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 cherry 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... on 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 dark sky accompanied by the first quarter moon has turned somber.

Screech!

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

A figure appears, holding the creature's mouth. The creature's eyes widen, as it recognizes an adult bearded man wearing an orange hoodie. The man raises the creature and sends it flying onto the slide. "That is not how you greet someone, my dear Corrumpo. You should have said hello." The creature storms, roaring at the man's mockery.

The man pulls out a long steel ruler. The ruler slowly transforms into a warm yellowish-orange shade spear as the man spins it with grace. He runs towards the creature and jumps to the left when he is close–the man then hits the creature with his spear. The creature blows a furious bellow, responding to the man's attack with anger. The man dodges the creature casually as 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 physical abilities." The creature clenches its jaws and roars. It dashes towards Kashton, launching attacks in various ways using its legs and sharp tails. The creature successfully lands a hit on Kashton with its tail and sends him flying inside a nearby house.

Kashton stands up slowly using his spear. Soon afterwards, the creature charges inside and launches aggressive attacks, destroying anything in its path. Kashton blocks them, dodging them with all his might. The creature holds Kashton by using its tail and throws him outside. As he lands, Kashton throws a yellow card to the roof and places another 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 a break. "You're good, I'll give you that." The creature ignores Kashton's comments and continues to attack him. Kashton tried his best to keep a distance.

The creature successfully pushes Kashton to the ground and stabs Kashton's chest with its serrated tail, causing him to fall on the road. A bright rectangular shape shines below Kashton's body. A fire emerges from it and burns both Kashton and the creature.

Screech! The creature runs 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 sees Kashton, and his right-hand surrounded by chains. The middle finger of Kashton has a long steel chain where it binds the injured creature. Kashton draws a yellow card from his pocket and throws it toward 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, progressively destroying its body. As the creature finally burns to atoms, 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 another figure is behind him. Looking behind him, he found a slim, titanic humanoid creature with large bright white eyes and no hair. "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."

Kashton waits till Zyaire puts his phone in, "Shall we go?"

Zyaire responds as he sheathes his dark violet katana sword, "Let's get to work."