The Gods are Always Wtaching

That day, Adam woke up at 4am, as he always did. Although he was only 12, he had many things to do. He had to go to the store on the other side of the street from his home to help them restock the different products that were sold out during the weekend. While he didn't officialy work there he helped, hoping that whoever was working that day would pity him and give him some change or food. Generally, only the owner had any compassion for him while the workers accepted his help, halfheartedly thanked him and told him to go away. As the owner was rarely present, Adam would go back home emptyhanded most of the time. Nevertheless, he always got up and always went to help. He felt that anything in his power that could help his family's situation was worth doing. He didn't mind sacrificing some sleep for that. That day, Alice was the one working in the store. She arrived at 4.30am and started taking the products out of the warehouse and into the main store right away, while Adam put them in the correct shelves. Unlike the other workers, she was always happy to see Adam and would ask about how he was doing . She was amazed that a kid would always be ready to work at that age, sometimes arriving before she did.Not only that but her coworkers told her that he would come at that exact time everyday while she only did it 2-3 times a week to earn some extra cash. She wanted to ask him about many thing things, where his parents were, why he worked even though he wasn't paid,what school he went to and how he balanced everything at such a young age. She never asked, but wondered about it. It was now 5.45am, they had restocked everything, the shelves were full and ready to welcome customers.The store opens at 6am so Adam usually leaves at that time.He was standing outside, ready to go. Alice looked at him: He stood at about 155 centimeters tall and had brown hair.He was a taller than kids his age. There wasn't anything special about him physically. Other than the fact that he was relatively paler than others and skinnier than average. "Adam!",Alice shouted. "Y-yes?", he replied, startled by the sudden shout. "Here take these , am paying for them.Thank you for your help! I hope I will see you next time too." She said, while handing him a plastic bag with 10eggs and a carton of milk inside. Adam looked at her,at the beautiful smile she was showing him and couldn't help but tear up while giving the most beautiful smile he ever gave anyone .He wiped the one tear that was slowly going down his right cheek."Thank you Alice". She waved him goodbye, feeling proud of herself. Maybe this is what it feels like being a big sister, I should be more generous next time, she thought. She didn't know that but, that day was the last time she would see Adam, as a child at least. It was 6am when Adam got back home. His family's home was pretty small. 2 bedrooms, one for his parents, the other for him and his siblings,  tiny kitchen and a very small bathroom. No sitting area or tv. After storing the eggs and the milk in the fridge, he went into his siblings' room to wake them up. His siblings were twins. Mika was his younger brother, he was still sleepy and did not want to get out of his bed. Mina, his younger sister, was already up. She had made her bed and was now brushing her hair with an old brush. Mika and Mina were 8 years old. They had both inherited the beautiful blond hair of their mother,while Adam had inherited his brown hair from his father. The three of them were paler than average and while that made Adam look a bit sickly, the twins looked like angels sent from heaven. As far as Adam was concerned, that is exactly what they were, angels. To him, this was the second most beautiful scene he got to see everyday. Seeing his siblings in their room like this,without a care in the world,made him as happy as one can be. It also made his heart ache a bit. "Good morning!!"Mina shouted happily after noticing her big brother, giving him a big hug. "I...I was awake too!" said Mika, getting up fast, trying to open his eyes fully. "Mmm, sure you were hahaha,"Adam chuckled at his brother's obvious lie while hugging back his sister."Alright Mika go wash your face and teeth since you obviously just woke up. Mina wanna help me cook breakfast?" "Sure let's!" Mina said, playfully sticking her tongue at Mika. Who got up first and who got to help Adam prepare breakfast was an everyday competition between the twins. Mina usually won, but that only made Mika prouder of his rare victories.These little moments meant the world to Adam . "I was awake though..." Mika was still yawning, dragging his feet towards the small bathroom. Adam and Mina went to the kitchen. The younger sister was cutting pieces of bread to toast while the bigger brother took the eggs he just got from Alice out of the fridge. "We're having eggs today??Wow ten eggs and a carton of milk? This is a feast! When have we become aristocrats?" Her eyes were shinning. "Hahhaha a friend..mmm well not really a friend, anyway Alice bought them for us, isn't she nice? We have milk too," the older brother said proudly. His work today and lack of sleep wasn't for nothing. "Mm well, we have ten eggs and a whole carton of milk. Do you think we should eat it all?"He added. Mina thought for a second then answered " Of course not, we should have one egg each today.That's one for me of course, one for you, one for mom and maybe one for Mika. Tomorrow and the day after Mika will have to do without breakfast. I guess he should eat slowly today." She had a big mischievous smile on her face. "But why? Wouldn't it be nice to eat all of it today?" asked Adam rubbing his chin with a wonderous expression. Mina crossed her arms "Adam am not 5! I know we should think about tomorrow and stuff. Your temptation will not work!" "Alright, alright, sorry for testing you."They both laughed. Mika joined them shortly after and Mina explained to him her "food plan" for the next few days.  The young brother was outraged while the others laughed. The twins ate while their big brother looked at them with a lovely smile, teasing them , siding with Mina, then betraying her and siding with Mika, taking turns like that. Adam then walked them to school and went back home. As the oldest child of the family, he didn't go to school, he couldn't. He started cooking another breakfast. At 8am, the breakfast was cooked and someone came into the house. It was his mother, Lea. Lea was in her thirties. Although she looked older than she was, no one could say that she wasn't extremely beautilful. The sort of beauty that you notice in paintings or statues. Like the twins, she had incredible blond hair. Hers was very long, at hip length. She had a wonderful smile and was a caring and playful mother. Lea didn't care much about her appearance, which in a way made her all the more beautiful. "Hello Adam! Come give your mother a big hug," Adam was happy to oblige, "did you just wake up?" "Yep, I just dropped off Mika and Mina to school," He answered, confidently. "Oh really? So you didn't go the store today?" "No, why would I?" "I did tell you you didn't have to, you should at least sleep as much as you want. You're already working during the day at my brother's restaurant at such a young age  because of us. Am telling you really don't have to," She smiled, but her a smile had a hint of sadness in it. "You did tell me already and so I don't go there anymore" "Aren't you stubborn...Am sorry for troubling you so much" She could always tell when he was lying. "Okay I did go but am happy to help , look I even got eggs and milk" Adam pointed to the breakfast he made to his mother "go quick before it cools down". Lea did her best to hold her tears from comming out and smiled "Thank you Adam, you're my savior."She kissed him on the forehead before sitting. "Did you eat?"she asked with an interrogative smile. "Yes, with Mika and Mina"He hadn't. "Come, sit next to me, let's eat together. If you're still hungry after I'll cook something for you"She always, always could smell a lie from a mile away if it came from her children. Adam's mother was a nurse in a public hospital.While the family used to live pretty comfortably in the past, it wasn't the case anymore.Of course, there was a reason for that.But that reason still hadn't woken up. In order to make ends meet, she took extra shifts and worked more than 15hours a day, barely having enough time to spend with her children. She always had bags under her eyes and was rarely full of energy, except when her children were near her. Adam and his mother sat and talked about many things: Mina's plan not to give food to Mika in order to save, Alice's smile and kindness,Lea's patients at the hospital... At 9am, Lea was too tired to stay awake any longer and went to sleep in the twins' room.She slept on Mika's bed. And yes that was a big deal because whenever the twins would come back from school and 4pm, they would find their mom sleeping and the one who's bed was occupied would brag about it. One hour later, Adam came to check up on his mother before going out. She was sound asleep. Her beautiful hair was everywhere, it sometimes tickled her nose. This was the most beautiful scene he saw everyday. She looked so peaceful. After working all night for the sake of her family. Only for most of her pay to then be used up immediatly by him. "Him" is adam's father. He usually woke up at 2 to 3pm everyday, with a hangover, eating everything that the rest of the family saved or worked for. Using all the money Lea earned to get drunk later at night in a bar. He wasn't always like that, but these days all he does is drown his sorrows with a bottle. He used to be a well respected doctor. But that was more than 6 years ago, when Adam was only 5years old.  As his father got richer and more respected, he cared less and less about important things. Not only about his family but also about doing his best when practicing. All he cared about was superficial things and saving wealthy or famous people. That made the overall quality of his work go down and destroyed his reputation. More than once, he rejected people who needed his help even when they were willing to pay the money. That wasn't enough for him anymore.  This continued for a while, he chose who to save and who no to.Until one day, a client he had rejected died the next day. What Adam's father didn't know was that that random client he rejected was a distant relative of the prime minister. It wasn't even widely know that that person was a relative of his.The prime minister obviously didn't care about his distant relative but this was an excuse to make him look good in front of the whole country. This gave birth to a scandal with Adam's father in the center of it. He lost his job and no hospital wanted to hire him , as testamonies from different older rejected clients were presented to the press. He never picked himself up after that. He had given up on everything and saw the bottle as his salvation. Adam knew this story well. Whenever his father would mistreat Lea, she would tell Adam that it wasn't his fault. She would tell him that this and that happened, that their was a time when they were happily married. He wanted to tell his mother that that person had changed. That he isn't who she remembered him to be. That his father was now nothing more than a coward who didn't care about anything, and especially not about his family. Adam thought that his father could watch his children die, and that not only would he not do anything, he would actually feel relieved by them not being there anymore.He didn't like his father, he hated him really, but somewhere deep in his heart, he hoped that he was wrong about him ,that when it would count the most, his father would rise to the occasion for his family. Maybe that is why his Lea hadn't left. He didn't know much about his father anyways. He didn't say any of what he thought to his mother, she probably knew already as she could usually read him like a book. Maybe she was just too attached to the past for her own good. It was about 9.30am when Adam went out, he still had many thing to do. He was on his way to his uncle's restaurant.It was a 1-hour walk. He worked there on most days from 11am to 3pm.His uncle was a good person, although a bit stingy even with his family. He paid Adam less than the other workers but that can't be helped. Not only was he only 12 but his uncle always had a place for him. Whether there were 2workers in the restaurant or 8, he always welcomed Adam. But then, It happened. It happened at 10am sharp. The day the world changed. The day every fondamental belief and concept this world was based on changed completely. Adam who was on his way, decided to look up at the sky. For no reason at all. And that's when he saw it, the blue sky he looked at for 1 second became as red as blood . From east to west, the blue sky was swallowed by a bloody red. His heart started beating faster and faster,he had trouble breathing. He took two steps back before falling to the ground, staring at the red sky. People looked up at the sky some moments later, after noticing that there was much less light. People screamed, people ran, some cried while others started praying. Adam stared at the sky, before sprinting back towards his home. He was about 20minutes away. The ground shook.He fell to the ground. Multiple car accidents occured that instant, fires started basically everywhere around him. He got up and kept running. All he had on his mind were his family members, Mina, Mika , his mother.And somehow, he also thought of his father. He hoped his father would protect his mother. The next instant , black balls,the size of basket balls, started falling from the sky. They didn't fall straight from the sky to crash on the ground.It was like they had a life of their own, actually aiming people and following them. The moment one got close to him despite his attempt at running away, he jumped on the ground, his knees bent on the ground, face on the ground, trying to protect himself with his back. But the ball stopped in front of him and kept floating. He didn't move. 1,5,10seconds,1minute passed and nothing happened. He got up and looked at it. It was a perfect sphere dyed completely black. His curiosity got the best of him and he raised his arm to touch it. The ball then elastically wrapt itself around his wrist. He thought his hand was lost and started screaming. But then, it got much smaller and took the form of a wrist band. He kept looking at it. And something came out of it. He was startled and fell to the ground once more. It was some sort of hollogram that appeared in front of him, originating from the "wristband".He looked around and it was the same for everyone. All the people had this black "wristband" around one of their wrists. The hologram then started talking, Adam felt that it talked telepathicaly. It was a weird feeling and he couldn't hear any sound comming from the other holograms projected by other people's "wristband". {Welcome dear believers. I am the god of games and pleasure. I come as a representative of all gods, dieties, heroes , myths and creatures that some of you may or may not have believed in or even heard of.} The hologram talked, but Adam didn't hear much of what it said. He wondered if his siblings were seeing this too, and if they were okay . He re-started running while the hologram kept talking. The hologram looked like an athletic man wearing the type of clothes seen on greek statues . A sort of aureole or halo made of flowers was on his head. He also had a sort of ancient bottle attached to his waist.The hologram was blushing a bit. But Adam didn't notice any of that all he wanted to do was check on his loved ones. As he was running he called his mother with his old cellphone. She answered right away"Adam?? What is happening?? Where are you ? Are you okay?" He screamed " Am ok. Stay home. Am going to Mika and Mina. I'll come back with them." And hung up right after. He changed his course and sprinted. While he was a bit less than 20minutes away fron home, he was 5minutes away from Mina and Mika's school. The hologram kept talking: {Dear believers, there is nothing to worry about...} The hologram paused for a second. {For now of course} This pause irritated Adam more than anything he ever encountered in his life. {Anyway, dear mortal believers. There is nothing to be alarmed about. I have important information to share with all of you.First...} He clicked his fingers and a big screen appeared in front of Adam. Startled, he fell again but got back up fast and continued running. {This is your personnal information, every important caracteristic of yours related to your survival is in here. It probably isn't anything to brag about, but you shall get stronger. If you want to survive that is.} Adam read: [        Name: Adam         Age: 12years old         Species  & level : Human  Lv1(0/50exp)         Gold: 0         HP: 70/70         Endurance: 30/50         Stats: Strength: 3                   Agility: 5                   Senses: 7                   Vigor & Endurance: 5                   Unused stat points: 3           Skills: (None)           Titles: (None         R##ht###s  to E#il Points: 0-0         S####o#: (None)  ] He was now at the entrance of his sibling's school. He ran inside looking for their classroom. There, he found Mika crying while Mina was holding his hand consoling him "Don't worry, am sure they're okay. Yes am sure. They'll come here. Any minute now....ADAM!" She let go of Mika's hand and jumped on Adam to hug him. She could no longer hold her tears in "I thought you weren't comming.... I....I...I thought something happenned to you " Mika smiled after seeing Adam, wiped his tears and said "What? You said they were coming and that they were okay" and went to hug him too. "That's because you're a big baby and I have to take care of you when we're alone" Seeing them, hearing them and hugging them, Adam had reached his limit and started sobbing like never before.From his family being apart to his body breaking down due to the fatigue. His fear of loosing everyone,of loosing his loved ones, his fear of death, his fear of the bloody sky,of all this unknown it all came down at once. Mina ended up having to console him "There, there, we're here". He wasn't sure who was the older sibling at that instant. Adam then grabbed both there hands and they headed to the school entrance, going home. They found their mother there absolutely exhausted, she probably ran all the way. Once again, they all cried while hugging each other. Adam looked at his "wristband", the hologram was gone and the sky went back to it's normal color. However, "Status" said Mika,and a digital screen appeared in front of him. None of us could read what was written except him though. "I guess it's personnal information. Anyway isn't this so cool? It's like we're in a game with stat points ,gods and heroes. This is gonna be so much fun!" Mika added. The other three did not know whether to hug him for his positivity and optimism or slap him so he can get back to reality. On their way back, it seemed people had calmed down , although everyone was confused. One hour after the first appearance of the hologram, it came back. For some reason this time only one hologram appeared in front of us,not individual holograms, maybe because we were in a group. {It looks like I forgot the most important information. You can ask your device any questions you have, it will answer basic questions about your situation . You can address it as The System or however you want. Also ,from today onwards, dungeon gates will appear at random everywhere in the world. In those dungeons, there are many treasures but also creatures that will do their best to devour you. A dungeon cannot be exited once entered until cleared. All the people who wish to participate in a particular dungeon must enter said dungeon at most one hour after the first person who entered it did. The conditions for clearing a dungeon are always explained after entering it. Only the people who clear the dungeon recieve rewards . These are automatically calculated depending on your contribution.Leaving a dungeon unattended will not result in what is commonly known as a "dungeon break". The creatures from these dungeons will never exit the dungeon. You should take the next year to strengthen yourselves. After that, the game will change completely. Mm maybe I shouldn't call it a game, your lives depend on it after all. } {Anyways dear mortal believers show us a great spectacle. We shall be watching everyone of you closely. After all, the gods are always watching,as you humans say.}