1 Mysterious Smile Mask

In the past, power was usually understood as the power to fight and survive, defeating other races by suppression and then trying to dominate. It was all part of human nature to be the race at the top of the food chain while eliminating other competitors.

Biologically, theoretically and scientifically, this can be explained.

Driven by adolescent instincts, a poorly educated student is very likely to bully his classmate simply because he has slightly superior physical strength and feels he has much higher self-esteem.

For disadvantaged teenagers, school bullying is hell on earth. Some can survive and some can't, there is a very thin standard and it is difficult to judge to understand their plight.

Even when poor teenagers try to confide in those closest to them, they may get simple answers like "It's the way of growing up" or "try to make friends so as not to be bullied", very lucky and very good, but not all poor teenagers can do so when their mentality has just grown to try to know this world with blows and violence.

What's more, weak people who can't protect themselves will always be seen as weak - and they will be trapped into a cycle of bullying that will trample their bodies and self-esteem to the ground while thinking that they are helpless teenagers.

Teenagers who receive bruises on their faces and hands, have their belongings stolen, take cold showers from the taps in the toilets, or even have naked pictures of them shared across classes at school.

However, for the young man who now walks out with a backpack in his hand, it was all a dream. Or he hoped it was just a dream.

"Fua- It's sunny this morning as usual."

The young man had very dark eye bags, wrinkled skin and the appearance of one who had not slept for several days. Several cuts from sharp objects covered with white cloth on his hands proved that he had tried hard to survive so far.

The pain he felt both physically and mentally were all healed with little success. While that may sound like a flat hope to some, it meant a lot to the young man. He then approached the teacher he knew.

"Sir, can I get some recommendation letters?"

"Sure."

Desperately and without really losing hope, the young man then received the enrollment form.

Bringing the white paper up to his nose to try to smell the success of a very long wait. He finally got it, a scholarship to college.

"Thank you. "

Nodding lightly at the kind teacher, she went to a park. After arriving at the park, he then sat down on a park chair while bowing his head.

It was a very sunny day for the young man.

He did not regret his decision. He could have fought the bullies by strengthening his currently skinny physique, practicing every day to get perfect muscles and thinking of ways to get back at them.

But of course that would have taken a lot of time and effort. To get good grades in school, one couldn't expect that they could get enough understanding of school subjects from just one class meeting, it took at least a few extra days to fully understand it and take grades from the teacher the following week.

Had the young man been a genius who could memorize every piece of information and then understand it in no time or had the support of a wealthy family, this kind of problem might have been solved easily. But, of course, he was not such a genius, he was just an ordinary person relying on his own abilities.

After all, as someone who had no family and came from an orphanage. The young man clearly wanted a better life. He had seen many things and could understand some things.

In this world, in a modern world full of free education and scholarships, strength does not only mean violence, there are many ways to gain strength by acquiring many things, for example by having a lot of money and having many abilities that others do not have.

A person who has abilities will be highly accepted by society, and modern society does not consider physical strength to be a very important ability.

He is not a young man who will regret his life when he grows up by being a bad boy.

And this is what he got, finally a chance for the prosperous life he dreamed of.

"Very good. Full living expenses and a scholarship. I want to say goodbye to my old school, but I don't have fond memories of that place."

While slowly leafing through the documents, the young man then got up from the lawn chair and left immediately. He wanted to go home and rest.

The future would be waiting for him soon, so he wanted to have fun even if he was alone. After all, the only family he had were the children at the orphanage and the people from the church.

The moment he stepped out of the street, he felt a strange feeling.

He immediately grabbed his chest as his heartbeat began to weaken. His eyes then noticed an abnormality, a skyscraper began to bend slightly in a very unreasonable way.

The people walking around it disappeared one by one. Everything became very confusing. He felt that something was wrong with his vision, so he closed his eyes and rubbed them.

He then blinked, a slow and repetitive blink.

The young man blinked.

An unfamiliar scene and image filled his surroundings.

The sky was dark and the air was full of pollution, feeling extremely warm and depleting of oxygen causing the young man to take short breaths as if the entire air was completely on fire.

In the next blink of an eye, he came to his senses.

The city that was once filled with cars and pedestrians had now turned into a sea of flames.

But it wasn't the city he remembered, there were tons of buildings made of bricks and some wooden poles, unlike modern buildings made of concrete. It was more like a building from the time before the steam engine was invented.

'This doesn't make sense! What's happening to me?!'

The young man was confused. His head began to hurt like a rock, his consciousness began to sink to the bottom of the ocean.

As the reality he remembered and saw continued to change, the young man's eyes began to darken.

A few seconds ago, he saw a modern city, but a few seconds later he saw a city with a huge castle that was consumed by fire.

As his legs could no longer support his body, the young man fell down. He then looked to the side.

There, right among the flames, was a man wearing a jet black coat with a white mask smiling.

The mysterious man then approached the young man.

His demeanor full of interest, the face with the white mask was now right in front of the helpless young man.

Staring straight at the young man as if filled with confusion. The young man then opened his mouth, trying to say something.

"...*$&@@@&--*$....."

The young man who didn't understand anything then shook his head, it was because the man in the white mask was speaking in a language that clearly didn't exist on earth.

"What is he talking about?

The more he tried to listen, the more confused he became. There was not a single sentence that the young man understood.

He then came to a conclusion.

"I know, I shouldn't take drugs just to relieve stress, but aren't the side effects too strong?

The young man now thought that what he was currently seeing was just an illusion. An illusion from the drug he took when he was trying to calm his mind to maintain his precious school grades while surviving a small despair

The young man blinked once more, the illusion instantly disappeared and the environment returned to normal.

"I should try going to the doctor."

The young man then felt something coming out of his nostrils, he then wiped his hands and found fresh blood flowing non-stop.

"Blood?"

For the umpteenth time, the young man blinked. Reality changed again, the sight of flames burning so brightly filled every place the young man could see.

As for the masked man, he still looked as confused as before. But now, the young man began to understand what the masked man wanted to convey.

"Hmm... this is confusing."

The masked man then shook his head, the man looked to the side but there was nothing there except a castle with columns that began to collapse one by one.

For some reason, the masked man nodded. He looked back at the young man. This time the masked man squatted down and placed his right hand on the young man's shoulder.

In a low voice, the small whisper of the masked man now pierced deep into the young man's ears.

It was a simple yet confusing word.

"Bishop Greed, is that you?"

When he heard that voice, his heart began to stop beating and his eyes began to close. As if the world went dark, the young man's consciousness also began to disappear.

However, a wish, a dream and a hope were screaming in his head.

"I want to have a decent life, I want to achieve what I want, and a feeling I've never felt. However, after what I did, all the time and effort I sacrificed, how did it all end up like this?

'I don't want to die...'

Just as that wish ended, the young man's consciousness now completely disappeared into the bottom of the darkness.