Prologue : The awakening

My heart is pounding, my back's against a wall in an alley as narrow as somber, I bleed, a few more centimeters toward the right and it touched my heart, that fucking psycho, he shot me knowing damn well I used up my last syringe!

I tear apart my shirt and use it as a bandage. I need to find a terminal and fast if I want to survive this. When all this shit is done I swear I'll put a bullet between his eyes!

As I exit the alley, I feel pain rapidly creep up my body, numbing my self along with my sense of survival... No! I can't just give up, not now, I've gone too far to die like this, betrayed by my own ally. I need to find a terminal, then I'll advise what to do, but what's sure for now, is that he won't get away this easily.

That's it. Finally I hear this melody characteristic of the terminals, I usually hate this song, but right now I'd be ready to hear it for two eternities.

I rapidly log in to my account, mere seconds before the end, I feel like Charlie Chaplin, only seeing in black and white, a bad omen, however my fate isn't sealed yet. The terminal was one typical of Arkanoth, surprisingly, the vocal commands still seemed functional and there was, as usual, a gap to put your arm in.

"Come on, log in you damned machine! Oh super. Quick, I gotta purchase one of those." I tinkered with the terminal, logging in to my account. Why did it have to be so complex to use when the only time you needed this kind of thing's when you don't have time? "150 000 kals! What is their deal at Montezio's, they've nearly tripled the price of their syringes," I grumbled. "There's no time to complain, ACCEPT PAYMENT!"

As soon as the payment was accepted I rushed my arm inside the gap and suddenly felt soothed, worries and pain slowly fading away. It's so great to know today won't be the last day. Once again I have usurped Death.

As the bullet located down my shoulder dissolves to form but one with my body, I take the time to observe my environment, there are building uninhabited and a Montezio's store, it seems like district Z but poorer, and more dangerous, it now seems obvious why he got rid of my corpse there, no cops available to stop them, not that there were any true cops in other districts, he must have been pretty sure that even if I had the luck to find a terminal, the fauna would have easily taken care of my half-dead corpse, fucking crazy doing all of this stuff just to get his hands on an artifact.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I bet he also betrayed the others to keep the artifact all to himself, unless the other two were joining hands with that bastard?

Anyway, there's no time to think of all this, I have to find a shelter and fast, as I start walking I decide to enter the store to see what they've got.

I open the door, a song of astro-sensei welcomes me, a mix between "japanese" instrumental, (whatever it was, it survived the Obscure Past) and chill trap, just what I needed, while I wave at the employee I head toward the weapon section to see if they might propose a weapon capable of destroying T. Now that he is in possession of this artifact, he has two vital sources and will be way harder to take care of from what I know.

When going to the section, I saw someone else, he had short dark hair, wore a white coat, and had thick glasses hiding his intentions. I had no idea who this goofy-looking kid might have been, but I could say without a doubt he's not the usual customer.

Wanting to know the reason for a man such as him to be in such a place, I approach him and start to talk with him of mundane things. He went by the name of Leolio and apparently had a keen interest in sciences, whatever they might be. As for the reason of his presence, it was simple enough, he had some issue to take care of. However he didn't seem to have the right build for it, even with a gun.

"Say, wouldn't you like to let somebody else do your dirty work?" In my defence, I'm in dire need of money, so a job or two would be a great change, especially from the last one.

"Why, is it due to a sudden urge to be a charitable soul?" He looked at me funny, like we already met a past life ago.

"Don't take me for what I'm not, I also have some things in my hands, the problem is I'm totally broke. If you offer me some change money in exchange of your own problem, it will do for me."

"All right, however I do have to tell you the task is of a dangerous kind, I doubt anybody would be able to accomplish the task."

"Don't worry about me, I got some reputation around the whole city, I'm not scared of dirtying my hands a little for some bucks."

The conversation soon ended, I only needed to choose the weapons I'd use for the contract. Choosing my weapons myself is kind of not in my way, it's always best to let the contractor decide by himself, after all he's the one knowing best what I'll be in need of.

Although the scientist did not look in his natural environment, surrounded by all these weapons, he had shown his knowledge on the matter throughout the discussion, and so I asked him his opinion.

"There is nothing of use for our mission here, however, you should equip yourself of the Glock Vespid to protect yourself. Silent, undetectable and deadly, the most cherished pistol when clashing against the Sinless." I thanked him for the information. For a moment there I had forgot even the existence of those crazed bastards.

All the while buying the glock, I chose to follow this man to know more about this contract of his.