Weak White Sheep in a Fence

Chapter 1: Outside...

Dear Mother…

I failed the Apex Clearance Test to become an elite Hunter. It was your idea that I should join the Hunter Force and go outside the city, beyond the walls.

I finished my seven-year training and graduated from the academy. I am an official Hunter now and have been working in the city, but they’re still not accepting a junior like me to join in any patrol operations outside.

In order to spend longer outside, being part of Apex would mean a lot. But I failed, mother.

I’m very sorry.

I’m just too weak for this job. One would say that Omegas are weak, yet I’m weaker than them despite being a Beta.

This is very frustrating, mother. Please guide me…

- Your loving youngest,

Ian Velen

***

Ian immediately flinched as a small marble statue was violently thrown at him, although it slammed on the wall close to him and broke into pieces.

“Father!” he began, his tone apologetic as he faced the commanding figure whose very presence demanded nothing but silence.

“Didn’t I tell you not to call me ‘Father’?”

The temperature seemed to have reached negative. Silence reigned over every noise in the living room, as if everything had been

shut down by a single dominating presence.

“You’re a shame even after you graduated. You haven't even passed the Apex test, and now I found out you proposed marriage to their Commander? Don't you know that my reputation is being dragged down by your disgrace?”

The hands of the man talking were clenched. His gaze narrowed at the young man as disgust showed on his face.

“I took you into this home and fed you well, but why are you like this?!

Ian could do nothing but hide his clenched fist while staying silent. Something in him was trying to hold back saying anything.

His full name is Ian Velen, a Beta who is currently trying to survive in a wall-surrounded land. Growing up with a weak body, his ability is nowhere near enough to give pride to his family.

He’s the youngest son of the Marshal Arden Velen, a dominant Alpha, and the highest-ranking figure in the entire army. Marshal Arden is currently talking to him with coldness in his voice.

Just as before, seeing the regret on his father’s face made Ian feel so much pain and disappointment. A deep-rooted frustration brought his urges into a unifying thought: that he, alone, is the only reason for his father’s suffering for being a useless, weak, human being.

“Your brothers are far better than you! Why can’t you be like them?”

Ian’s life had been turned upside down from the very beginning.

His older brothers resented his existence. Much more his father who denied him as his own.

After his mother died, he found his father who was alone raising his two older brothers. He came to the family like a cancer since he was not recognized as a member of the family.

He grew up having been classified as a Beta. Not an Alpha that can give them an heir, nor an Omega that can produce offspring. He’s just a human that doesn’t give off that much power, dominance, and value to his family’s prestige.

Worst of all, his weak physique discouraged him from being at least a powerful man that the family can be proud of. At least he graduated from a military academy, and right now, he’s a Hunter who aims to go outside the city.

After his father spoke to him, he immediately went to the bathroom and vomited at the sink.

His body is terribly weak. Because he often forces himself not to give in to his emotions, it would leave him with a toll later as he would feel nauseous, vomit, and sometimes experience his chest tightening.

He turned on the faucet and splashed water on his face.

He looked in the mirror. A pale wet face appeared with brown eyes and a slightly red hair color. This face doesn’t resemble his father’s looks at all.

Ding!

He noticed that the smartwatch on his wrist rang. He decided to open his watch. A notification appeared in the form of a small square-shaped hologram screen above his wrist.

[Just a heads-up! Tomorrow, January 17, 3090, is your scheduled dose day. Be sure to take it at 5:00 am.]

Realizing that he’s feeling quite not in the mood to handle his body, he couldn’t think of any other reason to blame other than his mysterious condition.

It’s not just weak, but also mysterious.

“Don’t miss even a single day taking this, little one, or you’ll be sorry for the danger that will happen to your body…”

He still remembered what his mother said about taking the thing at the right date.

He doesn’t know why he has to take it aside from being weak. He wasn’t so weak before as he is currently, but even before his body was discovered fragile, he was already taking the thing at the right date. The duration takes about three months which means he will have that thing four times a year, and tomorrow is the schedule for him to take it.

As he grew older, it became even more strange to him to find a pattern of his mood every three months when he is near the schedule to take the drug. When the schedule is near, he will start to feel irritated as if he wanted to lash out at someone or run wild around, accompanied by the whispers in his mind—to go outside and escape the city.

The only solution he considered to be helpful is to take the dose. Taking it calms his senses and erases the echoing voices in his mind.

He never opened this condition to his family nor to the doctor. One time he was brought to the hospital because of his sudden seizure, but the doctor could not figure out the exact cause other that he might not still be used to the new environment he was in.

Back then, being a child who just recently found his mother dead, and seeing his remaining family not finding his need for love and support a concern, he could only trust himself and distrust telling anybody about his condition.

He held his head as he felt a squeezing pain.

Outside…

Let’s go outside…

The voices were echoing in his mind.

Can’t stay here…

He felt weak inside the house.

…

It took Ian a few minutes to get on his hoverbike and float into the sky. He inhaled the scent of the air the moment he got out of their house. His hair danced with every touch of the wind on him. The smell he sensed was fresh, but not to the point that it fully eased the tension in his mind.

A small helpful remedy to provide at least a little cure is to get exposed to the sun and outside air if it was not yet the schedule to take his dose.

Still, this was not the outside that he meant.

He couldn't understand why, when he stayed inside any building, he would feel even weaker, especially when he couldn't feel the sun. He was able to make it out alive during his years training to become a Hunter since the training facility always pushed them to get exposed under the sun.

The point is that his urges are telling him to get out of this place, to escape outside this wall-protected city.

What lies about five hundred to seven hundred feet below him are the buildings and the beautiful scenery of the Metropolis under the heat of the setting sun. Some buildings stood taller than his hoverbike’s altitude, yet they could not compete with the height of the walls that surrounded this entire land.

This fortified land is called New Aetherra, an empire-sized city, and the only city in the east with its own government and policies. It has a gigantic Metropolis at its center.

Ian was previously somewhere around this Metropolis, taking that Apex Clearance Test that grants every Hunter like him the opportunity to become an elite Hunter. For some Hunters, not passing the test might be okay and acceptable. They can just go back to working as a normal Hunter, but for Ian, it was a major opportunity for him to get more exposed outside.

However, he failed the physical evaluation right from the start.

Then earlier, the only Commander of the Apex division suddenly appeared after the results of the test. Ian really admired him not only because of his looks, but also because the man and his division is often reported in the news.

In his desperation, he lost all shame and introduced himself to the commander in front of many onlookers. And he didn't just introduce himself. He also confessed his feelings to him and asked for the man's hand in marriage.

“Urgh…” His shoulders arched, body facing down, trying to hide his face between his arms that were holding the handlebars of the hoverbike. “I swear, when I see him again, I'll apologize right away….” he promised to himself.

That Alpha commander was so high for him to reach and he knew that. Now, he questioned himself how on earth he did that.

He saw some big aircraft flying around the entire city. Some of them are for passengers while some are for private purposes.

Right at the center of the Metropolis, just few minutes’ travel from his location, there is a standing tower that is extremely tall. No one has ever seen the end of it since it's already covered by clouds, but it is said that the tower was built so tall in order to become the bone of New Aetherra’s human-made atmospheric shield called Skyplate that is connected to the tall walls surrounding the entirety of the city.

It is said that with the Skyplate, no air or any physical material from the outside could get in and no air could get out. The outside world is so toxic for humans to live. The Skyplate aims to protect all living things inside from getting exposed to the outside toxins, contaminants, and possible infections brought by air and dust particles.

The tower and the people who were working so hard creating the Skyplate are called the Novu Babel—the center of research and discovery in New Aetherra.

Ian glanced at the tall walls from the farthest viewpoint. Although this gigantic city is tremendously wide, he can still see the tops of the wall from where he is flying. This is humanity's only hope, as if it gives an endless promise to everyone that it will always remain standing to protect them.

Well, that sort of promise is a stupid lie.

Perhaps the average person would wonder what is truly outside.

Only Hunters can go out, but Ian would rather tell them that what lies beyond the walls is something humans better not see. They might change their minds and ask if the walls surrounding the city are truly enough for an endless hiding.

As he continued to glance at the sky, his eyes caught something from afar, perhaps slightly farther from the walls.

At first glance, it just looked like a dot.

Then it gradually grew larger, getting closer.

Until Ian’s eyes caught a gigantic mass of a rounded, solid, hairy object. Its size is like a meteorite directly thrown towards a human-inhabited region.

His eyes widened when he saw it hit the Skyplate directly with immense force!