It was a new day as the sun slowly rose up in the sky. Outside the window the surface of the ocean was tainted in a amber glow, and the reflection of the sun looked like a sea of tiny diamons. The waves rose, fell and crashed on the shores creating a wonderfull view. Today was aother gorgeous day in San Diego California, surfers were out enjoying themselves, couples populated the beaches, and joggers went about their business.

Far away as one can see, was a colony of pellicans flying hlow in the skies, circling a specific area, with they're eyes focus on their prey. Judging by they're repeated action on can speculate that they've been at it for a long time. 'One must persevere through trials and tribulations before reaping benefits' that was the way of life, at least for Alex Sun anyway.

Alex stood there watching the show with a hot cup of coffee in his hand. his posture was ramrod straight like a newly polished sword. With a smile on his face he put down the cup, he adjusted his black tie, and picked up his suit jacket that was on the back of the chair behind him before leaving the room in a flash.

As per usual, Alex left is house at six am sharp. He was always on time no matter what his punctuality was admired by his neighbors, his landlord went as far as calling him the human alarm clock, she also encouraged him to teach her twenty -three year old  daughter on punctuality. But she may not be as happy when she finds out that her daughter has been getting some...er lessons from him in bed instead.

Just like that he was out the door and on his way to his appointment, today is shapping up to be the greatest day in his life. Before today Alex could not recall ever being this happy, he was an orphan. As a child, Alex was abandoned on the doorsteps of a rundown orphanage in the Bronx, a borough located in the state of New York and from then on raised in the orphanage.

The orphanage was located in the Bronx river and to date has been ranked in the top five most dangerous neighborhoods across the state of New York. In these strets gangs, drugs, prostitutions, murders, robberies, rapes, you name it and you see it. These parts are tough and to live here means to be grow up fast or end up being prey.

Like his neighborhood, his upbringing was tough. The orphanage lacked money and ressources, so they had to improvised. Every winter and summer vacations the boys and girls did odd jobs to provide ends meat, Alex worked at the library as a janitor from six am to nine pm four days a week. In order to save bus fares and violence he slept on the isles at night, and washed up in the bathroom in the morning.

There he learned Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, and Farsi. New York City is a meltting pot, in one block you have on average five or six different ethnic group, and being stuck in a library for four days a week is without a doubt boring for a boy, so he found ways to pass the time in the most effective way he could, by learning as much as he could, and as fast as he could. He learned how to make homemade liquor, to basic blacksmithing.

He also learned how to computer electronics, networking and coding. As a side hustle he started playing chess and checkers at the local boys/girls recreational clubs for pocket money. Overal he was barely making it in life, he took every opportunity to learn any and everything. But sadly life was never too kind to him, there were days where he was robbed at gun point, beaten for being half black and half chinese, once he was stabbed over a pair of knock off jordans, another time he got hit by a stray bullet while walking home from work.

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No matter what he did, he got no break, There were times he asked himself why, why go on living if nothung good came out of it. Over the years he has seen girls he grew up with end up in the streets as crack whores, or being pimpped out by gangs in the corners. Through out all that he never felt sorry for them,because they were weak and weakness gets taken advantage of because this was the name game 'be a prey or be a predator'.

He had done lost count of how many of these former 'family' members he done slept with either. He was numb to it all, he just wanted out, he wanted to leave this sewer of a city and so at eighteen years old he joined the united states marine corps. There he finaly found true family, Men and women who genuinely cared about him. After four years he harsh combat life, he and his combat buddy by the name of Dennis Shu were nearing their contact and were due back home in three days.

Dennis was a second generation chinese immigrant from Los Angeles, both of his parents owned a grocery shop in china town, unlike most kids in america he was highly curious about his heritage, hence his parents sent him to china every vacation to live with his uncle who was a low level pc game designer. Being curious he to started to play and work on games.

His hobby soon became an obsession, but upon his return to LA he learned that his father suffered a stroke and was unable to work, his mother and younger brother filled in as he enlisted in the UMSC for financial aid. Soon after meeting Alex the two quickly became buddies, and he got Alex addicted to gaming and reading wuxia, xianxia, and xuanhuan novels. Their dream was to create their own game after leavinfg the military.

But sadly life once again had other plans, on a routine patrol a IED blew their humvee up sky high. In the insuing disater, four marines were wounded, one in critical condition, and three were dead. which included Dennis, the shrapnel tore through his body like a hot knife through butter.

Alex never forgave himself for that, because James was never suppose to be in that humvee to begin with. They were a man short and Dennis volounteered, and like an idiot Alex agreed. Now his best friend was dead, and he knew he was responsible for that. For the next two years after that event Alex worked hard in order to acomplish their dream of creating a pc game, he read novel after novels, and now he finally realized his goal.

In his backpack was a USB drive with the game called "Rise of the Monarch". It was a cultivation based game, overal it wasn't anything new, but what it did have was an open world setting, where one could do team fights or one vs one style. The story mode featured the rise of a trashy sect disciple who was kicked of his sect for being incompetant, to him stumbling on a legendary artifact.

That artifact granted him all sorts of cultivation, martial arts manuals, blacksmithing skills and so on. With his new found knowledge he rose through the ranks and became a monarch. Finally, in his mind he was shouting like a madman. He stayed up all night tweeking out and fixing all the bugs in the system and it was all for this moment, he stood on the side walk waiting for the light to turn so he could cross.

He was nervous yet excited, across the street was the building of Kushu gaming, a giant in the pc gaming industry. He was so close he could taste it.

"Come on come on, come on you stupid light change already...yes yes yes"

As soon as the light changed Alex ran as fast as he could, his headphones blasting his favorite song named 'streets are on fire' by lupe fiasco. He was on cloud nine, he felt like he was invincible, finally life was going to give him what it owed him.

But again like so many times, the blessing of misfortune stiked again, out of the corner of his eye he saw a truck making it's way for him at break neck speed.

The only word he could utter before impact was 'FUCK'.