Erik wondered how life would have been without being born like this.
Because of a series of events in his life, coupled with his birth condition, he ended up alone.
His mother died birthing him, and his father disappeared two years prior.
Erik didn't actually know the reason, but since his father was a military, maybe he had been sent to a mission where he found death.
He couldn't help longing for a different life—one far removed from his current struggles.
The kid grabbed Erik's shoulders and punched him in the face, making him fall to his knees while holding a bloody nose.
The only thing in Erik's mind at that point was only his tormentor's face. It was the face of his nightmares, the face of a monster in human skin.
"This is what you get for being a pathetic, weak-minded loser with a useless power!"
Logan said with an evil grin on his face. The other nearby snickered. There was no distinction between men and women.
All enjoyed seeing the plant hugger in that state. It made them feel better, because even they weren't that good, and Logan was not an exception.
Though Logan wasn't alone. In his proximity, there were two others, Conal and Orson. They weren't actually taking part in the beating, but that was just that particular day. In others, they could even be worse than Logan.
Erik said nothing. He had long learned that talking to this psycho made things worse. He could only hold his bloodied hands out defensively, trying to stop the guy from hitting the most vital areas.
Erik couldn't fight back, even if he wanted. That was the most depressing fact of it all. Not only because he didn't have the physical strength, but also because he didn't have a brain crystal power suitable to fight.
But if for some miraculous twist of fate he got a new power, here and there, without the neural links to support its strength, and increasing his body's power, he would just end up being beaten by Logan more, perhaps with him using his brain crystal power, and creating wounds he didn't have the money to heal.
Then Logan grabbed Erik's arms and whirled it behind his back. His arm twisted painfully into an awkward angle, and the pain from the previous day's beating surged back like a torrential wave.
"AGH!" Erik yelled. But even try to escape from the vise was impossible. Logan then passed to his neck and started suffocating him.
Erik's face turned red.
"Don't make a sound, you fucker!" Logan said. He knew his fun would be over if Anderson, Aaron, and Mikey found out he was beating the little prick again.
Anderson Worthington, the most popular guy in school, and his friends Aaron Greig and Mikey Dixon, would not have tolerated such a brutal beating.
As Anderson was the second strongest student in the school, Logan would face a severe beating if Anderson found out about his actions.
Anderson, Aaron, and Mikey often stopped bullying when they saw it happening. However, Erik didn't think they were truly kind.
In Erik's experience, everyone in this accursed country acted solely out of self-interest.
Unlike Anderson and his friends, the others ignored the bullying. They walked by without helping Erik, only giving him mocking looks.
There was a reason for all of this. Erik's brain crystal power was useless, and he couldn't even use it that much.
His power allowed him to make plants grow faster, and even not that faster than normal.
The power was wholly unsuited for fighting, in a world in which one's survival depended on their strength, and in a country that valued strength above all else.
It wasn't just that. Such a power would have been seen well by people if it wasn't that Frant, the country where Erik lived in focused on agriculture.
In the north, farms were never ending, and the fields stretched until the barrier reached.
The farmers used specialized machinery and mana modified plants to cultivate crops, both on the surface and in underground artificial caves. Consequently, Erik's power was low-ranked in this agricultural landscape.
In this society where power was paramount, Erik's weakness made him a target. People viewed him as subhuman, treating him with contempt and disdain.
Erik's power was a F-σ1-E brain crystal power. The ranking system was based on three scales.
Erik's world was governed by three scales that determined a person's worth. The Ferebitz scale measured the mana in one's brain crystal, like a magical fuel gauge. The Idor scale counted neural links, the bridges that channeled this power through the body. Finally, the Jorm scale rated how practical the power was. Together, these scales painted a cruel picture of Erik's place in society - at the very bottom.
Ferebitz-Idor-Jorm, as for F-σ1-E.
Erik's power was ranked E on Jorm's scale, meaning it was almost useless. It was also ranked F on the Ferebitz scale, the lowest rank on it. That was because the amount of mana he could use was almost 0.
This severely limited his ability to form neural links—connections between the brain and brain crystal that allowed mana to flow from the crystal throughout the body.
Erik only had one neural link—the one he was born with—placing him at the σ1 rank on the Idor scale, the lowest possible level.
These links meant everything for an individual, since the more one had and the stronger the brain's crystal power and the individual's body were.
Erik endured the beating, trying not to trigger Logan more. He looked at the people nearby filled with hate.
Logan released the young man, when he had enough, and kicked him in the stomach. Erik almost threw up.
Conal and Orson kept laughing while Erik convulsed.
"GAH!"
"GAH!"
"GAH!"
With much effort, Erik stood up and wiped the blood from his face.
"Trash!"
Then Logan and his goons left, and so did all the others.
Erik stumbled down the hall, his abdomen and face throbbing with pain. He went behind the school, where few people walked by.
Drawing glances from the passerby, who quickly recognized him.
They knew who he was—the trashy son of Lucius Romano. How a man of such stature and importance have a so useless son was behind them. One thing was clear, though, that the kid's father disappeared two years prior.
After a long walk from school, and having taken a train, Erik arrived home.
There was no one there to tell him 'Welcome Home', no one to pick him up from school like the others.
Friends, parents, brothers, sisters, lovers even. He didn't know what they were. He was alone in a world that rejected him.
The house was the same as usual. A small apartment in a rundown building, a small kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room, which he also used as a bedroom.
It wasn't enough to live a comfortable life, but at least he had a roof over his head.
Since he had a brain crystal power that allowed him to make plants grow faster, he worked on a farm. The man who hired him wasn't the most pleasant man around, but at least he gave him a chance.
Officially, Lucius Romano belonged to a special force led by General Becker, the country's leader, a team tasked with finding out what the Sinister Cold was, something to which General Becker was strangely obsessed with.
This virus was the primary cause of brain crystal development and the birth of thaids—heavily mutated animals with powers capable of altering the natural order. Most importantly, these were man-eating monsters.
Not only animals were affected; the vegetation also underwent changes centuries ago. Plants grew larger and taller, with some species even developing deadly characteristics.
The Sinister Cold spread from the Mur continent, continent now lost to the thaids. Humanity barely survived on Mannard continent, and on an Island in which the country of Hin was made, under the blackguards' protection.
Things weren't easy even on Mannard. The thaids there were weaker than on Mur, from where the contagion spread, but they were not less deadly.
The creatures slowly claimed the continent, forcing humans to live behind immense walls in small cities.
Divisions among humans started after some time, and the process ended with the birth of seven nations: Hin, Prare, Reraiaph, Khunelerp, Miciselen, Etrium, and Frant.
Erik didn't know how the situation was in the other nations, but here, in Frant, it was terrible, at least for him.
The government turned militaristic ten years before he was born, and one's social standing depended on power and military rank.
Discrimination permeated society. Though Erik's self-loathing for his weakness and resentment towards his absent father outweighed his anger at the nation.
Erik dropped his belongings on the living room table and headed to the bathroom. Frequent bullying meant he spent a lot of money on first aid supplies.
After tending to his wounds, he made his way to the computer, drawn by his fascination with war news.
A headline caught his attention:
[A STALEMATE.]
A war was going on between Frant and Hin.
[There were no surrenders on either side as of Tuesday morning. General Becker released an interview for us. He claimed he was going to conquer Hin, and make our country prosperous!] The author wrote.
"Typical of these scumbags," Erik said.
Erik watched some footage from one of the battles. It was nothing too gruesome, but the young man couldn't avoid feeling slightly happy for Frant's troops dying on the battlefield.
Erik hatred this country.
A few minutes later, the young man closed the browser and took off his clothes.
He was covered in bruises and cuts.
Erik bandaged himself as best as he could.
In the midst of tending to his wounds, Erik froze as he heard keys jingling in the lock of his front door.