Super Spark of Duper Pride [OB] - Act I: Motivation

3-20: Square One (Spider 68)

Spider 68:

Taboo: [Atone]

Right now, Feirune is sleeping on the sack on my back again.

And we are on our way out of the labyrinth.

If you are wondering what happened to the Humans, we buried them.

I thought about eating them, so as not to waste their corpses.

But that is obviously something I shouldn't do with Feirune around, so I didn't.

...

How in heck did I get here anyway?

Things were fine in kindergarten, good even.

Taboo: [Atone]

I was praised for going to and from school by myself.

Mum taught me to take care of myself before ditching me as much as possible after all.

I was naive and unaware of my situation back then, and I was pretty happy.

I was relatively reserved, preferring to read superhero comics from overseas and local mangas, play video games as well as watch cartoons and anime over interacting with others.

But I wasn't completely asocial, I did play with the other kids even if I barely talked.

I loved racing actually, and I took pride in being the fastest, being Skanda as they would call me.

Even though I would get short of breath and dizzy a lot very easily, I still pressed on.

Then one day, I decided to up the ante and race someone riding a bike.

Taboo: [Atone]

It was neck and neck, and I was determined not to lose.

I pushed myself to my limit, and collapsed.

Woke up learning from the doctors that I was anaemic.

I wasn't cut out for sports, it was dangerous for me to exert myself that much even.

Hopes and dreams of being an athlete crushed, I resigned myself to the world of fiction.

Then comes elementary.

It was a different time but then, when video game, manga and anime were even less mainstream.

And I made the mistake of not hiding my interests.

Taboo: [Atone]

Didn't help that I entered a high-ranking school with my excellent grades.

The other students bullied me for being immature.

I didn't know how to defend myself, so I didn't.

The teachers praised me for being 'mature', making things worse.

Both because I thought it would work out if I didn't fight back, and that the bullying got worse either out of jealousy of the teachers' favouritism or knowing that I wouldn't fight back.

As if that wasn't bad enough already, I somehow got liver cancer.

Probably from my unhealthy, unclean eating, which mum never supervised.

I remember laying in a hospital bed, being miserable, wondering if I would even survive to another day.

Taboo: [Atone]

More importantly however, I noticed the other unfortunate kids being visited by the parents, siblings, and other relatives.

That was when I realised what I lacked.