“What’s a grade-schooler doing here?”

   “Hmm? Oh, HIM. That’s a second-year.”

   “Of grade-school?”

   “No, you idiot. He’s a high-schooler just like us.”

   “Seriously? But, he’s so SMALL!”

   Everywhere Tenha Kai goes, he has been mistaken as a grade-schooler. It’s inevitable, he supposed, as being only 152cm tall will definitely cause a misunderstanding or two. At some point, he has stopped explaining to people that he’s actually seventeen years old this year.

   It’s not fair. Everyone else in his family: his parents, two younger sisters and one younger brother are all giants. Even the shortest one among them stands at 181cm tall. How come he’s the only one with the literal short end of the stick?

   Kai hates being short. Due to his pitiful height, he always has difficulty in reaching things located at tall places. He’s always the odd man out at any team sports like basketball. Any opinion that he gives out is disregarded all the time since no one ever takes a short person seriously. And worst of all, he’s an easy mark for bullies. In mere two weeks, Kai was extorted seven times and beaten up twelve times. There was even one time when he was pushed around by a real second-grader. He’s that easy a target.

   “Just fight back, Kai! Show them who’s boss, and they’ll back off real quick!" His father used to advise him all the time.

   “Exactly! I’ve spent so much time teaching you Karate. What’s the point if you can’t use it when it matters the most?”

   Fight back? Easy for them to say. Kai isn’t a formal national American Football player or four-times all-Japan Karate competition champion like they were. Any attack from a pipsqueak like him would be brushed off easily.

   Eventually, Kai went to video games to vent out his stress. He was particularly in love with fighting games. Here, his own size doesn’t matter one bit. He could thrash people all he wants. It didn’t take him long to become addicted. Most often than not, he played for hours and hours until he forgot the time. Sure, he still goes to school and has his meals with his family, but other than that he’s pretty much occupied by his game consoles. Surprisingly, his parents never said anything about it. Maybe they finally gave up on him. Good. He could game in peace, then.

   Kai’s first real break came when he joined and won a gaming competition. It was quite a big one, so the prize money was pretty lucrative too. Kai was elated. He doesn’t care one bit about the money. All he cared about was he got so skillful in playing games that he actually beat lots of other players, even professional ones.

   On Kai’s way home, he bumped into one of his bullies and his three friends. If Kai remembers correctly, that bully’s name was Itoh, well, something. Kai doesn’t know the name of the other two.

   Itoh guffaws like a baboon the moment he sees Kai.

   “Look, guys! It’s Beansprout Kai!” he says loudly while pointing his meaty index finger at Kai.

   “Beansprout Kai! Beansprout Kai!” Moron A chants.

   “Hey hey, are you ever going to bury yourself, Beansprout Kai?” Moron B asks Kai. “You might end up growing taller, you know!”

   “That’s a great idea! I’ll provide the fertilizer!”

   “By crapping on him?”

   “You know it! Craps are the best fertilizer, especially mine! You’d best be grateful, Beansprout Kai!”

   All of them proceed to laugh like the giant morons that they are. Kai didn’t bother to react. There’s no point anyway. The three idiots made fun of Kai for a few minutes before finally leaving. Kai acts like nothing had happened and continues his journey to go home. Not long after, he saw six delinquents squatting next to a convenience store. Based on their sizes, they’re most likely high school students. Suddenly, Kai remembered the prize money that he won.

   All the delinquents stood up the moment they saw Kai approaching them.

   “Would you all like to earn some money?” Kai asks them before any of them could speak.

   One of them took one step forward. He’s probably the leader of the group.

   “How much are we talking about?” he asks Kai gruffly.

   Kai told them. The amount made all the delinquents drop their jaws.

   “How may we serve you, um, sir?” the leader asks Kai.

   The leader’s attitude has become completely meek, which is a stark contrast to his attitude just a few seconds ago. Kai could get used to this.

   “I want you to find three boys and beat them up a little bit. They should still be around here.”

   “Right away, sir.”

   It didn’t take the group long to find Itoh and his two friends. They were then brought to a secluded area and beaten to the last inch of their lives. All the while, Kai was watching with a giddy feeling. He should have thought of doing this sooner.

   And thus, Kai’s crusade to get back at his bullies has begun. Kai ended up hiring the same group of delinquents every single time, and the group is always happy to do his dirty work for him so long as they get paid. Within a single week, all the teasing and bullying has miraculously stopped. On a side note, Kai keeps hearing from his parents and teachers that more and more students in their area are either hospitalized or became shut-ins.

   Eventually, Kai was arrested and charged for bribing the delinquents to commit crimes for him. He never found out how the police discovered the truth. Maybe the delinquents got caught and snitched on him. Maybe someone too smart for their own good put two and two together and figured that Kai was the mastermind.

   Either way, he pled guilty towards all charges that were handed to him. He’s at least brave enough to admit his wrongdoings. In return, he’ll be behind the bars of a juvenile prison for six months. That means no games for six whole months. Ah, well. At least everyone in his hit list was already taken care of. Oh, and he doesn’t have to go to school until he’s out. That’s definitely a huge plus. And then, the incident happened.

   “Awaken, Tenha Kai.”

   Kai was just sleeping in his prison cell as usual. When he woke up, he realized that he’s inside a clock tower with lots of spinning gears all around the place.

   “Whoa, where am I?”

   “You have been chosen to save the different worlds found in all sorts of literature-”

   “Who and where the hell are you? Show yourself!”

   “-travel to different worlds and conquer a member of the fair sex-”

   “I’m supposed to WHAT? Why do I have to care, anyway?”

   “-I wish you the best of luck.”

   “Hey, I never said that I’m going to do it! Bring me back!”

   Before Kai could protest further, he was blinded by a bright light. When he can see again, he finds himself in an alley. It was nighttime when he fell asleep, but it’s daytime here. There are tall buildings all around him, so he’s probably in some kind of big city. On a side note, he’s no longer wearing his green jumpsuit, but an assortment of clothes that he definitely doesn’t own.

   “Great, now where the hell am I?” Kai mumbles.

   As he looks around, he sees an airship passing by in the sky. The airship has huge LED screens installed at both its sides.

   “The venue for Chaos Rumble tonight is the Skulldom Arena!” the screen facing Kai writes.

   The name of the tournament and the arena told Kai everything that he wanted to know. Somehow, he’s inside the world of Chaos Rumble, which is a famous fighting game that he often played before he was locked away.

   In this world, the Competition means everything. One city worth of humans will be pitched against each other inside a closed location. The longer you survive, the more points you get. The points can be then exchanged for food, drink, and anything else that you desire. This wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that humans in this world have no special powers, abilities, power ups or cheats that Kai could exploit. He checked his phone in which the points are commonly stored. The amount is so pitiful he can’t even bribe someone to fight for him. In other words, he’s pretty much finished.

XXX

   Video games are often used as a form of escapism from real life. However, when the video game becomes real life, only logic from the shitty real life applies. There are no lucky events, there are no guides, there are no compassionate NPCs. This is the valuable lesson that Kai learned after he was ejected from the competition. A lesson that cost him two broken arms, one broken leg, two broken ribs and a few teeth. He got all those in the first five minutes of the competition alone. Supposedly, tiny people are mostly ignored during chaotic events, but not this time. To make things worse, the competition is broadcasted all over the world. Meaning, literally everyone has seen Kai being lynched and humiliated by all the other competitors.

   Since Kai is next to penniless, he can’t even get proper treatment at the hospital. He was bandaged up and tossed to a tiny room that doesn’t even have a bed. As he lies down on the cold hard ground with only a soggy blanket to warm himself, he’s thinking of one thing and one thing only.

   Whoever that sent him here is going to pay with his life.

   Kai has never murdered someone before, but he’s really looking forward to it. He’s going to make it as painful as possible-

   “Having fun so far?”

   Kai lifted up his head with a start. All of a sudden, there’s someone in the room with him. From the voice, Kai could tell that it’s a boy around his age. The boy is wearing a black hooded robe and a pair of black boots. Majority of the boy’s face is covered by the hood he’s wearing over his head.

   “Who the hell are you?” Kai demands.

   Since some of his teeth are missing, his words he spoke came out all weird and barely coherent.

   “I’m no one important, really.” the boy replies.

   “How did you get in here?”

   “Again, not important. Let me get straight to the point. Do you want to take revenge on that Voice that sent you here?”

   Kai grits whatever that’s left of his teeth.

   “I do. Whoever that was, he’ll pay dearly.” he hisses.

   “Good. I’m gathering up similar people like you who’ve had their lives made even worse by that Voice. You in?”

   “You sure you want me? I’m small and probably can’t contribute at all.”

   “Your size won’t matter one bit.” the boy assures. “The Voice didn’t give you a single thing, but I will.”

   “You mean you can give me some kind of special ability or powers?”

   “That’s right. What would you like?”

   The first power Kai thought of is having super strength. It’s what he always wanted, to be strong despite having a small body size. But not anymore.

   “I want the power to absorb other people’s powers and abilities. Their strength, special perks, everything.” Kai whispers.

   “Huh. A rather interesting power, if I may say so. All right, it shall be yours.”

   The boy reaches out his right palm at Kai, and the hand glows with a sinister purple light. A moment later, Kai is enveloped by the same light. Suddenly, he feels kind of weird. It’s like something has entered him. After that, both the boy’s hand and Kai himself have stopped glowing.

   “Your new power doesn’t exactly require you to touch your target, but there’s a range to it. Plus, some abilities might take a slower time to absorb than others.” the boy warns.

   “That’s great and all, but I can’t exactly move to test it out.”

   “Oh, right. My bad.”

   The boy snaps his fingers. Without a single warning, all of Kai’s wounds have healed. His whole body stopped aching, and his broken bones are healed. Kai slowly gets up. Yup, nothing hurts. His body is as good as new.

   “How did you do that?” Kai couldn’t help but ask the boy.

   The boy shrugged. “Magic.”

   “Wait, you can use them? Didn’t you come from the same world as me?”

   “I am, but I had the pleasure of learning how to cast spells at one of the worlds I was sent to. Ever heard of “The Overpowered Mage Wants To Live A Slow Life”?”

   Kai shakes his head. “No. So this ability-giving ability of yours is magic too?”

   “Nope. This one is an ability that I got from, well, somewhere…” the boy replied mysteriously.

   “Huh. Well, like you love to say, it’s not important.”

   “Indeed. Are you ready to go?”

   “Not yet. I still have some things to take care of in this world. Mind coming back tomorrow? Wait, this might take some time, so, um…”

   “It’s fine. You can just take things slow. Just say “I’m ready” three times when you’re done, and I’ll come here and get you.”

   With that, the mysterious boy left without a single trace. He just, well, disappeared. Kai couldn’t even see how even though he was watching the entire time. Well, time to get started.

   Kai’s first victim is a male nurse. He sneaked up on him and activated his newfound power at a distance. Almost immediately, the nurse starts convulsing violently like he’s having an epilepsy episode. Kai didn’t stop absorbing, though. After five seconds, Kai feels like the nurse has nothing more to drain. Only then he stopped using his ability.

   The ability worked like a charm. Already, Kai feels a lot stronger. But this definitely won’t be enough. He proceeds to absorb the strength of every single person inside the hospital. Doctors, nurses, patients and visitors. Male and female, young and old. Kai sucked away all their strength. After absorbing the strength of around two hundred people, Kai felt like he could take on an army. Before that, it’s time to test out his ability for real.

   Kai walks over to a man who’s lying down unconscious on the floor. Based on his huge size, he probably managed to defeat quite a few opponents.

   “Well, here goes…”

   Kai raises his right foot and steps on the man’s head. Kai barely used any strength, but the man’s head was crushed like it was smashed with a sledgehammer or something. It was supposed to be a very gruesome scene, but Kai is very elated. His ability actually worked. With his experiment successful, he moves on to murder everyone inside the hospital. It was fun and all, but it took Kai hours to wash off all the blood on his body. And he doesn’t have any clean clothes. He has a towel tied to his waist and that’s it. Ah, well.

   “I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready.” Kai chants.

   The boy appeared as promised, and he’s holding a clean set of clothing. Kai accepted them gratefully.

   “How did you know that I need these?” he asked the boy as he got changed.

   “This isn’t the first time I went to pick up members who were done with murder, so I’m pretty experienced.” the boy replied with his back turned.

   “Oh, right. You mentioned that there are others.”

   “That’s right. Now, I’m not expecting all of you to get along like good friends, but I’m banning any and all infighting. Disobey me, and you’re out of the group. Got it?”

   “Crystal. By the way, I’m Tenha Kai. And you are?”

   “I already know your name. As for mine, I’m not exactly comfortable telling others. Just call me Leader.”

   And this is how Kai became part of the Godless Organization. His main job in this group is to deal with those who were chosen by the Voice. Based on Leader's decision, he’s to either convince them to join the Organization or kill them. Kai was sent out thrice so far, and he was ordered to kill his target every single time. Some targets were easier to deal with than the others, but it was he who was triumphant in the end.

   One day, Kai was summoned by the Leader, and he’s not alone.

   “Tenha, meet Kamei Kyusuke.” Leader introduces. “I need the two of you to head out to the world of Daemon Regalia.”

   “Why am I working with someone else this time?” Kai asks curiously. “Not that I mind, though.”

   “Your target this time is rather tough to deal with. He has obtained two Special Weapons, and he’s traveling with three girls. You’d best work together.” Leader explains.

   Huh. From what Kai heard, the majority of the group’s target struggled to clear even a single world, and now there’s one who cleared two? Still, not a problem for Kai.

   Kamei walks over to Kai and reaches out his hand.

   “Let’s do this shall we, partner?” the boy says while smiling rather creepily.

   Kai took the hand and shook it.

   “Um, sure I guess, partner.”

   “Well, we’re off, Leader. Wish us luck!” Kamei tells Leader.

   “Good luck and be careful.”

   The world centered around Daemon Regalia is a continent called Faypeak. That’s the only thing Kai remembered from Kamei’s seemingly endless yapping.

   “Say, your power lets you absorb others’ powers, right?” Kamei asks Kai all of a sudden.

   “Yeah. What about it?”

   “One of the last bosses in this world can turn into a huge treant. Are you interested?”

   “...Where can I find him?”

   “Well-”

   Under Kamei’s instruction, Kai managed to find the Demon Lord Aeshma, took his ability and killed him with his own power. The demon, ahem, Daemon didn’t even stand a chance. Most importantly, thanks to one of his three abilities, Kai has become huge. Sure, being a tree human can be tough, but that’s a small price to-