So, there I was, under the intense, burning sun, sweat trickling down from my forehead to my chin, falling in drops onto the podium beneath me. My head and hands were securely locked within a wooden frame, while a sharp, angled blade hung about 2.5 meters directly above the back of my neck.

I was about to be executed.

As I took in the faces of the crowd gathered around me—each one twisted in disgust—and the enforcers ensuring the success of my execution, various thoughts crossed my mind.

"So this is it, huh? My end. Didn't think it would come this early in my life, but it is what it is."

That's right, I wasn't particularly bothered by my impending death. Moments like this are inevitable, whether they come too soon or right on time.

"Might as well reflect on how I ended up here in the first place."

My name is Jay Jay, or just Jay for short. I'm a 19-year-old male (in case that wasn't obvious) with an average build. I've got slightly pale light skin, deep black eyes, and messy black hair. Nothing remarkable about me.

Parents? No clue. My earliest memories are from the orphanage. The caretakers said they found me on the doorstep with nothing but a scrap of paper that had the initials "J.J." on it, and that's how I got my name.

I ran away from the orphanage at 12 for personal reasons and had to start fending for myself in the Trenches. The Trenches were where all the poor, broke, smelly, and helpless people in Demo City ended up—a very fitting name.

Demo City itself was massive. Crossing from one end to the other took days, almost like traveling through a place that doesn't have an end, making it seem like its own entire world.

A huge transparent dome covered the entire city, trapping us inside. Nothing could enter, and nothing could leave. From what I'd heard, the dome was built with something called Lost Technology, which made it unbreakable.

The dome had been up for thousands of years, or so they said. Some people believed it was to protect us from monsters, powerful beasts, and evil beings. Others thought it was a prison, set up as some experiment by a higher lifeform.

Whichever theory was right, it didn't change the fact that we were stuck.

But since the city was self-sufficient and had everything people needed to live, most didn't give those theories much thought. They just accepted the dome as part of life.

Living in the Trenches meant two things.

First, you had to adapt quickly, no matter how unexpected things got. For me, that meant growing up with a realist mentality.

Life is unpredictable, and to survive, you have to roll with the changes without getting too discouraged or too attached to expectations. Maybe it was emotional resilience, or maybe just pragmatism, but I learned to take life as it came from a young age.

Second, you had to be willing to do some pretty nasty things.

So I started stealing.

I stole and stole, getting so good at it that I caught the attention of some shady characters in the Trenches a year later.

These shady characters offered me a deal. They'd pay me to get them anything they wanted. And who was I to say no?

They needed goods; I needed money. It was a win-win.

I didn't realize how blinded I was by greed, and those shady people were taking full advantage of it.

At first, they had me steal little things all across the city—nothing too difficult, nothing that would get me caught easily. But gradually, they began to up the stakes. I spent six years doing this, and nothing bad had ever happened… until I was tasked with stealing a particular item.

In my defense, I had never been caught, and my pride in my craft was sky-high. Plus, the payout for this job was massive.

The item was a fragment—a crystal fragment. According to the information they gave me, it had broken off from a larger, most likely spherical, crystal ball. And it was guarded in one of the most secure places in Demo City: The City Hall.

The City Hall is the heart of the city's governance, where the higher-ups meet to shape the future of Demo City, creating laws and policies that impact the lives of every citizen.

Security around the City Hall was intense. A perimeter guarded by enforcers and surveillance systems ensures that only authorized personnel can enter. Advanced technology monitors the area 24/7, and well-trained personnel ready to respond to any threat.

That building was built differently from the rest of the city—it was clearly designed to protect something important, not just serve as a conference hall for Demo City's leadership.

Inside, the halls are lined with historical artifacts and portraits that tell the story of the city's evolution.

Among those artifacts was the crystal fragment.

I tried to say no. Even I had my limits. But they knew how to pique my interest—they increased the pay.

They also made a point: security had become lax over the years because no one dared to go near the City Hall.

In the end, I gave in.

After scouting the place before the commencement of the task, I realized they were right—security had weakened. It made getting in a lot easier than I had expected. Some of the surveillance tech inside the Hall had even been turned off.

"Wow, do these enforcers want to get fired? I get that they're not on high alert, but turning off the tech at this hour of the night is just plain irresponsible," I muttered to myself as I slipped into the building through its glaringly obvious openings.

It was 2 in the morning, and I hoped to be in and out within 10 minutes.

When I finally reached the room where the crystal fragment was kept, I noticed the first weird thing.

"Huh? Is the fragment floating?"

I had never seen anything float on its own without some external force. The crystal fragment was hovering above its overly adorned and exaggerated stand.

"Must be some new kind of technology… I guess."

Had I known what I was up against, I might have hightailed it out of there immediately. But the fragment was right in front of me—there was no way I was going to abandon it now.

A few steps later, I was right in front of the fragment.

"Hmm, it's smaller than I thought it would be."

The sky-blue shard glowed softly in the dimly lit room. It looked so surreal that one might think it was made of magic. It also seemed like it had broken off from something larger.

"Seems their info was right on the mark. I wonder how they got it though."

I didn't expect information about the City Hall to get leaked so easily.

As I reached out to grab the crystal, the second weirdest thing happened.

I couldn't reach it.

No matter how much I stretched, I just couldn't get closer. It felt like there was an infinite amount of space between my fingertips and the crystal.

No, that's not it.

It felt like the closer I got, the more space was created between my hand and the crystal.

Actually, no, that's not it either.

No matter what I did, the distance between me and the crystal remained constant. It wasn't as if a wall was blocking me—I just couldn't get any closer.

"W-Why can't I reach it?!" I grunted in frustration as I continued to stretch towards it.

I was utterly perplexed and frustrated by how the situation was unfolding.

"Hey! Who are you?!"

"W-What?! How did you get beside me?!" I exclaimed, startled and bewildered.

I was utterly confused. I was certain I'd been aware of my surroundings, even if my focus had been entirely on the crystal fragment. For an enforcer—especially one notably out of shape—to suddenly appear right beside me was the third weirdest thing to happen to me.

The rest of the story went as you might expect. I was arrested.

Guided out of the building by two enforcers, I was filled with disappointment in myself.

What even happened?

First, there was the floating crystal. Then, I couldn't touch the fragment, and suddenly an enforcer appeared beside me out of nowhere.

I really didn't know what to make of it all.

"Urrgh! Why is it so bright outside? It should be around 2 in the morning—why is the sun already up?"

As we stepped out of the City Hall, I was greeted by a blindingly bright ball in the sky shining directly into my face. That couldn't be right. I'd started the operation at 2 AM, and I was sure I hadn't spent more than 10 minutes inside the City Hall.

"What's going on?"

"Have your eyes gone rotten from staring at the fragment? It's 9 in the morning, boy."

"Speak again, and we'll pluck out your eyes right here and now. They don't look like they're working anyway; we'll be doing you a favor."

The two enforcers snickered amongst themselves.

What the heck is going on? I thought to myself utterly bewildered.

That was the fourth weird thing that happened to me that night—or rather, day.

I was thrown into a cell and sentenced to public execution by decapitation in three days. No hearing, no chance for appeal. Apparently, being caught in the City Hall without permission was punishable by immediate execution.

Fast forward to the present.

My time of death had come.

I sighed to myself.

There's nothing to be surprised about; I had this coming.

Yes, I knew something like this could happen when I chose a life of theft and crime. A path like that never leads to a good ending.

But I have no regrets; I did what I had to do to survive.

I've always lived an aimless life.

Maybe I just got fed up and exhausted with all the constant struggle—always trying to fend for myself and stay on high alert.

That could be why I feel so calm even at death's door right now.

To be honest, I wish I had never been born.

All I've ever experienced was suffering—trying to survive and enduring more suffering.

Would I have turned to stealing if I had any other options? When those rich people see a dirty, smelly kid, they turn their faces in disgust and slam the door shut. Even when I wanted to try, there was just no hope.

There was no place for the poor in this world. There was no place for me.

Might as well just kick the bucket...it's for the best.

The enforcer holding the lever for the guillotine had a mildly sad look on his face.

I wondered if he felt sorry for me, pondering the tragedy of a life cut short by one's choices. Perhaps he believed that given a second chance, my path might have diverged.

I couldn't entirely disagree.

"Any last words, kid?" the enforcer asked.

"None whatsoever, let it rip." I said, with a big smile on my face.

It was better to die smiling than feeling depressed about it. I would spend the rest of my afterlife in hell anyway.

He must have caught on to what I was thinking and commented, "You have courage, kid, smiling in the face of death."

I then took a deep breath and closed my eyes as I braced for the impact of the mighty blade about to sever my neck.

That's when it happened.

A sudden cacophony of alarms reverberated throughout the city.

The blaring noise created an unsettling atmosphere, spreading anxiety among the crowd and the enforcers.

Didn't know hell would be this loud I thought to myself with my eyes still closed.

"S-S-Someone… Someone stole the crystal fragment?!" a distant enforcer shouted, a hint of fear in his voice.

That's when I opened my eyes.

"Huh? I'm still alive? What's going on?"

"T-That's…not possible, No one can steal that fragment!" the enforcer closest to me yelled back, his face twisted with panic.

Someone stole that fragment? Does that mean an alarm would have gone off if I had taken it? Phew?! Good thing I didn't…Oh wait, I still ended up in this mess anyway.

A myriad of questions flooded my mind, but the one that stood out the most was, how did they steal that crystal fragment?

I have first-hand experience with that fragment. I knew the strange, almost magical, and supernatural feeling that overcame me when I tried to take it—it was as if an illusion had been at play.

So, how could they have possibly stolen it?

That question kept nagging at me.

Something is definitely wrong with this city.

After everything that happened to me 3 days ago, that was the only conclusion I could reach.

I even decided not to think about it because no logical explanation could come out of what had happened.

But before I could dwell further on my thoughts, the most terrifying thing I had ever experienced unfolded before my eyes.

The space in front of me began to warp and distort, as though reality itself was being twisted and torn apart, the very fabric of existence trembling under an unseen force.

It churned and swirled, spiraling in on itself. That's what it looked like to me.

The air grew thick with an electric charge, crackling with a palpable sense of impending doom. The crowd had already scattered in fear and confusion, leaving only a few enforcers behind—though some had fled with the crowd—and me.

I would have done the same, but I couldn't move—the wooden frame I was locked into was bolted tightly to the podium floor.

The distorted space started small, but it grew larger until it formed a gaping portal, pitch black with swirling grey accents around its edges.

From within that otherworldly void, a mysterious figure began to take shape, slowly emerging as if stepping through the very walls of reality.

And then, a person suddenly popped out.

The mysterious figure wore a hooded cloak, and beneath the hood, nothing of his face could be seen—it was as pitch black as the portal he (if it even was a "he") had emerged from.

Shadows clung to him like a second skin, swirling around his form and obscuring his features. His presence was overwhelming, a dark silhouette against the warping backdrop, exuding an aura of power and menace that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

Each step he took echoed with a foreboding resonance, his movements deliberate and unhurried, as though he was in complete control of the surreal scene unfolding.

The figure was walking straight towards me.

A chill ran down my spine.

I think my pants started getting wet at one point, but I don't remember much.

"Stay away!" I screamed, thrashing against the wooden frame that held me captive.

I had already accepted my death, but why was fate making things worse for me? Couldn't I just die a quick death by guillotine instead of being scared to death?

"H-Halt!" The enforcer closest to me managed to stammer, his voice quivering with fear, the gun in his hand shaking as he spoke.

I was frankly surprised he even dared to speak.

Yet, despite vocalizing a word, he didn't move, nor did the other enforcers.

That's when I noticed—the enforcer beside me and the others were held in place by some kind of dark aura. The space around them seemed to warp, mirroring the phenomenon that had preceded the cloaked figure's arrival.

It wasn't that they were too scared to move; they simply couldn't.

It seemed the mysterious figure had somehow stopped their movement.

"He was right. You do look better with both eyes."

The mysterious figure had finally spoken.

His gravelly voice reverberated in the air; a tone reminiscent of a battle-hardened commander. It was both terrifying and strangely calming.

"Please, don't kill me!" I blurted out, barely processing his words. I just didn't want to die by his hand—for some reason, I wanted a peaceful death, not this horrifying one.

The cloaked figure raised his hand as if to receive something. Out of nowhere, a round object materialized in his palm.

It was a ball—a glass ball.

At first, I was confused, my mind racing with thoughts of survival, but then my eyes widened in recognition.

"That ball…"

"I-Isn't that the crystal fragment?!" The enforcer closest to me stammered again.

How is that possible? I thought, my heart racing. B-But isn't what he's holding a completed version?

"H-H-how do you have that?!" the enforcer asked, though it sounded like he was questioning himself more than the figure.

Right in front of us was the a fully spherical crystal ball—the same one that the fragment I had tried to steal had broken off from. No one needed to tell me; It was obvious.

The fragment had left a deep impression on me. There was no way I wouldn't recognize it.

But the mysterious cloaked figure paid no attention to the panicked enforcers. His focus remained solely on me.

"Come back stronger, Jay." he said in a deep, cryptic voice.

Then, without warning, the orb levitated from his palm, inching slowly toward me. It refused to halt its approach.

An overwhelming fear seized me. "This isn't what I wanted!" I shouted. "Were my crimes so bad?! Is a peaceful death too much to ask?!"

I thrashed and struggled, but the wooden frame held me firmly in place. All I could do was watch in terror as the orb floated closer and closer.

"AAAHHHHH!!!!!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs with my face squeezed and eyes closed preparing for the eminent pain I was about to go through.

Before I could fully comprehend what was happening, the orb pierced my chest. Darkness consumed me almost instantly as I heard a robotic female voice.

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[System initializing...]

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