They need to run

The misty night enveloped everything, casting an eerie feeling over the surroundings. Gen was suddenly stirred from his sleep by an unexplained sense of unease, prompting him to peer cautiously outside the tent. The unusual mist, entirely out of place for the time of day and season, sent chills down his spine.

Despite the dense fog obscuring his vision, Gen managed to make out shadowy figures lingering in the distance. For a fleeting moment, it seemed as though his sight was enchanted, but in just a matter of seconds, his vision was back to normal, leaving Gen completely blind in the thick mist.

Before having time to figure out what just happened. He go back inside the tent to wake up Mary and Finn. They're sleeping together in one black blanket while Gen sleeping by himself with a separate blanket.

The blanket that he wears used to belong to Finn but after Gen starts to live together they give it to Gen. He feels bad about it but he has no other choice unless he wants to freeze to death on a a cold night. It makes more sense for the siblings to share it rather than to a stranger.

"Mary Finn. Wake up". With both of his hands, he tried to shake up both of them.

The first one to wake up was Mary. With a half-sleeping face, she asked Gen. "What is it? I hope you don't wake me up for something stupid"

"shhht, be quiet. Something isn't right, we need to leave now" Gen said with a serious face. He didn't dare to joke around at this crucial time.

A moment later Finn also started to wake up. Hearing what they were saying he also opened up his mouth and said "If we gonna leave then you need to pick that up. I hid it behind the tent, it was under a rock"

Hearing this Gen immediately knew what he was talking about. He didn't go around the tent and lift it from inside. He saw a rock and lifted it, under it was a small hole with a small bag of coins inside. After picking up the bag with his right hand, it immediately disappeared and a dead rat fell out from his left hand.

Seeing what happened, Mary was surprised. "what is that? And where is it going?"

"There is no time to explain. We need to leave now" he says while walking outside the tent.

Mary came out with her walking stick with Finn following her from behind. Gen crouches down and says to Mary "Go behind my back now"

"I can walk by myself" Mary tries to refuse Gen out of habit.

"down be stupid, this is the fastest way we can leave right now" Gen knew that Mary would probably refuse him but walking while Mary limping around would take too much time to go anywhere. It would be no different than staying inside the tent.

Knowing that what Gen says is true, she eventually goes behind gen back. In a normal situation, Mary would never ask anyone to carry her in any way. She rather walk by herself no matter how much time it would take. She refused to let her disability be a inconvenient to other people.

Standing up with Mary behind his back. He grabbed Finn with his right hand and said "Finn, hear me out. No matter what, do not let go of my hand"

Finn is blind so he worries that if he somehow lets go of his hand in this thick fog. Then he would get swallowed by the fog and never see him again, just the thought alone already scared him.

Gen took a look behind him and this time for a short moment he managed to see inside the fog and see a couple of shadows walking towards them. A couple of seconds later his vision came back to normal. This is one of his awakened abilities.

Even this power also Crappy. Gen thought to himself*. " let's go this way" he said while leading the way.

Along the way his eyesight can see through around the fog and then his vision back to normal. It would get turned on and off again with every step. When the abilities are activated for a glimpse Gen can see others shadow. His heart becomes heavy because whatever happening is way bigger than he thought. But at the very least he can navigate within the fog without bumping with them.

The previous shadows that walked toward them arrived at the tent. One of the guys touched the tent and in one go ripped open the whole tent. To their surprise, the inside of the tent was empty.

When dumb seeing this he gives a confused look to his brother. "Brother, it's empty?"

"they already gone? That kid is quite sharp" Stick says while looking around the empty tent. He already set his eyes on Gen for quite some time now and there is no better time to visit him than now.

When arriving at one of the corners Gen can see a group of men catching a bunch of kids. To his luck, his enchanted vision just turned off at the right moment preventing him from avoiding them.

"let me go," one of the kids says while trying to escape from one of the man's grip. When he just arrived he can see the whole situation.

Seeing their arrival that group of men cast an intense gaze on them as if a predator seeing their prey. and with a couple of steps back later his visions immediately get blocked by the fog. Gen immediately ran the other way from them.

"That is Grin and his friends. We need to come back and save them "Mary says worriedly to Gen.

"We cannot do that. You know we cannot do that. I'm sorry Mary but this is the best we can do" Gen had no choice but to refuse Mary's request. It is just impossible for him to save them, the only way he can do is to run away.

"But Gen...." Gen can hear the pleading voice when Mary says that but he can only strengthen his heart and start running.

Grin and his friends are also the kids of the slum just like them. because they didn't live that far away from them it was unavoidable for them to not know each other. From time to time they would be helping each other in time of need.

The kids of the slum also had their own nicknames, for Mary they would call her limp and blind for Finn. And for Gen ironically they called him stupid because when he first came here he could not even talk and when he somehow started to talk he would ask the stupidest questions possible to anyone. Such a cruel nickname but that's just how it is. Gen refuses to call Mary and Finn as limp and blind. Seeing this Mary and Finn also didn't call him with his nickname.

Just like I thought this fog isn't normal at all. I can see them clearly and with just a couple of steps back they immediately disappeared. It looked like we could see each other clearly if it was only around 5 meters apart? if I can somehow maintain that distance I can be invisible to them. In that short moment, Gen just figured out how the fog worked.

He is a smart kid but he usually cannot think this fast and accurately in this kind of condition. As if something is helping him think faster? It was one of his awakened powers, previously he could only use it to remember what he had just eaten for the last couple of months. It's probably his unconscious to try to remember all the good food he ate previously and this time it's finally a bit useful.

While running he eventually arrived at one of the houses and started knocking like crazy. "hey, wake up. Gambling guard, wake up". He let go of his right arm that holding Finn just to knock on this door but no matter how hard he knocked he didn't get an answer.

This house is rented by a city guard, and with that kind of profession he can easily live in a better area and even have his own family but his gambling addiction prevents him from having that kind of life. Calling him a gambling guard is just a perfect nickname for him. He hated how people in the slum would call him that but just like everyone else, there was nothing he could do about it. At the very least no one called him that when he went to work outside of the the slum.

The gambling guard sleeping in his room. This is not one of the nights where he would stay all night to gamble but even with all the loud knocking he still cannot hear anything. Its seems one of the fog ability can also stop any voices that happening outside. In fact, The fog that could block any voice from outside just made his sleep even better.