Squares. That was the alignment of the entire world to most people living on the Spectre. It was a world that was inherently infinite. Was it infinite for certain? Nobody knew. But so far, there hasn’t be any evidence of an end to it, and it certainly isn’t round. Apart from the two hundred and ninety eight cities that were located in the Spectre, there was barely any other civilization present in the place.

The cities were grouped close together, linked by massive bridges that were constantly safeguarded by the Spectriarian Police Force in order to prevent vandalism or any other unlawful doings. The cities formed an O-shape, with the main capital, City 298, located in the very center.

These cities were then surrounded by a massive wall, one that was designed to keep out whatever lived outside the cities. And there were lots of things that didn’t live inside the cities. Most of them were harmless animals. But there were also plenty of other creatures that lurked within the confines of the outside world who were known by the inhabitants of the cities as “monsters”.

Monster attacks were very frequent and taxing upon the population of the cities. They happened almost every day. Sometimes, it was a direct assault on the wall, and other times, they somehow manage to sneak through and attack civilians within their homes and streets. At first, the government tried to combat this with their own military. But after countless civilian deaths, it was clear that this strategy wouldn’t work.

The government began to recruit “guardians”, and began to deploy them on the wall. Who were these guardians? People with extraordinary abilities. People who were exceptionally powerful. Or people who simply had a stupid gimmick that made them look exceptionally powerful. They guarded the wall and the cities, on constant alert for monster attacks.

Beginning

Zssshhhhhhh

The sound of his electric toothbrush was annoying, but it was a necessary evil. If he didn’t use it, Harvey would probably end up brushing his teeth a little too long.

Out of all the inventions of mankind, an electric toothbrush was the most practical in his opinion. Humans are never accurate. They always brush their teeth too long or too short. But now, with a mechanical toothbrush, they could set timers on it.

Harvey was standing in the bathroom of his apartment. The mirror was clean. The floors were clean. The shower was nicely scrubbed. The lights had their batteries replaced only yesterday. Outside his bathroom, the smell of the fish soup he had eaten for breakfast was still lingering. But he wasn’t hungry.

He was brushing his teeth.

Beep.

Harvey sighed a sigh of relief, cleaning his toothbrush with the faucet water, and then setting it on its recharge station. His mouth was clean now, at least.

Harvey was a 21 year old high school dropout. His GPA when he dropped out was 1.2. But his life was still pretty good. He made a living off of the novel he had published a few years ago. It wasn’t a bestseller, but it was good enough to earn him enough money to buy an apartment.

And for now, he was really bored.

Like, really bored.

Day to day, Harvey’s life was dominated by his computer. He didn’t play video games, like all the other stupid kids, instead choosing to write. Writing was fun to him. It held an appeal that was unknown to most people. The ability to create your own world. The ability to actually do something that wasn’t boring. It was an exciting prospect for Harvey.

But writing also gave Harvey something that he wasn’t aware of. Ever since he published his novel (which he expected would be a failure), and realized that he didn’t fail, he grew an unreputable sense of confidence. He wasn’t aware of his own confidence, and nobody else was either, since he never left his apartment, and barely anyone knew he even existed.

Sitting down at his desk, which had been scrubbed clean by him an hour ago, Harvey opened up his computer, and went to the google document that he was only just working on. He was writing a story about a bored person. A bored person who wanted to become someone greater than himself. A bored person who had confidence.

What is the difference between boredom and confidence, really? Harvey was so bored, in fact, that he began to think of this question.

Unfortunately, this world was not a place in which bored people could usually stay bored.

There was a loud wrenching noise, as the entire west wall of Harvey’s two-story apartment was completely torn apart. Dust flew everywhere. Books fell from their shelves. The room Harvey was in shook, as the quiet was suddenly replaced by a rattling hiss. The sound of a monster’s breath.

Now, having monsters in Harvey’s city was nothing new. But as soon as one of those monsters breaks his west wall, that means two things: that monster is above average in strength, and Harvey will be doing paperwork that night.

Light shined into Harvey’s previously-dimly lit room, allowed in by the hole that was once his west wall. This light was quickly snuffed out by the head of a monster. It was quite a terrifying monster. A reptilian head, with three sets of jaws inside of his mouth, each jaw lined with over a hundred razor sharp teeth. The monster’s eye swiveled down to Harvey, who was staring blankly up at it.

“And who may you be?” the monster’s voice was low and raspy, “I have never seen someone stand so calmly in my way, human.”

“You broke my wall.” muttered Harvey, “why did you break my wall?”

“You won’t be worrying about that wall for long,” growled the monster, “I had to tunnel through two thousand miles of dirt in order to get here. I want a snack, and you look like a perfect-”

Before the monster could say anything, an invisible force ripped him up, smashing him against the ground. Two figures appeared, one of them standing in front of the whole that the monster had created in Harvey’s apartment, and the other one appearing on top of the monster’s head.

The figure that had appeared right in front of Harvey had spiky blonde hair, and was holding a glowing orb in his hands. “You should’ve gotten the order to evacuate!” he said hurriedly, “come on, we must get you to safety, immediately!”

He ran over to Harvey, throwing the orb down at him. There was a loud crack, and the next thing Harvey knew, he was standing on the ceiling of a building several hundred meters away from the monster. He could see his own room, and the remains of what was his west wall. The figure who was on top of the monster’s head stabbed straight down with a blade that was in its hand, causing the monster to roar, throwing the figure back onto the ground.

“Stay here, and you’ll be fine.” the figure that had just teleported Harvey jumped from the top of the building. In midair, he teleported back to the where the monster was, and Harvey was provided with a perfect cinematic view of the battle.

The monster roared at the two figures, charging forward while slashing wildly with its claws. Now that Harvey was looking at it from a distance, he realized that the monster was a little larger than he had anticipated. It was about three stories tall in reality, and also had some razor-sharp claws that caught the glint of sunlight even from his distance. The figures who were on the ground were ducking, rolling, and teleporting out of the way of the monster’s attacks, but at the same time weren’t having much effect on it either.

Some could try to imagine what Harvey’s face looked like throughout this entire battle. It was completely impassive. Not bored anymore, obviously, but rather having a strange sort of calmness to his expression. The look of confidence.

Back on the ground, one of the figures cried out in pain as the monster’s tail shot out and slammed into him, driving him into the side of a wall. The monster opened its mouth, spewing out a massive stream of black fire at the last figure, who teleported out of the way yet again.

“Nyeshen!” Harvey wasn’t anywhere near the battle, but somehow he could imagine exactly what the figures were saying, “go! I’ll take care of it.”

The figure who was still standing turned, teleporting onto the back of the monster, and planted something into its skin. Harvey already knew what it was. It was a detonator.

A massive explosion lit up the street, as the detonator ignited on the monster’s back, causing it to roar and stumble back. By now, it was very weak, and also visibly tired. There were gashes running over its back, front, and face.

But it wasn’t done yet.

As the figure ran back to its fallen ally, Harvey noticed that the monster’s throat was beginning to glow dangerously red. A sign that it was charging a fire attack. The figure who was just fighting it was now trying to help his ally off the ground in an attempt to get him out of the line of fire. He isn’t fast enough. He’ll die.

“Come on! We have to move!”

“It’s too late. It’s too-”

“No.”

Harvey spoke the words under his breath. They were barely audible, even to himself, but they held one thing that no other dialogue had.

Confidence.

The red-white pulse that was growing in the monster’s mouth suddenly exploded, incinerating the entire street. The monster flailed around, its throat literally incinerated from the inside out, and finally collapsed onto the street a few hundred meters away from the figures, dead.

And after the fire cleared out, after the smoke went away, there were still two figures sitting on the street, looking around in awe. They don’t deserve to be alive. But they are.

Harvey’s dull eyes swept the rubble of the street. His apartment was completely safe. Its walls were nice and shiny. The street was in a good shape, looking just like what it looked like this morning.

The two figures on the ground had gotten up, one of them with his arm slung around the shoulder of the other. Both of them stood in front of the carcass of the monster, staring at it in awe. Harvey already knew what they were saying.

“How did-”

“I don’t know. We’re lucky to be alive.”

“Let’s go back to the Association and tell them about this - I’ve never seen anything like that. He just...blew up!”

“Yeah, you got that right…”

With a loud crack, they teleported away, leaving Harvey sitting on top of the ceiling of a random building, staring at the clean streets, and his well-repaired apartment. 

Confidence. It was a good tool.

The attack on City 87 by a monster of cobra-level danger was easily foiled by two guardians. Rank 1,239 guardian Nyeshen, otherwise known as “The teleporter”, and Rank 1,237 guardian Mishu, otherwise known as “The dual wielder”. The legendary duo have fought many battles together, and this is yet another testament of their power. Their current report: The prohibition of entry on City 87 has been lifted, with no damage done to it whatsoever.

Harvey set the newspaper down on his table. It was a good thing that nobody noticed him. He enjoyed the quiet of this city.

He was sitting in front of his computer, which had his story opened up on a google doc. A bowl of tofu soup was sitting to the right, with the newspaper on the left.

Right now, Harvey was trying to get rid of his writer’s block. And a good way to do that was to read stuff, newspapers included. His eyes scanned down the page he was just reading, until it landed on the daily city reports that were published. City 87 was included amongst it.

City 85 - nothing unusual, apart from a criminal shootout that was quickly taken care of (Rank 9,789 guardian and Rank 1,001 guardian)

City 86 - nothing unusual (Rank 2,221 guardian and Rank 2,220 guardian)

City 87 - an attack seen and responded to accordingly by Rank 1,237 guardian and Rank 1,239 guardian

City 88 - nothing unusual (Rank 191 guardian and Rank 9,912 guardian)

Harvey sighed, setting the newspaper down. Nothing too interesting for today at least. City 87 always got alot of attention from the Guardian Association. It was one of the most-frequented locations for monsters who wanted to sneak past the wall, because of its low population and relatively thin guardian presence. And to be honest, Harvey didn’t really see what was so bad about living in City 87. He liked the quiet, and the monsters who crossed his path were always no match for him. He got food from the supermarket that was located only about a mile away, and his life was spent writing, reading, watching, and waiting.

Waiting for something interesting to happen.

“What’re you saying?” asked Roy, one of the main advisors for the Guardian Association, “you mean that the monster you killed today - it wasn’t actually you?”

“No, it wasn’t.” Nyeshen’s face was grim as he spoke, “I don’t know what happened. The monster was about to finish us off, actually, before it...exploded. I have no idea what happened. Do you think that you can pull up any security footage of the incident?”

“That won’t be possible.” Roy shook his head solemnly, “when the monster died, it crushed the only security camera we had in the area.”

“Well, something strange happened,” said Nyeshen, “I don’t know what it was. But there was definitely somebody else out there helping us.”

“Perhaps its a rogue guardian? We’ve been getting more and more reports of them lately,” murmured Roy, stroking his chin, “but a monster of that caliber-”

“A rogue guardian wouldn’t have been able to stand up to a monster like that,” said Nyeshen, “it must be something greater - maybe another guardian was present, and just didn’t say anything?”

“Impossible, we would know if that were the case.” Roy frowned, “I will take your concerns into account, Nyeshen. Thank you for informing me of this...anomaly.

Nyeshen bowed and turned, leaving the room.