An Extraordinary Gentleman

From the year 2020, a series of cataclysmic events transpired on Earth. Starting with a deadly virus, Earth got affected with earthquakes, tsunamis, drought and famine. Countless lives are lost and the human population diminished from seven billion to less than three billion.

Governments of the third world countries collapsed like a dominos and with never ending protests from their citizens, it lead to a new form of humanitarian crisis. Noticing this opportunity, some giant corporations vied for the resources in these countries and interfered by supporting local militia and advocated war in the name of peace, thus leading to the dawn of 3rd world war.

But something even these huge corporations and the first world countries they support didn't expect happened in the year of 2026. When global superpowers are preparing for the large-scale war, North Korea dropped a nuclear bomb on the American seventh fleet, starting a chain reaction of bombings throughout the globe.

Before the war even began, it came to an end.

With the food shortages and nuclear winter, fewer than a hundred million people survived this catastrophe. Because of massive radiation, plants and animals went through extreme mutation and within decades they turned into the dominant species on Earth.

As a Japanese saying goes "After three years even a disaster can be good for something".

In the year 2050, because of an unknown phenomenon, humans awakened powers and abilities. Later, the strongest of them called themselves super humans and fought against these mutated animals. At the beginning it was easier for these super humans to slaughter these mutated animals but when they moved further and deeper, they came across animals which are as powerful as super humans.

Humans then realized that just like them, the mutated animals also became stronger because of the same strange phenomenon. So the humans called these powerful mutated animals as Thirios, which is a Greek translation for the word Beast.

With the support of supers, the survivors constructed strongholds to protect themselves and gradually the long-lost order restored under the supervision of these supers. For the subsequent years, humans constructed large cities surrounded by towering walls and soon traces of civilization appeared.

To govern these stronghold cities, a centralized administration developed and called it the Federation. But the strongest supers all over the world created an alliance called the Council with the sole duty of protecting humanity from the Thirios and declared that they won't involve themselves in the internal matters of Federation.

With the support from the Council, the long-lost peace finally regained to the people again. But as the external threat decreased, the internal chaos increased. It increased to the point where the peace in the cities can be shattered at any time.

Year 2140.

Because of the cataclysm, roadways around the world had destroyed and airways became more treacherous because of the flying beasts. Armored buses and armored cars are the only form of transportation on land. Though there are large trucks, Federation would determine who can own them.

In a vast jungle overgrown with mutated plants, an armoured bus is travelling at high speed.

"Boss, when will we reach Xuzhou city?" a boy whose age is around 17 asked to the man who is driving that armored bus with excitement.

"When you see the walls is the time we will reach the Xuzhou city" said the driver nonchalantly. The Federation army patrols regularly the route between the strongholds, so they are safe most of the time.

The teenager sat down dejectedly, listening to the response of the bus driver, and went back to chatting with his friends.

"Hey kiddos, is this the first time you guys coming to a mid-level city?" asked the passenger, who is wearing a suit.

"Yes. We are from category D stronghold and mister we are not kids" replied one boy in the group seriously.

The federation has classified strongholds depending on their distance from their capital into A, B, C, D and E. They consider Category A strongholds being large cities. B and C are mid-level cities and category D and E strongholds that are far from the capital and most of the E category strongholds are close to beast territories making them the front line of defense of humanity.

"Oh! a category D stronghold. I have been to a D level stronghold once for a business trip" said that person in the suit.

"So what?" said that boy, irritated.

"Nothing. The next time I went there it has changed from category D to E," said that person with a smug look.

Listening to what that person said made that group of boys angry because an E-level stronghold always gets attacked by the mutated and the worse part is they lose many lives during these attacks. So what that suited man said is that their stronghold might also get razed by the mutated. For a D-level stronghold survivors, what that suited man said is a taboo.

Immediately those teenagers started a fistfight with that person on the bus. But neither the other passengers nor the driver stopped them.

As traveling from one stronghold to other is very exhausting and boring, these types of small fights are entertaining for them. They will rather enjoy watching them fight. There are also some passengers who encourage them to fight.

Meanwhile, one man noticed a boy sitting at the very back of the bus, who has his eyes closed and listening to music wearing headphones. In the post cataclysm era headphones are rare and expensive. They are only owned by military and rich.

That man notices two burly people near that boy, but they are minding their own business. So he went to that boy and said,

"Kid, are those headphones yours?"

But that boy didn't give him any answer, still closing his eyes. Irritated, the man grabbed those headphones forcefully.

"Kids like you are not supposed to have these things. Uncle will keep them safe for you" he roared so that boy can hear him. The people who are watching the fight looked back, expecting one more fight to happen.

That boy opened his eyes slowly and looked at that man with no expression on his face.

*Sigh*

He let out a sigh and got up from his seat. That boy has blue eyes and blonde hair with a handsome face and broad shoulders. If there are any teenage girls on the bus, they would have already Kya'ed out loud.

Looking at the pretty face of that boy, that man felt even more irritated and swinged his fist at that boy's face.

Surprisingly, he didn't feel his punch landing on the boy, but he felt immense pain. He tried to look at his hand to see what's wrong. But he can't find it. All he can see is blood gushing out from under his elbows.

Though the man is perplexed and dazed, the other passengers looking at him knew it. When that man tried to punch the boy, a burly man sitting beside the boy got up suddenly and swung his hand directly, cutting the man's hand apart.

After a second, the armoured bus filled with loud cries of that man and he passed out in pain, spraying blood all over the place, shocking the people in the bus. Even though it seems like a lot of time, the whole thing happened within seconds.

Right at this moment, the other burly man came towards that boy and took out a small kerchief from his pocket. He moved closer and wiped the blood drops fell on the handsome face of that boy.

The burly man who cut the hand, picked up the headphones and placed them on that boy's and said "Let's sit at the front Young Master".

The boy just gave a nod. And that is the only thing he did after he sighed at that now handicapped man. He walked through the stunned people and sat at the front seat of bus followed by the two burly men.

The driver who acted nonchalant before sat upright and drove the bus with a serious face. No one in bus spoke a word out including the bunch of teenagers who are acting rowdy before, because everyone knows that there are only some people in this world who are strong enough to cut through something with just a swing of their hand and those some people are known as Supers.

But instead of getting frightened at those two supers, the passengers are more terrified by looking at that handsome boy. Because, they also knew that there are less than 2% of the entire population in this world can only afford supers as bodyguards and the boy before is one of them.