Back in school, we were often asked what we'd like to become. Yeah, some had pretty deep dreams and achieved them; others never saw themselves where they are now.
But in life, there are only two categories that matter—it's either you're rich or poor. Can you get either of them from school?
Maths wasn't the most encouraging subject. People like Aiden Hood found themselves sleeping during these periods.
"Shh, don't wake him up," said a girl with a soft voice, chuckling afterwards.
The boy sleeping on his desk could hear a few words, and the shutters of the camera. It wasn't really their fault to take pictures of him while sleeping.
The Streamer Academy is everything strange you could think of—like Aiden being the only male streamer in class B2. So the girls were obsessed with him, especially since he was very cute to them.
'They're like Amazon warriors who'd die for me. I like them,' Aiden smiled in his sleep.
Bam!
The moment was cut short as a man entered the room. Everyone quickly composed themselves, and Aiden twitched his blue eyes as he tried to wake up.
The professor was already at his desk, slamming a test sheet with an A+ on it.
"Now you tell me, brat. You've been sleeping in my class every time, and somehow you managed an A on my test," said the professor with an angry face.
Aiden knew it was the white-haired girl sitting in front of him. She was responsible for his parallel A's. She'd do absolutely anything for him—Belle Queens.
Life in Streamer Class B2 as the only male was easy. All Aiden ever did was come to school, and the ladies did the rest for him.
After class ended at 5 p.m., Aiden indulged himself in the academy's main café with other gamers, battling themselves in Connect.
Without his ladies by his side, Aiden's life was just as miserable, boring, and lonely. He plugged in his earphones, walking along the sidewalk.
'Nothing fun ever happens,' thought Aiden, humming to the sound of the beat.
"Give me all your money right now!" yelled a thug with a knife.
"P... please don't hurt me... I don't want to die, p... please."
"Well, I'd stab you if you don't gimme your money, you hag!"
Every day had the same crap Aiden saw in society—a poor man robbing an old lady. Aiden just stood far from the alley before walking away from them.
Or was it when he sat in his favorite food store? The news would broadcast the ongoing war between countries, tagging it as: The warzone still continues. Please stay inside.
The wealthy barely paid attention to society's problems, and the poor turned violent—from bullies to thugs to notorious criminals.
Aiden saw all sorts of crap around the world. It was never balanced from the start, and it would take some public speaker with guts to talk sense into everyone.
Aiden sighed. Every day had become somewhat normal to him.
'This world needs a restart button. I wouldn't mind pushing it,' thought Aiden as he crossed the road.
Aiden sighed again. Blocks away from his house, a bleeding woman, breathing heavily, stumbled from the dark alleyway.
"Holy shit!" Aiden yelled, his instincts pushing him away from her.
"Human, I'm looking for Aiden Hood—a twenty-year-old teenage boy, blue eyes, and ruffled... ruffled... ruff..."
Those were the only words she could muster before her consciousness slipped away. Aiden just stood there, looking at her.
"Please don't make me regret this," he muttered, looking sideways and wondering why no one ever took his route as much as he did.
——————
Slowly, after a brief headache, the woman from before gradually regained her blurry sight. She let out a groan while sitting herself up.
Noticing this, Aiden had already held a baseball bat, in case she was some kind of weird thing, as he anticipated.
"Where... where am I?" asked the black-haired girl with red eyes and a strangely black suit.
"Well, you're in my living room... New York," said Aiden, still holding on to his baseball bat.
"No, I meant what year is this? Has Ragnarok begun already?"
Having heard the question, Aiden wore a confused look. Maybe she was the type not to keep track of dates, but he had no idea what Ragnarok meant.
"It's the year 3027, and what's—"
"Thank God!" she screamed before Aiden could continue. "I must leave at once to find Aiden Hood," the girl said, standing up from the couch.
Aiden, still in his protective stance as he watched her stand, drifted his steps back a bit. But before she reached the doorstep, she paused, looking at a photo of Aiden and his late mom.
Aiden started feeling worried when he saw her wounds had automatically healed itself and there was a medic sign when it happened, as if she was a game character using a medic.
She took the picture, and then a red curved scythe appeared in her hand from thin air. This act caused Aiden's heart to jump.
"Oh my shit!" yelled Aiden. "You're a witch!" As of now, Aiden became scared and wary of the person inside his house.
"Look, I don't want any trouble. You can just take whatever you want, and I swear to God I will not mention a word to the police."
Even after Aiden's reaction, she still held the image until she heard him talk about the police. She turned her neck, then turned around.
"You're him. You're the person I'm looking for... You look different and—" she stopped, as if assessing Aiden's stature to find the right word, "You look weak."
Even up to this point, Aiden was still freaking out, especially given the fact that there was now a devil tail coming from her back.
"Or... alright, you ba-bastard witch, get out of my house!" Aiden yelled and dashed forward with his baseball bat.
However, as he was about to hit her, the bat was caught mid-air—but it wasn't by the witch in front of him. A big black steel palm had caught it from behind.
Aiden slowly assessed the palm—big and black with fangs. He turned his hesitating neck, and his widened eyes saw the monster behind him.
It had the face of an ant—a humanoid ant with red glowing eyes.
"Oh, don't hurt him, okay? This is Aiden Hood," said the witch.
Before she knew it, Aiden had taken too much of it—and just collapsed.