Chapter 1 - The Beginning

Attention to all students, please enter the classroom immediately. The lesson is about to begin!

All male and female students who are still in the corridors, please proceed to your respective classrooms. However, there are also a group of delinquent students who are still in the cafeteria, chatting with their friends. They are the most feared group in this school.

Even though they are still in their first year of high school, since their first day at school, they have been bullying students from the second and third year.

Initially, this school was known for its delinquent students. In fact, some of the high school graduates ended up becoming gangsters.

Inside the classroom, a nerdy-looking student wearing glasses and with a center-parted hair entered. He carried a bag filled with textbooks and placed it on the floor, right next to his desk.

The boy's name was Daffa Setyawan, commonly known as Daffa. Since his first year in school, he had become the target of bullying by the delinquent students.

But for some reason, Daffa never complained or feared them, instead remaining calm even when being harassed by the delinquents.

Shortly after, the delinquent students who were in the cafeteria started entering the classroom one by one.

The first boy from the delinquent group who entered the classroom greeted Daffa.

"Hey, Daf!" his name was Daniel.

Daffa turned and smiled at him.

Seeing Daffa's gaze and smile, the boy felt slightly uncomfortable.

"Meet me behind the school after this!" he said in an angry tone.

Daffa remained silent and diverted his gaze towards his textbooks.

"Why? Why should I smile? Why should I be their target for bullying? Why?!!!" Daffa clenched his pen tightly until it broke.

"Is it because I don't have parents? Is it because I'm just a child from an orphanage?"

Daffa continued to grip his hand even though his skin was injured by the broken pen fragments.

"I also want a normal life, I want to study normally, I want to have friends, I want to live peacefully, I... I..."

A crumpled paper hit Daffa's head. Daffa held himself back, although deep down in his heart, he continued to curse.

Plok!

Once again, a crumpled paper hit Daffa's head. But Daffa restrained himself because he knew he was weak.

Tak!!!

This time, it wasn't a crumpled paper that hit Daffa's head, but a metallic coin.

Daffa looked at Daniel and said, "Can you stop bothering me even just for a day!"

Upon hearing Daffa's words, the entire class stared at him.

"Hey!" Daniel was also surprised that Daffa dared to stand up for himself for the first time.

"What did you just say?" Daniel asked, wanting to hear Daffa's words again.

"Do I have to repeat it?" Daffa retorted.

Those words angered Daniel, and he threw a punch at Daffa's face.

Bugh!!!

"Say that again! Say it! Quickly!!!"

Daffa remained silent, covering his face.

"I-I'm sorry," Daffa said, scared, trying to bear the pain.

Suddenly, a man entered the classroom carrying textbooks. He was the Indonesian language teacher.

The man observed his students' behavior and said, "Stop joking around. Sit down and open your textbooks."

Daniel let go of Daffa and returned to his seat, as did Daffa, but with a lowered face.

To cut the story short, the Indonesian language class ended. Daffa quickly ran out of the classroom towards the Counseling Room to recount everything that had happened to him since his first day at school until now.

When he arrived at the Counseling Room, he opened the door and entered. He shared all the incidents that had occurred, including today's incident when he was punched by Daniel.

After a considerable amount of time had passed, Daffa returned to the classroom accompanied by an elderly man, who happened to be the guidance counselor.

A female teacher, who was still teaching in the classroom, wondered why the guidance counselor entered her class.

"Can I help you, sir?" she asked. "Where have you been?" she directed the question towards Daffa.

Daffa remained silent and returned to his seat.

"Excuse me, I'll take over the class for a moment. There's an issue in this class," said the guidance counselor with a smile.

"O-Okay, sir!" she replied and stepped aside from the front of the class.

"Ahem... so, I received a report from one of the students named Daffa. He said he has been frequently bullied. I don't know if the story is true or not, but because I have also witnessed it myself, today Daniel and his friends will be suspended from school for two weeks."

All the students were stunned as they heard the word "suspended" coming from the guidance counselor's mouth. Previously, none of the delinquent students had ever been suspended.

"So, Daniel and his friends, please leave the classroom. Warning letters will be sent to your respective parents. That's all from me, thank you."

The guidance counselor stared sharply at Daniel.

Daniel and his friends quickly packed their belongings into their bags.

He then approached Daffa and said, "Wait for me after school."

They left the classroom, shouting, "Snitch!!!" as they ran away from the school.

The guidance counselor simply smiled and excused himself for interrupting the class.

"Perhaps the school can return to normal, just like before, if the city government wasn't so corrupt," thought the guidance counselor as he walked out of the classroom.

The lesson ended, and all the students hurried to go home, including Daffa.

Daffa took his usual route to the orphanage. However, he also needed to find a new place to live since he would soon turn 17.

While walking, he searched for an affordable boarding house for himself, but the prices ranged from Rp 800,000 and above.

Whether he liked it or not, he had to find a part-time job. However, he was still not of legal age to apply for jobs.

He might be able to find work as a food delivery driver or in other simple tasks, but the salary would be meager.

The sky started to darken with clouds. Daffa hurried home before the rain started. However, he anticipated that he would encounter Daniel.

Daffa stopped running as he was blocked by Daniel and his friends.

"Daffa, why did you snitch?" Daniel asked with an angry look.

"Hey! Because of you, I can't have dinner," said Galang, one of Daniel's friends.

Daffa glanced at an alley and wanted to escape in that direction. Before they could realize it, Daffa quickly ran through the alley.

"Hey! Chase him!!" Daniel shouted.

Daffa kept running, even though he bumped into someone's birdcage. He accidentally collided with a woman carrying laundry, causing the clothes to fall. However, Daffa ignored it and continued running to save himself.

Due to the prolonged pursuit, they didn't realize it was pouring rain.

Daffa started slowing down his pace, afraid of slipping. But it only made Daniel and his friends catch up with him. Reluctantly, he had to keep running, even if it meant stumbling along the way.

Daffa panicked as he couldn't see the road due to dense fog. Unaware, he ran into a dead-end street.

"Ah! Why is it a dead-end?!" Daffa exclaimed, then turned back to take the previous path and find another way.

But he stopped when he saw Daniel and his friends blocking his way.

"Get him!" Daniel ordered his friends.

Daffa was mercilessly beaten without putting up any resistance. He continued to be pummeled relentlessly, even though he begged for forgiveness.

Suddenly, someone came to Daffa's rescue. That person fought off Daniel and his friends, then carried Daffa and fled from the scene.

Daffa remained silent, unable to do anything, and then passed out.

After some time, Daffa regained consciousness. He looked up at the stars in the night sky. Realizing what had happened earlier, he quickly surveyed his surroundings.

"Where am I?" he whispered.

Daffa was surprised to find himself on top of a building.

"Are you awake?" a voice sounded unfamiliar to Daffa.

He turned to the source of the voice and saw a man sitting on the other side of the building.

"Who are you?" Daffa asked, fearing that the man might be another villain.

"I don't know. If you want to go home, take the emergency stairs over there," he said, pointing to the emergency staircase.

"Um... okay." Daffa began to move and hurriedly headed home.

"Thank you for saving me," Daffa said. Since there was no response, he went home without further ado.

Upon arriving at the orphanage, Daffa entered his room and was welcomed by the other children.

"Hello, Kak Daffa! It's unusual for you to come back late," said a boy named Akbar, who was still in middle school.

"Well... I had a group project," Daffa forced a smile.

"Did you really have a group project?"

Daffa immediately covered his face, afraid of being scolded by the woman.

"Why are you hiding your face? Are you afraid that I'll give you an extra punch?" she asked.

"Hehe!" Daffa chuckled slightly and then uncovered his face.

The woman was an orphan herself. She always treated the children in the orphanage as her own siblings, especially Daffa, who was only two years younger than her.

The woman was 18 years old, named Melisa. Daffa considered her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Suddenly, a message appeared on Daffa's mobile phone.

Daffa quickly checked the message and saw that an unknown number had sent it to him.

"I'll excuse myself. I need to freshen up," Daffa said to Melisa.

"Put your wet clothes in the washing machine so I can wash them. You'll need them again tomorrow, right?" Melisa asked.

"Y-yes," Daffa smiled.

Daffa went into his private room and opened the message sent by the unknown number.

[ Chat ]

Unknown Number: Hi :)

Unknown Number: I saw you being beaten up today by those troublemakers. Do you want to get back at them?

Daffa: Can I?

Unknown Number: Of course, you just need to install this application.

Unknown Number: system.apk

Unknown Number: If you're skeptical, you can ignore it. Thank you :)

[ End of Chat ]

Daffa furrowed his brow and said, "Turns out, it's just someone playing a prank and sending a phishing application."

Daffa then selected the chat with the unknown number and intended to delete it. However, out of curiosity, he ended up installing the application.

[ Installation Complete ]

Daffa opened the application and saw two input fields on his phone screen.

[ Username ]

[ Password ]

Daffa was a little confused and scratched his head.

"Why isn't there a registration menu?"

Daffa filled in his username with his name and used the same password as his other social media accounts.

[ Daffa Setyawan ]

[ *********** ]

[ Login Successful ]

[ Downloading data from the server. Please wait a moment. ]

Daffa became even more puzzled. But he remained curious about what would happen with the application he had installed.

[ 0% ... 15% ... 37% ... 58% ... 77% ... 99% ... 100% ]

[ D******d complete... ]

[ Checking data... ]

[ Verifying data... ]

[ ... ]

[ Welcome, Daffa Setyawan ]

Daffa, looking at the screen, could only remain silent.

"Can I become strong just by using this?"

*****