Henceforth

Vincent looked at the screen in front of him and sighed. He looked out the window and saw the futuristic city beneath him.

Numerous skyscrapers were piercing the bed of clouds. The sun hung in the sky, reflecting the clear ponds in the city's center. He turned his head back to the screen and read through it again.

Name: Vincent James Frost [Villain]

Age: 16

Tier: 0

Class: E

Rank: 0

Vit: 17 

Str: 12

Agi: 14

Dex: 18

Int: 15

Wis: 22

Luc: 28

"I don't know whether to laugh or cry at these numbers. Are these numbers good or bad on this planet?" 

A woman in a suit walked in and sat down at the table that was in the corner. She took out a monitor and a keyboard. The monitor floated in the air, and the keyboard glowed green and came off the table. The hologram keyboard floated in front of Vincent. 

"Hello, I am Shelly from the government office, and I will be the one who helps you transition into society. Before we start the process, are there any questions you want to ask?" 

"I have one question, and it may seem like I am going crazy, but can you see the screen in front of me?" 

"Perfect! You have already figured out how to pull up your system. That will save us countless hours."

Shelly was happy, pulled up her system screen, and shared it so Vincent could see. "You do not need to be afraid, Vincent. All of the people here have a system. I need to take a detailed record of your stats, so can you permit me to see them?"

"You can't see them? I thought you could." Shelly shook her head no. "I need explicit permission from you, but you should also know that there are beings who can bypass the system and look at your stats."

Vincent nodded his head at her. The system took the gesture as him giving her permission. Shelly dutily recorded his stats. She was perplexed as, according to her information, Vincent had been in a coma for the last two years.

"Vincent, by any chance, did the staff here give you elixirs or potions to drink?" "No, they only gave me a shot to improve my brain functions. Is something the matter?" Vincent's voice was full of worry, but Shelly reassured him. 

"No, if anything, everything is excellent! Your stats are abnormally high for an unawakened and unconscious patient." Vincent visibly relaxed at her statement. 'It seems she can't see my title.' Vincent glanced at the red word Villain next to his name and inwardly sighed.

Shelly smiled and finished typing on her keyboard. 

"OK, Vincent, can you confirm everything on my screen is correct?" Vincent glanced at the screen and nodded his head. Shelly pressed enter on her keyboard and looked at Vincent. "Now we just wait for the offers to roll in." She saw Vincent's face and clarified the situation for him.

"Vincent, your class refers to your citizenship. Currently, you are in E, which is the third to last. Your class determines what you can access. The higher the class, the more opportunities will be opened to you.

Your tier refers to what level of being you are. It represents how strong you are, so be aware of tiers. Your rank is how close you are to advancing to the next tier. There are 13 ranks per tier." 

Vincent glanced at Shelly's stats and looked at her tier. She was a tier three. "Shelly, what is the highest tier?" "The highest tier for mortals is ten, but in rare cases, the highest is 15." 

"What do you mean by mortals? What offers are we waiting to roll in?" "I'm not free to tell you anything else about the tiers until you become awakened. As for the offers, I can discuss those at length." Vincent straightened his back and focused on what Shelly was going to say.

"The offers I was referring to were the ones to adopt you, of course! You don't have any guardians here with you, and by our laws, you are not a legal adult until you turn 21.' The word adopt echoed like death bells inside of Vincent's head. 

"I can't be adopted! I have three younger siblings to look for." Shelly frowned and typed his name into the database. Her facial expression turned for the worse as she read the results. A knot formed inside Vincent's stomach as Shelly's facial expression worsened. 'Please let them all be alive and safe.' 

Shelly took a deep breath and prepared to break the news to Vincent. "I am so sorry, Vincent, but your younger sister Valorie died one year ago in the coliseum. Your two younger siblings are missing. On the bright side, there is no evidence pointing towards their death."

Vincent's world crumbled before him again. Once filled with hope and dreams, his world was crushed for the second time. He clenched the sheets tightly and trembled with rage. Shelly watched as he had to come to terms with the news. Vincent wanted to lash out and destroy his surroundings.

Theo's voice sounded in his head once more. Reminding him that he was a Frost he had to stay cold and calm. Shelly was about to send for a nurse to put him to sleep and come back tomorrow but stopped. Vincent stopped trembling and slowly let out his breath. He looked at Shelly and said in a hoarse but calm voice. "Continue explaining, Shelly."

Shelly felt fear from looking at Vincent. She could see the lights that were bright as the sun just moments ago had now become dim, barely radiating any warmth. Shelly cleared her voice and checked Vincent's adoption offers. She wanted to get as far away as possible from him now. 

Her fingers froze as he only had one offer, but that one offer would change everything. She did not even get a chance to tell Vincent before the screen changed and confirmed the adoption had already occurred. She was about to tell Vincent the news when his voice sounded again. 

"You don't need to tell me. They have already messaged me and said a car will be here shortly to pick me up." Shelly nodded and packed her things. She stopped at the door to say goodbye. 

Vincent told her, "Goodbye to you as well, Shelly, but from henceforth, my name isn't just Frost, but I now also wear the name Grimm." The name by itself evoked fear and respect from Shelly. She bowed and left the room.