Luden waited for three days, but Tasha never came back. By now, his hunger had taken over, and he felt weak all over his body. He finally decided to come out and find some food and try to check the pack if he could.
Luden slowly crawled out of the tree hole and checked outside. Looking at where he was, he decided to climb a tree to find prey first so he could eat and get his energy back. Luden made his way up there with difficulty. Once he was up there, he found a small rabbit. Slowly reaching for his crossbow, he nocked, released it, and killed his target.
Soon, he finishes skinning and starts to eat. After eating, Luden makes his way to the pack; along the way, he finds the forest quiet and weird, but he doesn't know how to put his finger on it. He decides to ensure he is taking a safe route away from humans, so Luden makes his way very slowly and uses every bush; reaching the camp, he smells a foul stench of blood. He stops here, decides not to take risks, and takes his powder out. He starts to throw it around him, and soon he finds every color is far but notices the color black is very near. Wait, it is all around him; Luden has never seen the color black. Just as he is about to look, something hits him hard in the head, making him lose consciousness.
But there is no one around; soon, a voice comes out: "So what did you find out, Eric?" Soon, a man comes out of invisibility: "It's a kid, a weird one at that; what the hell is he doing in here?" says Eric
"Ask questions later, bring him back to the boss, and we will deal with him later. We have to leave. Many people like us are around here waiting for any prize to come their way."
Eric bends down, picks up Luden along with his backpack, and rushes out of there with his friend; the two men run along the way until they reach the city wall; they look up at the wall, which is covered by lights all over, and there are searchlights all over; the wall is 3 meters thick, coated with the strongest steel; even the strongest awakened will take some time to break it.
There are guards every few meters watching everyone who wants to walk inside; vehicles are not allowed outside the city without a permit, so everyone who enters the city comes on foot because it is easier to navigate the trees.
The two men search for the right door and walk up to it. One of them takes a bag and covers Luden with it. They bribe the guard, who looks the other way, and bring him inside. They are now in the west of the city, where the slums are close.
They walk inside, go to where they parked their car, and take Luden to their hideout in the slums. Soon, they reach a run-down building with three floors covered in dirt.
At the door. A man sitting while guarding the door notices the two men coming back and shouts, "Eric, Jovid, why are you two back? I thought the boss told you to stay there and wait for an opportunity to sneak in and get something from that den," says the man in surprise.
"We were, but we found a boy lurking outside that camp spraying some weird stuff around, so we decided to bring him."
"You brought a boy with you. Are you crazy? You kidnapped a kid?" Shouts the man,
"He was weird, and look at his clothes. Does this look like something a kid living in the city wears?" Says Eric, and points to Luden's clothes.
"Anyway, his fate is for the boss to decide, so move out of the way, Pildo."
The man clicks his tongue and makes way for the two carrying luden, who are now awake since they reached the slums, but he is too scared to do anything.
Eric turns to the other guys and orders them to put Luden in a cage while he goes to inform the boss.
This hideout belongs to a gang called Baha's Gang. It consisted of several people who were unranked and worked under Baha, a rank-one thug. He was known for his ruthless tactics and ability to control the group with an iron fist. He used these guys and offered them protection; in exchange, they did every one of his commands. This gang did very bad deeds such as stealing, grave robbing, and, in cases like this, kidnapping.
The gang had very tight control over its activity and managed to bribe various guards to look the other way and remain under the guard's eye.
They were a vermin of societies that lived off other people's fortunes. They were mostly known for robbing the crypts of rich families.
These crypts were heavily guarded and lethal, so the gang members had a high chance of losing their lives. However, some superstitious rich people and powerful families buried treasures with their loved ones. Baha's gank took advantage of this kind of crypt to earn their daily expenses.
This is where the unranked gank members came to use by becoming expendable and making successful raids. The unranked gang members were seen as disposable assets, willing to take on the dangerous task of raiding the crypts in exchange for a share of the loot. Despite the risks involved, they were eager to prove their worth and climb up the ranks within Baha's gang.
At first, Baha was very disappointed in Eric and Jarvis for bringing a useless kid and kidnapping him. He ordered his men to put him in a cage and throw him out, but Luden, not knowing how the world works, showed value when he started opening every cage they put him in. and try to escape.
Baha and the gang members noticed his skills and cleverness. They all had the same idea: this kid was going to be useful at raiding the crypts, so from now on, they brought Luden with them, threw him into these crypts, and told him to open the doors for them. At first, Luden didn't understand the languages. Still, as time went by, he learned a few words, such as open beat or kill.
They especially noticed Luden had a great attachment to the weird device that had two mana bolts on it, one white and one black. They used it to frighten him to do what they asked, or they broke it.
As the months went on, Luden helped them open the crypts one after another. The more crypts he opened, the more injured he became, mostly by the mechanics because each crypt had a mechanic but was there with a clear purpose to kill.
Luden managed to learn the basic human language in a month, while Luden in the cage one day he heard two gang members talk: "Man, going to the forest is real pain in the ass now."said one of them
"Yea, after that stunt those foolish fortress has pulled by attacking that cursed pack, all the animals are extra mad at humans." replyed the other
"Stupid guard walking with 10000 men only to kill 1000 wolves, and somehow they managed to lose 9200 of these men and one lord just to kill all these wolves." said one of them mocking
"yea it's known as the biggest loss to humanity in these recent years, so tell me about it."
"And don't let me start on the wolves; they're even more mad than the rest of the animals. They even said a white, big lord wolf attacked the north of the city wall and damaged half of it and went on a rampage and killed more than 3000 awakened and destroyed 10% of the city. The city covered the real citizen casualties, but everyone knows it's high."
"This is a hard time, my friend; half of the city lost its faith in the city king, and they say he is about to be replaced." Soon he notices Luden crying tears in the cage. "What the hell happened to this animal?"
"Why is he so agitated?"
"Haha, don't tell me he got sympathy for these animals?"
"Well, I won't be surprised if he is because he acts like an animal." This news devastated Luden and destroyed all his plans to get back to the pack one day and resume his life. "Mom, Dad," said Luden with more tears coming to his eyes, "I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back now." His heart felt heavy with the weight of his shattered dreams.
After this news, his daily life consisted of staying in a specially made cage that was impossible to open for Luden from the inside
Or outside and opening crypts for the gang. He only saw outside on these occasions. He tried to struggle, but he only got beaten, and he noticed the other humans only watched him and didn't do anything to help. After a few struggles, he gave up on this idea. The gang has special plans for Luden and even buyed an expensive toolbox with different kinds of tools for him to use to open the doors and complete their tasks. Luden's hope of escape dwindled as he realized the extent of the gang's control over him. Despite his initial resistance, he began to accept his fate and focus on survival within the confines of his cage. Waiting for an opportunity.
A year and a half have gone by, and Luden has managed to open more than 50 crypts so far. These crypts have brought immense fortune to the Baha's gang. Luden becomes a very valuable asset to the gang, but as more crypts open, Baha becomes greedier. He started to crave more advanced, much richer, and more puzzling crypts. One day, he brings Luden to a very old crypt belonging to a very powerful family. Luden did the usual: sneaked into the crypt, studied the interior, and finally concluded how to open the door. But so far, every crypt Luden opened only had one mechanic at the door, and he had gotten used to that.
Little did he know that as soon as he opened the first mechanism, the second mechanism triggered immediately and shot a poisonous dart at his left hand. Baha and his men watched with horror from behind; he ordered his men to bring Ludens, who were screaming on the grounds, here quickly. They looked at Luden's hand closely, only to find out that it was going green at a rapid pace. A skinny man, known as Baha's right hand, came forward, and he watched Luden's hand and concluded it would take one hour for the poison to spread. He offered Bahas a solution to cut the hand right away. With reluctance, Baha watched the crypt and instructed his men to bring Luden out, after which they returned to their hideout. Baha and his gang discussed the best way to do the deed. Draco suggested that he should do it because he had done it before after Draco assured Baha that he could do it.
Finally, he took Luden to a room, made sure to make him lose consciousness by hitting him on the head, used enough painkillers and anesthesia, and finished the job. Half an hour later, he came out of the room; Baha asked him how it went, and he said it went well. "Boss, the boy will wake up a day later and may resume his job after three days. Little did he know that Luden was already awake. Luden got up, looked around, and found himself in a room; he felt a pain in his hand and watched his left hand missing with sadness. He endured the pain, looked at the room, and noticed that they did not put him in a cage; he tried to get up but felt a little dizzy from all the painkillers that they put him through. Luden knew he had to think of a way out before the gang members came back. After carefully evaluating his situation, he started to devise a plan to get his freedom back.
Luden scanned the room, and he finally remembered that some gang members were complaining about the problem of rats coming from vents; he even remembered that they said bats were coming from there, too, coming from the vent because these vents were connected to outside. Luden finally found his chance, so he started to scan the room thoroughly, and he ultimately discovered a vent hidden behind some racks. He grabbed the toolbox that he used in opening the tombs and started climbing and checking if he could get inside the event. This is where being small became handy.
Once Luden makes his way inside the vent, he starts to climb up until he finally finds his way outside. He manages to reach the rooftop, and he slowly climbs down the building with the tools. He finds that climbing down the building is easier than climbing cliffs and trees with the tools that the gangs had for him. Once he's down there, he looks around and sees huge buildings all around him, streets and cars, and he notices different kinds of banners advertising things. The only saving grace is that the gang gave him some children's clothes so he doesn't stand out too much. He starts to work down the street and looks around with curiosity. He watches some buildings that are taller than anything he has seen in the forest. He takes all that in, and he watches the billboards with curiosity for the different things that they show. He sees some drinks get promoted, saying they give you extra power; some others say they give you an extra boost for you to train, and he sees different kinds of advertisements for different kinds of chips. Some chips say they are the teen edition. Some say they are gold editions; some say they are elite editions. Curiosity gets him, and he starts to inquire about these chips. More, he sees some billboards that have ads that play; it shows how the chips awaken the humans.
Luden pauses his steps and looks at the screen; when he gets excited, he remembers how the wolves in the camps were awakened and how he was not. He remembers how much of an advantage they had over him. These chips were a game-changer for him. He begins to conduct further research on these chips and quickly uncovers numerous benefits that he considers essential. He considers these chips to be among the essential items he must acquire.