"Mm, mom." A 4-year-old little boy with black hair and deep blue eyes called out as he pointed his finger to a stall selling honeyed milk candies.
"Be a good boy, Raven. Maybe next time alright?" A middle-aged woman with chestnut brown hair and dark brown eyes replied with a smile.
"No! I want to have one." The boy yelled as he stubbornly tried to drag her toward the stall.
"I'll buy you next time, I promise." The middle-aged woman said as he reassured him and dragged him away from the place.
The little boy could only stare with a dejected expression at the stall selling honeyed milk candies as they left the place and headed somewhere else.
Sob…sob…
A young girl with chestnut brown hair and blue eyes was seen standing in front of the little boy who looked several years older than him as she comforted him, though with an irritated expression.
"Didn't I tell you not to play with those things?!" The young girl yelled as she watched his little brother weeping.
"Hik…I just… want to watch…Hik." The little boy's eyes were red and wet as he cried from the pain when he fell when he tried to reach the large telescope.
It was a large telescope left behind by their father before he left for overseas, but it wasn't three years after Raven was born that they learned their father had abandoned them. It was an object they 'buried' in the storage room when the little boy Raven found it collecting dust in the corner.
'sigh, how annoying.' The young girl massaged her temples though she was annoyed, she bend down and gave a gentle stroke on his arms and legs to relieve the pain.
"You should've called me when you want to watch the meteor shower. There's no need to use the telescope as it can be seen visibly in the sky. Come with me, Let's watch it together." She said with a helpless smile.
A meteor shower. It was an astronomical event where rocks in outer space fell toward the earth and created streaks of light in the night sky. Though it wasn't a rare occurrence, Raven wanted to watch as it would be his first time seeing one.
Raven and her sister went outside where they also saw many people coming out to watch the meteor shower this time of the year.
He looked up and countless specks of light were reflected in his eyes. It was then, streaks of light began to traverse leaving behind trails of fading blurry light in the night sky.
"Wahh, beautiful." Raven silently muttered as he was engrossed by the sight as it was his first time seeing it. He looked around and saw that everyone was also captivated by the spectacular phenomenon. It wasn't after an hour and a half later that it began to disappear and everyone went back to their homes when suddenly － Darkness enveloped everything in his sight.
Raven was the only one left in this deep darkness. He felt as though there was a heavy pressure bearing down on him as he tried to move but couldn't. He tried to scream, but no voice came out of his throat. It was as if the darkness had rendered his perception and senses useless, making him unable to move. He struggled continuously, endlessly, as though years had passed, striking great fear in him.
***
It was then.
"Ahh!"
A scream rang out in the hospital room where a young man who was laying down on the hospital bed suddenly woke up, breathing heavily.
"Damn it, what was that… A dream? That felt way too vivid to be a simple dream." Raven said as he grasped his forehead drenched in sweat. He looked around the place and found himself in a hospital room as he remembered what happened.
"Right, damn it. I was chased by those f*ckers to death." Raven cursed as he recalled what happened right after he came out of that ancient ruin. After he saw that unknown and mysterious language that rang in his mind, he didn't even notice that he had dozed off for hours and by the time he regained consciousness, the sun had already set.
He quickly left the place as he headed back to Prime City, the country's first stronghold built around the dimensional gate on the other side. When suddenly he encountered a group of men moving around the place.
Raven hid behind a tall broken pillar when he heard them talking about the treasures being taken already.
"hey, there isn't anything around here, boss. All of it must have been taken by that kid already." one of the men said.
Raven flinched when he heard this and tried to sneak out under the shadows of the night, but he didn't expect that he'd be noticed by a scout among them. Anxiety rose from him as he quietly turned back and escaped when they felt his presence.
What happened next was obvious.
－It was then he noticed a white-colored screen in front of him. 'What is this? Wait…no way...' his jaw dropped and his mouth widened as he couldn't believe his eyes as he recalled the one phenomenon that occurs after a person becomes an ascender.
The so-called Arcadian System. No one knows what its origins are as they only know that it's connected to the other world, coming to existence after the great catastrophe.
Status Window:
[General Information]
Name: Raven Ingram
Age: 17
Alias: Rave, Little birdie, Troublesome, Newbie.
Affiliation: -|-
Sequence 9: Apprentice
Profession: -|-
Alignment: Neutral Good
Affinity: ???
Strength: F
Agility: F+
Endurance: E
Stamina: F+
Mana: -F
Abilities: None
'Am I dreaming? Or am I already in heaven….' Raven muttered in a daze as he gently touched his face to see if it was real.
"Haha! You f*ckers, I'm alive and awakened even." Raven grinned and said in glee.
'Thank god, I actually made it out alive!' Raven breathe a sigh of relief that he was still alive after being chased all the way to death's door.
"But what's with the question marks?" Raven was puzzled by this when he saw his affinity.
It was then a nurse came in hurriedly.
"Are you ok? How are you feeling?" The nurse with brown hair fixed in a bun style who looked to be in her late 20's hurriedly asked with a smile. It seemed that she had heard him scream and came rushing down the room as she pushed the door with a face of concern and worry.
'Ah, right.' Raven gave a wry smile as he remembered that he screamed when he woke up which must have alerted the nurse.
"Ah, I'm fine, nothing's wrong, just had a bad dream."
"The doctor will be here soon, ok?" The nurse said with a smile as she thoroughly checked his condition.
Raven nodded, when he suddenly remembered －
"Ah, can I ask how long have I been here?"
That he doesn't have much money left to use to pay his hospital bills after he bought that information and the preparations using his savings when coming to the other side.
"You've been unconscious for 5 days. Is there anything wrong?" The nurse replied.
Raven blanked out for a few seconds when he heard that and smiled immediately when she asked him. 'Crap. I'm f*cked." He swore inwardly.
"No, it's nothing." He smiled wryly.
"You're a tough one aren't ya?" A voice came in as a man with a white coat was walking through the door as he nodded to the nurse.
"I'm the doctor responsible for your case. You can just call me Dock, well that's how my name is pronounced anyway. Though I'm not an ascender, you don't have to worry about me being a quack[1]." he chuckled, making a light joke.
"Ah, haha I see. Thank you." He inspected him for a bit when Raven heard him.
"But kid, you should really thank your lucky stars. This is the first time someone has awakened on the verge of death, luckily those guardians were patrolling the area and found you. If not for that, your soul could have wandered somewhere already, not even the first generation of ascenders had a meet-up with death while awakening." Dock replied as he was doing a medical check-up on him.
"Anyways, looks like everything is already fine. You're recovering faster than usual, must be the perks of being an awakened."
"Ah, can I ask? Did anyone come to visit?" Raven asked, knowing that he didn't have a good close relationship with anyone, excluding his two best friends.
"Visit huh, well there was. A young woman often came to see you, and another young man came to visit twice before." The doctor looked at him but shrugged it off since it wasn't his first time seeing something like this. Every patient he encountered had their own situation. Knowing that the young man in front of him only had 2 people come to visit, he must have his own as well.
"Ah, I see. Thank you." Raven replied with a straight face.
The doctor left after he told him to rest for another day or two before leaving and settling the accounts for his hospital bills. He lay down on the bed and turned on the HoloVision, the third-dimensional advanced invention that replaced the modern TVs.
Zzp, pchh.
He swiped his hand to the side, changing the HoloVision's channel when the door suddenly opened with a loud bang and saw a woman with chestnut brown hair and blue eyes who looked to be in her mid 20's enter the room with an irritated expression mixed with concern and worry.
She was Dawn Ingram, a sequence 9 apprentice working as a government assistant manager. She was 26 years old and Raven's only sister as she took care of him most of the time after their mother, who passed away a few years later as she couldn't handle the financial burden and pain when their father, left them to enter another family to pursue greater power.
"Y-you punk, you're finally awake!" Dawn yelled as she smacked him on the head.
"Aw! You shouldn't be smacking a patient's head you know?"
"Patient? Patient my ass! I really thought you were a goner! Do you know how much you made me worried when I got the sudden call?" Dawn retorted and gave him a sudden hug.
"Right, haha sorry for making you worried." Raven gave a helpless smile but when he heard her next words－.
"You still had the nerve to laugh? I almost fainted to death when I saw you! And now I had to use two-thirds of my money to pay for your hospital bills." Dawn replied as she wiped her eyes with her hands as if she was shedding tears."
'You mean fainted to death when you saw the hospital bills right?' Raven's eye twitched as he saw through her meaning and gave a wry smile as he thought inwardly.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it. I'll pay you back as soon as I got out of here. I'm an ascender now, by the way."
"Hey! I-I'm not talking about that you know－oh? A blessing in disguise huh." Dawn sighed, knowing the dangers of being an ascender also transcend those of danger encountered by ordinary humans.
"Are you going to register then? Do you want me to accompany you? I know someone in the Government."
"It's fine, I can just do it alone." Raven brushed her offer aside as there is something he needs to do alone and he didn't want her to get involved. 'I need to find those f*ckers and have my revenge, ah that damn Adrienne too.'
"Alright then, I need to get going now. Rest for another day before leaving, I already left a change of clothes for you since I still got work to do."
"Alright, thanks… and I'm sorry for making you worried."
"Take care, little birdie."
'Little birdie huh? What a ridiculous nickname, seriously.' Raven chuckled as he watched her back as she left the room.
***
Two days after.
He left the hospital after another day of rest as per the doctor and her sister's advice and went to a restaurant somewhere downtown to have lunch as he ordered 4 portions of pork belly and mushroom soup.
He headed to the government's ascenders registration hall to register as a newly awakened ascender and get an official status card just like the one Adrienne showed before. It was the identification used globally issued by the World union to identify ascenders apart from ordinary people.
After the World union was built, it not only supported the numerous governments of every country to accommodate those awakened people but also in assisting in preventing gate outbreaks, maintaining order, and gathering data in exploring the new world to search for knowledge that could lead to the truth regarding the dimensional crack and the mysterious status window phenomenon.
…
The sunlight shone and a taxi could be seen stopped by and a young man exited the car.
"hmm, it's really big no matter how many times I come here." Raven uttered as he looked marvelously at the large structure surrounded by towering pillars in a circular formation. In the front, a large sign that says 'Ascenders Authority' made of polished silver stone could be seen hanging above.
'Must be nice to be rich huh.' he thought inwardly as he rummage through his pockets and took his wallet out and stared at it for a while before storing it back.
"Well, I'll be one soon anyway." Raven said with a grin as he clenched his hands and took a step forward and started walking toward the entrance of the place.
Today will be the day that he registers as an official ascender and take his first step to ascending and fulfilling his ambitions, as he can finally say goodbye to his poverty-stricken life and welcome a life of prosperity － But unknowingly, what awaits him was a world full of dangers and secrets of the other side.
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[1]. Its a Filipino game played by children called Doctor quack quack where one is chosen to be a quack doctor while the rest hold hands and entangles with each other.