My Atomic System

Chapter 8: A journey to the Dregs

Haruto cautiously slid through the alleyway. He gritted his teeth. Even his sweat pores weeped heavily for his misfortune.

10 yen!. Haruto screamed in his head. It had cost him 10 whole yen to transport himself here. He had spent an ample amount of time here to know how the financial system worked. His current net worth was a measly 300 yen. He was poor. And to remove a whole 10 yen just to move himself from one place to another…He gritted his teeth even more.

‘... damnation’

If only he had someone to tell him how costly transport was, he'd have made use of his legs!. After all, they weren't created for nothing. He had entered the luxurious bus blindly.

Haruto sighed ruefully, heavy pain accompanying the breeze that followed.

It was already spent money, there was really nothing he could do about it. He could only hope the workers of the Tokyo Secret Combat Force were paid. Otherwise, he was truly doomed.

He had not even bothered to drop a resigning letter at his former workplace as a result of the barricade of strange things that had happened lately. There was no way they'd take him back. More so, that was already a high paying job for someone like him who didn't even finish elementary school. His aim really was to amass so much wealth and power before bringing his sister so they would live happily ever after in this beautiful world. But how would he do that if he was poor?.

It was already 5pm. As he got closer and closer to the supposed casino Kentaro had told him to go to, he could already hear the loud noise and intensive music emanating from there. He didn't miss a few bad guys along the way. His movements started to turn awkward.

Normally, here in Tokyo, they'd all be arrested for sure if they made this kind of loud noise. But, this area was specifically tagged as the dregs. It was were the low lifes or more specifically — THE DEGENERATES — lived. Somehow, there was freedom to do as they wish here. The police never patrolled down here unless absolutely necessary. But when that happened, a lot of hardened criminals landed in jail.

Haruto took a deep breath, said a few prayers immediately he got in front of the casino. Then…he went in.

‘curses’

‘isn’t this too much?’

Haruto felt like his eardrums would burst from the intensive music. He had literally never heard something so loud before. In his former life, it was only punishable by death. What's more? He couldn't even see properly. Different rays of light constantly changing directions and colors. He soon grew accustomed to it. Only immediately he did, he quickly wished he'd return to his initial state.

‘Lord have mercy’

Haruto silently repeated the prayer in his heart. He had learnt that the prayer could erase lewd thoughts from the mind from a book he had read in his former life. What was the title again?......Whatever, it didn't matter. He gritted his teeth and tried his possible best not to look at the ladies.

‘What’s with the nudes?!’

Currently, Haruto believed what was left for them to do was to not just wear anything at all!. They were all the tiniest bit far from totally naked!. Some wore only strips, and their beautiful supple skin, and seductive b….. wait, no that's not what I was thinking about!.

Sighing, he slowly made his way towards the bartender behind the counter whom he believed may have a chance at helping him find the TSCF — Tokyo Secret Combat Force.

On his way, he paused. Something caught his attention. There were a few men gathered around a big cage. They wore different expressions, some wore a look of excitement, some grim looks, some indifferent looks. But all of them focused their attention on the big cage. He wondered what could catch all their attention at once. They were grown men after all.

With his interest piqued, Haruto approached them to get a clear view of what was going on.

Inside the cage, there were a few rats….about six?....No, seven. They were blocked from moving forward by a small blockade as they stood in their designed tracks inside the cage.

He heard a man scream:

“Go!”

In an instant, all the blockades were removed and the rats raced furiously down the lane. It was weird, the rats raced as if their lives depended on it.

Haruto frowned, since when did rats have a sense of will?. He found this strange world truly intruiging all the more. To think rats could actually be trained. Back on his world, rats, though small….were considered agents of destruction. They were even thought to be possessed by demons— that of course, to the low classes like him. Once, a rat had torn down a metal cylinder with it's bare teeth. All effors to kill the devilish creature proved abortive. The bastard had crazy reflexes and was unimaginably fast. Haruto shook of the thought and focused on the match, he was curious as to which rat won the race, he furrowed his brows even more harder and stared intensely.

In the end, the second rat from the left shot through the finish line. Haruto watched them. Expecting them to feed the rat something for it's hardwork. Every thing done had it's own reward right? Whether good or bad. But, what he saw next shook him tremendously, or was it shock?.

Haruto's face darkened. What did he expect?....They were humans after all. He didn't like humans at all even though he was one, frankly he himself was wary of what he could do if he went wild. How could he even forget the cruel death that he was subjected to himself? He watched the men release yen to the man with the winning rat.

It was a gamble after all!. Haruto stared at them with resentment. How dare they subject those pitiful creatures to that kind of treatment. What did they do wrong?.

Haruto suddenly released his brow.

Why was he even feeling pity for them suddenly?. Weren't they the same devilish creatures he knew?. No, that's not quite right. They were devilish. But no one had the right to subject them to any form of maltreatment if they didn't outrightly deserve it. They were living….

“Hey you!”

Haruto jerked out of his thoughts abruptly and looked behind him. Startled, he stared at the towering man standing there. He had to look up properly to see his face. He thought that he hailed from the lineage of giants. If not so, what's with the height?.

What's more? He wasn't looking friendly. Haruto knew he was in for something today. Why was the bastard looking like he wanted to kill him all of a sudden?. Haruto grimaced.

“You see…” the man took one step closer to him, his knuckles cracking in the process — not that he could even hear it. Then, he continued:

“...here in the casino located in the degenerate part of Tokyo, only factions exist, the bartenders, the whores, the rat gamblers, mention more…they're all factions”

The man paused, as if letting the words sink in. He took one step closer to Haruto and continued:

“But you, you're gonna tell me which faction you belong to right now…”

This time, his voice was solemn and deep. Haruto froze., He felt a cold shiver run through his spine. Goosebumps started to grow on his smooth skin.

“ except of course…”

The man bent down, close enough to instill fear directly into his soul and hasten his heart beat to insane beats per second. He had a sinister smile etched on his lips.

“...if you don't belong to any”