Namir could currently be seen sitting on a sofa with his head down and his mother Nadia, could be seen standing over him with her arms crossed as she scolded him. "It doesn't matter Namir, even if you did leave me a message you still can't just disappear for a week, do you have any idea how worried I've been?" Namir looked down, ashamed yet he still had a look of defiance in his eyes as he argued.
"Mom I'm already 17, how can you expect to keep watching over me for the rest of my life. If at this age you still treat me like a child, how will you ever expect me to live on my own? You always tell me to be independent yet when I try to be this is how you react." Namir hit her with as much as he could, feeling a little guilty yet understanding that it was necessary if he wanted the freedom to live the life he wanted, one he knew would be filled with strife and danger.
Namir's mother, Nadia, could currently be seen to have a shocked look on her face. She recoiled at the statement of her son, understanding the truth in his words yet still feeling angry at him for his previous behavior. Not knowing what to do in this situation having never faced it before she thought for a long while before finally coming to a decision, "Fine, explain yourself; if you were doing something that can prepare you for the future you plan to pursue then I'll let the matter settle here."
Sighing in relief Namir took a deep breath, preparing for what would come next, "Alright but you have to agree not to interrupt before I finish my explanation." At this Nadia could be seen to be ready to object before finally acquiescing to her son's statement, "So, I joined the Guild of Mercenaries." At this statement Namir could see his mother tense in worry, ready to object before he interrupted her, "Remember what you said before, you won't interrupt me 'till I'm done speaking."
At this his mother stopped herself, looking fairly cross at the situation, before finally stating, "Fine, go on then," In a rather terse tone. Namir gave her a rather stern look, "I want to be a mercenary - this is something that I've thought long and hard about - I feel that having no power in a world like this as a human is a death sentence, especially with the fact that within the next 20 years the battlefield will open, you know how other species begin to act toward humans around this time. I must gain power not only to protect myself but you as well," at this Namir gave his mother a rather soft, loving look.
"I know you want me to at least finish school before I continue down this path; however, doing that will lead me to starting lower than others who have a better background in this world, leaving me behind and weak to attacks from others even at my own age. Just look at Manuel from my class, he's already started out more advantaged than me. "After stating all this Namir stopped to allow his mother time to digest the statement, before finally continuing on.
"I went out and fought some Orcs to find out if I'm ready for this life and I've found that I'm somewhat talented at this. I thought out which path I wish to go down and which style of combat I'm the best at, not only that but I've already found myself a decent first upgrade that I've already done from the money I earned hunting those Orcs." Taking a deep breath after speaking for so long, Namir looked at his mother, awaiting her response.
After waiting out any potential blow-ups from his mother Namir finally continued with his speech, "I understand your worries over this lifestyle but it's my choice and this is the life I've chosen," giving his mother a look of resolution, he continued; "The fighting style that I want to do isn't all that deadly either, I plan to be a sniper. I've already earned enough credits to buy myself a basic Neo-Nutrient, I've been waiting 'till after this conversation to take it." Ending his speech here Namir awaited his mothers response with baited breath.
~~~~
After having a long talk with his mother he finally got her to agree to him becoming a mercenary. He was now currently in his room staring down at the vial of Neo-Nutrients in his hand, Namir took a deep breath, "Let's do this." He stated with a shaky yet firm tone. Opening the bottle Namir downed the bottle within one gulp - his body shuddered at the disgusting taste - it was extremely bitter and cold. He took a second to recover from the taste, "Huh, it really wasn't all that bad." right after this statement his body collapsed, luckily right onto his bed.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
~ The Next Day ~
Waking up with a start Namir was startled into laughter at the state of his body; he could see the world around him so much clearer than before. He could see so well that a fly looked as if it were moving in slow motion to his vision, besides this he could, after opening his window, see well over a twelve miles into the distance. Feeling excited at this discovery Namir was quick to pull out his Holopad and join the VR targeting range.
After entering the VR world Namir wasted no time in beginning his targeting practice; however, he set the distance as around 5 miles. His first attempt ended up being far worse than he had expected with a score of 9/10 on accuracy, still 10/10 in Range, and a score of 8.5/10 on moving targets. "I need to get used to viewing the world in such a different way, my scores should shoot up afterwards." Stating this Namir was quick to get right back to his training, ready and even excited to spend the entire day in the range getting more and more familiar with his abilities.
Namir looked down at his watch, it had now reached 20:00 GT (Galactic Time), seeing how late it was Namir decided it was finally time to leave the VR world. He had spent well over 10 hours working on getting used to his new eyes, "I'm satisfied with my aim, I managed to get a 10/10 on accuracy, a 10/10 on range, and a 9.6/10 on moving targets. My aim has improved by leaps and bounds, I can't believe how much better I am after just one Neo-Nutrient, let alone one of the worst ones possible.
~~~~
Exiting the VR world Namir came face-to-face with his mother, a concerned and saddened expression on her face. She appeared to be haggard and had bags under her eyes, very clearly she had had little to no sleep the prior night. Nadia opened her mouth to speak, lips quivering, "I thought about it last night, and I agree to let you pursue your own life choices; however, while living under my roof you must at least continue going to school at least until you graduate high school!" her voice quivered through the first half of her statement before turning serious and stern toward the end.
Namir was quick to agree to this condition, not considering this to be a big deal at all considering how much his mother had been pushing back on the idea beforehand. Afterwards Namir and his mother went out and had dinner together, having some mother-son bonding time after something that had been so trying and straining on their relationship. While having their dinner together Namir's mother had drank away her worries, this led to Namir finding out something he never would've expected; his mother was a lightweight.
A man was walking through a dark street with a women on his shoulder, his appearance intimidating as he stared down anyone who even appeared to be leering at the women. This figure is Namir and therefore, the women draped over his shoulder was his mother Nadia; Pulling the keys to his home out of his pockets Namir began to slowly open the door before locking it behind him and leading his mother into her room. Coaxing her to let go of him Namir slowly began to leave the room, yet right at the door he stopped at the sound of his mother talking,
"Namir, the reason I don't want to let you become a warrior is that I don't want you to end up like your father; he decided to become a mercenary and look at where that's led him." After stating this in a sobby manner, Nadia finally fell into a deep drunken sleep. Namir was frozen at the words, he had never known his adoptive father and Nadia would never talk about him, finally knowing something felt great and knowing that he was walking a similar path as him gave him a sense of belonging.
~~~~
"Since I've increased my aim I should get better at fighting people as their movements will be far more complex and hard to hit!" Namir stated this with a hint of excitement leaking through, he quickly pulled up his Holodisplay and scrolled through to the VR Battlegrounds. A ring appeared above and below Namir before they both began to slowly lower, after completely incapsulating him he was teleported to a different area within the VR world, the Battlegrounds. The Battlegrounds were a place for people to compete, the different species had grown tired of only having big battles every 100 years and so they came up with a way to compete without breaking the contract.
The Battlegrounds had multiple game modes, there were 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and 5v5; on top of these there were other game modes that were rotated weekly. The most degrading thing however, was that as the battlegrounds were set up by a species that were enemies to the human race, they created a game mode specifically for them. Every human who joins Battlegrounds must participate in this game mode at least once. This game mode was one in which anybody that joined was placed on one team against a group of humans, and there was a maximum set for the number of humans at 10 while there was no maximum for other races.
This game mode used to be the only one that humans could participate in; however, in the past after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of this game mode a human rose up. Tired of the discrimination toward his race he would start a revolt, being the first in well over 500 years to break the treaty. He would single-handedly slaughter over a million of the race who started Battlegrounds, while his army would kill them until near extinction. This man would come to be known as the second hero of the human race, while other species would dub him with the moniker of the third devil.
This revolt lead to the annihilation of the human army as well as the severe injuring and subsequent banishing of their leader, who's name was forgotten over the long passage of time. As a direct result of this incident the fear and hatred of other species toward humans would skyrocket for the next 200 years; this also led to the higher races being forced to set a one-time limit on the human-hunting event in Battlegrounds.
Taking a deep breath Namir was feeling both anxious and excited at the prospect of joining such an event, wondering just how many he'd be able to slaughter before he'd eventually succumb to death.