March 29, 7:00 pm, Beijing, China

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRING!

The bell rang to signal the end of cla.s.s, and all the students that hadn't already packed up started to put away their things. Those that hadn't already left, anyway.

Irade slowly put her things away. She wasn't in any particular hurry to leave; it wasn't like she had anywhere to go.

Last week, after "causing a scene" at the restaurant, then coming home covered in who-knows-what, absolutely filthy, her 'mother' had spent the better part of the night screaming at her. So much that the neighbors called to complain. Not that it stopped her from screaming.

As a result, Irade had been grounded for a month. Her 'father' picked her up from school every day, and took her back home, where he locked the door and left for work.

Of course, if Irade wanted to leave, she could at any time. The easiest way would be to simply jump out the window; thanks to her little adventure, she now had more than enough MP to fly as she wanted, for about 3 minutes anyway.

If she was feeling particularly annoyed, she could simply punch a hole through the door. Her [Strength] was high enough now that she could probably get through without too much effort. To test it, Irade had bent a steel bar she had found. She managed to make it into a pretzel shape, but it did take some effort. She got the feeling that her strength was something a bit beyond normal human beings, but not so much that people would start revering her as a G.o.ddess or something.

But despite all that, she didn't leave the apartment.

In fact, for the past almost-two-weeks, Irade had barely left her room.

She hadn't even done any of her Daily Tasks or even opened the HUD. The reason was because ever time she saw the name of the new [Story Mission], she felt sick to her stomach.

[A Gaze Into The Past]

What a sick joke.

Irade gripped the straps of her backpack tighter as she felt a bubble of anger rise to her throat just thinking about it. She walked out of the school building thinking about the letters she had found in that place full of monsters.

That was what those papers had been. Letters. Written by her birth father, to her birth mother.

They were letters detailing their life together, how they were trying to save up enough money for...something. The letters didn't say.

But they concluded with her father telling her mother to take Irade and leave, because "they" had found him. It ended up confessing that he was a separatist, that he wished for the CCP to fall, and that he was going to try and "protect" her mother and Irade, before they killed him.

"Why..." Irade had thought, gritting her teeth.

"Why couldn't you have been normal?"

These letters were proof, undeniable proof, that her parents had been separatists. That they wanted the destruction of the Chinese government. That everything her 'parents' had told her about them had been true. That everything her cla.s.smates secretly thought about her - that she was a child of terrorists, that she was abandoned by her parents, that she came from evil - all had a basis in truth.

Cause that's what it meant to be vaguely brown skinned and named 'Irade' in Beijing. It meant you were Uyghur, and that meant you were probably a terrorist. That you had a genetic disposition for disrupting social order.

Irade had always held hope that it was all a mistake. That her parents weren't what the government said they were. That she'd be reunited with them one day, and that they'd live in Beijing together. She clung to what little good she remembered; her dad's stern face that would warm up as soon as he smiled, and her mother's easy, carefree laugh.

All of them were lies. Those weren't her parents. The letters proved that.

And she hated it.

She hated that everyone else was right. She hated that her parents had betrayed the CCP. She hated that her parents weren't the people she wanted them to be.

She hated being the daughter of such a family.

Irade walked over to her 'father,' burning with anger, barely noticing anything around her.

[A Gaze Into The Past]?

Why would she want to do that?

For that reason, Irade refused to engage with the HUD; the messenger that brought her this information. She was starting to become wary of it. She started asking questions that she really should have thought of in the beginning: why did she have this HUD? Was someone controlling it? Were they giving her missions?

Why had they shown her these letters?

Honestly, it didn't matter. As far as Irade was concerned, she was done with it.

But the HUD wasn't done with her. Every now and then, it would ping her, showing her the mission, as well as notifying her that there were more monsters out there for her to defeat. Irade had actually taken at look once; it seemed like the monsters were all spread out in the city, hiding in dark corners and alleyways. Only occasionally would they be in a building like that one that day.

Still. Irade refused to engage. She wasn't going to give in to the HUD's demands.

No matter what.

***

March 30, 12:01 am, Beijing, China

Ding!

"Mmmmhhppph..."

Ding! Ding!

"Whaaat…?"

Irade opened her eyes blearily, head still fuzzy with dreams. The HUD was pinging her with something, a red exclamation point flas.h.i.+ng in the corner of her vision.

"Fine..."

She opened it up, just to get it to stop. At the same time, someone knocked on the door of the apartment.

"Police! Open up!"

That got Irade's attention, along with the message the HUD was reading out to her.

[Story Mission: A Gaze Into The Past: FAILED! Story Tree Unlocked!]

[Story Tree Choice: INFILTRATE/FLEE?]

What?

BANG BANG BANG!

"You have to the count of five to open the door!" yelled the person on the other side.

"One!"

What was going on?

Irade was completely awake now, the banging on the door getting the attention of her 'parents.' She saw the light in their room turn on. She was certain that this choice was definitely something to do with the police at her door; it was too much of a coincidence not to be. She needed to make a decision now.

"Three!"

Her heart leaped into her mouth. Three? Where did "two" go?

Her 'parents' apparently felt the same, as they quickly rushed to the door.

No time to think. [INFILTRATE] or [FLEE]?

Despite her rising panic, Irade forced herself to take a deep breath. She closed her eyes, remembering the calm she had felt in the Monster Nest, the one that allowed her to focus on a thousand problems at once.

Time seemed to slow down as she thought through her options.

For some strange reason, Irade felt like the HUD wanted her to go with [INFILTRATE]. From the name of the previous mission...coupled with the way the [INFILTRATE] option was in the same position as "Yes" in [Y/N]…

"Five!"

Irade opened her window with a single motion.

"What is- Oh!"

She heard her 'mother' gasp, her voice soon drowned out by the stomping of feet coming through the apartment. She flung herself out the window just as she heard a voice behind her yell "freeze!"

Too late.

Irade fell from the building in nothing but her crescent moon patterned pyjamas, this time not even with a mask on. Her eyes were on the floor, watching it grow closer and closer. The air rushed through her hair, forcing it back as she picked up speed.

For a moment, she wondered what it would be like to simply...fall.

But she knew she wouldn't.

With a sigh, she activated [Flight].

Ding!

[You have chosen: FLEE]

[New Story Mission Unlocked!]

[Story Mission: A Coward's Fight]

[You have already accepted the mission, coward]

Irade looked at the message, closed it, and flew away.