I woke up feeling groggy. I found myself embracing a young and adorable baby whose skin was slightly grey. I feel exhausted, tired, and hopeless. I don’t know why I felt this way, but it was jarring. I tried to remember what happened to me, why am I sitting on the ruins of a city in the desert holding a baby. However, only splitting headaches greeted me when I tried. I looked down at the baby; a smile crept into my face unknowingly upon seeing that the baby was still peacefully sleeping. I let out a sigh of relief before looking up towards the bright blue sky, ‘Is this the end?’ I thought while feeling weak.

“I’m sorry little one, it looks like this is the end for me,” I said to the baby as I felt my body weaken every second. Fate, however, had different plans for me. When I was about to close my eyes, I heard the galloping horses coming straight to us. “Tch, we are too late,” said the leading man wearing a red turban on his head. Two more came after him, wearing the same turban, but they wore different garments. The leading man wore golden robes while the other two wore silver robes. One of the men in a silver robe gritted his teeth, “Damn Sandstormers!” The golden robe man observed the destroyed city before shaking his head, “Search for survivors!” he barked.

The two men in silver robes straighten their bodies, “Yes, sir!” they said before splitting up. The golden-robed man massaged his temple, “Damn you, Baal! Your cruelty knows no bounds…” he said solemnly. I looked at them and found a ray of hope. I mustered the last of my strength, moving my lips and shouting, “Help! Help! Help!” The man in a golden robed heard my cries of help as he quickly dismounted from his horse and ran straight in the direction of my voice. I tried to shout more, but I felt the strength in my body drain as I slowly lost consciousness. As I lost consciousness, I saw the golden-robed man appear in my vision, looking worried. “I’m glad,” I managed to utter one last word before falling into darkness.

===

The golden-robed man hurriedly caught the boy’s head before it fell to the ground. He then gently lay the young boy’s head on the wall before checking his pulse, “He’s alive,” the golden-robed man heaved a sigh of relief. The golden-robed man was about to lift the boy to his horse before discovering that the boy held a strange baby inside his arms. His eyes squinted after seeing what the baby looked like. Grey skin with blue lines running across his lips and face made him look different. The golden-robed man contemplated inside his head, ‘Should I bring this anomaly back?’ He shook his head, ‘Forget it, I’ll bring both of them back. In the end, they are both still human beings, not monsters.

===

When I blacked out, the memories that I couldn’t remember previously were opened to me. I was an orphan boy living on the outskirts of Akkaba City, where the Akkaba Tribe resided. No one wanted me as I was a war trophy that the leader brought home from annihilating the enemy tribe, which was my home. I forgot the tribe’s name as I was still too young at that time. As a war trophy, the leader of the Akkaba Tribe passed me around to his people to work as a slave laborer. I did not get paid and was left for hunger. They only fed me enough so that I could work but not enough to feel full.

Then one day, a child was born different from others. Grey skin and blue lines, the tribe was afraid of the baby and threw him into the desert. Feeling pity for the child, I picked him up and sheltered him inside my home. A shack with torn fabric as a roof cannot be called home, but it was sufficient for me to live. The baby smiled cutely when I laid him down on my bed. For the first time in my life, since I was brought to this tribe, I smiled genuinely at someone. I decided then to take care of the baby as my brother. A few weeks passed, and the food inside my shack was nearly empty. I did not know why, but the baby seemingly ate a lot. He did not even need milk and could already chew bread that I ground.

Taking care of him took a toll on me as my food intake decreased, and my body became skinnier by the day. One day, I decided that I could not live like this anymore. I resolved to escape and took the baby with me; I was about to leave the tribe only to see an army of desert raiders storming the town. Afraid of my and my little brother’s safety, I hid inside my shack for a long time, waiting for the slaughter to pass. After what seemed like hours, there was no sound from the outside. I brave myself to look outside, finding the once glorious city was in ruins. ‘This is my chance!’ I thought as I dragged my hungry and weak body with the baby brother in my arms towards the city ruins, hoping that I find food for the both of us.

Alas, luck ran out for us as the desert raiders took all the supplies that the tribe had, leaving us with nothing. “Hahaha~” I laughed weakly, slumping on the ground weakly. I found my consciousness fading before looking at the baby in my arms, “I’m sorry little brother,” before passing out. I remembered the rest before I lost my consciousness again. Now, I float inside the dark space of my mind, waiting for my body to wake up. However, other memory fragments assaulted my mind. Memories that did not belong to me, a memory of another. This time, inside the memory, I was the eldest son of the patriarch of an ancient martial arts family. As the family’s eldest son, I was taught many things.

Politic, economy, etiquette, language, survival skills, computer, modern weaponry, and last but the most important thing, martial arts. I was a prodigy in all of them; excelling was a cinch for me. However, just as I have my strength, I have my weaknesses. That is people. Yes, I did not have a talent for interacting with people. I was great at making them do my bidding, yes, but that was due to my strength. For all my years as the heir, I never had a genuine friend apart from one. I am what you call an introvert. I don’t like interacting with people more than necessary. I prefer to spend my free time alone, in my own company, watching movies, and anime, reading novels and manga or playing single-player games.

Shiera, my only friend, used to come and visit every once in a while, checking in on me and talking to me. I felt that in the entire world, only she was the one that understood me. She accepted me for who I am, not who I had to become. She smiled at every story I told her, and I, too, listened to every story she told me. One day, I waited inside my residence for her visit. Hours after hours, I waited; unknowingly to me, night had already fallen outside. Frowning, I called one of the servants, but he did not know anything about it. Worried about my friend’s safety, I rushed out of the house and visited her home. Shiera’s family was also a martial arts family like mine, and once inside, I found her family grieving.

“What happened!?” I asked. One of her family members noticed me, “Shiera’s got caught in a car accident,” he said, holding his tears. My shoulders dropped after hearing about my friend’s demise. My eyes were empty, and my mind was blank. I turned around, walking away from her house. The family member that informed me tried to stop me, but I wouldn’t budge. Unknowingly, I was back at home. That night, I cried myself out until morning. And since then, I locked myself in my room, wallowing in my sadness alone. At that time, the only thing that could cheer me up was the pop culture around the world. I got engrossed in them, particularly films from Marvel, Iron Man, Captain America, the Avengers, etc. Anime, manga, comic books, novels, and movies became my everyday life; it got to the point that I knew about them more rather than my own family.

One day, my family decided they could not tolerate me anymore and barged into my room. My father was furious, and my siblings watched with amusement. I took my father’s beating while watching my siblings joyfully watch me. I frowned, but that’s it. I did not scream, nor did I beg the beating to stop. I just looked at my father with deadpan eyes while he was beating me. When he got tired, my father turned around, “Do whatever you want!” he said before leaving with my siblings. I got up nonchalantly, dusting my clothes afterward. After a couple of days, my residents’ electricity was cut off, and the servants all left me. I was alone in my residence, which suits me just fine.

A couple of days later, my residence had electricity again as I paid for it with the money I acquired from the internet. You see, while I locked myself in my room, I found another hobby that earned me money, and that was editing. I earned a big chunk from it as customers were always satisfied with my work. I could say that I was one of the best editors out there. As the servant left my residence, I taught myself how to take care of my own body. I learned cooking and cleaning, and I learned how to wash my own clothes. And by the next year, I was completely independent. Just as life finally went right for me, I received an anonymous letter. ‘Shiera’s death was not an accident,’ it said inside the letter. I gripped the letter tightly until it was crumpled down.

‘Whoever did this must be playing some sick joke to me.’ Despite trying to ignore the letter’s content, I couldn’t help myself but investigate. I used the money I earned to hire a private investigator and told her about Shiera’s case and the anonymous letter that was sent to me. Four months passed, and the private investigator returned to me in shocking news. Turned out that the people that murdered Shiera were my siblings. They wanted to seize power from my hands but couldn’t find a way to do so due to my brilliance. So, they target Shiera. I found a recording of them chaining Shiera up, trying to force her to do a job for them; that was to kill me.

Shiera refused, even under the extreme torture they did to her. “I won’t betray my friend” was her sentence before her life was taken. I punched the monitor in front of me, rage filled my body, and I swore vengeance on that very same day. Vengeance I swore, and vengeance I did. I picked off my siblings one by one until only one left. I killed all of them, all but one. Killing was nothing new to me. The successor of the martial arts family must know how to kill as I had my first kill when I was eleven. To this day, I do not enjoy killing, nor do I want to kill, but this was necessary. The last one of my siblings was my replacement heir. A less competent version of myself, so to say.

I observed him from afar with my binoculars. He was with his associates, drinking inside of a courtesan house in the red-light district. I resolved myself before pressing the trigger on my finger. Said courtesan house blew up, and using the chaos, I sneak inside. I found my sibling unconscious and defenseless. I took a dagger from inside my jacket and plunged it into my sibling’s throat. The bastard woke up suddenly with a smile, stopping my dagger from hitting his throat, “Why hello, brother.”

I let go of the dagger, leaping away from him as men surrounded my siblings. “How are you, brother? I hope not good as always”, he said with a smile. “You!” I gritted my teeth at his smug face. My sibling was amused at my reaction, “Thank you, by the way, for eliminating the others. Thanks to you, I can become the only one in power within the family.” I frowned, and suddenly, something clicked within me, “You’re the one that sent the letter?” I asked, anger visible on my face. “Bingo!” my sibling snapped his fingers, “I knew that with a little push, you would investigate your only friend’s death. And true to what I predicted, you acted based on emotions once that video was delivered to you”, he said with glee.

“What!?” my eyes opened wide. “Hahaha, whose idea do you think to go after your friends? All our siblings are only a bunch of fools. They did not even know that I secretly recorded them torturing your friend,” my siblings laughed as he leaned his body forward. He grabbed his eyebrows with his hand, pulling them up, opening his eyes wide, “You see, my brother. To grab power, one must have patience in doing things. I thought it was enough that you holed yourself inside your room, and I could easily take over. Who would’ve thought those fools re-enacted their agreement and fought me for inheritance…. So, I thought of a brilliant idea, why not use you to deal with those pricks and keep my hands clean? Two birds, one stone! Hahahaha~~~” his creepy and deranged laugh echoes inside the room.

My fist clenched even harder, “Bastard!” My sibling finished his creepy laugh before looking at me with contempt, “Now, my brother, since your usefulness had come to an end, how about we end things” he said, raising his hand, “Attack!” he barked. Smiled formed on my lips, “I’m glad, brother. I’m glad you’re more of a piece of shit than I thought you were. Now, I don’t have qualms about killing you!” I rushed towards his henchmen, taking them out one by one. After I finished off the last of his henchmen, I stood in front of my sibling, staring him right in his eyes. “Impossible!” he said fearfully. “Guess you should’ve trained more, brother!” I said as I shoved my hand to his heart.

I tried to get my hand out of his body, but my sibling laughed maniacally, “It came to this in the end,” he said, grinning. “What are you doing!?” I struggled, trying to pull my hands out of his body. “Hahaha, farewell, brother. May fate be kind to us in our next life!” he said before his body exploded, bringing me alongside the entire red-light district with him. “It is done, sir!” a man in black reported to his coms after seeing the explosion with his binoculars. A deep and familiar voice echoes inside the man in black’s ears, “Good. Those old fogeys will accept my reins for a couple more years. Go back. Your job is done.” The man in black sighed, “Yes, family leader,” he said before disappearing.