Chapter 1

AE 312.3.51.

No.441 was a quiet kid. Even more so than his siblings. He never really took an interest in anything and it didn't seem like he wanted to. If someone replaced him with a potted plant most people wouldn't have noticed.

The little time they were allowed outside he mostly spent either in his room or leaning to the wall in the shade of the roof, making his complexion worryingly pale.

The only person he would frequently interact with was No.281 but everyone suspected that it was more like No.281 dragging him along.

The first time he showed any form of excitement was when their caretakers let them choose a book all to themselves. The list of books was unreasonably long with more than 300 separate options.

Most of his sibling chose something at random since the list was too long to get through and even if it was shorter, they didn't have any frame of reference regarding what they should read.

No.441 afraid of making a wrong choice asked one of the caretakers, Mrs. Amy, to choose a book for him.

Mrs. Amy, surprised at the kid showing interest, recommended one of the books she read as a child, The Tale of Peter Rabbit. She hoped that the tale of the adventurous little bunny's story might inspire him to be more active in the future.

A week later the books arrived and the first thing No.441 did was grab his own and rush to his room.

The room was lifeless. Not a single decoration in sight.

Aside from the lack of anything personal the room was also padded throughout. Soft walls and flooring, all corners rounded, flat surfaces everywhere else. You couldn't get injured even if you wanted to. The entire building followed the same design philosophy. Perhaps it is no surprise that the books were also printed on flexible sheets of plastic instead of paper.

Obviously this didn't bother the sole resident of the room since this is where he lived his entire life, this was the only thing he knew.

And just like that, No.441 wasn't seen for the rest of the day. The caretakers believed that he would finish his book first based on his sudden enthusiasm and the fact that he got one of the shorter stories. And they turned out to be right.

On the same day, way past lights out, No.441 was holding the last plastic sheet he was given, trying to read it by the dim night lamp built into the wall. When he was finally done he tried to put it down on the floor when he saw something unexpected in his view.

[Achievement unlocked: Learn to read.]

[Reward: INT +0.1, Access to interface authorized]

No.441 was struggling to understand what he was seeing and he didn't have time to do so because he suddenly heard an unfamiliar female voice.

{I'll be taking care of you then!}

Our hero was even more confused than before since they would usually be told when a new caretaker arrived, and he still couldn't wrap his head around why he wasn't able to see the mysterious lady, so he asked the obvious question.

"Excuse me miss, but who are you?"

He didn't know what answer he was expecting but certainly not the one he got.

{I'm your guardian angel silly! The better question is, who you are?}

No.441 was caught off-guard by the answer, even more so by the follow-up question, but he decided to be polite and answer.

"My name is 441"

{That's not a real name, you must have something better!}

No.441 didn't understand the self-proclaimed angel's problem. Other than the caretakers, everyone had names like him. In the end he decided to say one of the few proper names he knew that didn't belong to someone else.

"You could call me Peter if you want."

The voice seemed satisfied with the answer she got and continued to speak.

{That's a lot better! Well then, Peter, it is time for you to see the world, and if anything bad happens just remember, your guardian angel is always taking care of you!}

And just like that the voice seemed to disappear. Peter, more confused than ever, decided to check the thing all of this started with.

After reading through the floating text he could understand most of the individual words but still had no idea what they were supposed to mean. When he decided to touch the text it suddenly expanded. Although this didn't help him understand it, he finally had an idea where to find out because the distribution of the text was very familiar to what their supervisor, Mr. Daniel, would look at on his office computer.

Before going to bed Peter read the whole thing just so he wouldn't have to deal with it in the morning.

[Name: Peter]

[Health: 100%]

[Stamina: 73%]

[Level: 0]

[Experience: 0/100]

[Strength: 0.20]

[Agility: 0.15]

[Endurance: 0.10]

[Stamina: 0.15]

[Intelligence: 0.50]

[Magic: 0.01]

[Abilities: Heart of night LV1, Absorb]

[Patron: Nyx]