On one seemingly ordinary day, a young boy was born with the name Loki.
Loki had a loving family, as most children have when young. He loved his family and enjoyed his life while living with a child's blissful innocence.
That was until his family died when he was young, resulting in him growing up in an orphanage.
Loki had silver hair and yellow eyes, which made him quite cute to all who saw him at the orphanage, but from early on, he was different. His parent's death at a young age led to him maturing early, allowing him to display his extremely high intelligence.
Due to this, he became detached from other kids at the orphanage leading to the workers trying to communicate with him to no avail.
Through the years, Loki realized that it was not only his intelligence that was high, however.
There was one thing that seemed to radiate from the core of his being as he learned more about the world.
That was an endless greed for more.
Ambition that others in the orphanage did not seem to have. In all Loki had met, none seemed to have the same hunger for more from the bottom of their being.
He could not understand how these people were happy with their tiny lives when people were living better than them.
He did not want to settle for a small job barely scraping by. He wanted more than life had to offer other than the mediocre life that seemed to await him.
He wanted to be at the top.
Being pretty good at tinkering Loki was able to join the engineering club at his high school quickly making achievements. His brilliance in creating seemed to come to life and he quickly realized that this was his chance.
Realizing that with his conditions, he needed a scholarship if he wanted a good life he dreamed of he quickly aimed to make himself known.
He devoted himself to school and made sure to get perfect grades all while continuing to show excellence in the engineering field.
Countless hours all to make sure he was at the top. This seemingly tasteless life was lived with absolute dedication, all to fulfill his greed for more.
Although his life was seen as monotone to many, the thought of his ambition being fulfilled left him extremely happy.
After hard work and dedication in school, he reached the top 0.02 percentile. One of the top scorers in the entire nation.
His hard work had paid off with him getting a scholarship to one of the best engineering schools in the country, but all this seemed to only further fuel this hunger that seemed to burn within him.
After graduating he quickly attracted funding to his newest project.
Using resources allocated to him he finished the prototype of a new piece of holographic technology. Although incomplete, when finished it would be absolutely miles ahead of anything on the current market.
Everything seemed to be going in the right direction.
At this moment, however, Loki learned just how unfair and dark this world was.
It turns out that one of the powerful businessmen who had invested in him had decided it would be more profitable for him to take hold of his project for himself now that it was almost completed.
While away his lab was ransacked and all of the blueprints and future designs were stolen. By the time he had found out, he had already lost everything.
He tried to report it to the police but they said there was no evidence to support his claim. The businessman trying to silence me quickly launched a smear campaign against me in hopes of leaving me unable to attract any new investors.
His lack of money also meant that he had no way to fund the completion of the project himself, which led to his downward spiral.
What should have become his start towards the top led to his descent into hell.
In the next two years, Loki had tried to use whatever money he could to finish the project, but he was too late.
They had already patented his half baked prototype and began selling it to the public. Even if he finished it in the future they could claim he stole from them.
Realizing this a cold rage seethed within him.
It was then that Loki began to deal in darker parts of the world. Although he could not reach the top in the light, he could be at the top in the dark.
Loki began training and joined a large underground agency. He began to devote himself to intense combat training and achieved great success.
With the money he made from some jobs he was able to finally finish his hologram tech.
He could project perfect lifelike holograms of whatever he coded into them with it.
While taking jobs, he used his new invention to great success in his new field. He used his holograms to play with his targets like puppets on a string. A string that he masterfully controlled.
Time led to his deeds becoming more known, and he soon became known as "Trickster" in the underground world due to the holograms he would deploy and his white mask with a significant smile.
Loki did not fail to see the irony in this situation either, with his name being a homage to the God of Trickery.
While in the underground world, he made a few friends and worked with some. One of them, however, had an obsession with anime and Manga, which he also came to enjoy.
Anime and Manga allowed him to picture whole new worlds. Worlds, where one could rise based on merit, were something that made his eyes shine with new light.
He had quickly risen to one of the top mercenaries in the underworld.
Assassination, Escort, Robbery… He had done it all.
All but one thing left undone.
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It was a cold winter, and it was snowing heavily.
Loki quickly entered the building avoiding all the guards.
Getting close to the target he activated a hologram at the rooftop opposite to him with a rigged sniper appearing to be held. He quickly activated the program to fire the sniper from his watch causing the whole building to go into panic.
Guards rushed out of the main office with him quickly sneaking past them.
Getting into the office Loki quickly pulled out his gun and held it at the man in the chair.
"Let me guess… Under that mask is you Loki…" the man said with a smile seemingly unconcerned with the gun in his face.
Loki's eyes narrowed.
"When I heard that one of the number one mercenaries in the underworld had seemingly better holographic technology then me I knew only you could do it…" The man said leaning back in his chair.
"Did you ever expect a day like today Hector?" Loki asked seemingly coy.
"Oh Loki… You always were arrogant."
Loki was about to respond suddenly felt his brain sending warning signals.
With quick speed, he rolled to the left when he heard a loud gunshot.
He looked back to see a bullet hole in the ground where he had just been standing.
Slowly walking out from the shadows behind Hector was a man he knew by heart. It was one of the number one assassins in the current underworld.
His name resounded throughout the country, known only as blank. He could easily be recognized by his blank black mask that seemed to cover his entire face.
"I didn't think you would come to kill me like this 'blank'…" said Loki in a joking tone.
Although he was smiling and was seemingly friendly, he wanted nothing more than to pull out his gun and kill him.
Blank didn't answer and instead opted to continue firing.
Loki was well prepared, however, and quickly began to move with rapid speed. By following the gun's muzzle, he could adjust his body, allowing him to dodge the many bullets being shot at him.
As he was running, he reached into his back pocket, pulled out small black balls, and threw them all over the ground.
In a few seconds, there seemed to be countless figures of him with his plain mask and a giant smile.
Loki quickly weaved through the figures silently like a panther stalking his prey.
He quickly aimed his gun and fired at blank while mixing in with holograms on the floor.
Blank seemed to not even realize what had happened for a second when he started to hold his neck and collapsed.
Loki was starting to feel relieved when suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down only to see a bullet hole in his chest.
He coughed up blood only to see Hector with a gun smoking in his hand behind him.
"Hehehe… Who would have thought that you had such little faith in the current number one assassin…." Loki choked out.
Hector behind him didn't seem to care and merely chuckled as he picked up the small black balls on the floor.
"I really have to thank you Loki… With this I can once again make a lot of money." Hector said with a smile.
When he was off guard, however, Loki spit out a needle coated in poison from his mouth.
Caught off guard, the needle hit him in the arm quickly causing his arm to turn black.
Seeing this, Loki laughed before falling on his back as Hector panicked and tried calling other guards.
As he lay on his back and felt his warm blood flowing out, he saw the cold moonlight falling in from the window.
The moon looked like the most exquisite jewel he had ever seen.
"What a pathetic life…" he thought as his vision faded.