My System's name is Symbiot

Chapter 2

Bad News and a Troubled Life

Adewale and Attah reached their home in excitement, and Adewale realised why they were best friends; for some reason, Attah was devoted to him and always agreed with all of his suggestions.
“Tomorrow then,” Attah greeted as he waved goodbye to his friend.
“Yes tomorrow,” Adewale greeted, “we’ll meet and have more fun.”
“I trust you, Wale; I will always trust you,” Attah said as he ran off.
“Hidden requirements met, Unlock secret skill (1/5)”
“What?” Adewale exclaimed as he heard the voice prompt, but he didn’t understand what had happened and decided to forget about it. He walked home and pushed the front door open. The light crystals glowed dimly, and he found his little sister at the dining table playing with her food, oblivious to what was going on in the environment. The sight was quite pleasant, so he walked towards his sister and patted her on the head with a smile on his face. “broda Wale,” the innocent two-year-old greeted, and he smiled in reply. The next sight ruined his peaceful homecoming. It was his parents; they were in the living room, seated with an aura of melancholy in the air. The mayor of the Lagos shelter must have made another unnecessary demand again, so he slowly walked towards his parents and sat down quietly.
“Have you eaten?” His mother inquired,
“Not yet” Adewale replied, “What’s wrong?”
“Another edict” his father replied, “One that will hurt our family”
“We will survive” Adewale said in an encouraging tone,
“The Mayor demands one volunteer from every family to serve the Lagos shelter’s strike team”
Now, the reality of the predicament dawned on Adewale; they would never demand his parents, who were decent working citizens of the shelter, and his sister was too young, which means the responsibilities fell squarely on his shoulders.
“How much time do I have left” he requested.
“We can pa…” his father suggested hoping to save his son from a terrible fate.
“No father” Adewale interrupted, “This family is still struggling as it is”
“but…”
“Father, it is my goal to become a strong Ẹṣọ and this is the quickest path to it, I will become an S-class warrior” Adewale voiced,
“You’re still too young”, his mother protested, “And what if you have a low Level-cap?” The last words in his mother’s sentence confused him a little.
“The money needed to exclude me from the mandatory recruitment is equal to the value of this house, which means if you sell this house, our family would be in the red for more than a few years. If we’re able to recover then the Mayor would send another edict and we go through the hardship once again”
“He’s right,” His father said, facing his mother; the distressed woman could do nothing but fall into tears. Like any mother, she was unwilling to hand over her son to the corrupt society.
“I promise” Adewale encouraged, “I will survive” his father signed in helpless surrender. “So how much time do I have left?”
“Three days” the elderly man replied. Then he gazed into his son’s eyes and voiced his sincere thoughts, “You do know that this is a method used to control the population of the shelter, it is technically…”
“A death sentence,” Adewale concluded; in the previous version of Nigeria, the evil leaders did the same thing to the people they were supposed to protect. “I promise I’ll manage.”
To Adewale’s shock his mother had fallen into tears, “My baby,” she cried out, then she ran towards him and threw her arms around him possessively. Adewale could do nothing to comfort his mother; if only his cheats had arrived, then maybe he could assure her that he’d have an advantage. Thus his day ended on a sad note.

*************

The Lagos shelter protects the people living within from the horrors outside the walls, and the great Ẹṣọs of the shelter are the ones responsible for the protection of those within. The Ẹṣọs are soldiers trained to protect the citizens of the shelter, they are the ones who explore the outside world, harvest the corpses of edible Ẹbọras and bring it back to the shelter for public consumption. The major problem of the Lagos shelter was population; the amount of resources produced both by the game hunted down by the Ẹṣọ and the crops produced by the farmers fall short when it comes to satisfying the limitless needs of the people, especially when the population is constantly increasing.
The leaders of the shelter had the choice of either finding a logical solution that would benefit everyone or simply executing the excess population from the lower class citizens and living in comfort with the higher class citizens. Like any other corrupt leader, they chose the easy way out and created a system where the lower-class citizens were expected to contribute to the progress of the shelter by offering one member of the family as a sacrifice for the greater good.
Adewale was one of the few that fell victim to such an outrageous policy; the bus arrived for the ones chosen for the system three days later as scheduled. His parents gave him a sac filled with food and additional clothes before he made his sad departure. His mother couldn’t stop crying, and his father remained speechless throughout the entire ordeal; the only silver lining in the entire event was that his friend Attah was also chosen.
“My father had to choose between my older brother and me,” he began with tear-filled eyes, “My older brother was going to be the first Merchant in our family, and he didn’t want to waste such an opportunity and …”
“You don’t need to explain,” Adewale said in an understanding tone, “The corrupt society can damage even the purest of hearts, I’m very sure this was the most difficult decision that your father had to make”
“Yes!” he said, encouraged, “He was so disgusted by me that he didn’t even look at me for three days; he didn’t even say goodbye.”
“My guess is the guilt is chocking him inside,”, Adewale said in a comforting tone, “Let's ensure we survive so that you can live long enough to receive your father’s apology” Thus, the two friends made the silent vow to each other to survive no matter what and return to their families.
The bus arrived at the final destination, the Ẹṣọs barracks, all the upcoming candidates were ushered out of the buses and distributed five lines. A tall man fully equipped in armour marched towards them with an imposing gaze, the look in his eyes fully showed his disdain for the recruits. Adewale felt the strange deja vu of one movie scene from his old world and failed to conceal his smile. If the ranking soldier noticed this or not, no one could tell from his Stern-looking face.
“All right gutter rats tonight is going to be the last night of the rest of your life because come tomorrow morning the harsh reality will begin” he gazed at them with eyes that failed to mask his blood lust. “many of you are going to be lost along the way and the rest who cut, they will be promoted to become heroes of this shelter”
“I don't like deceiving my students so I’ll come out with it, this exercise is simply a farce to exterminate the vermin within the shelter” he declared, “The rodent is never welcomed in the Woman’s kitchen”
Adewale gulped down his bitterness, “So the children of the high chiefs enjoy the safety of their homes and the love of their families while the other younger ones are thrown out to the wolves”
“They are evil!” someone voiced,
“Settle down, you ‘roaches, and prepare yourselves for the greatest disappointment of your lives.”
They were ushered to a separate room where they were each given a separate bed for the night; many of the other students were excited while Adewale chose the company of his closest friend, Attah.
“Scared?” he inquired.
“Very” the other replied. “From what I hear, they might be performing an evolution inspection tomorrow.”
Another aspect of this new world that he didn’t understand was, “It’s how power level is measured,” Attah continued as he noticed the puzzled look on Adewale’s face. “It’s basically the only way we human beings were able to survive. Since the galactic collision”
“I see” he replied as he nodded. This world has more to offer than he had earlier assumed. “Let’s get some rest; we’ll find out more of this evo-level tomorrow” The rest of the day was uneventful because they were all exhausted from the long journey, so they all turned in for the night.