It was sunshine, calm and quiet as the morning birds started chirping. The cheerful atmosphere bringing joy to everyone's as they start their day. Everyone should be happy, but one individual is in a state of shock... and despair.
Inside a small apartment room, a man could be seen kneeling in front of his television with vacant eyes. The morning news reported by the anchor brought waves of depression.
[Breaking News! The international multi-billion investment firm "Please Invest Here" have declared bankruptcy.]
As the news played on TV, he just kneeled in silence. "Guess I'll die." He muttered to himself.
[Due to the bursting of the VR Bubble that the company declared bankruptcy. It was estimated that the damage would be in trillions. This would be the greatest financial crisis ever since the "Depressing Era," it is predicted that more companies will also declare bankruptcy in the following week should no actions be done. We've invited renowned financial analyst Warren Smorgasbord to give his expert analysis.]
The man looked to be 16-17 years old. He has a head full of white-haired also his eyebrows along with his eyelashes are white. It seems to be that he has a severe case of albinism. He wore a black tracksuit with white trims. Over his left eye is a matching white medical eyepatch. His shoulder length hair tied into a ponytail. His somewhat handsome and delicate face is covered in despair beyond belief.
He was supposed to earn tons of money. He just invested all of his remaining hard earned cash after hearing a tip that the price of that investment firm would increase 90 dollars per stock to 300 dollars.
But everything blew up. It was all because of that accursed VR technology. You see VR technology is already invented and at its toddler years. Just like what happened in the Dot Com Bubble, people started investing tons of money in VR companies.
And then the people thought, what now? It seems that the VR industry does not have the money-making content that would generate income.
People then started to pull out their investments like a bunch of bees when their hive is disturbed. The stock market crashed and many businesses declared bankruptcy since they were not able to pay the loans when they decided to expand. And many more decided to default.
And of course, the white-haired man took the full brunt of it. He just invested all of his savings in that firm. All of that money could have been enough to move out of his current pitiful condition and feed him real food.
He slowly picked himself up from the floor and sat by the nearest sofa. His gloomy expression turned serious as he pondered. "What am I supposed to do now? All of my hard earned money, all down the drain. My part-time jobs are only able to keep me barely alive. Should I sell my kidney? Scratch that! Maybe I should make some calls to my friends."
He immediately whipped out his outdated phone and started scrolling down his contacts. But upon closer inspection, one would notice that he only has 3 contacts in his phone book. He started to call the first one.
[Ring….]
The man kept on waiting with hands on his hips. All he could hear is the sound of a phone ringing and it seems that no one would answer him. As he was about to put down the phone and dial the other numbers a voice finally answered him.
"Hello?....."
The man's eye lit up like Christmas tree as he heard the owner of the voice. "Hello, little Ming how are you-"
"Screw off, piss off don't call me." Little Ming viciously shot down the man before he could even state his reason for calling.
The man just kept a straight face with little Ming's vicious remark. The look on his face tells that he was expecting that reaction coming from the girl. Without further ado, he dialed other numbers.
As the man typed the numbers on his phone he couldn't help but imagine the times where he would make money fans and lay down on a bed of cash. How he wished to sniff his money and bath alongside with it. He would even imagine telling stories to it while he lulls a bundle of cash into a crib.
Although he is a straight up psycho for all of his worth but money is money.
The second call immediately connects greeting him the voice of an irritated kid.
"No Ye Han. I will not let you borrow any money. You will not take a single money out of my closed fist. So get off before I do something horrible."
The girl replied all guns blazing hurling all sorts of profanity towards Ye Han the debtor. Ye Han even felt a bunch of spit coming from his phone.
The curses kept on going for at least 5 minutes before the girl halted huffing and puffing as she took big gulps of air from the earlier profanities galore.
Ye Han took this as a sign of responding. "So no?" He asked uncertainly.
Ye Han regretted his sarcastic reply as he hears something broke on the other line. And profanities galore gets a sequel. "WTF is wrong with you, you numbskull?!!! I'll *beeb* the *beep* out of *beep* *beep* *beep!!!!!!!" The voice and words kept on getting morbid as Ye Han just decided to end the call.
"Phew, Linlin is still feisty as ever. That's why she won't get a boyfriend at this rate. She and her thorny mouth would just scare away any potential suitors. At this rate, she might die a virgin. What am I gonna do?"
Ye Han lamented the soon-to-be fate of Linlin. He never noticed the huge drops of sweat rolling off his cheeks as his hand tremble a little while typing in the last number.
[Ring Ring]
He did not wait that long compared to little Ming a cool mechanical voice of a woman answered him. "This is Velper residence. If you want weapons press 1. Press 2 for poisons. Press 3 for explosives. If you want drugs, no we do not sell drugs we also do not sell slaves but I can direct you to other trustworthy stores. And if you are Ye Han intending to borrow money I suggest you hang up the phone after the beep before you find yourself having a tactical nuke above your current location. Beep."
Before the beep ended Ye Han instantly put down the phone fearing of the possible outcome should that damn android drop a nuke on top of him. Just thinking of the possible damages and fees made him nauseous.
Ye Han can only grumble in distaste for that certain android more so for the creator of the nasty droid. "Hanako should really put a leash on all of her creations. Why does every one of her droids are hell-bent on destroying this great and wonderful me? How could they do that?! Hanako is such a sweet girl except for her arms dealing business… but she is definitely a good girl."
As the hopelessness invaded his bringing him a mouthful of sighs and laments towards his bleak future. As "outstanding" as he is but poverty is not in his line of work.
The hopelessness crushed him like a mountain and as he prepares himself to look out for some decent part-time job offers his phone rang.
"I almost forgot about the school project. Might as well go to Hikari's house and help her with training."
He put on his outdoor shoes and walked out of the apartment with gloom in his wake.
***
Unknown Place
"So this is Ye Han? How lame! What can the mistress see in this guy?" A bald guy in combat uniform commented as he finished on looking over Ye Han's file.
Ye Han
Age: 17
Abilities: Unknown
Physical Average: C
Magical Average: F
Intelligence: C
Remarks: Abysmal magical capabilities average physical and mental prowess. Final Verdict: complete trash with a bizarre case of magic malfunction... totally not worth it.
"Any normal human would even have C rank magical capabilities yet this guy got an F. The lowest I've seen is an E yet this guy broke the record." A suit-wearing teen waved his lollipop around. He slowly put his hand over his chin as he pondered. "I don't see anything special about this person. Except for the borderline crippled magical capabilities, I would say he is overall normal." He looked over his other companion. A woman with her hair tied in a ponytail looking like the standard secretary.
She just looks over Ye Han's file in disdain and snorted. "Hmph, all I could say is this person here is complete trash. How could our wonderful mistress give a second look on this trash commoner?" Her earlier disdain morphed into a more reverent and adoring look for that certain mistress. "And the investigation states that this person is just a lazy bum." With one final harrumph, she concluded her analysis.
"Oh?...." The suit teen scratched his head with smiles. "Well sadly no matter how much you hated the guy, it still mistress's order to observe him and report what he does so tough luck there."
"Yeah yeah." The woman gave a non-committal look, she turned around and left while also mumbling something along in the lines of 'kill that commoner.'
When the woman left the smiling face of the teen turned serious. "So what do you think?" The bald man asked as his face took on the same serious expression of the teen. "He is definitely not normal by any means. One does not simply score an F in magical capabilities. I did not even know that F existed. He has a very clean history, very unquestionable. So for the meantime, we'll just observe him and see what the mistress has in plan." The bald man just nodded upon the answer of the teen as they thought about a myriad of reasons why would the mistress target such an unassuming teen.
The teen took one last look on Ye Han's file as an unconscious smile formed on his lips. "This would be rather interesting."