Chapter 1: Orphanage Youth

In the year 3850, technology has advanced greatly and humanity has already colonized the entire universe.

But by colonization, it didn't mean complete domination of all races and planets. It was just that there were no other intelligent lifeforms except humans that have been discovered with the exception of one. 

So, humans have claimed the entire universe as their own land. 

...

Into the 23rd century, the entire human race had united into one group - The United Human Federation or in short, the U.H.F. It was the unity of all human beings and with its creation, technology had also advanced greatly along it. 

Now, not to mention 100 years of lifespan, even a normal human having a lifespan of 400 years became possible. But only 400 years. It was the limit the human body could achieve. 

No matter what happened, their cells would fail after 400 years and if they aren't fed with expensive food and nutrition, they won't live long past that line.

Even the mind being uploaded to the computer failed one after another, the reason unknown. It was just like a massive wall was hindering humanity's growth from going any further.

If the universe was an unachievable dream in the 21st century, now in the 37th century, they had conquered such a land full of mysteries. Only to be awaited with nothing but disappointment. 

This mystery known as the universe had been unveiled but excitement didn't come for the humans. There was no mysterious power held within it. It was just an excellent trick that managed to fool humanity. 

So with desperation and greed, they started a massive project.

This project changed the fate of humanity, no the entire universe. With the objective of breaking through the shell that was the universe, they wished to break free and achieve their dream. To see if the secrets to immortality laid in another universe.

And so the project known as the Breaking Shackles started. Or B.S. in short. This was the project that described the hopes of humanity and the never-ending desire of them. 

Right after a hundred years, a century, the Federation has succeeded. But the results weren't good. 

The federation expected everything, a spatial calamity, nothingness, paradise, or space monsters that had unknown quality. No matter what the thing beyond that universe was, they had prepared everything. 

Indeed, fortunately, one of their expectations came. At least something they didn't expect come out. 

But unfortunately, it had exceeded their expectation. 

It was space monsters that came out. Space monsters that had unknown quality and strength. At first, they were excited but some time later, they weren't. 

These monsters were absolute calamities. The shell that had been protecting them shouldn't have been broken. This project shouldn't have started in the first place. 

Of course, these were the initial thoughts of humanity. 

From the countless monsters that came out, they had succeeded in killing the weaker ones. And even though they were helpless against the stronger ones, capturing one of their kind meant hope. Hope that they could analyze their powers and make them their own. 

It ended in two outcomes. 

The first, unfortunately, they could only analyze a bit on these monsters. The cause of their strength was a special kind of energy. But this discovery was basically useless as the cause for the stronger monsters was something completely other than this special energy. 

And on these special powers of the stronger monsters, technology was useless. They were the abnormal exceptions to the laws of the world.

The second, fortunately, they were able to get a lead. 

The lead was the strange stones left by some of the unique monsters. 

They were later known as the genes of the beasts and was used as a cultivation resource for people. And all of humanity had the talent to absorb this weird stone and produce terrifying supernatural powers.

Since the discovery of the genes, about a thousand year had passed and now, humanity revolved around the cores of monsters. With genes, mystical powers of terrifying strength and absurd qualities could be produced from them.

The technology before could only make the people live as long as four hundred years. But now, it had greatly extended. Now, the lifespan of humans are undetermined as the strongest of beings are still full of vitality with a terrifying power that could destroy planets.

....

Recalling the information that every human knew, Cylius shook the thought out of his mind. Tomorrow was an important day. He's not allowed to mess up.

In the long corridor, a thirteen-year-old kid could be seen shaking his head, apparently looking stupid.

The boy was tall considering his age, about one meter and seventy centimeters. He had black hair and black eyes with a strange quality to him. His eyes looked dull as if it was lifeless. 

He had a white skin with no irregularities on his face. He was the kind to be ignored by most even though he was considered above average in looks. He was just one of those normal people that one would subconsciously forget about. 

He was Cylius, an abandoned orphan. He was imported to this orphanage by a spaceship. Well, all children in this orphanage had the same source - the spaceship.

And tomorrow was the day of departure. 

Every seven years an exchange will happen, the old orphans would be departing from the orphanage and new batches of them would be provided to the orphanage. They came in through the spaceship and went out also through the spaceship. 

Orphans came at the age of six and went at the age of thirteen, all by a large black spaceship.

He was in the G18 orphanage and it didn't treat their orphans well. In fact, almost every orphan who lived here had the urge to kill the orphanage's officials. But the officials were way beyond their reach, so they could only curse them in their heads lest they get killed instead.

There were already cases of this happening in the past and everyone had experienced the bloody torture. The only way to ensure they could leave the place was the test provided by the U.F.H where they measured their talent as geneticians.

Everyone had the talent to absorb genes and become geneticians but how much they could absorb these genes were unknown.

It would test if you have any natural genes inside yourself. People born with natural genes were the real geniuses as they were very scarce and were also considerably stronger than those without genes.

The naturally born genes were a boon to people and could grow along with the host, eventually distinguishing them from the crowd.

As it had been determined that the talent of people could only be precisely measured at the age of 13, they raised the orphans till they were 13 before taking them for a test.

If they were talented then they could be sent to schools to learn about technology and genes while if they weren't so much talented, only a dark future awaited them. 

After shaking his head, Cylius went to the food hall. Inside it, it was crowded with not much free space. But still, people made way for him, showing the status he had here.

The reason was that he had a gun and he had the ability to shoot precisely.

Firearms had become common and people of all ages could use them; things had become chaotic and also orderly since the success of the project B.S.

Even though rules were strengthened further, the strong would be respected everywhere while the weak would be trampled upon just like the jungle. 

Like the few people that were respected, Cylius was also avoided.

Even though he was antisocial, didn't have any friends and had a rather weak body, his power wasn't to be underestimated. His perception was just so sharp that he won't miss a bird from three hundred meters away.

He was already one of the chosen individuals who would go to a school even if he had low talent.

With a powerful gene, he would become an excellent sniper, being able to assassinate monsters from thousands of kilometers away. His role was very important as most people lost to monsters in the aspect of physical fitness with the exception of some.

As the number of people who owned guns was few in the orphanage, he would obviously be distinguished and avoided by people like a plague; not that he minded it.

After walking for a while, he got his liquified nutrition before going back to his room. 

After arriving at his bed he got out two sticks that were with each other before pressing a certain button on its upper left side. Right as he did that, the two sticks then suddenly repulsed each other and stopped at a certain distance. Right after, holographic images appeared between the two sticks resembling some sci-fi movie equipment.

Well, it wasn't impossible anymore as they had analyzed how to contain and control light.

This was his most prized object and he treasured it even more than the gun. After all his only way of playing was this tablet that he had found after snatching it from a dead body.

It had even more worth than the gun from his perspective and its worth equaled three guns. He loved games, especially puzzles and racing games. From reality he could indulge in the illusory world of games and fiction, the feeling gotten from it was amazing.

And this tablet was the only way for him to gain entry to it. Although the games that were played by hands and tablets had become less trending after the VR came out, it had become flourishing again in the last few centuries due to the simplicity they had.

After all, not everyone would like to experience tiredness and some may even want to just simply enjoy the feeling of relaxing while playing.