Chapter 6: The Human Boy of Punk City Part 5

“For reference, due to operational convenience, only men and women can participate. Other genders are not allowed to join; we appreciate your understanding.”

After receiving the receptionist’s guidance, Amon and Sonia headed to the waiting room.

Since it was a cosplay competition in the form of a social movement challenge, cosmetics and wigs were available in the waiting room.

They were cheap, but they still seemed to create a decent atmosphere.

Using the limited resources, Sonia dressed as a boy, and Amon dressed as a girl.

After finishing their makeup, the two evaluated each other’s looks.

Amon looked at Sonia.

Her male outfit was passable.

However, the quality of the cosmetics wasn’t great, and since she had long hair, it was difficult to pull off the boyish look.

The low-quality wig contributed to the awkwardness.

More importantly, her overflowing femininity made it hard to see her as a man at all.

Perhaps aware of this herself, she awkwardly smiled while pretending to be a boy, then quickly gave up and let her shoulders droop.

Next, it was Amon’s turn for evaluation.

“Uh… um… uh….”

Sonia was speechless as she looked at Amon’s feminine disguise.

It was beautiful.

There were no words to express how stunning Amon looked.

When Sonia wore a wig, it felt awkward, but Amon’s wig suited him perfectly.

Sonia usually thought Amon’s thick eyebrows and droopy eyes were masculine.

But with a bit of adjustment to the eyebrow color and eyeliner, femininity radiated from him.

With the addition of women’s cosmetics on his naturally flawless skin, there was no trace of masculinity left.

As the finishing touch, after applying tint to his lips and adding earrings, a girl stood there without a doubt.

Calling him a girl didn’t even seem sufficient.

A peerless beauty was present.

Even if he were to be cast as an actress right then, no one would notice anything amiss due to his stunning appearance.

Sonia, who had been captivated by Amon’s look, finally regained her senses and spoke.

“Uh… sis?”

Amon was at a loss for words.

He had put in a bit of effort to do his best, but he never dreamed he would have a talent for cross-dressing… or rather, disguising himself.

He had been having fun and completed the task without much thought, but upon seeing the result, he found himself breathless.

‘The quality was enough to make him seriously doubt his masculinity.’

However, it was too good to simply wash off the makeup, so he felt reluctant to do so.

So he closed his eyes and decided to reveal the result.

“Let’s hurry and go…”

After all, the longer he stayed there, the longer his moments of humiliation would last.

It was better to get evaluated quickly and throw it all away for his mental health.

He urged Sonia and stepped onto the stage.

The competition’s judging rules were simple.

They would be scored by the judges and participants based on how well they depicted the opposite gender.

And prizes would be awarded based on the scores.

First up was Sonia.

She received a participation award.

Her effort showed, but her femininity could not be hidden at all.

She herself admitted this.

She left the stage with a doll, the participation prize, tucked under her arm.

Next was Amon.

“What? Isn’t this a bit much?”

As soon as they saw Amon, a unanimous decision was made to disqualify him.

Why was he coming up without dressing as a boy?

However, when Amon revealed that he was indeed a boy, the reaction flipped.

“Perfect score… perfect score…”

All perfect scores.

He was the champion of the day.

While Amon was contemplating whether he should be happy about this or not, a man in a suit approached him.

He pulled out a business card and said,

“We are a talent agency—”

“Please go away.”

A curse almost slipped out of his mouth, but as a devout believer, he managed to hold it back.

The scout, looking disappointed, licked his lips and stepped back.

Returning to the waiting room, Amon immediately sat down on the floor and muttered,

“Damn….”

Sonia patted Amon’s back.

“I’ll make it clear that I… I really won’t be an actress.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

On the way back to the orphanage, on the bus, Amon emphasized to Sonia several times.

While he hadn’t decided on a career path, he had no interest in acting for now.

Among them, he firmly stated that he would never become a cross-dressing actress.

Sonia nodded at Amon’s repeated assurances.

“Got it. I won’t make you do it.”

‘What a pity…’

Though she said that, deep down, Sonia wanted to try dressing him as a girl once more.

Of course, he would probably be horrified by it, so it seemed unlikely they would have another opportunity.

While Sonia was pondering over Amon’s cross-dressing, he was trying to shake off the chill running down his spine.

‘It wouldn’t be right for a TS actor to end up with a true ending…’

‘If it were a comedic ending, it might be a different story, but he certainly had no intention of living as a woman.’

His desire to become a legend was about achieving something worthy of bragging about, not becoming a legend through cross-dressing.

After a lengthy contemplation, Amon overcame the mental hurdle that had been gnawing at him.

Despite the incident that had shaken his masculinity, there were still gains to be had.

Thanks to that, he had become aware of his talent.

‘For now, check off disguise.’

After checking off the “Disguise” item, Amon looked at other talents connected to disguise.

Talents are somewhat like a mind map, providing slight bonuses to other related talents.

For instance, if swordsmanship is high, it somewhat boosts martial arts skills as well.

In other words, it meant that through these mediocre talents, he could backtrack to the main skill tree and talents.

Amon listed out his mediocre talents and his outstanding ones.

Guns were mediocre talents.

Disguise and charm were outstanding talents.

Combining these, he could see a rough path ahead of him.

‘Assassin? Scout? Agent? Or maybe a fixer?’

Whichever it was, he had at least found a direction.

Amon was quite satisfied with the career path he had decided on.

If he wasn’t thinking about endings and just wanted to stir things up, there were plenty of skill trees he could choose from.

Even the most outrageous skill tree he knew was something like this.

***

[Health is greater than that of the final boss, with 85% reduction for all physical damage, 95% for magical damage, and 70% for status effect damage. There’s an uninterruptible skill with a 2-second cooldown and a 15-second duration.

When released from being unable to move, attack power increases. There’s lifesteal on all damage, a slow effect on normal attacks, and melee attacks inflict stun and knockback. Every time health drops to one bar, an area-wide EMP is triggered…]

The so-called long one.

Once completed, it would be a balance-breaking skill tree capable of annihilating the entire city of enemies.

However, to achieve such a thing, it would mean destroying various relationships, having a branching ending, and dragging several good NPCs into the mess, so a bad ending was guaranteed.

Of course, that was unacceptable for Amon.

He wanted a happy ending.

And a happy ending required information gathering and a minimum level of force.

Especially without knowledge of the strategy, careful information gathering was crucial.

The direction satisfying these conditions was either a scout or a hacker.

In that situation, the fact that the scout-related skill tree was Amon’s path was very welcome news.

”I’ll check other scout-related talents later.”

He closed the notebook listing his harvest for today.

Turning his gaze sideways, he saw a girl nodding off.

She seemed quite tired.

Her head, which had been swaying back and forth, leaned toward Amon’s shoulder.

Amon properly supported her head.

With the warm sensation against his shoulder, he looked out the window.

***

Despite advancements in technology, the city was bleak.

The faint sounds of sirens and gunfire echoed within.

In this world, some would call it a city of sin.

But Amon’s heart raced.

The unknown was an elemental curiosity that stirred his primal instincts, and Amon was excited about the world he would face after graduating from the orphanage.

The day after Thanksgiving.

That day was also a festival in America.

In fact, one could say the next day was the main event.

The day when America goes wild on Friday.

Black Friday.

Almost everything is discounted by 90%, and 80% of American companies’ revenue is generated during this time.

The blessings of Black Friday reached the orphanage as well.

The budget-strapped orphanage could not afford to miss this opportunity.

The tightly closed wallet of the orphanage director opened.

She began purchasing items for the children and nuns to use for the next year in a haphazard manner.

During that time, Amon and Sonia were busy as well.

The active flow of logistics meant there were not enough hands, no matter how many items were produced.

During that period, there were endless errands, causing them to run around the city until their feet ached.

Moreover, they could expect additional bonuses for the errands they completed during this time, so they ran about happily.

Thus, the chaotic Black Friday holiday passed.

The impulsive shopping frenzy that began on Friday continued until Sunday.

By Monday, people returned to work, freed from their madness.

They remembered that making money was hard work, sat at their desks, and regretted, “Why did I buy this?”

They looked for ways to dispose of unnecessary items.

Whether giving them to acquaintances, selling them at flea markets, or returning them.

Once again, a massive relocation of goods took place.

In that movement, the orphanage also enjoyed a delightful fever.

They didn’t have items to return or put up for sale.

The orphanage wasn’t affluent enough to have items they needed to return.

The cause of their fever was the influx of items from outside.

Items that were difficult to manage due to impulsive buying came to the orphanage in the form of donations.

With one donation, one could gain face, receive tax deductions, and dispose of excess inventory—triple benefits, so to speak.

The orphanage had no reason to decline those items, always struggling with shortages.

After passing through a first inspection by the director and nuns, the items were piled up in the central playground of the orphanage.

The children then gathered in the playground to pick out the donated items they would take to their rooms and beds.

The nuns, who were supposed to control the children, were busy inspecting the items and entertaining the donors.

As a result, the playground was in chaos, resembling a market square.

In such cases, the older siblings usually picked the best items first, and the younger ones received whatever was left.

If the younger ones wanted something, they had no choice but to curry favor with their older siblings.

However, due to the presence of Amon and Sonia, a touch of culture was added to this chaos.

***

It wasn’t anything grand, though.

“Tom, you wanted this, right? I brought it for you.”

“Lumi, do you really need this doll? Go ahead and take it.”

They made it seem like a ‘virtue’ to give way to their younger siblings.

With a gentle voice and a warm smile, they set an example.

There was neither coercion nor violence.

It simply stimulated the children’s admiration and formed a voluntary atmosphere.

Then, just as a child grows up seeing their parents and siblings, the other children began to follow Amon and Sonia’s lead and also give way to their younger siblings.

“Thank you, brother!”

“I love you, sister!”

A heartwarming scene of sibling love unfolded in the playground.

But an old sage from the distant East once said, “When five people gather, at least one will be a fool.”

His theory still applied, even if the world changed.

“Hey, are you not leaving? The little brats are slipping away.”

Amon had stepped away for a moment, and as expected, Jimmy’s gang appeared.

The group of delinquents led by Jimmy pushed their way through the children.

Feeling like kings, Jimmy and his friends swaggered across the playground.

Not satisfied with that, they headed toward the storage room next to the playground.

Confirming that the nuns were busy with their guests, Jimmy’s gang climbed through the window of the storage room.

Seeing this, Sonia’s eyebrows narrowed.

Sonia spoke to the backs of the group, who were conspiring at the storage room door.

“That’s the storage room where the nuns keep dangerous items.”

“Hah, how old are you to believe that? It’s not dangerous; they’ve just sorted out what they’ll use.”

“The nuns wouldn’t do that.”

“Naive brat. I’ll show you.”

Jimmy scoffed and climbed through the storage room window.

***

Clatter.

Moments later, a sound came from inside the door as the latch was unlatched, and the storage door opened.

Jimmy’s friends, thinking they were part of a special forces team, moved into the storage area in perfect unison.

About five minutes later, Jimmy’s group emerged from the storage room.

They carried a heap of treasures earned from their great adventure at their sides.

The group looked somewhat proud as they cherished the items.

Sonia frowned at the sight of the goods.

“Put those back.”

“You’ve been talking a lot since earlier. The nuns won’t know once we bring them into the room. You just need to keep your mouth shut.”

“It’s dangerous.”

“So, are you going to snitch?”

“Ha…”

Sonia glared at Jimmy before turning her gaze away.

Unlike Amon, she had a weak sense of humanity.

This meant she wasn’t the type to persuade someone who wouldn’t listen to advice.

She chose to ignore Jimmy and turned back to her younger siblings.

But that wasn’t what Jimmy wanted.

During puberty, boys often couldn’t help but be smitten with pretty girls.

Wanting to talk to Sonia even a little, Jimmy softened his brusque attitude and called out to her.

He handed her a black vase he had and said, “You’ve needed this for a long time.”

“No, I haven’t.”

However, despite Jimmy’s kindness, Sonia’s response was cold.

“I wanted a flower bed.”

“That’s the same thing.”

“The vase has no space in my room.”

“Ugh, seriously! Why are you so socially inept? Just accept it and shut up.”

Sonia’s eyebrows twitched at Jimmy’s harsh words.

But she still refused to accept the vase.

The vase Jimmy chose looked undesirable, even if someone else had given it to her.

The patterns were too tacky and dark…

Even if the vase were pretty, she didn’t want to accept anything from Jimmy.

She might consider accepting it if Amon had given it to her.

Sonia’s resolute rejection made Jimmy sulk.

“If you don’t want it, I’ll just keep it in my room. You brat.”

Feeling hurt, Jimmy complained.

Whether he intended to portray a bad boy image, it didn’t fit Sonia’s taste.

Sonia’s eyebrows twitched once more.

Jimmy hugged the vase close and headed back to his room.

As he was returning, his eyes caught a glimpse of a child’s wallet.

For no reason, he took out his frustration on the child.

He reached for the wallet the child was gazing at, opening his mouth, saying, “Give it to me.”

The child hesitated.

Seeing this with an annoyed expression, Jimmy tucked the vase under his left arm and clenched his right fist.

With his fist raised as if to punch the child, he looked down and said, “Hey, are you deaf? Give it to me.”

The child reluctantly handed over the wallet.

Jimmy reached for it while scolding the child.

“Act with a little common sense. You should know better than—ugh!?”

Right then, Jimmy’s knee buckled.

“Oh, just look away for a moment, and you’re acting like a dog.”

Right behind the kneeling Jimmy stood Amon, who looked very displeased.

With one of Amon’s legs still in the air, it was easy to guess that he had kicked Jimmy’s leg.

According to Amon, wasn’t violence supposed to be reserved for others?

He didn’t care.

Amon called this act a nonverbal expression for smooth communication.

It was definitely not violence.

Jimmy was in pain not because Amon had kicked him, but because Jimmy’s knee happened to be where Amon had extended his leg.

“Damn you!”

Jimmy grimaced and turned to glare at Amon.

But as Amon pressed his thumb against Jimmy’s collarbone, he quickly became obedient.

“Ahh! Damn it! I got it!”

“Stop cursing so much. You’re not some punk.”

Amon, who had swiftly subdued Jimmy, handed the same wallet back to the child.

He also sent the child back to his room with the message to let him know if Jimmy tried to harm him again.

“Get a grip. You’re seventeen, so why are you acting like a child?”

After sending the child off, Amon seized the wallet from Jimmy’s hand and smacked his head lightly.

The wallet opened and closed like a folding fan, hitting Jimmy’s head.

It was a rather rude gesture, no less offensive than a slap.

Of course, it was a deliberate act to make Jimmy feel bad, leaving no room for misunderstanding.

Jimmy glared at Amon with bulging eyes, but Amon said, “Why aren’t you opening your eyes nicely?”

Under Amon’s threat, Jimmy lowered his gaze.

In the past, when Jimmy was older, he had won in fights, but now that Amon had hit puberty, he was no match for him.

Moreover, the headmaster was always on Amon’s side.

Even if they fought equally, it was clear that Amon was scolded for swinging his fist while only Jimmy received punishment.

Because of this, Jimmy couldn’t win against Amon.

After publicly humiliating him in front of the other students for a few minutes, Amon returned to his room.

Left alone in the playground, Jimmy ground his teeth as he watched Amon’s back grow distant.

Next to him, the black vase ominously radiated a sinister aura.