What was the most painful part of being a man? was it the little "pain" when cutting the extra "covering" of your little brother? or was it being born to bear the responsibility of a whole family in the future? losing sportscars? money?
for Carlos, the most painful part of him being a man is that seeing the woman who supported you until the very end of your relationship suffer too much because of you, the man. as a man, Carlos naturally had a bountiful amount of pride, and that pride is the reason why he's still in this situation for the past 3 years. unemployed. Carlos doesn't accept any kinds of mistreatments, even if it's a minor or small one. so, with that pride of his, he always confronted his superiors, beat the hell out of them, then get fired.
Because of this, Nicole, his girlfriend, always receives sermons and scoldings from the big family behind her. The Montenegro family. Owner of countless businesses and franchisees throughout the whole country of P nation. Games, Politics, Entertainment circle, or even in the military and education circle!
Watching her suffer every day breaks Carlos' heart but seeing her having doubts toward him and even personally seeing her developing feelings for another man breaks his heart even more. Carlos didn't blame Nicole, as she was just a woman who suffered too much for far too long, thus wanting to break free and experience a kind of life Carlos had promised to give to her but wasn't able to accomplish in the present time.
tonight, in the middle of the night, amidst the falling rain and the splatterings of the mud beneath him. Carlos watched her and his new man, enter a famous hotel. He watched the two chat cheerfully and witnessed how the man kneeled and propose to her, which Nicole happily accepted too.
During this whole event, no traces of anger or grief can be found on Carlos' face. instead, a bright yet sad smile appeared on his face. Carlos felt as if a huge amount of boulder had been lifted away from his shoulder, giving him a very refreshing experience which he hadn't felt in a very long time.
Carlos took one step back as he continued to watch the two of them dine happily with bright smiles before mumbling, " I Wish You A Long And Everlasting Happiness And Fortune, Nicole."
with those words, Carlos took another step backward and turned around to leave...in the direction of the river behind him. with the last burden lifted from his shoulders, Carlos felt that he had suffered enough, thus deciding to end his life. being born without even knowing your parents is frustrating. but knowing the family of his parents but refused to acknowledge him as a part of them was even more frustrating and saddening.
one step, another step, and another step. each step Carlos took towards the river calmed his heart even further. it's decided. I'm going to do it.
A few seconds later, Carlos reached the river in no time. the raging flow of water in front of him didn't falter his unwavering wish to end his life, thus he took the step that leads to his death. pushing his right leg forward, Carlos was about to step towards his death when time seems to have been frozen.
that's right, Frozen. The raging river beneath him and the fierce droplets of rain above him stopped midair. the trees that were creating too much noise earlier because of the rain stopped emitting a single noise.
Confusion filled Carlos' face as he looked around him to witness this strange phenomenon. as he was observing, Carlos caught sight of the blue interface that appeared in front of him.
< MISSION: A Step Towards Another Journey >
< DESCRIPTION: As a young man that encountered countless hardships and sufferings in your life, you should take two steps backward to reminisce about your past mistakes and take 3 steps forwards to face the new challenges and experiences in your life's new journey! >
< REQUIREMENTS: Enter the portal to accept your new identity! >
< REWARDS : ??? >
Shock and confusion were clearly shown in Carlos' face as he finished reading the content of the blue interface. And there are only two words that Carlos can say right now. Holy Sh*t! as a person that stayed in his home for about three years, Carlos spent his whole free time browsing and surfing through the internet, reading web novels and reading mangas or watching animes and Kdramas so the concept of receiving a "System" both shocked him and excite him.
why? because although fictional, the word "system" itself proved to be a quite powerful word. for example, the capitalism system, law, and political system, and many more! the protagonists on those famous web-novels had their own systems, which were unique in their very own way. some systems work just like a game, some focused on cooking, some are for fighting and there was even some who was focused on fishing and farming!
just as Carlos was thinking about the benefits brought by the system, a 2 meters tall blue-sh white portal appeared in front of him. the colorful lights inside the portal slightly captivated Carlos but he immediately snapped out of it and entered the portal.
blinding light consumed his visions as Carlos felt his whole body being sucked towards the front before he lost the feeling of standing on the ground. Carlos, for the next seconds that transpired, felt as if his body was floating in the middle of the space. moving forward without any signs of gravitational pull or any wind resistance.
just as Carlos was beginning to regain his vision, the feeling of floating in the middle of space vanished as his worn-out shoes felt the hardness and solidness of the cold ground beneath him. as he stood there, Carlos heard the bustling noise in the distance as he tried to recover his vision quickly. when he was about to step forward to look for something to hold to support himself, Carlos suddenly heard the sound of wind chimes.
Carlos tried to open his eyes and look for the source of the sound. after trying to see for a few seconds, Carlos finally found the origin of the sound. in front of him, a slightly larger than before interface was floating, containing texts and a picture inside of it.
< MISSION: A Step Towards Another Journey, Completed! >
< REWARDS: Living Weapon, 10 EXP! >
on the bottom of the interface, a picture of a pair of large carapace with glowing mouths on it. for some reason, Carlos found the objects extremely familiar thus he raised his right hand and clicked the picture. right after he clicked the picture, the image of the two objects enlarged with texts written below it.
< THE LIVING WEAPON >
< SUMMARY: The Living Weapons is a pair of carapace that Kai'sa, a champion from the land of runeterra, who fell into the dangerous and unknown pit, the void. Claimed by the Void when she was only a child, Kai'Sa managed to survive through sheer tenacity and strength of will. Her experiences have made her a deadly hunter and, to some, the harbinger of a future they would rather not live to see. Having entered into an uneasy symbiosis with a living Void carapace. >
< ABILITIES >
SECOND SKIN
Kai'Sa's basic attacks stack Plasma, dealing increasing bonus magic damage. Grants the user the ability to cover himself with an armor unique to kai'sa only.
ICATHIAN RAIN
shoots a swarm of missiles that seek out nearby targets. Living Weapon: Icathian Rain is upgraded to shoot more missiles.
VOID SEEKER shoots a long-range missile, marking enemies with your passive. Living Weapon: Void Seeker is upgraded to apply more passive marks and reduce the cooldown on champion hit.
SUPERCHARGE
briefly increases Your movement speed, then increases your attack speed. Living Weapon: Supercharge is upgraded to briefly grant Invisibility.
KILLER INSTINCT
dashes near an enemy champion. >
no wonder why the pictures looked extremely familiar, it was kai'sa's living weapon! when Carlos was still a single dog, he often hangs out with his friends back in the university days and plays league of legends in the internet shop near their university.
as Carlos was reading the information in the interface, he suddenly heard a loud sound of flesh colliding with concrete to his left. swiping his hand down, the blue interfaced shrank and disappeared in front of him before he went to find out the cause of that sound. Carlos carefully threaded the slippery floor of the alleyway he was currently in and get closer to the origin of that sound but what he witnessed the next moment made his heart skip a beat as he bitterly smiled internally.
in front of him was a man, feeding on a fresh corpse with blood pooling around the dead body. cannibalism is not unknown for Carlos, as he once encountered a man who resorts to cannibalism when they were trapped in the middle of the ocean so although its a little bit shocking and disturbing, Carlos didn't react too exaggeratedly but what's the strangest and scariest part, behind the man, a large pair of red tentacles was swaying left and right with blood still dripping on them.
it didn't take that long before Carlos realized what those tentacles are. who this man was and why is he feeding on the corpse in front of him. the answer was very simple. the man before him was a ghoul, and the pair of red tentacles on the man's back was his 'Kagune'