A Child Turned Into A Soldier

After 2 hours of driving, we finally arrived on the outskirts of the slums.

My instructor pulled over to a sidewalk where no one could be seen. The man looked over to me and had what looked to be like a credit card in his hands.

"Use this card if you decide to buy yourself anything, I don't know if your mother gave you any money, but since you're on the job the tab is on us."

"Thanks." I took the card and put it my pocket, I noticed I should have got a wallet, but I can just buy one today.

I exited the car with my earpiece already deep into my ear and my backup secured onto my back tightly.

It is common to get robbed in this area if you look like an outsider, but I think I should be fine for the most part considering I suffered like most of these people.

The sun was hanging high in the sky making me regret my choice in wearing jeans. Judging from the suns position its around 3, so my cover as a construction worker should be fine.

I decided to not waste any time and headed directly into the slums.

The first place I'll be looking for is a convenient store. People underestimate how special these types of stores are.

Many walks of life go into these places to pick up simple things and if you have a talkative cashier people tend to open up and complain about their lives. Considering this place is a slum people usually have a lot to complain about.

As I was walking, I made sure I kept my face straight and eyes forward at all times. People in these types of areas keep to themselves for the most part, so if one looks around or tries to get in other people's businesses they usually get checked.

I enhanced my hearing as well so that I could pick up conversations that were going to happen near me.

After a few minutes of walking, I finally entered the slums. The odd part was it looked like a normal city. Although the smell was bad, most of the buildings and streets were intact.

The amount of people was very high with most places seeming crowded, but the people looked normal as well.

The most bizarre part was I couldn't see any homeless people around. I know I just entered the slums, but they should be everywhere.

The slums I was used to were way worse than this. In Maru, slums were areas where'd you see nothing but shit and dead bodies all over the ground. You'd be lucky if you didn't immediately catch some type of disease.

Yet here it's mostly just working class people, maybe the slums in Volestia are areas with high crime rates? If this is the case these people don't know the luxury they have overall.

With so many people around the number of voices entering my ears was too high. I couldn't even hear words, only a loud echo which sounded like a scream was being made.

I couldn't make out what anyone was saying and the difficulty of separating their voices was above my skill level. 𝘧𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝑏𝑛𝑜𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝘮

I deiced to throw this idea out for now and simply move to a location with a lower population. As I was walking, I tried to look around for any type of coinvent store.

Sidewalks were placed around the entire city, roads used for transportation separated all of these long sidewalks. The roads were filled with vehicles and traffic seemed to be heavy at this time.

Going from sidewalk to sidewalk for at least half a mile I couldn't spot a single store.

All of the buildings I passed were used for housing, so I started to wonder where the hell I was.

"BANG BANG BANG BANG"

The sounds of gunshots echoed throughout the city which immediately caught my attention as well as everyone around me.

Some started to simply run without making a sound while others merely carried on with their business. This was quite the scene to see, it seems like this is a common occurrence.

Since I was in a city, it was actually very hard to pinpoint the location of where the gunshots came from. Since this a very dense area, sounds like to echo a lot making it harder to know exactly where the location is.

Especially for short noises you aren't ready for, they simply come and go without you having the chance to pinpoint them.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" A hoarse scream rang out which conveyed the emotions of dread, but I felt anger mixed between the lines.

6 people started to move towards this scream, all 6 wore similar colored clothing and had the exact same tattoo on their neck.

'Bingo.' These people were without a doubt gang members, I decided to follow along and head to where the scream sounded out.

Although the voiced echoed a lot, the voice which seemed to be a little boys cried out long enough for it to be followed.

Jogging through the city I came to a complete stop when I saw the back of a child hunched over a woman's dead body. The woman had 4 bullet holes in her chest and blood was all over the ground.

The people I were following seemed to be conversing with another group who had the same generic attire, but with a different color scheme.

I looked back towards the child, I couldn't see his face, but the amount of Ki and mana coming off him was absurd.

It seemed like a volcano was about to erupt, the amount energy this kid contained was purely insane.

In short, this kid is a prodigy, otherwise known as a monster.

All of the gang members present knew this as well, the question was what they were going to do now. The same went for me as well, just what should I do.

This scenario went beyond the scope of the mission, this kid is a prodigy, meaning the value to his life is extremely high. I wouldn't be surprised if this whole city got annihilated just to make sure this kid was safe.

That's how much talent means in this world, if you have the means to achieve greatness others around will help you achieve it.

I raised my left hand to my ear and turned on the radio function so my instructor could hear me.

"Hey, there's a kid here who's a prodigy. Problem is these gang members might kill him, so what do you want me to do?"

Without wasting a single second my instructor simply gave the order.

"Slaughter them. Our forces will be there in five minutes. Don't screw up."