'Time is the real treasure. Enjoying the present with what we have is what truly matters. But if these words came from someone with nothing, they might hold weight. Coming from someone like me? They're just empty words.' He thought, before falling asleep.
Zack Santos was born with a silver, no…golden spoon.
Big house? Expensive Cars? Luxury lifestyle? All fulfilled.
His morals and views on life weren't veiled by money, unlike any other rich person. He respected everyone equally.
This grounded nature made him see through everything, especially the reason behind someone's hardship and lifestyle.
Not only did this thinking get him out of the never-ending cycle of seeking pleasure like other wealthy people his age, but ironically, it saved him from many addictions that would've destroyed his thinking capability.
However, something is still missing from his life canvas.
Fun.
City Valmere,
November 27th, 2025
Zack was having the sleep of his life, peaceful.
In his house, just like a mansion used in movies, a huge gate showcased the path leading to the main entrance. On both sides, the well-kept lawn was interspersed with stone walkways and maintained bushes.
Long halls connected luxuriously furnished rooms with rich leather couches and exquisite artwork that created an atmosphere of timeless elegance.
THUD!
Zack was woken awake at midnight by an unexpected sound in his room.
In some way, his eyes were alert and not drowsy.
Maybe he expected a thief, but it was a key-shaped pendant lying down on the floor, shattering the windowpane as though someone had thrown it inside with all of his strength.
Instinctively, after switching on the room's light, he quickly went to the window to see who had thrown it, but the entire garden was empty with no trace of anyone.
Glancing back at the pendant, it glowed with bluish-black light; it resembled the shape of a little key, one that was most likely used to open treasures in the past.
'Why would someone out of nowhere throw a pendant inside?' He leaned down a bit and picked it up.
'It's heavy; that explains the breaking of hard glass.' Placing the pendant on a desk, Zack returned to his bed and fell asleep without bothering to think about the incident in question, probably because he prioritized his sleep more than anything.
As soon as he woke up the next day, he took a shower and dressed up. Looking at the mirror from Zack's eyes, we can see a young boy whose age would approximately be around twenty.
He was dressed in a plain black shirt, black pants, and lastly, brown loafers.
Looking at his face, it was decent, not that handsome, but a face most girls would find attractive.
After leaving the dressing room, he grabbed the pendant from the desk, put it in his pants pocket, and left the room.
Soon reaching the living area he called home, he called security to have all of the garden area's surveillance cameras inspected and the broken window glass fixed.
For some reason he lied about how the glass was broken; he told them a different story, that some thief tried to open the window by first breaking the glass, and since Zack woke up by the sound, he ran away just in time.
The story was more than promising for them all to believe, and after hearing it, they all headed straight to work; meanwhile, Zack now had a mystery to solve.
After having a delicious breakfast cooked by a five-star chef, Zack decides to pay a visit to a nearby elite art auction since he likes collecting beautiful artwork.
For now, he kept the mystery of the pendant at bay.
He went to the garage, which was at the front left side of the mansion, got seated in his Mercedes, and drove directly to the YenX exclusive art museum, which was not that far away from his home.
Rich people like Zack typically have a driver, but Zack wanted to enjoy driving alone and didn't like having someone wait in or around the car for hours only for him.
After 20 minutes drive
Reaching the art museum, he got out of the car and gave the car key to valet parking, and with an excited expression on his face, moved inside.
"Your pass, sir?" The receptionist asked.
"Here, take," Zack said pulling out the card from his left pocket.
YenX was a very expensive art museum; only a selected few wealthy people in the city had an entry pass for it.
"Pass is legit, sir. You may go inside; make sure there isn't any unnecessary thing in your pockets."
"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind."
'unnecessary ha… I'll just wear it just in case,' Pulling out the pendant from their right pocket, he wore it on his neck.
Collecting the pass, he got inside the museum; it had brilliant marble floors and walls covered with beautiful, invaluable artwork. The museum echoed eliteness and elegance.
A huge silver brush statue stood in the middle of the museum's circular design, which had artwork arranged along the walls. A few guests walked around, admiring the artwork.
Zack started to look around from the right side.
Skipping over five artworks just by glancing at them, finally his arrogant eyes hooked on a scenery showing the beauty of nature with a sunset.
while he was deeply lost in the soul of the artwork
A girl stood beside him; she was wearing a high-neck black top covering her whole body with blue pants on her lower body and white-blue sneakers.
Black hair and beautiful with sharp facial features.
'This looks worth spending the cash; I hope no one bids for th—' she thought but
Looking at her left, she saw someone lost in the artwork.
'Never mind'
With that, she moved and went for other art pieces on the right side, assuming she might find something good for cheap and with less effort to put up.
After selecting his item for bidding, Zack now felt like peeing before sitting in the auction, so he went straight to the washroom.
Moving in the opposite direction from that girl, on the right side, skipping four to five artworks, he reached an alleyway that led to the boy's and girls' washroom; the boy's washroom was on the right side at the endpoint of the alleyway.
After peeing, he got busy with an important phone call from his friend. Discussing a few things, he took his time for now.
Meanwhile
'Not good, there isn't anything valuable this side, the only thing that was worth putting cash on was that artwork, which got eyes on by someone who would go to any length to obtain it. He wore everything plain but very expensive, even that key-shaped pendant w—'
"If you want to prove your worth, Neva, bring me this key." Neva's father is showing her the picture of the pendant key.
She gets a flashback of her father, the mafia of the city of Velmare, showing a picture of a key pendant that looked exactly like the one Zack was wearing.
'Chances are less, but if that is the same key, then…'
Neva stepped slowly—slowly started to take speed in search of the key pendant; she intended to snatch it and run. Being a professional martial artist, she had confidence in herself.
"Ya bro! Remember how? We both enjoyed riding those two wo—" Before Zack could finish those words while talking to his old friend, something interesting happened.
White text started to show up in front of his eyes as if he were playing any game in VR.
[Key In Danger!]
The pendant started to glow, making Zack leave on pause.
[Host Found!]
[Zack Santos]
[Loading…]
[ESP Activated]
[Threat Detected: 1]
Key stopped glowing after all these messages; Zack was in disbelief as he was now able to see a girl through walls.
She was visible; also, some text was written on her head, which was moving along.
[Neva Valdez]
[Professional Martial Artist]
[Specialty: Close-Quarters Combat]
[Weapon: None]
[Weak Points: Dumb]
'Is this the key to doing it?' He glanced at the key pendant and looked back at the moving figure of Neva which was near the artwork, her mouth was moving as if she was talking to someone but Zack couldn't hear it.
"Sorry to bother you, but have you seen a guy in plain black shirt-pants? He was also wearing a pendant" Neva asked an old lady.
"Not sure about the pendant but I saw someone with a black shirt going toward the washroom" the old lady replied.
"Alright, thank you!" Said Neva, showing a gesture of respect.
Neva started to walk towards the washrooms, glancing once at the men's washroom she rested back with hands crossed at the edge of the wall facing towards the hall.
'Is she waiting for me? Perhaps for key?' Zack thought, looking at the bit blurred but highly visible figure of Neva from the bathroom.
Doing a quick rotation of his head around the washroom, Zack found no window to escape.
'She got the advantage of a small alleyway with her close combat skill. I got the advantage of knowing her exact location and movements.'
Zack got an idea.
He sat inside the cabin of the toilet.
'I'll just wait until she leaves.'
5 minutes passed.
10 minutes passed.
30 minutes passed.
'is she psycho or something?! Almost half an hour had passed, and she didn't even budge from that place' He was a bit shocked looking at her still standing, waiting for him to get out.
"Enough…!" with that Zack's patience was finally turned off.
He decided to take off the key pendant.
'Damn it, I can't take this pendant off'
Using all his strength Zack tried to take it off his neck but the pendant was not even moving an inch, something completely unnatural.
He intended to throw that thing off since he didn't want to make a scene in this museum
'Wait…if I can't take this off doesn't that mean she also can't?' With that thought, he gets out of the washroom and starts moving towards the hall doing a casual walk.
Neva noticed him and waited for the right time to snatch it.
A few tense-filled steps later he and she were now aligned by the surface, Zack was just one hand distance to her.
Zack had a tiny grin on his face with his theory, that she would be dumbfounded soon.
*SNATCHED*
She snatched the pendant and exited the museum so quickly that the guards could only watch her desperate expression without approaching her.
[Key stolen]
[Retrive The Key]
[Death Penalty Activated: unable to protect the key]
[The host will die if the key is not returned within a 48-hour timeframe]
[Countdown Started]
*TICK*
[47:59:59]