'I wonder if that bastard Feyl managed to not die' Cylius thought as he sneakily swirled the brass knife with the wooden handle.
Yesterday, he just managed to pull a prank on one of the guards who disciplined him before. As revenge for pulling the plank on him, a term for hitting his ass with steel bars, he deceived the guard to lock himself in the dark room.
Then, he entered the room through the vent system, sneaked up on him and choked him, before cutting off the thumb, ring, and the pinky. He made sure the bastard suffered.
Now, the bastard's left hand was forever stuck in a "peace" position.
Thinking about the event, Cylius' lips couldn't help but curl up.
"Hehe- ah!" just as a bit of a giggle escaped from his mouth, a pained muffle interrupted it.
In his joy, his hand had ended up on the wrong side of the knife. Slowly, beads of blood formed on his palm.
However, Cylius was quick to hide the knife inside his underwear and also rub the blood on the inner side of the rough polymer clothing.
Owning weapons were illegal - If caught, they would definitely pull the plank on him, and that would ruin tomorrow's talent test!
So, everyone was on their good behaviour tonight. After all, to have good talent meant a drastically different social status for them. The fate of being on big TVs, known by everyone, power, wealth...
Well, Cylius thought all of it was bullshit.
Well except power. Power changes lives. It just depended on what type of power it was.
For example, there was a limited free time for the orphans every week granted by the officials. In the meantime, one could do anything. Even killing others during the time was possible as long as they weren't near the orphanage.
So the orphans made the most out of this time. Some settled their grudges while some would scavenge for valuables or just play during the time. Of course, people who played during the time were few.
After all, if they were to find even the remote traces of advanced technology or even a broken gun, everything would change for them. So they would head to the trash dump location in search for items and things that could potentially be of use to them.
However, the free time given by the officials was short. Only two hours. Due to this reason, even though tons of knives and unique technology could be found in this world, only a limited amount of orphans could obtain them and go up the hierarchy.
Just at this moment, Cylius heard someone shouting from behind "Make way! Make Way!"
He turned to look at the daring person shouting. Surely he can't be someone common right? If he was, he would be eaten alive in this orphanage.
And indeed, the increasingly crowded corridor had a peculiar absence just like Moses had divided the sea.
Seeing the kid, Cylius quietly stepped to the side. However, just as the kid was going to pass next to him, he intentionally extended his leg. It had caused the kid running behind him to open his eyes in surprise and hastily jump up to avoid being tripped.
However, because he was running so fast, and now suspended mid air, he could no longer correct his altered direction. Inevitably, he ended up crashing into someone, causing an erupt of mocking laughters at the boy.
"Who did that?!" the boy who almost got tripped angrily bellowed out.
However, the perpetrator had already fled the scene and disappeared into the crowd.
...
It was important for even orphans like them to be literate and at least know about how genes worked. Classes were a bore but thankfully, Cylius was rather intelligent in the aspect.
The history of humanity was divided into two eras. 5000 years of Pre Gene and 2000 years of After Gene, being called PG and AG respectively.
In the AG, the gene technology rapidly advanced, and soon people began being tested for their natural talent of genes.
At the ripe age of 13, children would undergo a talent test, beginning testing their compatibility with various genes. Children born in the AG were special, as they held the potential to hold natural genes for themselves, being passed down from their parents and universe's blessings.
Thus began the era for large clans that held power and seats in the UHF.
People born with natural genes were the real geniuses, as they were very scarce and could also leverage their abilities in order to win over the normal people.
The naturally born genes were a boon to people and could grow along with the host, eventually distinguishing them from the crowd.
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.
There were early signs of having these natural genes, but they could only be tested at 13.
In this day and age, individual power was everything. After all, the space monsters were always at humanity's throats. In fact, they had been pushed back so much that they were limited back to the Milky Way Galaxy.
The logic behind it was easy, all their bases were concentrated in their home galaxy, for rest of the university, there were only a loose few established planets.
Cylius had quickly entered the dining hall while remembering the information. Within it, there were multiple rows of orphans lining up for food. New orphans would line up in these queus just in order to get a pathetic synthetic paste.
It was bland, and could even be considered bad tasting after eating it for so long. It only held the minimum requirement of nutrients for them to survive, and no more than 3 tubes would be provided to each orphan every day.
In a certain way, because they didn't rot and go bad, they could even be considered the money system for the orphans.
So consuming it was vital to their survival; everyone was diligent in lining up for it everyday.
Cylius didn't go to the end of the line though. He directly skipping the lone line, and went straight to the start. No one stopped him, they didn't dare to.
Certain orphans held great reputations due to the deeds they did. The reason for Cylius' reputation, or infamy to be precise, was his personality of petty vengeance, and the power to back it up.
One time, he had even cut off the finger of an orphan who punched him from behind.
Thus, even though Cylius was antisocial and didn't have any friends to speak of, he was rather feared. After all, he had the shrewdness paired with the decisiveness, a lethal combo.
After he reached the start, he went behind a few people from the top. The lunch lady was rather strict in its distribution and disliked those who skipped in line.
After getting his paste, Cylius went back to his room.
He was in a room with 13 other orphans, all sharing one room. Usually the orphans would form groups based on one room and stick together, but there were always exceptions. Cylius was perhaps the unspoken leader of the room.
The orphans depended on him for some things, such as using his name, but it didn't work vice versa.
Cylius only got 2 synthetic pastes from each of them every week.
After arriving at his bed, Cylius trained for a bit - 100 pushups and 50 pull ups on the bed frame. Then, he reached his hand down his bed, getting out a synthetic paste and popping it inside his mouth.
Then, he started training again. After 3 more sets just like so, he finally threw himself into the bed and lied down.
Reaching his hand beneath his pillow, he got out two pale yellow metal sticks, glued to each other. The painting on it had fallen off a bit but as soon as Cylius pressed a button, the two sticks 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.
A virtual tablet!
It was a very rare commodity in the orphanage. Perhaps his most prized object, and treasured more than anything Cylius had. Through it, he was able to connect to the internet and even play games on it.
No doubt that orphans would kill for it if they knew Cylius had one. It was very fortunate of him to have found it while scavenging in the nearby trash dumping spot.
Cylius loved games, especially puzzles and racing games. From reality he could indulge in the illusory world of games and fiction, the feeling he got from it was amazing.
And this tablet was the only way for him to gain entry to it. But that wasn't important, the important thing was that he was able to gain knowledge about the outside world through it. For him who had only known this place, the orphanage situated on a trash dumping planet, since the time he remembered, it was a key to his future.
Cylius believed that even if he were to fail the talent test, he could perhaps show his advanced knowledge to the official from the federation and gain his entry into society.