“Man, that was a tough game, well played everyone”

“Likewise, man, see you later” said some random guy I never even met

I take my headset off and on the table and breathe a sigh of relief

“Akkun, Yuito, lunchtime” screams Mom from downstairs

“On my way down Mom”

I walk into the hallway and grab my brother by the head

“Had a good game on your side?”

“Hell yeah I did, weren’t they surprised when I scored MVP with weak weapons”

“Yeah they never see that coming, makes it even more fun” I replied

We both walk downstairs to the dining room, where Mom had prepared our lunch.

“Yakisoba?, if Tada-nii was here, he would just devour this in seconds” said Yuito

“Oh I can see that happening” I replied to that sentiment

“Alright, I have some made for him as well, knowing that Akkun will meet him sooner or later”

I wait impatiently to try it out

“Itadakimasu” said everyone at the table

“Seriously, if Tadashi was here, it would’ve been the perfect lunch scenario”

“But there is one problem with that however” said Mom

“Yeah, and what’s that?” I asked

“You let us die Akkun”

I instantly went from excited to try Mom’s cooking to confused and concerned at a moment’s notice.

“Nii-chan, why did you let us die?”

I turn towards Yuito, and he is staring me back, skin pale as snow and missing their eyes so everytime I stared at their face, I was directly looking into a dark void. I fell onto the ground from my chair

“He was your little brother Akkun, he looked up to you, why couldn’t you save him?”

Mom was the same, they both were floating in front of me, with nothing but torment ahead of me.

“No, I tried…Please”

“You let me die, are you really my son?”

Both were towering over me, the floor turning red, staining every part of my body that is in contact with the ground

“Nii-chan, you failed me, you couldn’t kill Tada-nii to save me”

I clutched my head trying to look away, but I couldn’t, I was as some force was forcing me to look at them

“Please, stop, I’m begging you…STOP!”

And suddenly, a pair of sharp metallic hands came from behind them, grabbing my mom’s head and crushing it, and while at the same time impaling my brother’s heart. I screamed in terror only to wake up the same as well.

I was still under the massive tree trunk. I looked at my arm to see if this was reality, and there is still a cauterized right forearm and a gauntlet on my left. I remember my mom saying that nightmares are only temporary, and that they go away as soon as you wake up. But right now, I’m not sure which is the nightmare.

I got back up and continued to walk to Helios, and it wasn’t a hop, step and skip away. I was getting hungry, but I banked on the HP potions I have been crafting with every usable ingredient I find to last me till I get to Helios. One day passed and I made camp as I was exhausted from walking. I tried downing a healing potion, but my empty stomach was sending it back up. Even when I forced it down, it didn’t stop from the gnawing pain inside my stomach getting worse and worse. On the fourth day, I gave in. I hunted a dire wolf enemy with my weapons and skinned it to eat. It tasted foul and I was sure that I didn’t prepare it properly, but it was enough to subside the pain. I used the fact that my jacket was waterproof to tie it between two close trees to collect rainwater and dew, and then I drank as much as I could. And throughout my journey, I had to hunt and eat many sorts of animals and plants. Some ended up poisoning me. The HP potion stopped me from dying but as a side-effect of whatever Tadashi did to me, I must endure the pain of the poison until it leaves my system. But no matter what I had to do, I kept on going. Step by step, inch by inch I got closer to the gates of Helios, but on the 7th day, I got ambushed

Bounty Hunters that want to grab a quick Rel payout had tracked me down. I count a total of eight, five in front of me and three in my flank to cut off my escape. The mud from the pouring rain wasn’t helping and the darkness of the night was a double-edged sword. They started peppering clips worth of bullets my way, but I used what little trees were close to me for cover. Their movements were amateurish, they were spraying bullets with little to no recoil control, but that was no match against me. I was able to close the distance before they even realized it and immobilized them. Even through everything that has happened to me the past few days, I cannot bring myself to become a murderer, and although my weapon choices don’t allow me to go non-lethal, I improvised using the back of my blade to knock them unconscious and only using my secondary to create an opening for me to strike.

They couldn’t keep up with my mobility and using the treetops, I slowly picked them off one by one, even when they do see me for longer than needed, their weapon sprays are inaccurate which made deflecting any stray bullet very easy. A few moments later, the group of eight was laying on the ground unconscious. If I was any regular casual player or newcomer, this group would’ve easily killed me, but their predictable movement made it easy to take them out. I checked if they had any items that I could use and ended up finding a few potions and food rations that could keep me going for a few days. Moving one of the unconscious attacker’s hand around, I also checked their quest log just to make sure, but proving my suspicions right, the bounty request was accepted from Helios. Meaning that even there wasn’t a safe haven for me. But out of options I kept on going

And the days kept passing, and on the 14th day, Helios was in sight. I took a seat at the mountain where I saw if from and breathed a sigh of relief.

“CG’s first ever added city, been a while since I’ve been here” I said to myself

After a few more hours of walking, I finally reached where I wanted to go. I put up my jacket hood and walk past the guard and into the smoggy stone paved roads of the city. The atmosphere is very similar to Typhon but the lack of copy pasted building layouts for residences and El Train overhead does change it up a bit quite a lot. After a long day of travel, I head towards to closest Tavern to get something proper to eat. The noisy atmosphere screamed survival of the fittest as everyone inside was celebrating and loudly cheering like they were always waiting for an event as such to happen.

“What can I get you” asked the front of house.

I didn’t speak, and instead point at the curry item on the menu. The man behind the counter bends down behind the counter to grab the item

“Players around here don’t talk much do they, especially once they figure out that you are not one of them. Only way they say anything is once they get drunk”.

He places the place of curry on the table

I take a few spoonfuls of curry out of the gnawing in my stomach and gulp it down without even chewing. After I calmed down, I attempted to pay for it.

“Oh please, it’s on the house. It’s one of my experimental dishes” he says and paused

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“I call it…the Bounty Slayer”

As he says it, I feel an intense burn through my body. I fall onto the floor and everything came back out covered in blood.

“Looks like the poison is doing it’s work. I’ve worked here long enough to see people through their masks Nakamura, sorry for this but the bounty means a lot to me”

It felt as if all my body was being pierced by spikes and it kept digging deeper and deeper. Everyone in the place was too drunk to notice me on the ground, but even if I could scream for help, chances are they would try to kill me rather than help me get away. But I knew, if I was to stay here, I would be struck down like a dog, so I clawed my way back up to my feet, enduring the excruciating pain I was in. I couldn’t pop an HP potion yet as the man would shoot me before I finish using it.

“How are you getting up, what I gave you is enough to keep an elephant down”

His panic lead to him swinging a bottle at me, I grabbed his arm and put a kunai through it. I covered his mouth with all my strength to stop him from screaming and slammed his head onto the nearby wall, knocking him flat. His wounds weren’t closing up, so he really was a spark. And to my relief, my move of desperation didn’t kill him, apparent by how he was clutching his head with his bleeding arm.

I chugged down an HP potion as soon as I could. It stopped my health from going down, but I could still feel the poison in my system. The burning and stabbing feeling isn’t subsiding, and I knew that this was going to stay this way until the poison leaves my system completely.

I dragged my heavy body out the door and into the alleyway. I fell to my knees and started to vomit up blood once again. I felt weak and I felt like I could feel a whole lot better taking my own life right now. I dragged myself to a corner and hoped to wait out the poison, but it wasn’t easy. I felt my growing hunger starting to eat me up from the inside, heavy headaches impairing me and enough pain that all the screaming in the world would not be able to make it feel any less.

For the following days, I had to eat out of the garbage outside restaurants as that is the only food I knew that wouldn’t be poisoned. I threw up violently afterwards, but my body slowly got used to it as it was the only thing that was keeping me alive. I couldn’t go to the Guild to get any quest as the moment I turn it in to accept, everyone in the hall and even the receptionist will try to kill me. I had no Rels, and I had no place to go, and reaching to where Tadashi is right now is nothing but a fleeting dream.

For almost a month, I was able to keep a low profile. They were still looking for me, but I was hiding in the alleys. I can’t remember the last time I had a bath, I can’t remember the last time I ate plated food, my life couldn’t be any more down the drain even if it tried to.

Day 43, still nothing has changed. I scrounged up a dumpster only to find a barely eaten loaf of bread. This was the peak of happiness I could feel right now. I was moments away from devouring it, but just in front of me was a kid staring at me. Looked like he had lost his parents and was also starving, also hit me hard as he looked the same age as Yuito, and he would’ve been in the same shoes if it was me and Mom to be killed.

I broke the bread in half and passed it to him. His face lit up and he ate it up in a moment’s notice and we both finished our halves together.

“Nii-chan, I can’t thank you enough” he said while he ran at me and gave me a hug

Nii-chan, huh, I forgot how that even sounded. And that small sentiment reminded me how much I missed Yuito.

“You don’t have to thank me, in times like this-“

And just as I said that, I was given a harsh reminder what kind of a world this was, as I felt something unusual. I touched my lower body only find that hand covered in blood. The kid backed out and had a knife in his hand covered in my blood.

“I’m sorry, Nii-chan. But I can’t take it anymore”

The pain started to elevate suddenly; I was barely able to move but I was able to retaliate

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” I screamed at him while grabbing his arm

I squeezed it so hard that I could hear his bone cracking, but at the same time, his veins started to glow red, similar to when Tadashi gripped my head during the incident. The kid suddenly started to scream

“IT HURTS, IT HURTS” he said while screaming in agony

I only realized what I had done moments later

“Kid, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to-” I said trying to apologize

“GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU MONSTER” he said while trying to run away from me desperately

My rage got the best of me and I ended up hurting a desperate kid, how does that make me any better or different from all these murderers. Many peeked into the alley to see what all the commotion is about, but I did the fatal mistake of having my head exposed.

“HEY, HE’S HERE, KILL HIM” screamed one of the people who came to check.

I had to run once again, luckily due to living in Helios’ alleys for a month, I knew pathways that many didn’t know about to create some space between me and my pursuers. But unfortunately, no matter where I went, I ran into someone who wanted my head on a platter. I took it to the roofs and stopped to down an HP potion and catch my breath. Due to my poor food and sleeping in the cold outside, my stamina bar isn’t even half it’s original size. And every time I ran or climbed extensively; I could feel my heart trying to burst out. The only reason I wasn’t passing out from exhaustion was because of the SP potion I used the moment I started running, but that only sped up my stamina recovery slightly. I barely dodged gunfire on the roof and just like Typhon, I dropped into the alleys as soon as they climbed up to get me. But unlike Typhon, I can’t think of a way to escape. I ran, and ran and ran, and I couldn’t shake my pursuers. It also didn’t help the fact that I had been stabbed in the gut and I was leaving a blood trail behind no matter where I was going. And it was during that long run, I was jumped on.

A mysterious figure covered my mouth and dragged me into a nearby shed. I was struggling for my life but I had barely any energy to put up a real fight.

“Shut up and don’t struggle if you want to survive this” said my ambusher while putting something in my ear

My pursuers followed the blood trail and was looking to enter the shed only to be stopped by a much smaller figure. I didn’t know who it was as eventhough I saw him clearly due to the shed having no door, but I only saw his back.

“Oi, pipsqueak… Move it or lose it, that bounty is ours” said the lead hunter

“Oh dear, big man is trying to act so scary…Doesn’t look like he can back it up though” said the figure in their way

That condescending voice, is that?

“This aint a place for kids, but if you insist on getting in our way, I won’t hesitate to kill you right here”

“Kid huh? Oh I know, let’s play a game Oji-san, to reduce some weight from that shiny head of yours, I’ll select a part on it at random…and you are going to lose it” she continued

“Why you little-” the hunter sad while reaching for his weapon

“And I will choose your ear” she said while pointing a finger gun at his left ear

And right above her finger, a bullet flew and took off the man’s ear

He started to scream in pain and but at the same time, her hand started to bleed as well

“Ow, ow,ow…Oi Minami, how about you not hit me next time”

As soon as I heard that name through the earpiece, my suspicions were confirmed

“I couldn’t do any better Onee-chan, any higher and I might’ve blown his head up”

“Oh well, not that it would’ve changed anything anyways” said the voice that I was certain was Mai’s

I stopped struggling and looked back at the one who was keeping me restrained and he was exactly who I thought it was.

“Calmed down yet?” said Jun back to me

Assured for a moment, I look around for an opening to escape just in case the worst-case scenario happens and I kept observing what was happening outside.

The lead hunter was flinching in pain trying to regain his hearing while his group tries to aid him. He regains his footing moments later and he is visibly mad.

“YOU LITTLE SHIT” he screamed while rushing blindly at Mai…rookie mistake

Mai ducks down and evades the man swinging his bat at her and she retaliates by extending her retractable staff right into his jaw. The others behind him tried to gang up on her but Meguru was picking them off from the distance one sniper shot at a time. However, Meguru couldn’t keep up as they started to rush Mai when Meguru was rechambering and reloading. Two of them rush her from opposite directions with melee weapons but Mai evaded the first attacker’s strike and leaped into the air after vaulting off his shoulder, from the air she readied her bow and sent an arrow clean through the second’s eye and lands back on the first, wrapping the guy around her staff and dropping him into the ground. She ends up in a position where with one quick pull, she snaps the poor guy’s arm from his shoulder leaving him screaming in pain and immobilized. It was too quick for the eyes to follow step-by-step but I couldn’t look away eventhough I had to sit through the horror of lives being lost brutally.

Mai quickly got back up but who the lead hunter had recovered, and he was about to strike her from her blind spot.

“MAI, WATCH OUT” I screamed with the little energy I had

But that was deemed unnecessary as a clean shot from Mai from the distance at the hunter’s metal bat, it created an opening for Mai to capitalize on. The hunter tried to buy himself some time to recover by throwing in a punch out of desperation, but she used that to lock him arm up by tangling it with her staff and jumping behind him. He tried to jump behind her to break the arm lock, but even before he could react, Mai put him into a situation where he was off balance and with one move, she can break his neck.

“Well Oji-san, it seems to me that you have a choice right now, you either leave us and Onii-chan alone, or you can join the rest of your friends on the ground right now…except that guy over there with the broken arm that is” said Mai

“Fuck…you, you runt” said the exhausted towering man now moments away from losing his life

He starts to strain in more pain as Mai tightens her grapple on the guy

“Fuck me?...Gee, never thought you would be a pedo, Oji-san”

The trash talks after a win, I am now sure that these are the Kanies. Wait, why am I even relaxing right now.

“Alright!....alright fine. Just let me and him go” he said while hinting at the guy on the ground with the broken arm

“That wasn’t so hard now was it” said Mai while releasing her grapple.

The guy slowly limps at the surviving member and carries him and himself out of the area.

“Nii, you can bring out the damaged goods now” Mai signaled in a sarcastic tone.

Damaged goods? Did she really just call me that?

But as soon I was released, I gather the remainder of the strength I have left and drew my blade in terror.

“Akio, what are you doing?” inquired Jun

“I don’t know how you found me. You guys after the bounty as well?”

“Seriously Onii-chan”

“Mai…let me handle this” steps in Jun

“Akio look, we don’t have much time, so I’ll explain when we are in the clear. Those guys maybe gone for now but there will be more of them soon. They are distracted currently due to the sound of Meguru’s gunfire, but they will catch onto what is happening soon.

“Look, the choice is yours, you can stay here and fight all the Hunters yourself, or you can come with us and have a better chance at survival” Jun offered me with the choice

“Nii, the crowds realized what is going on, they are coming at you in full speed” I heard Meguru reporting on the earpiece.

“Choose Akio, before we all die here”

I had no idea what to do, all that trusting, and kindness got me ever since I have been in this hellhole was deceit and suffering, and I am afraid of what is to come. But I don’t think I have a choice, even in my peak, I have no chance of fighting off all of the player base who wants my head

“Alright fine, I’ ll come with”

I could see Jun’s face relaxing a bit after that

“Oh thank god, alright follow us, keep close or you might get massacred by the Hunters” said Jun

I tried my best to keep up with him and he even slowed down when I was falling behind, like he was fully aware of my condition. After sneaking up into alleyways that even I didn’t know existed, we carefully avoided all the eagle-eyed hunters and crossed the wall to the middle sector of Helios through a hidden entrance that I was completely unaware of. After that, we just kept running until we finally entered a massive two story building. We all entered, locked the door and kept pushing on it just to make extra sure that we were safe.

“All clear, they didn’t follow us in” assured Meguru from the roof

We all slid down the door and sat down. While Mai and Jun breathed a sigh of relief, I could feel a dam inside me shatter.

I started crying like a newborn as I felt like this was the only moment I got in the last month and a half to relax. Jun rushes on over and gives me a hug

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s fine, you are safe now” Jun reassures trying to calm me down

“Mom, Yuito, they…they…”

“It’s ok, It’s alright, I know, I saw it…we saw it. Fucking Tadashi of all people”

“Akio Nii, I know I am not good with words most of the time, but I am so sorry for what happened to you” approached Mai as well

“Nii-chan, I can’t even imagine what you went through at that time” Meguru followed up on the earpiece

These 2 used to be the source of some of my worst nightmares, but right now, they are what is keeping me from going into borderline insanity.

“WHY, WHY ME, WHAT DID I EVER DO TO HIM TO DO THAT TO ME. HE WAS LIKE A BROTHER TO ME, HOW COULD HE MURDER THE PEOPLE THAT TREATED HIM LIKE FAMILY.”

“YUITO, HE WAS LOOKING SO FORWARD TO MEETING HIM AGAIN, AND HE MURDERED HIM. MOM, SHE TREATED HIM BETTER THAN SHE DID TO ME, AND HE…HE”

I couldn’t contain it anymore, and I just poured out my eyes and mind on the spot. My weeps turned out to be contagious as the others were trying to hold back their own tears.

“I don’t…I don’t know why he did it, but all I will say is that I will do whatever I can help you find out, even I have a piece of word reserved for Tadashi when I find him”.

A few hours ago, I had no hope of either surviving or even reaching up to Morpheus. I had nothing and no one, and in just a moment, my dead hope has been given some life.

Second chances really do exists.