"Where am I?" The six-year-old boy opened his eyes.
"Oh… you woke up… that's great." A blonde-haired woman wearing a nun's dress smiled at him.
"Here, eat this…" She gave him a piece of bread with ketchup on it.
The little boy snatched it and ate it. He was so hungry.
Then the little boy looked around. He was inside a vehicle parked near some settlement.
"I saw you unconscious in the middle of the wasteland, so I brought you here… Actually, I am going to a city. I got a job there to take care of an orphanage…" The lady smiled. She was carrying a baby in her arms. The baby was sleeping peacefully.
"This is not my baby… but she will grow up under me… Oh sorry, I was talking too much. My name is Natasha. What is your name?" Natasha smiled.
The boy felt warm and said, "Leo…"
"What a strong name. Do you know the meaning of that name?" Natasha smiled and asked.
"It's one of the Zodiac… The Zodiac is a belt of space in the sky that represents the path of the sun. According to old knowledge, it is divided into 12 equal parts called signs, each corresponding to a different constellation." Natasha said many words that made Leo dizzy.
"Oops, sorry… I love studying, so I blabber lots of things. In short, one of the signs is called Leo… Leo means Lion…" Natasha said.
"In the old days, there were many forests in the world, forests where the weak were devoured by stronger animals. And the king of the forest is the lion…" An old man in the same vehicle chuckled and said.
"Haha… isn't that cool? Anyways, do you have anywhere to go? This vehicle is going towards Old Morrow City." Natasha said.
Leo shook his head.
Later that day, he found himself in Dream Orphanage.
"Welcome, Leo… to our new home…" Natasha smiled and dragged Leo inside.
"Home…" Leo smiled. There were already some kids and an old lady in the orphanage.
Then two years passed the old lady died and Natasha was the only one who took care of the orphanage. The orphanage was receiving money from some charities.
"You kids need to study… Studying is important…" Natasha was strict; she forced every kid to study. That's why Leo and the others knew how to read and write.
"Brother Leo, save us…" Little Anya, Rem, and Tessia were on the verge of crying.
Vince, Nick, and Levi also sat on his other side.
"Let's sneak out and play…" Leo smirked, and that's how a small sibling gang was born.
At least once a week, Leo and the six siblings would get punished by Sister Natasha for sneaking out and missing dinners.
Leo loved the Dream Orphanage. He always cleaned the signboard that said Dream Orphanage. He even fought an adult who threw a stone at it, despite getting beaten up for it.
Then one day, all he saw was the burning signboard… along with the orphanage itself.
---
Leo woke up when someone patted his shoulder.
"Why am I dreaming of that?" he thought, then looked at the person who woke him up.
"Did you get tired escaping from the monster?" The guard asked gently and said, "But sorry, you have to wake up now… They are here…"
The guard pointed up.
The sky above him darkened as a hovering vehicle moved.
Leo had come to the office in the Outer District to report his findings. They had already sent information to the Ranger Office in another city.
The flying vehicle looked like a giant box floating with anti-gravity technology underneath.
It had a pentagon drawn on it with Penta Corps written below, the unmistakable logo of the Pentagon Corporation.
The guards took the jeep and brought Leo toward the destination. Then the flying vehicle descended at the edge of the wasteland.
A man in a long black coat stepped out first. His suit underneath was crisp, expensive, and absolutely out of place in the dusty wasteland.
He flashed a practiced corporate smile. "You're the one who reported the creature?"
Leo nodded.
"Well done." The man clapped him on the shoulder. "Very well done. A biological monster so close to the city border… If you hadn't warned us, it might have wandered inside." He paused, took a tissue from his pocket, and wiped his hand as if touching Leo had contaminated him. "Congratulations on your first hunt, Ranger."
Leo tried to smile back.
People wearing Hazmat-suit, some sort of specialists poured out of the vehicle, each carrying strange scanning equipment.
Their suits hissed softly as they adjusted their visors, then moved toward the collapsed building where Leo had trapped the creature.
One of them called out through a muffled speaker, "Found it! Creature is dead!"
Several members hurried over to inspect it. The man in the black coat followed them.
"This thing must have wandered from another region," he said while carefully avoiding the rubble. "These types usually move in packs, though. You are actually lucky to spot only one… Or unlucky to spot one?"
Leo shivered at that thought. He had barely escaped from one.
As the team worked, a woman walked briskly toward them. Her protective gear gleamed under the sunlight, but her most striking feature was her red hair.
Her palm split into two, revealing a radar-like device that projected a holographic map of the area.
Leo looked at her arm with interest. He'd heard of cybernetics before, but they were extremely rare in this city, at least in the slums and Outer District.
"I scanned the entire perimeter," she said coldly. "There's no Alt-Zone nearby."
Leo stiffened. "No, I really saw something."
She turned her head slowly, her gaze heavy with irritation. "Are you on drugs? My scanner reads a thousand times better than your eyesight."
Leo's mouth twitched.
The man in the black coat stepped in.
"Easy, easy," he said, raising his hands. "He's scared because of the monsters. Adrenaline makes the mind imagine all sorts of things. Heat distortions are common."
The woman didn't seem convinced, but she nodded once and signaled two hazmat workers.
"You two," she ordered. "Climb to the vantage point he used."
Leo's eyes widened. Good. If they looked from the same height, they'd see it for sure. But Leo didn't know that her scanners had already covered those areas.
She only said that because sometimes radars might not pick it up due to signal interference.
The two hazmat officers climbed the broken staircase carefully. They reached the top, exactly where Leo had stood earlier.
One pulled out high-tech binoculars. The lenses adjusted automatically, zooming toward the distant ruins.
They scanned slowly and carefully. Each debris pile, each ruin, each heat shimmer.
Then one radioed down, "Nothing visible. Just dead structures."
The second officer adjusted his scope. "No anomalies. No distortions. No glitch signatures."
Leo's heart dropped.
"…Nothing? You're sure?" he shouted from below.
"Positive. Even if something was there and gone, we would still get some readings. But there's nothing like that."
Leo's jaw tightened. The woman gave him a smug look. She touched her red hair with a smile.
She then asked, "Show me your Ranger License."
Leo handed it over reluctantly.
She stared at it with a mixture of confusion and disgust.
"…What kind of trash is this? Was this printed by a toaster?" She squinted. "Leak?"
Leo gave a strained smile. "It's Leo. The staff was… not exactly sober."
She muttered something about "incompetent worms" under her breath. "I've already reported that office. Someone will go deal with the staff."
Leo blinked. He hadn't seen her talk to anyone. And she didn't have comms gear in her ear. Who and when did she inform?
Her scanner-arm folded back into its normal shape as she handed him the certificate.
"You can get a proper ID at a proper Ranger Office," she said. "Also, I've sent your information there. They'll give you your reward. Just find a Ranger Office in another city."
She didn't wait for his reply and just walked away.
The man in the black coat patted Leo lightly on the shoulder again.
"You did good," he said. "Even if it turned out to be a false alarm, it's helpful."
He leaned closer, lowering his voice.
"But with that tiny gun? You'll die if you try to fight in the wasteland. Get better gear. And if you really want to make money…"
He gestured grandly toward the horizon. "Go somewhere else. There's nothing here."
He wiped his hand again—twice this time—before returning to the vehicle.
The Penta Corps team slowly collected their equipment, scanned samples, and recorded data.
They tied the dead monster with wires and connected those cables to the flying vehicle.
Leo watched them leave.
The moment they were gone, he ran back toward the ruined building and climbed it.
Leo took a deep breath and muttered, "If they saw nothing, then what the hell am I seeing?"
Leo could still see the glitch.
---
Leo headed back toward his hideout. But the moment he turned the corner of the street, he paused.
A sleek bike and a rugged jeep were parked right outside their building. These vehicles far too expensive for anyone in the slums to own.
His heartbeat tightened.
Silently, he reached for his Harpie, gripping it firmly.
"Is that Penta Corps?" Leo thought, but he saw there were no logos on the vehicles.
His eyes turned sharp.