I came back to New York at fifteen, not as the starving orphan I once was, but as something else.
Stronger.
Faster.
Sharper.
Dong Ho had forged me into a weapon, honing my mind and body like a blade. I was no longer a boy begging to survive—I was a hunter.
New York had not changed. It was still a beast that devoured the weak. The powerful still ruled, and the forgotten still suffered.
But this time, I wasn't here to be swallowed.
I was here to build.
Step One: The Unseen Army
The homeless. The beggars. The street kids.
They were everywhere. No one looked at them, no one cared about them. They were invisible.
And that made them powerful.
I started small—helping a few, earning their trust.
A starving kid gets a meal in exchange for watching a street corner.
A desperate man gets shelter in exchange for passing along whispers.
A forgotten woman gets protection in exchange for listening where no one else can.
Soon, they weren't just people surviving.
They were spies.
And I was their leader.
Step Two: The Information Trade
New York ran on secrets.
Politicians. CEOs. The mafia. The cops. They all had things to hide.
And we knew them all.
At first, we sold information to survive—small tips, whispers passed to those willing to pay. But we never gave them everything.
We always kept the most valuable secrets to ourselves.
We weren't just selling information.
We were controlling it.
A mafia boss thinks he's buying a hit on his rival, but we feed his enemy the same information—turning them against each other.
A corrupt cop pays us to cover his tracks, not knowing we already sold his secrets to someone higher up.
A CEO believes he's untouchable, until we remind him of the affair he thought no one knew about.
We weren't gangsters.
We were kingmakers.
And soon, everyone in power needed us.
Step Three: Strength in the Shadows
Knowing secrets was one thing. Surviving was another.
We needed a way to enforce our will when words weren't enough.
I took the best among us—the fastest, the smartest, the ones willing to fight—and I trained them.
Not like street thugs. Not like soldiers.
Like phantoms.
We moved unseen, striking where no one expected.
We fought with daggers, garrotes, and poisons—silent weapons for silent wars.
We mastered urban survival, knowing every tunnel, every hidden path, every place to disappear.
The Twelve Families had soldiers.
The cops had guns.
But we had ghosts.
And ghosts are impossible to kill.
Step Four: Expanding the Network
The Beggar Sect was no longer just a handful of beggars trading secrets.
We had safehouses, tunnels, coded messages, and layers of deception.
Chinatown became our stronghold. The underground tunnels became our lifeline.
The Docks gave us access to smuggling routes, controlling who could bring in supplies.
Midtown became our eyes and ears, where high society whispered their secrets, never knowing we were listening.
No one saw us coming.
By the time they realized how powerful we had become, it was too late.
The Beggar Sect was no longer a rumor.
It was an empire in the shadows.
Before the Fall
For three years, we built our power. We never fought the Twelve Families directly, never made enemies we didn't have to.
But we controlled everything that mattered.
We were New York's invisible rulers.
Then the world ended.
And everything changed.
Now, After the Fall
The Twelve Families are gone. The police are dead. The government has collapsed.
And New York is a war zone.
The undead roam the streets.
The Bone Rats enslave survivors.
The Black Sun spreads its infection.
And the Beggar Sect?
We fight.
Not for power. Not for wealth.
For control.
Because in a world ruled by chaos, only the ones who can see everything will survive.
And we see everything.