Just like Yin & Yang everything in this world has an equal and opposite, except for the one who is 'one'. The one who has no beginning nor does he have an end. The one who is all-powerful and all-wise. The one who wasn't born nor does he have a child. The lord of all creation. That is the truth of this world. Very simple. Simple to the core. 

But who are the ones, rejecting the truth? Creating their own reality, bathing in their desires without any repercussions. Doing whatever they can, confused about what their actual purpose in this reality is. 

From the moment one is born to the the last breath of life, you get a chance to prove yourself to be worthy of an endless life in paradise. That's the promise of the one who created it all. So what's there to be confused about? What is it that makes humans stray away from the righteous path?

Who knows? Maybe it's our arrogance. Maybe we think we know better but if we just let our ego go and observed the things around us, we would recognise that this life is just a façade.

...

It was night time when Ken gathered his team around a pent house in the richer area of the megapolis 'Jeva', which was seen as the origin city of 'New Vitopia'. The country he was born and raised in. When he gave the command to start infiltrating the building, one of the windows opened up and three bombs were dropped down.

"Wha- SH#T! Get away!"

The whole troupe couldn't evade and remained in the radius of the explosive.

BOOOOM

boom

boom

The bombs went off one after the other, leaving destruction everywhere.

'F#ck! How did they know? There is simply no way.'

Ken hid behind a trash can trying to figure out what to do next. He recognised that the situation had gotten out of his hands very quickly. He tried to reach Mantis, his right hand man with his phone but to his surprise he didn't respond to the calls. It seemed something happened to him. He either got hit by the shockwave or he lost his phone. 

'Whatever. I have to keep moving or else they might get more people.'

He gave the window a quick glance and dashed towards a bush that was left to him. When he just arrived there a shot barely missed him. His neck hair stood up while cold sweat formed on his forehead. 

"Boss! Here!"

A member of the group called him over. He was hiding next to him.

"There seem to be armed people in there. I only saw Nugget over there but except for him I couldn't identify anybody else."

"Get over there and tell Nugget to run away. They will try to kill everybody here. Joseph betrayed us. He knew fro-"

crash

Something or somebody landed on a car parked outside the house. In a matter of seconds multiple landing sounds could be heard. 

"Shit! Let's get out of here. We don't have the equipment for this."

Both of them ran in different directions. When Ken left the bush, he saw a couple of his teammates fighting against some enemies in complete army suits.

'The army? What're they doing here?'

The moment he saw them, his mind stopped working for a moment. He was overworked from the previous missions and this was supposed to be the last one for a while. Getting betrayed by one of the contractors was already a shock because it was one who made deals with them throughout years of partnership but then the army was also involved.

"Haahahaha. Been a while 'Panther'. Sad we're meeting under these circumstances. I would've loved to fight alongside you. Now die."

A soldier aimed his rifle at Ken's head and shot. 

ta

The shot grazed the side of the head and flew into nothingness. Ken grabbed the side of his head and and fell to the ground. The rifle looked at his head again.

"Ah, shit. How did I miss? Hmm, must be a coincidence." He smirked. 

"Well then. Goodbye for real."

ratatatatata

Shots rained from his rifle. Ken's body was covered in blood and it was surprising that he still tried to move away from the scene.

"Kekeke, what a monster. How are you still not dead?"

"Krgzh... Yo-... Who... agh... are you?"

"Hmm?... Ohh, I see. You want to know who we are? Well, let me tell you. One of your friends, Mr. Jacob, bought a bit of manpower from our militia 'Morphea Group' and we obviously had to deliver. That simple."

He couldn't remember ever hearing the name 'Morphea'. It seemed to be from outside the country.

'Who are they? Why did Jacob betray us?'

Barely conscious he stared at the scene enfolding in front of him. A car was burning. Some of his mates were getting shot. His eyelids slowly closed. 

"Haa..."

He finally lost consciousness. 

The soldier was about to give him the last shot when somebody did the same thing to him.

pang

He fell to the ground. Blood started gathering around his head, while the weapon he held was taken away by the same person that ended his life. 

"Damn. He actually managed to get rid of Panther. He seemed to be a pain in the ass for many in this scene. Surprising, but not the end of the world. Everybody bites the bullet at some point in their life."

The man was wearing a coat. Despite the colour being black, he still stood out because of his height. 

"He's still alive. Fufu. What a monster."

A smaller person came forward and looked at Ken observantly. 

"Wait, you're right. Hahahaha. What a coincidence. That'll be interesting."

The guy turned around and looked at a tree.

"Caviar, take him. We'll be enjoying our new company."

...

Ken Force was a casual gamer when he first got his gaming pc back in middle school. The more time went on, he started to get addicted to the feeling of levelling up in-game. The character he created had a great physique, looked handsome and was tall. Just like girls liked it, apparently. 

He had fallen prey to his circumstances. The thing he did not realise was that everything was his own doing. Nobody had any authority over him. Except for god and himself. Growing up in a household where the father was away constantly and showed little to no affection whatsoever, he started to have doubts about himself. Never receiving praise from him, Ken went through puberty with a lack of guidance from his parents. During his time in middle school he had a couple of friends but except for Darwin, his best friend, no one really stayed.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

When time for high school came he slowly started becoming target of the wrong group. Bullies. That's what you would call them. Usually these things happened in middle school but since he was involved with his classmates he never really became somebody to target. In high school his old friends either went to a different class or just chose another school. So in the end he was alone there. Since he didn't really understand hierarchy in among fellow students, he quickly became a loner who spent most of his day playing games and reading. Outside of that there wasn't much going on. 

Time passed by quickly when he first met a guy named Walter Hike. It was from that moment on, that things started to take a bad turn for Ken. He accidentally bumped into him when he was checking out the latest news on a game he was playing at that time. Feeling disrespected, Walter began his reign of terror over him. Every single day there would be some type of bullying from their side. Bit by bit it got worse and worse. It almost seemed like there was no end to it.

For a while he didn't intervene a single time. He got scared when they first did something to him and since then there were basically no repercussions, so they continued to target him. 

One night he was watching a series where the top one hundred athletes competed in a fierce tournament with only one surviving and reaching the top. It was something which lit a flame inside of him. A flame which would not perish up until to his death.

Taking all of his courage, he decided to pay them back for what they had done. Slapping the back if his head, pulling the chair from under him, throwing rotten food at him, breaking his stuff or hiding them, hitting him in his stomach, chest and face, burning cigarettes on his body and a lot more, were all things that were done to him. He remembered all of them very well. So planning out his attack, he observed them for a couple more days and executed his strategy. 

He succeeded on his first attempt, pepper spraying all of them and then attacking them with a bat he hid in a bush near his school, where they were trying to box him. When they were all on the ground, three in total, he tied a rope around them and took a picture of it to blackmail them if they tried to get back at him. 

The adrenaline that rushed through his body awakened the 'Force' in him. Something he had never felt before, a feeling far greater than anything else he had experienced in his life filled his mind. From then on he went from being the victim to becoming the bully. He was ruthless. Nobody could stop him. His training was not going to the gym but to beating up students. Then later they became street thugs and at last actual criminals. 

His life went from playing video games to killing people in a matter of two years. After that he joined what was known as a syndicate. 'Deadlift'. That was the most notorious syndicate in Jeva and the surrounding areas. One of his friends got him in after he did some missions for them for guarantee. 

As time went on he climbed up the ranks like a monkey climbs up a tree. Speed and intensity. These were two attributes that described him best. When he got promoted to group leader as the youngest guy to ever do it, they named him 'Panther'. 

From then on, his name echoed throughout New Vitopia. Countless enemies, countless opportunities, all of it awaited him. 

...

"So how did it go?"

"...We got him but it seems that somebody took his body. We don't know who it is, yet."

"You!... I told you to get rid of him. What if 'he' finds out? Whatever. Make sure to find his body."

"Yessir."

clack

He walked up and down the room. Biting his nails as usual, he tried to think of something. For him the position at his syndicate was the most important thing. He built it up with his younger brother, who was the current boss of the syndicate. The problem he had been facing for a while was that a newcomer was stirring up trouble. He almost eliminated every other syndicate around them or at least got them to be affiliates. This way 'Deadlock' became untouchable in Jeva. Even throughout New Vitopia they were the third most powerful group after 'Sons of Morphea' also known as 'SoM' and the military, which held the highest position. 

What that did was, a lot of people were gunning for the leadership position. So was he but he could only maintain his current position through the help of his younger brother, Zaff. If he got beaten by somebody and a new leader came in, that would be it for his reign and other people would get rid of him very soon after.

So he had to delete any possible threats and one of them turned out to be Ken. 

thud

"Zehran, what're you doing up here? I thought you're gathering people for the next hunt."

"Ah, yeah. I was just talking to Joseph and it seems that Ken and his group got killed in the mission."

Zehran stopped in the middle of his walk and looked almost afraid.

"Wha-"

"The military. They were involved. We don't know for sure why but it seems like they were hired to protect the target."

He had a slight mirk on his face although he tried his best to hide it from his little brother. The military only got involved because Joseph hired them. He could do that because he didn't belong to 'Deadlift'. 

"Call the brothers. I need them to do something for me. There is no way we can cover for a loss like 'Panther' just like that."

ring ring

"Bring the brothers up. Zaff wants to talk to them."

He was almost thrilled. Even though there was no reason for it, tricking his brother gave him a certain sense of superiority. His ego grew even more. 

'Maybe I should aim for the leadership position myself. Zaff has always a little on the duller side, so tricking him into something even Panther fell for should do the trick.'

Deciding his next move, Zehran knew what was coming up for him. A tough battle for power. Well, it kind of already had begun. 

"I'll check up on the remains. Maybe we can find something."

Zaff didn't respond. He just stared out of the giant glass window.

...

tack tack tack

A stick hitting the ground could be heard. Other than that it was very quiet. Especially quiet for the time of the day.

"Hmm,... come ouuuut. Uncle just wants to talk. Don't worry, I won't do anything to you."

Both him and Sara knew that that was not true. He did this all the time. First he would beat her until she would run away. Then he would look for her and in the end beat her up again. 

This time, though, Sara had prepared. She had a little knife in her hands. It was nail. But for her that was more knife than enough. She just wanted to get out of this hell hole. She had been trapped there for almost three years after her parents had been killed. The guy, Gunther, adopted her or rather bought her from an orphanage where she was brought because she had no immediate relatives. 

Fromm day one she received treatment not even dogs on the streets did. Her body was always covered in bruises and blue spots. Up until ow she couldn't have imagined running away, even though she did try it multiple times unsuccessfully, it never was the scenario like right now.

"Huhuuu. Come on out nowww. Uncle Gunther is getting imaptient."

"Sure."

"Huh?"

She opened the door of the cabinet with force. Well, at least the force a eleven year old could manage to gather. Gunther looked surprised as she had never done that before.

"Yu promise that you won't hurt me, right?"

"Hahaha, of course."

'I she retarded?... Whatever.'

He swung his stick towards her and hit her left arm.

"Aaaarghh!"

She almost grabbed the spot that was hit but she remembered in time that the knife was in her hand.

"Uncle! Wait, please!!"

"Ehehehehehe. You idiot. Now come here."

She slowly walked closer to him and then with all her might rammed the nail into his abdomen.

"Aaaaaaahh! Ahhhhh!"

He let his stick fall and grabbed the nail while Sara ran away the moment she saw the opportunity.

"You stupid idiot! Where do you think you're going, huh?"

He was right. There was nowhere where she could go to, hence she was just eleven years old and the only person she knew was after her life, probably.

She ran as far as possible and only stopped when she couldn't recognise the area anymore. It was piece of land with a bunch of trees and crops. No one was there though except for a tractor. Trying her luck, she went straight to it.

...

"Hellooooo! I'm Sara."

No response. The surrounding was too loud. The sound of the tractor dimmed her voice down by a bit. Seeing nowhere out, she decided to wait there until the person was finished. 

Half an hour later a man jumped out of the tug and tried to take of his gloves. Wasting not time, Sara ran over to him.

"Hellooo! I'm Sara."

He turned around surprised. The moment he saw her, his eyes opened up wide. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Or at least he acted that way. In reality, Carl was a black market dealer and did farming as a hobby. He was really into health, foods and things that made him self reliant. 

"Wh- Who are you? I mean. What are you doing here? Why do you look like this?"

"I'm Sara and I just left the house. Can you help me?"

"Help you? With what?"

"I need to get away from 'him'."

"Hmm? Who do you mean?"

"My uncle. He beats me. I don't want to live there anymore."

Even though he was exaggerating, he still felt a little pity towards her. She seemed to be around ten years old and her uncle was beating her up.

"Well, I personally can't do much but maybe I know somebody who can."

She looked at him with anticipating eyes. If she managed to get to somebody else's house, maybe through hard work she could get a better life.

"Come with me. I'll take you to her."

He brought her to a small café near the farm. It had an antique look to it. Almost as if they were in a generation before them. When they entered a sweat aroma filled their mouths. Especially Sara's mouth was drooling. Her stomach made weird noises. 

"Clarissa! You have a guest."

"I'm coming. Wait a second."

After a couple of seconds a lady in her late forties almost ran out and greeted them with a bright smile.

"Good day, Carl. Who did you bring with you?"

"This is Sara. She needs a place temporarily. maybe you can help her out."

"Ah, I see."

Clarissa looked at the girl very carefully. From the top to the bottom she observed what she could. 

"My dear Lord."

Her hands covered her mouth as she almost screamed.

"How did this happen?"

"It was her uncle. Let's get her something to drink. She can tell us the details later on."

"Yeah, of course. Wait, I'll bring a blanket."

...