Server: Raed

Project Malthus (Drage Connor Hidalgo II)

"Aesir, come here," linapitan ko si Daddy na nanunuod sa may firing range.

"What is it, General?" I asked formally. He's my father but I couldn't address him as one when we're inside Roulette.

"What can you say? I've been training her to control her emotions. She learned fast but she's a bit too sensitive."

My nails dug into my palm as I watched our elite team, the Alpha team, aim at the girl standing in front of one of the targets and some of the bullets hit her and it's bleeding excessively. I want to stop them from shooting but Dad was on my side, waiting for my answer.

"How did she end up there?" I asked instead. He scoffed and showed me an app that contained a game to train officers like us. Parang laro 'yun na nagbibigay ng situation at kailangan mag-isip kung paano makakalabas sa situation na 'yun gamit ang mga items na nasa laro.

Pinakita sa akin ni Dad ang record ng isang agent na nagngangalang 'Asynja', ang female counterpart ng pangalan na binigay niya sa akin. The record scored the highest among the officers, it was higher than my score. Her average time to finish is four minutes and 30 seconds while mine was seven minutes. Wala namang naka-record na lumagpas siya ng 10 minuto kaya hindi ko alam kung bakit nagagalit si Daddy sa kanya.

"She was not fast enough, her fastest is almost four minutes, she needs to be faster than that. I will teach her everything you failed to learn and you'll learn everything she failed to learn, isn't that the reason why I named you like that?" Tumawa siya ng parang demonyo na natigil lang nang pumasok si tita Adara at pinatigil ang Alpha team.

"Good luck," I said to my father before leaving him to be scolded by his older sister with a rank lower than him.

"Bakit ba nakikialam ka?!" Agad kong linayuan si Volos nang singhalan niya ako dahil nagprisinta akong tulungan siya sa kung ano man ang ginagawa niya.

"We haven't seen each other for five months, don't you want to bond with me?" I asked with a calm voice.

"Don't practice your lying skills on me Drage II," he said before shutting me out of the basement.

Ganito na ang relasyon namin ni Volos nang sabihin ni Daddy na parte na ako ng Roulette. Dad didn't just train me to avoid people, he trained me to lie effortlessly and I'm still training. My first attempt was on Volos, he got fooled easily pero nang malaman niyang parte ako ng Roulette hindi na niya ako pinapaniwalaan at lumayo na ang loob niya sa akin.

"Volos doesn't want his big brother's love? That's just sad," biglang nagpakita ang pinsan ko na si Aidan sa living room kung nasaan kami ni Dad.

"Same old," I replied.

"It's rare to see you here. I'm inviting Volos to meet some friends but I guess he's not letting go of his tools any time now so you want to be his proxy? My friends know him anyway."

"I don't know Dan, Dad doesn't want me to hang out with anyone." Sabay tingin ko kay Dad na may kausap sa phone.