This story unfolds in a world mirroring Earth during the late 90s, a time when a web of ruthless criminal gangs held the city of San Verado in an iron grip. Located in the heart of Eryndale.
It is world's most dominant superpower, the city's rain-slicked streets and neon-lit alleys served as the brutal stage for an endless war for territory and influence.
Our protagonist, Ray Walker, enters this gritty world of gangsters to avenge his murdered brother and cleanse the filthy underworld of San Verado.
This is story of a boy who once lost everything and now, he is determined to take it all back.
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17 March 1996
In small house, hidden away and covered by the surrounding slums.
A fourteen-year-old boy sat facing a man in his mid-twenties, the two of them locked in a heated argument.
"Brother, you don't have to work for them—they're bastards who will kill you the moment their work is done," the boy said as he stand up on his feet.
To his response young man said with worried look on his face...
"Ray, it's not like that, lf I do this work, we'll have enough money to send you to the school and we can finally eat food every day to our heart's content without worrying about money.
"I don't want to go to school, and I'm happy with what I have. If it's about me, I'll just find work somewhere," Ray said, his eyes starting to tear up.
As he said...
"Do you not remember what happened to Mother and Father?"
.....!
At his question, the young man eyes widened he stood up from his seat and began walking toward the door, leaving the house as Ray said something that pierced his heart.
"Brother Kevin, please... don't do this. It isn't necessary," Ray choked out, the words thick with a fear he couldn't hide.
"You're the only family I have left. I don't want to lose you."
As this last word left his lips, the tears he had been fighting finally broke, streaming down his face in hot, silent tracks.
Kevin's hand froze on the doorknob, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the cold metal. He didn't turn back, even as his shoulders trembled to the sound of Ray's sobbing. He wanted to stay, but the heavy weight of the gun at his waist reminded him of the life he had already chosen.
And just like that, he left the room, leaving Ray alone crying in the empty house.
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In the rundown factory to the south of San Verado, more than a hundred men wearing the same uniform—armed with guns, katanas, and heavy gear—stood in silence, their eyes fixed on the man seated atop the stage.
The man appeared to be in his late twenties, his long black hair framing a pair of dead, hollow eyes that had seen far too much. His lean, muscular frame was that of a seasoned fighter who had spent ages forged in the heat of endless battle.
He was none other than one of the Four Devils of San Verado, the ruthless and calculating leader of the Verado Vulture gang, known to the streets as..
Malphas Vane "The Callous."
He is known as callous—a cruel, calculating man of rigid ideals who offered no mercy to his foes; yet, while he also remained steadfast ally to his friends.
Those who dared cross him met their end in truly heinous ways.
Step!
"'Silence,' a cold voice rang out, and the room fell deathly quiet. A man in a midnight-black uniform approached the stage; though it mirrored the others in color, the superior cut and unique design signaled a rank far above the rest."
He was the Vice Commander of the Verado Vultures, known to all as Kaelen "The Cruel."
He approached the stage and spoke....
"'You all know why we are gathered here today,' Kaelen began, his voice dropping to a dangerous chill. 'Yesterday, the Northside Reapers—one of the four major gangs—shattered our pact, slaughtering twenty of our own.
"Among the fallen was the Boss's sister too. To avenge this act we will no longer show the mercy to this bastards; this is no longer a dispute—it is the beginning of war.'"
As those words left his lips, a surge of raw, electric fury swept through the room; every eye burned with a predatory hunger, and a hundred hands tightened into white-knuckled fists, ready to tear apart the ones who had slaughtered their comrades.
The room reached a fever pitch as Kaelen's voice cut through the rage once more.
'Tonight at eight, we will attack the Meridian Square—the heart of Reaper territory. Arm yourselves with everything you have; tonight, we do not fight for territory, but for blood. This is a battle to the death.'"
At same time....
From a shadowed corner of the factory, Kevin watched the scene unfold with a steady, unblinking gaze. As the tension in the room reached its breaking point, he whispered to the silence: 'Let the vultures feed.'"
After that....
He pulled a locket from beneath his collar and clicked it open, revealing a faded photograph of his parents and Ray. For a fleeting second, the coldness in his eyes softened into a look of profound sadness; then, with a sharp snap of the casing, he tucked the memory away and vanished into the crowd leaving the factory.
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18 March 1996
Morning 10:00 Am,
Ray was looking at the entrance in a trance, haunted by the fact that his brother was now nearly twenty-four hours late. Reaching a breaking point, he grabbed his jacket, resolved to find the truth, and crossed the threshold into the darkened street."
As he walked through the narrow, rain-slicked streets of the slums, the hushed, strange murmurs of the locals began to reach his ears
"'Did you hear?' an old man whispered to his friend, leaning in close as Ray passed. 'There was a gang war yesterday at Meridian Square—a total bloodbath.'"
"'Between whom?' his friend asked.
"Looks like a war broke out between San Verado's two biggest gangs, and by the time it was over, more than a hundred people were dead."
Upon hearing this, Ray felt uneasy; he quickly boarded a bus and rushed toward Meridian Square.
When he reached the square, his face turned pale; hundreds of bodies lay there, torn apart by gunfire and katanas. Every imaginable weapon had been used in the slaughter. As he scanned the carnage, he desperately began searching for his brother.
The police tried to stop him, but he slipped past them; as he searched through the bodies ,then he saw a body of man in his early twenties whose face and body had been completely crushed.
But Despite the carnage, the dead man was still clutching a locket and a small piece of paper in his hands.
Ray knew instantly that the locket belonged to his brother. As he reached for it, his knees buckled, and he collapsed in the dirt, finally realizing his brother was dead.
At that moment...
""Why did you die?" Ray sobbed, his voice breaking as he clung to the locket. "You promised me, didn't you? You said we would have a good life and eat well every day. You were going to send me to school... so why did you leave me, brother? Answer me!" As the memories of their time together flashed through his mind, Ray's heart sank into a hollow depth of despair."
As he held onto his brother's hand with tears in his eyes, he realized something, and his face darkened as he spoke...
"It's them, isn't it? The ones who killed our parents... they're the ones who killed you, too, brother—those so-called gangsters of San Verado who ignore the innocent and just kill."
Next moment whipping his tear off..
Clutching his brother's hand, his eyes burning with rage, Ray screamed toward the vast city of San Verado: "You bastards who treat life like a mere game, I will show you all what true despair is; from now on, your time is over, and you will experience the true horrors of life because, I am going to kill you all!"