The moonlight was faintly shining through the windows that were left open, and the gust of wind took this opportunity to sneak up on the figure, who was furiously tapping away on her laptop. The figure shivered as she felt cold on her neck, and stopped typing, taking the time to stretch. Sherry stood up and went to close the window, only to stop at the sight of the moon. It was a full moon, and the moon was unusually bigger and brighter. Sherry felt amazed and immediately took out her phone to take a photo, after admiring it she closed the window and the curtain, not noticing the faint light her phone emitted, even after the screen turned black. After properly putting away her notes and laptop, Sherry took her phone to see the time. It was 00.05 at midnight. She realized it was New Year's Eve. Sherry immediately, went to bed knowing that she would have to wake up early morning, to prepare for the new year, and go out, which made her a bit anxious. Although Sherry knew she couldn't escape her best friend's claws, she would try her best, she thought, as she fell into a slumber, still not noticing that the light condensed and went to her phone and disappeared.

Sherry woke up to her cousin, who was banging on Sherry's bedroom door, "Wake up sleepy head, you're going to be late for your job.". When Sherry just groaned and buried her head into her quilt, she heard her cousin say, "Well, if you're going to sleep, then you won't be able to save enough money for the book you wanted to buy", and she immediately jolted awake.

"No, no, I'm awake, I'll be ready in ten", she shouted through the door and went to freshen up. As she was showering Sherry thought that her cousin was still kind. She could have just gone about her day, but instead, she came to wake her up, Sherry smiled as she imagined her cousin's expression, when she came to wake her up, was she impatient, or just amused?

After coming out of the bathroom, she combed her hair, and put it into a ponytail, musing that maybe she had to cut her hair short, so that she could get ready faster, instead of wrestling through her waist-length hair every day when she was running late. But she was still reluctant, as it had taken her a long time to grow it. She wore her usual ensemble and went to the dining room, where she saw her breakfast laid out on her plate. She sat down, "It looks great Maria, thank god you woke up earlier than me, otherwise I would be going to my job starving.", she shouted.

A head poked out from the kitchen, and Maria giggled, "Of course, I do wake up early sleepy head, otherwise this house would be upside down."

Sherry grumbled good-naturedly at her older cousin, and said, "One day I will wake up earlier than all of you, and then you'll have nothing to say."

Eliza, her younger cousin said, "Only when the sun forgets to rise.", which made Sherry turn towards her. Eliza raised her eyebrow challenging Sherry, and Sherry being her didn't back down, and asked "Bet?". Eliza smirked, as she saw her rather gullible cousin fall into her trap, and nodded, "Bet.". They shook their hands as they agreed to the bet, and Maria just shook her at their antics. The front door opened at that time, and three heads swilled in that direction, making the visitor stand dumbfounded at their synchronized action.

He recovered, and put down the things in his hands down, "So what are you ladies up to?".

Maria came and took some of the things and replied, "Nothing special Leon, just the usual, Eliza, and Sherry once again betting". Leon looked amused, he dragged out an oh and looked at Sherry meaningfully, which made her bristle up.

"Why are you looking at me?".

Leon walked over, sat next to Sherry, and slowly said, "I just felt like you look more put together than you did yesterday."

"Really?", Sherry perked up, despite knowing that he was just distracting her, who doesn't love compliments? Be it intentional or not, she thought.

Leon nodded as he drank the tea his sister, Maria put in front of him. He slowly inhaled as he savored it.

Sherry finished her breakfast, stood up, tidied up, and said goodbye to her cousins. "Bye guys, Have a good day." Maria came to pin down the hair that flew in front of her forehead, Eliza waved her hand slowly, and Leon said, "Bye, little Sherry", waving his hand, rather enthusiastically. Maria hugged her, and said, "Have a good day Sherry, and be good." Sherry nodded and went out of their home.

It was a great day to be outside, Sherry thought. The sky was clear and the gentle breeze gently fiddled with her hair near her ears. She put her hair behind her head and looked down to check her phone. Her friend, Lia had sent her a message. "Hey, Sherry, are you free today?".

Sherry smiled wryly, of course, she would ask that on the day she was going to be busy. She shook her head, and replied, "I'm not free right now, but I'll be in the evening, I guess."

She saw the typing on her phone and put her phone into her bag. She had arrived at her destination. It was a big house. You could call it a mansion. There was even a fountain in the front. Sherry raised her eyebrows and went to the front door. She gently knocked on the door three times. As she waited, she thought maybe she should have called before she knocked and was contemplating on whether to call the parent. The door then opened to reveal an elegant lady, who looked a bit tired. She looked young despite the fine lines on her face saying otherwise.

Sherry stood up straight, immediately, and smiled, "Good morning Mrs. Summers, I'm Sherry." Mrs. Summers looked at her, accessing, then returned her smile. "Hello, Sherry, glad to see you on time. Jack is in the study; you can start immediately."

Sherry nodded, "Ok Mrs. Summers.", and followed her to the study. Mrs. Summers stood outside the study and said, "Jack, your tutor is here."

Jack who had his head buried in the comics he was reading looked up at his mom and smirked, "Ok, Mom.". He then looked at Sherry and introduced himself. "Hello, miss- ", Sherry introduced herself, "you can call me Sherry.", he continued, "Hello, miss Sherry, I'm Jack. Hope we can have a pleasant experience." Sherry shook his hand, "likewise."

Then they went on to study which was indeed a pleasant experience, as they had both wanted. Jack was an intelligent boy, he was not the cream of the crop, but he had the aptitude to be. While Sherry was nervous about her job, she was still competent enough to tutor Jack. Mrs. Summers came to check on them and gave them refreshments plenty of time, which made Sherry tense up at first, but then she gradually got used to it. Jack was also observing his tutor at first, he had other tutors before, but they didn't last long because of various factors, but Sherry seemed fine, he mused.

As the time neared for the class to end, Sherry looked at Jack who was doing great, and said, "Jack, you seem to be having no problem with this subject, I'll give you some homework to further assess you. We'll study another subject in our next class." She stood up and tidied up, Jack looked at her and said, "Sure, you can talk to my mom about the schedule.", and went back to his comics, which made Sherry shake her head at his actions. She took her bag and went outside of the study; only then did she realize that she forgot to look around due to her nervousness and she was lost.

She looked around and slowly went forward, hoping she could come across Mrs. Summers. The house was enormous, but there was not enough vitality. So far, she had only seen Jack, and his mother, in this house, not even a gardener was seen, despite the lush and green garden present outside the mansion.

"Sherry", a voice called out to her from behind, which made her startle. She quickly whipped her head to stare at the owner of the voice, it was Mrs. Summers.

Sherry patted her chest, and slowed down her breathing, "Mrs. Summers."

"You can call me Anna, Sherry.", Anna smiled, making Sherry confused. She didn't know why Anna changed her attitude suddenly. But still, she welcomed this change.

"Sure, Anna.", she replied. "So, when should we schedule the next class, Anna?", she asked.

Anna looked at her phone, and asked, "Are you free in two days?". Sherry nodded.

"Then we'll have the class that day.", Sherry smiled, then realized that they had already come to the front door. She looked at Anna, and said, "Bye Anna, have a great day." Anna waved at her. "You too, Sherry."

Sherry skipped on her way out. She was jubilant and felt accomplished. Her phone vibrated, and Sherry took it out of her bag and looked at it. Anna had already sent her pay. It was hourly wages, and thus she was already richer than she was in the morning, which made Sherry beam. It was only a matter of time before she became the owner of that book.

As she came to her home, she found out the rest had not yet returned home. Thus, she went to her room threw her bag on her bed, and went to open her laptop, She was left with what she had written in the early morning, and she let out a breath of relief, as she had thought that she had forgotten to save her draft. But she was not that satisfied with the way things turned out in her story so far. It took a sharp turn and had a lot of plot holes, which made her huff in frustration. Using all of her patience to not delete her whole night's work, she shut down the laptop and used her phone. As she swiped through her apps, she found something unusual.

There was a new app there, and she thought she didn't remember whether she had downloaded it. It had a Chibi version of a boy, who had dark hair, and blue eyes. She felt that he was kind of cute, but he was a tad too pale. The background was filled with green and silver, but instead of reminding her of nature and the moon, it reminded her of poison and a knife. There were also a lot of serpentine designs throughout the app. Despite the size of the app, it was made well and was very intricate in its details.

Although she knew that she shouldn't open an unknown app, her curiosity won over. She sighed "Curiosity killed the cat, though she is not a cat", she smirked. The app started to run, and several serpents slithered throughout her screen, and the screen was left blank. Just as she started to regret her decision, and wanted to bang her head against her table, the screen lit up, and several dialogues started to appear on her screen.

"A baby, who had no one to care was left to grow in an orphanage. Although he dreamt of someone wanting him, and loving him, his dreams never came true.", she read and wondered what kind of game this was. Whether it was a role-playing game or a reality game, she thought that it was kind of interesting. But the baby was quite pitiful though, she wondered only to realize that she was kind of the same. However, now that she has her siblings in her name, she is never lonely and has a loving family, which is more than what she could ever hope for.

Then the screen changed and an interface appeared in front of her. It had the usual controls, and the Chibi version of the boy stood in the center. Sherry touched him, and the boy frowned, and looked around, which made her coo. Although the boy was scowling, he looked adorable, as his cheeks filled with apple red flush. She then slowly dragged his worn-out cotton shirt and tried to turn him, but he didn't turn, and instead looked at his pulled shirt, and grabbed it so that he could try to control the force that was pulling his clothes. Sherry let out a laugh, amused, and let him go.

She scanned the controls, and realized that there was a specific button, which was named "perspectives". She touched it and it then expanded and showed even more options. There was an icon named 1st person, and she touched it and immediately her screen view changed. There was a worn-down door, which was slanted due to the fact it was not correctly attached to the hinges and was swaying slightly at the wind that was blown from the window, which was left to her. She saw that when she swiped down, she could see tiny hands, which were hardened with callouses, this made her feel annoyed at the fact that such young hands went through so much.

She also saw the loose floorboards on the ground. Sherry saw something through them, but disregarded it, as she thought that she could look again later because there were plenty left to explore. She exited the perspective, and touched the icon which said, "novice mission".

The words appeared again, but this time it said, "Do you want to change his life? You can be his friend, parent, guide, lover, and anything you want to be. Are you sure you can take on this task?", and the options yes or no appeared below. She chose yes, and a serpent came out from the top of the screen to the middle of the screen and circled and bit its tail. It looked like an ouroboros. It faded away after a bit, and the boy was once again in the center of the screen and looked a bit curious, his eyes were widened. There was a 'ding' sound, and the mission finally arrived in front of her and she was dumbfounded when she read it.

"The little boy, who was named Tom, was feeling down because he was teased by other children at the orphanage, because he was too smart, and was always reading books, which was weird to other children. This made them isolate him, and he was sad because he wanted someone to understand him, not that little Tom would ever admit that in front of someone. Would you help him find a friend?"

Sherry read that and felt that it should be pretty easy as children are often forgetful. She looked at the game interface and continued to explore it because there was no time limit. Sherry was intrigued and wanted to know how all of these were linked.

Tom was leaning on a tree near his orphanage, his hand lazily flipping through the pages of the books, which he was holding. His eyes glided through the words as he had done several times, the book was already falling apart, as it had been read plenty of times before, especially by the boy who was currently holding it. He closed his book slowly, and caressed the spine of the book, his eyes downcast.

The peace was suddenly interrupted by a ball, which was thrown at him from his side. Tom tilted his head back as if he could see the trajectory of the ball. There was a shout, and the ball went over the fence behind him.

"Freak! Past that ball over", a voice yelled over the cacophony of voices that came from the surroundings, since Tom was interrupted from his daze, or what seemed to be a daze. He ignored that voice and the hulking boy who came after it. As he calmly stood up and patted the dirt stuck to his trousers, he felt a shadow looming over him. Sighing, Tom looked at him, one of his perfectly arched eyebrows raised in question. He looked at the tall, and skinny boy, Peter, who was scowling and crossed his arms.

"Are you deaf? I said past that ball over", yelled Peter, as he saw that he was not getting his way. His friends looked at him and then glared at Tom. Tom just shook his head and walked past them, slowly lifting his foot to pass the food that was stretched in front of him, slightly blocking his path, intending to trip him and make fun of him. Seeing that his plan didn't work out, Amy, the girl who stuck her foot in front of Tom, retracted her foot and then stomped the ground. She gritted her teeth, said, "How dare you ignore us", and went to push him from his behind. Tom, who had already anticipated the move, as it had been done before countless times, only moved to his left, without breaking his pace. Amy who lost her target fell forward, and her front teeth knocked the ground with a resounding 'clack'. She was dazed for a moment and then the pain hit, which made her burst into tears.

She felt liquid flowing in her mouth, and then through her lips, when she slowly touched her mouth, she found out her hand was stained with blood, and there was a tooth in her hand, while another tooth was loosely hanging in her mouth. Amy burst into tears, which caused others who were dumbfounded by the situation to gather around her trying to console her. Peter also forgot about Tom and went to see her.

Tom didn't stop. He only glanced over his shoulder lightly and assessed the situation while going toward the orphanage. When others were surrounding Amy, he knocked on the matron's door. No matter how much he disliked Amy, he needed to inform the issue, otherwise, they would blame him, which would mean that he had to part with his beloved books, and trinkets, and spend time in the dark attic. Which made his eyes darken. He knew that he would get them back, however, he needed to wait for the perfect time so that no one could accuse him, even if they felt that it was his fault.

He stroked the spine of his book, and then slowly messed his hair up, despite how he hated messy hair, he knew it was needed at the moment. He rubbed his cheek making them flush, and put on a slightly panicked look, and he looked like he was covering up his panic and trying to look calm and composed. He knew this look would work. After all, he had perfected this through trial and error. Taking a deep breath, Tom knocked thrice on the matron's door, and heard an old grumpy voice yelling, "Come in".

Tom opened the door making sure it didn't creak with the movement, as the matron, Mrs. Cole was rather grumpy in the morning without the alcohol in her system and would nitpick. One of the things she hated the most, especially in the morning, was hearing the creaking of the door or window, Tom supposed that it reminded her of the current situation, and the poverty they were facing, which made Tom roll his eyes, as he thought that she was poor because she didn't want to seek the money or the opportunities, and instead wasted away in the orphanage and drinking all day as if she expected that it would solve all her problems in a flash. He knew that he had to get out of this orphanage, but before that, he needed to cater to these, at least act like catering to these stupid beings who call themselves humans despite not exhibiting human behavior, at this he smirked, but he covered it up quickly not wanting to get caught.

He stood in front of the matron's table with his head down, his hair falling to cover his eyes, and said, "Mrs. Cole, Amy fell in the garden", Knowing she would be suspicious given his history he slightly looked up making sure that she can see his expression so that he would not look guilty.

She looked even more grumpy if that is even possible. She rose from her seat a bit wobbly, but she hadn't had her morning drink yet, which was evident from the clean glass next to her and the unopened bottle.

She glared at Tom, and replied, "Did you do something?", Tom knew that she would interrogate others, thus it would be better if he said his side with a little bit of tweaking so that she wouldn't suspect him when she later heard others biased versions. He was sure they would somehow blame him. He went on to explain to Mrs. Cole the situation and made sure to stress that he didn't do anything and that he was innocent. He knew that whenever he did that, the others would obey.

Mrs. Cole's pupils dilated a bit, and he knew that it was a success. She put her hand on her forehead slightly covering her eyes, and sighed, "Thank you, Tom, for informing, now go back to your room and only come out for lunch."

Tom sneered, he knew that she would not let him out, especially since she had a suspicion, she couldn't prove it, but she would still try to make him uncomfortable. But she didn't know that this was what he needed. He didn't want to see them whining and crying, he just wanted to be alone and plot how to be rich, and get out of this hell hole. But still, he looked at her with slight hurt, not missing the slight curl of her lips, knowing that she enjoyed his torment, despite knowing that it was fake.

He lowered his head and mumbled, "Yes Mrs. Cole", and left the room sluggishly despite smirking. He met Peter who was running over as if he wanted to complain to Mrs. Cole, and smirked at him, knowing that this would irk him.

As he had predicted Peter's face turned into an unsightly shade of red, as if all the blood had rushed into his face, and was threatening to come out through that thin layer of skin. He knew that he was about to blow, and this would lead him to make mistakes, and then be punished by Mrs. Cole.

Tom strode to his room without trying to be caught by him, as he knew he was going to try something, and Tom wasn't in the mood to use his supernatural powers, as he had this feeling that something was going to happen, despite not knowing whether it would for his advantage or disadvantage. However, he had the confidence that he could turn anything to his advantage, no matter how.

As he entered his room and closed the door which was not properly attached to the hinges, he felt that he was being watched. He felt as if this was his chance to change his destiny, he didn't know how, but he was sure that would grasp this chance and would never let it go.

He slowly stood in the center of his room. Feeling that someone was looking at him, he stood as if he was relaxed, but his quickly trembling eyelashes betrayed him. He was sweating and was afraid that he would be found unworthy, as he was wearing his worn-out shirt, despite it being his best clothing, as other shirts had holes and tears. He tried to hide his shoes, as he saw that his toe was peeking through his shoes.

He was startled when he felt that his shirt was being pulled, It was quite gentle, but he wasn't expecting that someone would touch him, well his shirt. But perhaps seeing him startle the force left him, but Tom was quite reluctant, and his fingers twitched as if he wanted to stop the force from leaving, however, his rationality held him back, he knew that he had to act perfectly, otherwise this chance would slip away through his fingers.

Then he felt the person looking away, and although he didn't know where that person was looking, he felt unhappy.

Just as he was about to move and try to get back the attention of the mysterious being that was his chance, he felt another feeling that made him look up.

His eyes widened, as he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

There in front of him was a transparent screen, which was slightly elevated. He knew that there were supernatural things, what with his talents, however, he never knew that this could be materialized.

Tom was excited, he knew that he was going to find some answers. He was anticipating the next events, and couldn't wait.