Silver Card

Chapter 1: Card

Where am I? This place... I've been here before...

No.

I've felt it... in my dream.

It was beautifully dull, filled with expectations and disappointments. Screams of joy and whispers of misery. Plastic bags float on the ocean and coins slip down the drain. Everything was chaotic, everything was turbulent, everything was in disarray.

Which is why I had to do it...

I destroyed the world and rebuilt it. As a result, I did not recognize this perfect world. It was dreary and gloomy. The perfect world I had built destroyed itself for eons and eons.

That is when I realized...

There is no such thing as perfection...

A light breeze blew through a red slide in an empty park. Street lamps illuminated dark roads. Green garbage cans stand beside a light-brown bench. On top of the bench lies an orange cat. The cat strolls, circling around the quiet park. During its journey, it notices a swing swaying on its own. Squeak... Squeak... Squeak...

Observing this strange swing, the cat moved closer to it. Squeak... Squeak... Squeak... Squeak...

The cat moved forward slowly on each squeak. Squeak... Squeak... Squeak... Squeak... in the last step, it found a small card on the moving swing—the cat picked up the card with its mouth. Soon after, the cat noticed something unusual.

The blue swing that sways on its own has turned gray. In fact, everything has turned gray. Slides, street lamps, garbage cans, benches, grass, even the night sky accompanied by the first quarter moon became gray.

Screech!

A loud piercing cry made the cat switch its attention to a creature above a streetlamp. The creature resembles a large spider-like creature with a deep red coloration and an elongated body . The creature stares at the cat analyzing whether it is a prey or predator. The creature notices a card in the cat's mouth. Aware of this, the creature roars and charges the cat, showing its sharp grotty teeth.

A figure appears, holding the creature's mouth. The creature's eyes widen, as it recognizes an adult muscle-bearded man wearing an orange hoodie. The man lifts the creature and throws it onto the slide. "That is not how you greet someone, my dear Corrumpo. You should have said hello," said the man.

The creature roars and runs towards the man. The man pulls out a long steel ruler. He spins it—the ruler becomes a long orange spear. He runs towards the creature and jumps to the left when he is close; the man hits the creature with his spear. They exchange blows, the man dodges the creature casually until he delivers a critical hit to the creature's eye. "You need more training, my friend. My name is Kashton Jaimonad and I am a gym trainer. You can call me if you want to hone your skills." The creature clenches its jaws and roars. It dashes towards Kashton, launching attacks in various ways using its legs and sharp tails. Kashton noticed this change.

In the midst of their clashes, the creature hits Kashton with its tail, sending him to fly inside a house. Kashton stands up slowly using his spear. Soon afterwards, the creature enters the room and launches aggressive attacks, destroying anything in its path. Kashton blocks it, dodging it like there is no tomorrow. The creature holds Kashton by using its tail and throws him out. As he lands, Kashton places a yellow card on the road. The creature returns and pushes him to the playground; his head crashes on the swing. Kashton quickly stands up, knowing that the creature will keep attacking without breaking. "You're good, I'll give you that." The creature ignores Kashton's comments and continues to attack him. Kashton dodges, trying his best to keep a distance.

The creature pushed Kashton to the ground. He uses the spear to avoid touching the ground. The creature stabs Kashton with its sharp tail, causing him to fall on the road. A bright rectangular shines below Kashton. A fire emerges from it and burns both Kashton and the creature.

Screech! The creature runs away screaming as the burning pain persists. Suddenly, a long steel chain binds the creature, restraining it from moving. The creature stares from which the chain comes. It identifies Kashton, and his right-hand side is surrounded by chains. The middle finger of Kashton has a long steel chain. Kashton draws a yellow card from his pocket and throws it at the creature.

The yellow card stops in front of the creature's face, it illuminates and generates a large number of orange energy projectiles towards the creature. The creature is overwhelmed by the sheer number of shots, destroying the body from the skin to the cells. Kashton pulls his chain out and jumps to the ground. "That was troublesome. Guess I'm the one that needs more training."

Tromp!

Kashton feels the ground shaking, aware someone or something is behind him. He looks behind him. A slim, titanic humanoid creature with large bright white eyes and no hair appears. "Great, now this one wants to join the party. But it should be lower than rank II judging by its speed and intelligence." The mysterious tall creature walks closer to Kashton at a slow pace. Kashton scoffs, "I'll take this chance as special training. I won't use any cards this time." Kashton prepares his spears and takes a stance.

Tromp! Tromp! Tromp! Tromp!

The tall creature walked in a step-by-step manner. On the next, a swift slash decapitates the creature's head without giving it time to react. The creature's legs give in as its body slowly turns to ash.

Kashton scoffs at the familiar voice behind him saying, "I thought you're my senior."

"At least I'm making things interesting, spice things up, you know how boring this job gets," said Kashton.

"How's the investigation going?"

"I only found disposable Rank I Corrumpos, nothing new. What about you?" A dark purple hooded man appears.

"I've only just arrived," Kashton chuckles.

"Seriously? You are 30 minutes late, Kashton. I can't solve this case alone."

"Yeah, I got it. Zyaire. Sorry about that."

"It's fine, it's not like you'll change things anyway." Kashton pouts at Zyaire's comment. "How about we ask Tyler for help? He is the missing student's teacher, right?"

"Ah, good idea."

...

An awkward silence clouds Zyaire's feet. Feeling bothered by it, he asked, "Well, What are you waiting for?"

"Huh? I can't ask him. I don't have his number," Kashton answered.

"The hell? We've been working together for 7 months. How come you don't have his number?"

"He neves asked for mine..."

Zyaire is beginning to tire from Kashton's behavior. However, he ate it as he considered fighting among themselves would be a waste of time. "I'll do it then."

Zyaire pulls out his phone and types, "Hey Tyler. Need your help in finding the missing student Eula Es. She is supposed to be in your school so that should give you a reason to not complain."