It was now the next day, and the sunlight illuminated the city and its people.
All the people were going on about their day, trying to survive to live another day. But in a particular alleyway, a child sat near a body.
The surrounding air was filled with the smell of blood.
Sam was still quivering, his eyes now swollen with eye bags under his eyes.
A crowd surrounded him, looking at the pitiful state the young boy was in.
Sam stood up and looked around, searching for a man with enough strength to carry his mother to the burial center.
After some observations, he found one man and gestured to him to come closer.
The man hesitated a little before coming towards him.
"What is it?"
"Help me carry her to the burial center, please."
"Sorry bu-"
"I will pay you 20 bits."
The man nodded his head and carried the woman on his back.
Both of them then started to make their way there.
On the way, the man opened his mouth to speak multiple times but didn't speak.
Sam understood his reasoning, though in this part of the world, a person can only fend for themself.
They reached the center, and Sam filled out some forms and paid 20 bits to the man for the burial.
Sam didn't speak a word and remained silent the entire time.
His eyes now looked cold and lifeless, as if he had lost all meaning to live anymore.
He looked at his mother's lifeless body one more time before they took it away.
Sam then slowly moved back to his makeshift home on the way, looking at the people making their way to their jobs.
He let out a sigh and again began to walk home.
"Wait, Yuwa!"
A little girl bumped into him.
"Ow...Oh! I am sorry" she bowed her head slightly.
Sam nodded his head slightly. He was in no mood to talk.
Then the mother of the girl came up and apologized.
Sam again nodded only and went on his way.
'Seems...like life is just throwing jabs at me now...'
The boy reached the alleyway; the people threw cold glances at him.
But he didn't pay them any attention and quietly sat down at the wooden plank placed on the ground as a makeshift bed.
The smell of blood still stained the place.
Sam stared blankly at the wall. The people around him thought the boy had lost his mind, but they couldn't see the faint blue screen in front of him.
"What is this?" He murmured to himself.
[ Stabilizing the Authority... ]
***
Name: Sam
Status: Human
Skill: Concepts
***
He raised his eyebrows in confusion.
"What? Is this?"
He touched the only skill he had; another screen popped up before him.
[Concept: ????? [???] ??????]
"That really is unhelpful...."
Sam covered himself with the blanket and fell asleep.
The following days for him were sad, lonely, and uneventful. Nothing special happened; it was as if that night's incident never occurred.
All he found were those cold glares the others gave him; he felt like he was slowly suffocating and eventually would die like this, not being able to fulfill his mother's death wish.
---
It was another ordinary day, people scrambling to live for another day.
Sam woke up due to the sunlight that illuminated his face. Slowly, he woke up, rubbing his eyes.
He looked around; it seemed like everyone had already gone to do their things for the day.
He then felt something strange; he couldn't really describe the feeling, but it was there.
"Huh? My chest feels weird..."
He gently put his hand on his chest, checking if his heart was beating properly or not, which it was.
Sam then got up and went to his usual spot; the closer he got to it, the more his chest started giving off a weird feeling.
He endured through it because he had to eat to survive for tomorrow.
He sat there begging for the whole day, and today was a lucky day, as he got 60 bits.
Getting up, ready to go back, the feeling instantly turned for the worse. Now his head felt light and dizzy.
His body was sweating profusely, and after a while, it started shivering.
It was then that a hand came in from the back, holding onto him tightly.
"You got your weekly payment?"
Sam slowly turned around as the men from before were now standing in front of him.
The feeling was now out of control as his heart began to beat faster and faster.
He slowly handed them the money.
"Good boy, it seems you have learned your lesson from the last time."
He didn't wait another second and went back running through the alleyways.
He reached his bed and puked several times.
"Hufff...hufff..."
"What...was that?"
The intense feeling in his chest was gone; it was like it never existed.
Sam sat down in the makeshift bed, pondering on what had happened.
It took a long time before he realized.
"Was...that?"
"Was I able to feel the... incoming danger?"
He shook his head. "No... idiot, that can't be... right?"
He began to contemplate the situation: "If that really were true, then...my life...could change...forever...."
Sam sat there for a while, pondering for an unknown amount of time until the other came; soon, the feeling of suffocation was back as those same cold, harsh glares were back.
"Hay! Isn't that the kid whose mother died?"
"Ya that is him"
"Wow such a pitiful child"
"Not to mention his mother didn't do anything but sit and sleep the whole day as he did all the work"
"What?"
"Ya"
He got up to get some fresh air.
On the way giving the people were bad-mouthing about his mother a cold glare that was filled with killing intent.
He reached outside the alley and looked up at the stars, admiring their beauty.
Then he looked down at the people who were shivering in the cold of the night, the factory producing the harmful gases.
He took a long breath; the air was filled with nothing but the smell of buried charcoal and smoke.
"The world is too beautiful to be this cruel..."
*Bammm!
A thunderous sound echoed through the night city.
Sam jolted and looked in the direction from which the mysterious sound came.
"What...was that?"
He looked around, and more and more people began gathering where Sam was and began to look towards the direction from which the sound came, whispering about what it could be.
Sam shivered, his body began to sweat profusely again, and his head felt light and dizzy. This time, the feeling was way worse.
'That feeling again-this is not good!'