a worried expression.

"he's not speaking. let's take him to the hospital." the officer spoke.

Red was fully capable of responding, he just couldn't. With that big of a lump in his throat, he was sure that he'd start crying if he tried to say anything.

"Stan has really gone too far," Sam mumbles.

When Sam saw Red run out of school he knew what was going to happen. He looked all over the place for him.

Red was taken to the hospital, and even though he told them not to, his mother was called anyways.

They thought it was due to him not wanting to worry her, but he knew she would blame it on him like everything else. Red looked around. Sam and the officers were speaking, he was probably explaining to them what happened. He turned his head, seeing a nurse talking to his mother in the hallway. He couldn't stay there anymore. So he picked up his phone, his bag, and snuck out.

Red just wanted to get out of there. He just kept walking in a random direction. He checked his phone finding the screen broken to bits, it was unsalvageable.

He couldn't take it anymore. Tears started forming, the lump in his throat was only getting bigger and bigger. He couldn't hold it in.

"it's not fair" Those words kept repeating in his head over and over again.

It was already dark. no one was around. Red was weeping, with his sleeves on his eyes. Not paying attention to his surroundings.

All he did was take three steps onto the road, and he was sent flying.

It happened too fast, a driver too busy on his phone to notice him. He fell to the floor with a loud thud. All he could see was the black fancy car, the driver was about to get out but stopped.

Red thought he would be happy and would finally get to rest when he's dead, finally be at peace. but he was wrong. It was scary and painful.

He couldn't help but want to live ...

it was getting dark ... he tried to yell for help but couldn't ... the man that hit him was already driving away ...

He was alone in an empty dark street, even the street lamps barely worked. He thought about his sister, Sam, and about his mother...

"Would she miss me?" He thought, with more tears falling from his eyes.

... choking on his own blood, the light in his eyes faded... leaving only the moon's reflection.

" ... ".