Since I was young, my job was to support the family. My father left us with a huge debt that we couldn’t wish to repay.
Because of this, most of my youth was spent fighting off thugs that wished to abduct my sister or force my mother to work in less safe environments.
The benefit was I became fast, faster than most kids my age, and it grew more outstanding with time, the skill to avoid debtors and those damn thugs that forced my mother to work in a seedy bar.
“Ahh… my stomach hurts…”
I sat on the steps leading to our poor apartment; currently, mother was sleeping after another night of serving guests alcohol late at night.
Honestly, that job made me sick to my stomach; sometimes, her neck filled with the marks of customers that got too enthusiastic and wanted more than just the offered menu.
Sometimes I would be forced to stay awake, despite working two part-time jobs myself to help us pay off the interest because my lovely mother would cry in her sleep, calling my father’s name.
“Akihito.”
She would call out with a painful voice before crying again.
Yes… My father was from Nippon.
I won’t say anything about him because I don’t know him, and only the debt he left makes my thoughts and feelings far too biased.
‘There could always be a reason he vanished…’ My childish heart thought in hopes that maybe Dad loved us and was in an accident and lost his memory.
When I was born, he seemed to have vanished from the world’s face, leaving my mother alone and with little family.
A blonde European woman with a mixed-race child.
Those fantasies used to keep me going when the kids at school mocked me for being poor, with holes in my socks and the same t-shirt and pants several days a week.
Fun for them, yet the feeling I got each time my mother asked how school was or if I made any new friends.
Able to see how tired she is from the dark circles or the cigarette burns on her arms…
Now I am a little older and more mature, well I think so, at least despite dropping out of university in my final year.
Honestly, I don’t feel any regrets; it was to help pay for my little sister’s fees for the most prestigious university in our city.
My sister is the star of this family, pure, untarnished even by those vile thugs.
When she was dropped on my mother with no other family members to turn to, my mother accepted her with open arms.
Despite our situation, my sister…
When Aki entered our lives, her beautiful black hair and blue eyes were like little stars shining and looking at me with her huge globes.
From that moment, I decided to become the best big brother, all the things I couldn’t have; I would give her.
While in High-school I wore second-hand items, sometimes third-hand. I worked part-time to earn enough to buy my sister at least branded items.
When she passed her exams with the highest scores in class, I sacrificed meals and worked double shifts to celebrate at a local restaurant.
I still remember my mother’s beautiful face, her eyes almost in tears after paying the bill and leaving with full stomachs.
Mother agreed with me; she helped me to support Aki and give her a wonderful life.
This continued for 10 years…
Until last year, I dropped out so Aki could enter the most prestigious university in the country.
She became cold to us, and Mother and I felt a sense of betrayal, yet we still accepted her changes because, unlike me.
Aki was gentle, beautiful and top of the class with an athletic body.
I finished the cheap off-brand cigarette and then flicked it into the bushes after crushing it on the half-broken brick walls beside me.
“Haa…”
My heart felt weary.
Today, the reality of my life hit me like an express train, neither good looks nor education; because I am the eldest male of the house, the debt now rests in my name…
“Let’s go upstairs…”
I had zero prospects for marrying a decent partner, now only fraudsters or worse.
Sometimes I felt a grudge against my mother, her beautiful face and alluring body.
Why did it seem more like I was the one who was adopted…?
My hand pulled out my key, the rusted key ring, a gift that Aki bought me back when I was 13 years old and she was 7.
I don’t know if it’s ironic, but “Best Brother” had long been wiped away, and now only the word “other” remained.
Seeing these words each time I came home allowed me to wake up from my dream; Aki and I were born in different worlds.
She is a resident of the sun, while I am a fugitive of the moon, scurrying for scraps even to sate my hunger.
Click!
Slowly the door opened; I felt the annoying jam forced to press my shoulder against the centre and lift the door until it clicked.
Clack!
Shhh!
The door brushed against the cheap carpet that was discoloured from the years of mother’s smoking and spilt alcohol when she came home drunk.
I don’t dislike my mother; I love her more than anyone.
My father and I ruined her life, yet she still pours me with love I never deserved.
Sometimes I wish I could vanish, then Aki and Mother would live a wonderful life together, beautiful and free…
But my dreams were impossible as I saw the sight of my mother’s bare ass sticking up from the soft, disgusting fingerprints marking her, causing my blood to boil.
‘I wish I had the power to protect the mother from this life…’ Anger and rage filled my body, yet only led to causing me to feel unsettled and sweaty. 𝑜𝓋𝔩xt.𝔠𝚘𝚖
“Mmmm… Aki… come home…”
“Mother…”
Her desperate pleas always come out in her sleep, asking for Aki… or my father…
Just once…
I would like her to miss me and call my name instead…
Ignoring the unsettled and irritated emotions in my heart, trying to slow my anger with long deep breaths, my feet kicking away a can of cheap, own-brand larger and other beer, it seems mother had a bad day and drank herself to sleep.
My hands wrapped around her back and thighs.
Somehow, my idea of beauty always revolved around this woman, not that I feel attracted to her.
No matter how tough life was, she never seemed to change; her skin was beautiful, soft, creamy, and fair.
I always found her vibrant blue eyes alluring and charming, thinking that the girl I wanted to marry would have to have eyes as striking as my mother’s.
She’s my mother…
But sometimes I wish that my face was like hers…
Unlike my average, forget it when you look way face… Nobody could forget Mother if they saw her before work; she was beautiful.
Who was I kidding… I knew the truth long ago, during one of her drunken moments, the truth of my birth and why I look nothing like her…
Yet it was something I would never mention, losing the fragile string and bond that connects me to my mother…
Dying was a better option than revealing I knew the truth.
I tried to lift her, but the bruises from being beaten earlier by the thugs that wanted Mother to work for their “special” night store, a nice name for a brothel, began to ache.
Not wanting to disturb her, I bit my lips.
The taste of warm iron wasn’t appetising yet, but it let me trick my empty stomach. It was getting some nourishment.
“Don’t worry, Mother; I will find a third job… Then you won’t have to cry and work so hard alone…”
My voice didn’t sound very convincing, hoarse and croaky like I hadn’t drunk anything for days; thankfully, she was sleeping and didn’t hear me.
God forbid she worries even more…
Our steps were rather old, forcing me to watch my movements when carrying my mother to her room, the old brown carpet now a disgusting discoloured state, its once soft texture now like hard bristle against the soles of my feet.
Taking a deep breath, I let my mother drop onto her cheat mattress, her body bouncing, showing me the sight of her large breasts that I didn’t wish to see flopping out of her loose dress.
I turned away to cover her with the thin quilt, another item added to the list of things to buy; winter was coming, and I didn’t want her to get sick again.
Right now, she was the only thing I had other than Aki.
“Sigh…”
Now in my room, I look at myself in the dull cracked mirror, a body filled with muscle which might be attractive to some women, but the face is a clear demerit and not to mention my financial and employment status, even bigger demerits…
I had many marriage meetings, only to be mocked or given an attitude to know my place…
Don’t worry; I long knew my place.
A bottom feeder… Long gone were the days of being Aki’s hero… Her shining star…
The least I could do was protect them.
Jingle! Jangle!
“Hmmm? My phone?”
My body turned towards my bed, a pile of several old blankets, barely enough to call it a bed, with old CDs that were so obsolete now it was hard even to play them.
I opened my phone, the same broken screen, like a spider’s web.
[1 New Notification from – Eternal]
“What’s this? A damn virus or something?”
After wondering how to close it without opening the potential virus, I was forced to surrender; swiping left, right even down didn’t work.
In my haste, my finger slipped and pressed on the notification.
A black screen filled my phone; it even made the cracks seem like they were gone; a strange theme began playing, eerie yet making me want to grab a toy sword and journey into a forest and fight monsters.
The screen finally changed after a long time, the back of the phone now super hot, almost burning my hand, while the screen just showed a bunch of text with a torch flickering in a dark cave, seemingly a dungeon.
[Welcome to the Eternal Dungeon]
[Will you Enter?]
[Y/N]
“What should I do?”
Is this some trick or bank phishing scam?
I tried to think of the last time I played a game without feeling stressed because I could not afford the gatch systems or DLC needed to go further…
My heart began to feel a sense of anger…
Why can’t I play?
If it’s free, why not try it?
I argued in my mind.
Sick of my inability to make choices when it came to myself, I closed my eyes and pressed [Y]
And this was the moment my life changed forever.
… The Eternal Dungeon would become my path to fame, riches and wonderful life.