[Tap... tap...]
The faint sound of knocking echoed through the quiet house.
"Grandpa! Grandpa!"
The young child, Edgar, shouted as he stood at the door of his grandfather's room. "It's time to eat!"
The smell of hot soup wafted from the kitchen, and the sound of cooking utensils filled the air, while his parents were busy preparing dinner. But Grandpa... didn't answer.
Edgar frowned slightly. He reached his small hand towards the doorknob, which he could barely reach, and slowly opened it.
The door's creak was sharp...
"Creeeeeeak..."
The boy entered the room with hesitant steps, his eyes scanning the place filled with old books and dust dancing in the dim lamplight. But Grandpa wasn't there.
What caught his attention was a strange glimmer behind one of the bookshelves. A faint blue light, like a breath from another world.
Edgar approached, standing on his tiptoes, but he couldn't reach. He glanced around the room, then dragged an old wooden chair and climbed onto it.
He reached out and pulled out a small, shiny box hidden behind the books. It was unlike any box he had ever seen—black wood carved with intricate symbols glowing with faint blue lines.
Edgar's heart skipped a beat.
What is this?
He slowly opened the box.
"Click..."
Inside... there were two bracelets.
Two metallic bracelets shimmering blue, as if pulsating with life.
His small fingers reached for one of them. But before he could touch it, he heard a sound behind him.
He turned abruptly.
... No one.
Just the creaking of wood and the sound of the wind passing through the old window.
He took a deep breath, then grabbed one of the bracelets and put it on his wrist.
In the next moment, the air trembled.
"Whoooosh!"
A blue light exploded around him like a storm of energy, and a deep sound resonated as if a dam of water had suddenly burst open.
A vortex of glowing symbols surrounded him, then... he vanished.
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When he opened his eyes, he was somewhere else.
A sky overcast with black clouds. Thick fog covering everything.
He was standing in the middle of a street paved with old yellow stones, surrounded by majestic Victorian-style houses... but completely deserted.
He heard no birds. No human movement. Only the sound of his own trembling breaths.
"W... Where am I?" Edgar whispered.
As he slowly looked around, a gray light appeared, forming in the air.
It transformed into a transparent, floating screen. It displayed strange words in a language he had never learned. Symbols resembling numbers, and characters changing every second.
He approached, trying to read them, but understood nothing.
And before he could try to touch it, he heard that sound.
"Doom... doom... doom..."
Heavy footsteps, approaching.
From the darkness.
The blood froze in his veins.
Each step shook the ground beneath him.
He grabbed the bracelet in panic, trying to remove it, but his curiosity overpowered his fear.
What is this creature?
The darkness began to clear gradually...
Then he saw a giant shadow approaching.
His mouth fell open in astonishment.
It was a girl — no, a giant woman — walking with slow, steady steps. She wore a black and red latex gown that clung to her slender figure despite her enormous size.
Her long golden hair flowed around her beautiful face, and her blue eyes glowed with a strange light.
She approached him until her shadow completely covered him.
She bent down towards him and smiled gently.
"What are you doing here, little child? This place is dangerous."
Her voice was soft, but it rumbled like thunder in his ears.
Edgar hesitated, unable to speak.
He looked at her with a strange admiration he had never felt before. He never liked the girls at his school, but this one... was different. She was like a dream.
He said in a trembling voice: "Who... who are you?"
She smiled more.
"Ily..."
"Whoooosh!"
The entire scene vanished in an instant, and Edgar found himself on the floor of his grandfather's room. His grandfather was shouting at him angrily, his face red and sweat pouring from his forehead.
"You foolish boy! Did you touch the box?!"
But Edgar couldn't respond.
The bracelet had disappeared, as if nothing had happened.
---
From that day on, everything changed.
That short family visit turned into a catastrophe.
Grandpa Louis kicked Edgar's parents out of the house in the middle of the day, furious at his son for allowing the boy to enter his room.
Edgar tried to tell them what had happened — about the light, the giant woman, the strange world — but no one believed him.
They said it was just a child's fantasies.
He was only seven years old, in the year 1900.
And from that day... they never gathered again.
<><><><>
Twenty years later...
The year 1920.
London was different — crowded, noisy, and stained with factory smoke.
As for Edgar, he had become a young man of twenty-seven.
Messy black hair, a thin body, and almost non-existent self-confidence.
He lived in a cramped room above the roof of a house, next to a man who raised pigeons.
The wind whistled through holes in the walls, and the cold penetrated his bones every winter.
Every job he got... he ruined.
Worked at the dyehouse? The owner closed it within a week.
Worked in a warehouse? It burned down on the third day.
It was as if bad luck followed him wherever he went.
Until people started calling him "Jinxed Edgar".
Yet, he didn't give up.
He finally got a job delivering newspapers, roaming the streets of London every morning in his shabby coat and on his bicycle.
On a gray morning like any other, he stopped in front of an old house.
He looked at the plaque on the door...
He froze.
It was Grandpa's house.
Twenty years had passed, but it was still the same — silent, covered in dust, its windows shut.
He stared at it for a long time, memories of childhood flooding his mind.
Was what he saw back then just an illusion?
He hesitated for a moment, then knocked on the door.
"Knock... knock..."
No answer.
He turned around and found an open window.
He slipped inside quietly.
Dust filled the air.
Everything was in its place — the pictures on the walls, the chair he had stood on, and the scent of old wood that hadn't changed.
He wandered through the rooms, stopping in front of pictures of his grandfather and his father when they were young.
"Why were you so harsh with us, Grandpa..." he muttered under his breath.
As he was about to leave, he noticed the door to the old room was open.
The memories came rushing back all at once.
He entered with slow steps... and there, on the same shelf... was the Box.
His hand trembled as he reached for it.
He opened the lid.
Inside... only one bracelet.
Edgar smiled despite the fear that gripped him.
"You were right..." he said, in a voice barely above a whisper.
He put the bracelet on his wrist.
"Whooooooosh!"
The blue light returned once more.
The wind howled around him, and the earth disappeared from beneath his feet.
Then he found himself in that place again...
The same deserted street,the same black clouds.
But this time...
TheGray Screen was perfectly clear.
Instructions appeared before him:
~[Door System Active]
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~ [Door: Level E]
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~ [The Cleaner: Level -E]
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~ [Mission: Decapitate The Serpent]
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~ [Actual Skill: King of Thunder]
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~ [Status: Not Yet Activated]
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~ [Mission Skill: Running]