Outlaws: Spark city

Chapter 1: System online?

Aiden lay on a small bed, he received a notification  in his head, and couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief: "Finally, it's done loading...!"

Hearing his words, the absent-minded Noah muttered lightly, "Really?oh you are right"

Taking a deep breath, He turned around and looked around in the dark surroundings before looking at his twin once more, "it's now or never..."

Unfortunately, despite all the excitement built up, the blue system panel seemed to be experiencing a kind of lag as the screen remained blank for more than a few seconds.

Aiden snorted lightly before looking around his room, Their family stayed in a three-bedroom flat.

All kinds of high-tech equipment in the room are flashing with the words "kindly renew rent to access the following services."

Even though it was late at night, You can still vaguely hear the noise of music and entertainment outside.

Fortunately, none of this has anything to do with the inside of the house.

Aiden and his family have been staying here for years, struggling at the borderline of abject poverty and being ok enough to eat. Life in this world was hard, he and Noah had reincarnated here after they had a car accident trying to dodge an unexpected lightning strike in the middle of the highway. Noah had Swerved the car to the side but unfortunately placed them right in front of a blue truck.

The moment they opened their eyes, they seemed to have appeared in front of a man in a white suit. He kept apologizing about the situation being his mistake and being willing to compensate for the "damage". Who knew that in the middle of their discussion, his boss would approach them for clarification? Seeing this, the white-suited man panicked and quickly tossed them into a random portal.

So, Aiden and Noah were again born into a world, although they ended up as identical twins this time unlike before. On the bright side, they were reborn with their memories intact, so they didn't have to worry about being illiterate despite being unable to go to school.

At the age of 1, they finally knew the kind of world they had been born into, it was a world called Dream and it had a cyberpunk setting. There were rampaging cyber lunatics everywhere, Punk fringed people who burned, killed, and looted, hackers.

They were born in somewhere called Spark City...

A desperate city where the bottom class is like ants, a place where capitalists and Clans(gangs) dominate, a place where money and power come first!

Unsurprisingly, at the age of 13, their family fell completely into the ant category especially since their father died in a gang battle with an enemy, and his prosthetic implants were pulled out by scavengers by the time he was found. The boss gave the family barely enough for them to survive but stopped a little after a year.

At the age of 15, with their overly strict and concerned mother, they and their younger siblings stayed clear off any form of crime but things just kept getting worse over the years.

But surprisingly, a month ago, after their 22 birthday, a translucent panel appeared before the twins with the words "I'm sorry for before T_T, this is the best I can do as an intern".

After that notification, the panel has been loading ever since. But that didn't discourage them, at least there was hope...

So they continued to push forward like they have always been doing, until today...

[Ding!]

With that sound, the panel appeared to have been stabilized...

[My Gangster system ]

Aiden looked dazed after seeing the pop-up while Noah scratched his flaxen hair with a bitter laugh.

After a few seconds, Aiden said, "Why does it look so unreliable and what the hell is a Gangster system? This guy ugh"

Noah shrugged as Aiden continued, "You know what? It's... Let's just see, it's better than nothing"

"Yes, we don't have a choice, especially with me losing my job now... I don't mind anything " Noah spoke with a sigh. His words made Aiden calm down, he looked at the "kindly renew rent to access the following services." flickering everywhere a gadget stood.

[My Gangster system]

After mentally tapping the panel, the next notification came up...

[distributing starter pack...]

[A starter pack is there to help you, young kings, step into the underworld as the rising bosses...once again, I sincerely apologize as this is the only way I can help, considering your overall situation, I wish you good luck, my favorite twins, sincerely Obaduim<3]

[Each starter pack contains 1 random skill card, 1 random perk card, 1 random trait card, 1 random technological gadget card, 1 random bionic equipment card, and  star credit lottery token x1]

[Cards have been delivered to your inventories... Would you like to use them now?]

None of them spoke, they looked at each other and their faces seemed to say, "This might not be so bad after all"

Noah first let out a sigh of relief before he began laughing hysterically due to the sheer amount of excitement he was feeling, Aiden was much calmer but the exaggerated smile on his face and eyes betrayed him.

They could almost see themselves at the top already but Aiden knew it was just an illusion, if not they wouldn't be any levels and the starter pack wouldn't be so generous. The world isn't so simple, so they had to be smart...

Noah also calmed down quickly as they silently inspected their panels and began to exchange information...

"I'm guessing, there would be invincible stats that compile into what we see... If not your stamina wouldn't be more than mine, we do the same amount of exercises, I'm just a bit better in the speed aspect while you are better when it comes to strength... But it's all chugged into stamina!" Aiden explains once again in frustration.

"Alright...alright lets move on " Although he didn't understand much, he could see Aiden didn't want to dwell on the topic.

However after they looked at the system more carefully, he discovered several special features of the system.

Like the status page, the lottery option, weekly and monthly sign in function, the deposit and withdrawal function etc.

[Name: Aiden Colie]

[Class:  ]

[Level 1]

[Exp 0/100]

[Health: 100/100]

[Energy: -/-]

[Stamina: 81/100]

[Heart rate 52 BPM]

[State: Normal]

[Skills:  ]

[Perks:  ]

[Traits:  ]

[Name: Noah Colie]

[Class:  ]

[Level 1]

[Exp 0/100]

[Health: 150/150]

[Energy: -/-]

[Stamina: 93/160]

[Heart rate 41 BPM]

[State: Normal]

[Skills:  ]

[Perks:  ]

[Traits:  ]

____

"Let's use the star credit lottery token first" Noah finally says after discussing for a while, they chose to do everything slowly after some deliberation.

"Alright " immediately they agreed, they chose to use the function at the same time, a pie chart appeared and was divided into different segments showing possible outcomes from the lottery. The numbers written in each segment showed the monetary value of each outcome (in star credits ) and the angle subtended by each segment indicated the probability of each outcome occurring.

The lowest amount had the biggest segment, being the one for 5k star credits, it was followed by a much smaller 15k to 30k, which went on to 50k, 80k and so on, until it stops at 200k as the grand price.

This got the twins excited as even the lowest one would allow them pay for this month's rent and even up to 4 months... There's two of them using the lottery, so there's a guarantee that there would still be enough to survive for a long time.

Aiden's lottery chart spun itself until he stopped it, soon it landed on 30k star credits and it immediately updated itself on his system balance.

Excited, he turned to look at Noah, on to find out that he had held his breath and refused to say stop, his lottery chat kept on spinning and spinning. Unable to bear it any longer, Aiden tossed his pillow at him.

"So many star credits, hehehe... STOP!" Noah squinted at his system panel, looking like he was staring into the air, well he was.

Aiden watched with curiosity as Noah's expression went from happy to disbelief and finally settled at sadness, Aiden chose to comfort him by saying, "it's ok man, since the option is there, you can always try again, as long as you get the token... I got 30k, we can survive on that for a while..."

Still in disbelief, Noah heartlessly muttered, "How can it be just 50k! It was obviously about to stop at 80! Come on ugh!"

Black lines appeared over Aiden's as he ruthlessly pushed the greedy guy off his bed, seeing his reaction, Noah said with a laugh "I was just teasing you"

They both laughed until Noah began crying at some point, "if only this came when Mom was sick!"

Aiden was silent but there was sadness all over his face, when they were 20, their mother, Selena Colie was shot several times by a minor gang member of the Disciples because she refused him.

The twins worked several jobs but didn't have the money to complete her treatment on time, so she died. The can heads didn't even bother with the case as it was quickly blown out of the way.

"All that changes now, Noah, all that changes now... let's use the items in the starter pack and then plan from there " Aiden finally spoke solemnly, to which Noah agreed.