Rotating around a gargantuan yellow star was a planet dominated by seas and land—the planet known as Earth. It silently floated through the void of space, rotating around the bright yellow star, silently, and peacefully.
Then—a fissure abruptly opened, a crack in the fabrics of space-time. It was large yet appeared incredibly small in the vastness of space, so small that one wouldn’t even be able to notice it despite how big of an anomaly it was.
The crack was irregularly shaped as if a child took a knife and haphazardly stabbed it into a piece of cloth, with torrents of energy spewing out of the crack endlessly.
Two strange figures can be seen through the crack, entities whose mere presence caused reality around them to warp and change. Silently, they stared at the peaceful planet of Earth, their eyes shining brightly with strange light.
“No… This can’t be…” One of them murmured in the language of man, with their voice strangely full of despair.
“This… I finally get it now…” Bright green flames erupted from the other entity’s eyes.
The one covered by the light of perfection reached out their hands towards the peaceful blue planet, shouting as their form slowly started to be covered in cracks, “NO! NO! THIS IS A TRAP! DON’T DO IT! THIS POWER IS A TRAP!”
Then, they exploded, covering the darkness of the void with endless iridescent light.
“How ironic…” The one covered by the flames of evolution chuckled as the flames devoured them whole. Mustering the last bit of their power, they flicked out a tiny green flame that latched onto one of the many meteors that passed through the fissure in space, meteors that would soon down descend onto Earth.
…
Inside a large classroom with students clamoring around holding a piece of paper in their hands, a certain duo sat quietly in a corner of the room.
“Perfect,” a boy murmured with a grin as he held up a piece of paper with his long dainty hands, glancing at the bright red circle that enclosed around a striking red 100%.
“Woah…” the boy who sat beside him gasped and smiled playfully. “Another perfect score, huh?”
“It’s because you never review, Christopher…” Braun’s smile deepened as he gave an unnoticeable stare at Christopher’s test papers. 49/50… What a prodigy.
“Don’t act like you don’t only review for thirty minutes a day!” Christopher snorted and slicked back his wavy blond hair just as a ray of sun came from the nearby window to illuminate his enviously handsome face.
Christopher was handsome, enviably so. He was tall, standing at an impressive height of 6 feet, with a muscular physique and proportions that just screamed perfection. His smile, his eyes, his nose, his eyebrows, they all harmonized to form a nigh-perfect face.
Not only was he handsome, he was also a prodigy who could become good at anything with little to no effort. He doesn’t review for exams, he doesn’t practice that hard for sports, and he doesn’t work out that much, yet he still has high grades, he’s the captain of the basketball team, and he’s jacked as hell.
And he’s also rich as fuck on top of that… Braun moved his gaze away from his dear best friend’s test papers and placed his papers inside his bag. After that, he yawned lightly and stood up from his seat.
“You’re going home already?” Christopher asked with a dejected face.
“You know I still gotta write for my novel. Unlike you, I don’t have all the free time in the world to do anything he wants without worry,” said Braun.
“Sigh, and here I wanted to go to the mall with you. But at least our exams are finally over!” Christopher groaned and stretched his arms to the sky. “We finally get to do our camping trip tomorrow!”
“As long as you’ll pay all the expenses though,” reminded Braun.
“Yes, we’ve talked about this already. I’ll pay for everything, and all you’ll have to do is enjoy the week with me in the wilderness!” Christopher grinned widely.
“Sure.” Braun shrugged his shoulders and turned around before heading towards the door of their classroom. “I won’t mind taking a week-long hiatus. It’s nice to have some fun sometimes.”
“See you tomorrow! I’ll pick you up at your house early so don’t be late!” Christopher shouted.
Braun gave a sideway glance at Christopher, smiled, and nodded his head. “Yeah…”
Soon enough, Braun was walking down the afternoon streets of Civer City, with the setting sun dying the entire cityscape with a warm orange glow. Taking a deep breath, Braun exhaled softly and found a puddle near the side of the road.
Approaching it, a young adolescent teen with jet black hair parted into a midpart, pale white skin, wearing a white shirt, dark blue pants, and black leather shoes met his gaze.
He had a rather handsome face but was more so androgynous rather than masculine. He also had a well-built physique but was not overly muscular like Christopher, and was instead slim and athletic.
As he smiled and observed his face, he reverted back to a neutral expression and continued his walk back home.
Sigh, I did all that mewing, icing, facial cleansers and basically reinventing my whole image just to be a 7.5/10… Fuck, fuck, fuck… This world is just so goddamn unfair sometimes… Clicking his tongue, he stopped in his tracks and stared at the house to his side.
It wasn’t anything special, just your average house of average size and design. Of course, when compared to Christopher’s gargantuan house, Braun couldn’t help but feel a sense of envy welling up in his heart again.
Braun was born into an average family, with his father being a cop and his mother being a housewife who had to take care of his younger brother. If he had to give a short description of his family, he’d only have to say one word—Mediocre.
His father wasn’t the brightest man he had ever met, he could even say he was stupid. Braun can still remember those moronic punishments he had to go through or the stupid practices he had to follow because of his father’s stupidity. Still, his father was the man he depended on to live, so he’ll still respect him—well, maybe that’d change once he gains his independence as a money-making adult.
Stolen story; please report.
His mother on the other hand was someone he had spent more time with since young, so he had a more preferable impression of her, but he still had his fair share of annoyances. Their standards for beauty are just garbage, they have an obvious favoritism for his younger brother, and she keeps pestering him to eat more so he can have more fat on his skeletal frame.
Bitch, I’d eat a lot more if we have more goddamn protein in our meals! I ain’t eating more because it would ruin my painstakingly built slim body. Do you know how long it took to burn off those belly flaps and finally get that stupid goddamn abs to pop?!
And why are you two even treating that little shit better than me?! He’s a stupid little moron whose grades couldn’t even reach 90%! Braun chuckled softly with a constrained grin. Fucking morons.
Once I get a job and start earning money myself… Oh, the things I will fucking do without having you two restrict my every move… It’d be freedom!
Wearing a stoic face, Braun pushed open the door and shouted, “I’m home!” before taking off his shoes.
Then, taking a quick glance around the living room, he saw his younger brother watching television as usual and approached him.
“Hug!” Braun spread open his arms and blocked his brother’s view of the television.
Rolling his eyes, Braun’s younger brother stood up and went to hug his older brother. Braun then leaned down and kissed his brother on the cheeks, and said, “Kiss!”
“Ugh…” Letting out a groan, his younger brother also kissed him on the cheeks before hastily sitting down on the sofa again.
Chuckling softly, Braun walked up the stairs and entered his room. Throwing his bag onto his bed, he adeptly took off his school uniform and put on a simple white shirt and black pants. After that, he went downstairs to place all of his dirty clothes in the dirty clothes basket before returning to his room with a bottle of cold water in hand.
Taking a sip of cold water, he opened his laptop, stretched his back, and looked at the clock.
“5:00 pm… I should be able to finish two chapters before dinner if I speed things up a bit… After that, I’ll edit five chapters which means I’ll technically only be gone for a few days rather than nine straight days.”
Turning on his phone, he opened the app that held a stopwatch, pressed start, and started to mindlessly write.
…
At the break of dawn, Braun opened his eyes, waking up from his peaceful sleep. Yawning lightly, he checked the time on his phone.
“5:45 am…” Opening the windows of his room and glancing at the dimly lit sky, he took a deep breath and ruffled his messy hair.
Opening an app on his phone, he sat cross-legged on his bed and straightened his back as a soft, gentle voice spoke out from his phone’s speakers, “Breathe in, breathe out.”
Braun’s morning routine was quite simple. He’ll wake up, fix his bed, meditate for five minutes, take a shower, rub ice on his face, brew a cup of morning coffee, and read a book.
As for his daily schedule, it was even more simple. In the morning he’ll do his morning routine, and then he’ll either work out or write in the afternoon after classes depending on the day.
Only with this type of schedule was he able to balance both his physical fitness and online writing, sacrificing his after-school enjoyment for personal growth.
From time to time, he’ll feel a bit jealous of those having fun and sometimes wonder why he was even writing in the first place, but he’ll always remember the reason why he was doing all of this in the first place.
Why waste time having fun when you can waste time having fun and being productive at the same time!
Other than his physical fitness and writing though, he also has to add to his schedule his weekly reviewing sessions. Unlike his friend Christopher who is a prodigy in practically everything, Braun’s advantage is that he utilizes a smarter approach to studying using various techniques and methods to maximize the knowledge he can soak up in his mind.
Braun let out a sigh as he took the last sip of his morning coffee and finished the last page of the book he was reading—How to Create Friends and Influence Others.
As he closed the book, he checked the time on his phone and found that he still had a while before Christopher would arrive at his house. With a little bit of free time left, Braun set aside the cup of coffee and began to browse through his feed.
“Hmm… Let’s see…” Browsing through his phone and looking through his feed, his eyebrows raised in curiosity as he saw an unexpected headline.
“Meteor Showers? And some say some meteors could potentially land near Civer City?” Braun murmured with a glimmer in his eyes. “What if one lands near us? Do we get to keep it? Maybe… I can sell it?”
“Sigh, now that’s too big of a pipedream to happen. What’s next, I get some strange alien belt from the meteor?” Laughing at his own stupid joke, Braun was about to keep browsing through his feed when he heard a loud beep from outside his room along with the sound of engines roaring.
Looking out of the window, he saw a big white van parked outside his house with Christopher standing right beside the car waving at him, shouting, “GOOD MORNING!”
“Ah, fuck.” Hastily closing his windows and grabbing his bags, he rushed down to the living room and saw his mother sitting down on the sofa watching television. “Mom, I’m leaving now! Christopher’s already here!”
“Oh, he’s already here?” Braun’s mother smiled gently and nodded her head. “Well, have fun you two! Remember to listen to Albert while you two are out there ‘exploring the wilderness’.”
“I will!” Braun shouted as he opened the door. “I’ll see you in a week, Mom!”
“Take care of yourself, Freidrich!” she shouted.
Braun nodded his head and grabbed his shoes.
Squatting on the ground to put on his shoes, Braun slowed down his pace the closer he got to the white van to not accidentally run into it. He then grabbed the handle of one of its doors and pulled it to the side, revealing a cozy interior with warm orange lights and a sofa with Christopher wearing an oversized green hoodie munching on a bowl of fruits on top.
Upon entering, more of the van was revealed. It was unexpectedly large inside, with plenty of room to move around with. The sofa was large with a table and a tv to the side, there was even a fridge filled with drinks, a bathroom at the far end of the van, along with a kitchen area full of random stuff.
The van basically had enough food, water, and resources to last them over two weeks without a hitch.
Braun nodded at Christopher and took a closer look around the van before remembering that he still hadn’t greeted a certain someone yet. Entering the driver’s compartment, he quickly saw Albert sitting on the driver’s seat with his hands firmly placed on the steering wheel.
Albert was a tall, muscular middle-aged man with a bald head, a thick black beard, and wore a butler’s uniform. His forehead was full of wrinkles and his aged eyes held an unexplainable sharpness to them, as if they had witnessed countless sceneries over the years.
Even though Albert was already aging away from his prime, Braun made sure to not underestimate the man. He was Christopher’s personal caretaker, butler, chauffeur, nanny, and bodyguard. According to the man himself, Albert was a little over 6’5 feet and weighed over 100 kg.
“Good morning, Uncle Albert,” Braun greeted with a smile.
Albert smiled warmly upon seeing Braun and responded, “Good morning to you too, young master Freidrich.”
“Mother wanted me to give her thanks for taking care of me this week,” added Braun.
“Oh, that’s no problem for me!” Albert laughed and patted Braun on the back. “I’m even glad that you’re here. I kind of expected you to say no and instead focus more on your hobbies just like what you did last time.”
“Aha…” Braun cringed and explained, “I was immature back then. I really should have said yes, it was stupid of me to prioritize some stupid hobby over experiencing something new in life.”
“Well, it’s not too late to change, right?” Albert grinned. “Anywho, are the two of you ready?”
“Mmm!” Braun nodded his head.
“Yep!” Christopher shouted from the sofa as he stood up from his seat. Then, as he slung his arms around Braun’s shoulder, he grinned and said, “I’m ready for this grand adventure of ours!”
“Enjoy your time inside the van then, because this is going to be a long ride!” The enginers of the van roared to life, exciting Christopher in the process. The wheels began to turn and the van started to move.
“Let’s get this story on the road already!” Christopher shouted, raising his arm to the sky with an enthusiastic smile.
Chuckling softly, Braun did the same and shouted, “To a life-changing story!”
“To a life-changing story!” Albert and Christopher repeated.
And so, the two boys began their trip to the forest outside the city, not knowing that a fate-twisting event would soon befall them.
For now, though, they could enjoy their time eating some fruits, listening to music, playing some games—doing all of that as their looming destinies began to grow closer and closer.