Chapter 2- The Shard Of Hatred

Life inside a carton box was as one would expect, very horrible. Not only was this piece of cardboard not that good for heat insolation, it also could easily get destroyed by the weakest gushes of wind and it also barely could protect Malice from the rain whenever it rained.

It was a horrible option for a house, but when put into consideration the lack of other good options, the box becomes far more bearable than the outside world. Malice was born into this world 14 years ago, of those 14 years, he only knew a home for about 9 of them. When he was still living with his dad, they had a small room in an old building deep in the slums.

It was pretty horrible, but still not as bad as a cardboard box. They were extremely poor, to the point where Malice would go days with no food on end and would resort to stealing to survive.

His father was a Mindworm addict who used whatever money he got from his construction job to buy that drug and fry his brain with it. When Malice was 6 years old, his father died from brain damage and that naturally left the boy alone in the world.

He had no mother to take care of him, no relatives, friends, or even kind souls that wanted to take him in. As far as he was concerned, everyone had turned their heads away from him even when he had never done anything wrong to them.

That's when he realized a single truth, one that many people take their entire life to realize: In this world, life is a game of cards, some people are dealt the good hand that wins, some are dealt a normal hand that would keep them away from losing but never gives them any wins and some simply get the bad hand… The hand of horrible luck.

Malice was one of those unlucky fools and surprisingly, he accepted that rather quickly. What other choice does he have? He was hungry, cold, and tired. There was no time to hate his horrible life when he could be spending that time searching for food and drinkable water.

'It will be snowing tonight…' Cowering deeper into the box, Malice stared outside with an apprehensive look on his face. Snowy days were particularly bad because the snow would accumulate on top of the box and slowly seep in, dripping on his head.

In other words, snowy nights are sleepless nights. Just realizing that put a sour taste in his mouth, but he simply shook it away and looked at the piece of clean bone next to him. Picking it up, he started munching on the bone silently to waste time.

He could've bought food tonight since he hit it big. But, he knew better not to rashly buy food and then end up regretting it a few days later when he had nothing left. He had to rationalize his spending well.

A few gold coins were equivalent to three days' worth of food for the average citizen of Neo Nexus. But, for Malice, these could last a few weeks or more. Buying normal food was impossible with such a small amount of money but if he bought the leftovers of the rich folks on the other side of the city the price drops significantly.

As he munched on the dry bone, he stared ahead of him, lost in his own thoughts. Sometimes, he liked to imagine what kind of life Marked Nobles had. 

'I'm sure they eat a lot of meat… Maybe hot bread too… Or some uh, what was its name again? Milk, was it?' Scratching his reddish white hair, he tried to recall the name of that white liquid he heard people talk about. He heard that it tasted good and that it was capable of making someone grow faster like a magical potion of sorts.

"I wish I could try it one day…" He murmured as he finally threw the bone away when it cracked. Then, he slowly adjusted his position to go to sleep. Closing his tired eyelids, he started slowly drifting to sleep as the snow slowly started descending from the sky.

***

An unknown amount of time passed for Malice. Since his body was battered, the snow didn't annoy him as much as usual and he was able to sleep. But, at some point, during the night, his eyes slowly parted open.

He didn't know why, but he felt something weird near him that triggered his senses. Living his entire life outside, Malice had learned how to sleep while also keeping his mind awake in case someone decided to attack him, which happens more often than he likes to admit.

This time, however, what he saw in front of him wasn't a human. Instead, his retina was assaulted with a bright, red light that made him squint.

"What?" He rubbed his eyes as he dragged his body back a few steps warily. Slowly, he regained his vision and was able to take a closer look at the thing emitting this light without being blinded by it. The sight only made him even more confused, though.

There, a few meters away from him, he saw a red, translucent crystal floating a few inches above the ground. Its size was barely bigger than his hand and its shape was spiky with three pointy ends, almost like needles.

"... What is that?" Squinting his eyes, Malice couldn't wrap his head around what he was seeing. His first thought was that he was dreaming. But, that idea vanished instantly when he felt the cold wind of that snowy night slap his body. The pain was too familiar and too real to be the product of his subconscious mind.

His second thought was that he was imagining things which he also ignored quickly after rubbing his eyes a few times. That only left one possibility: This was reality and he was seeing a floating orb.

Feeling rather curious, he slowly and carefully crawled out of the cardboard box. The red light didn't seem to be harming him in any way so he felt even more daring to get even closer. He didn't know why, but something about the crystal shard was beckoning him to get closer, even closer than he would've usually dared to do.

The beautiful crystal was simply that captivating for him. Before he could even realize it, he was a barely few inches away from the crystal as his hand extended forward. Realizing what was happening, he stopped.

'... What is happening to me? I can't remember getting this close…' Scrunching his face, he tried to pull his hand away. 'But… This crystal doesn't seem harmful…'

Even though his thought process was flawed, his mind didn't register that and instead pushed for him to just do what he was about to do. Even his heart didn't try to stop him. So, he simply decided to touch it.

With that, the remaining distance between him and the crystal was shortened till he finally touched it. For a split second, he felt a cold sensation on the tips of his fingers, only for that feeling to vanish quickly as the crystal suddenly exploded violently.

"Woah!" Malice jumped back as he covered his face from the sharp broken shards that flew his way. However, he didn't feel anything for a few seconds, so he took a peek. Surprisingly, the crystal had vanished completely.

Even the broken shards he expected to litter the ground around him were nowhere to be seen.

"What is actually going on? What was that crystal? And why did it su-" Before he could even complete his sentence, he suddenly felt an intense burning pain assault his hand. The pain started slow but then grew in degree until it reached a point where Malice grabbed his hand and started rolling on the ground.

He tried to hold his voice, but at some point, his tolerance was broken. He tossed and turned as he cried from sheer pain. This was by far the worst feeling he had ever been through. It was as if someone was peeling the skin off his hand slowly and then setting it on fire.

"AGGGHH!!! What is happening?! My hand!! It burns!!" Looking down while in full panic mode, he noticed that smoke was rising from the back of his hand. Traces of burning formed slowly on his skin in weird shapes.

It took a few seconds before the pain subsided and the smoke stopped rising. Laying there, Malice heaved up and down as he tried to calm himself.

"What happened to me? Was it because I touched that damned thing?!" Cursing his stupidity, he lifted his shaky hand to see what was left on it. There, he saw a weird shape burnt into his skin.

It looked like a distorted skull with its mouth wide open and its hollow eyes staring darkly at him. The thing looked like a cursed tattoo of some sort. Just a small glimpse at it almost made him shudder.

Using his other hand, he carefully touched the burn marks with fearful curiosity. At this point, Malice was certain that Shard had done something bad to him and his mind was already in the process of thinking of what to do.

'I should've not touched that. Now, I don't even know what is happening to me… What should I even do? Can I go to a hospital? No, I don't have money for that…' Putting his hand on his eyes, he took a second to breathe.

"Goddamit, I'm really stupid."

It was another reminder to Malice that always, no matter what happens, he should mind his own business. If something isn't calling for him, then it has nothing to do with him. The more he tried to put himself where he shouldn't be, the more trouble would chase him like a boogeyman.

As he was like that, he suddenly heard something. Pulling his hand away, he saw a floating box in front of him.

[The Shard Of Hatred has chosen its successor.]

[You have been 'Marked'.]

[The World Beyond Is Calling.]