Brian walked towards the large bed by the window, saw that Ambra was still sleeping. As he then sat on the couch, surfing through the different channels on TV.
I walked out of the kitchen wearing warm clothes, gloves, a head cover made from my T-shirt and face mask in case the air was too cold to breathe.
"Oh, you look like you're getting ready to play in the snow, kiddo." he said with a laugh.
I put on a pout to act cute, "I have never gone outside this house in four years, Brian."
"In four years? Kid, you are four years old—no, wait, its four and a half something, right? Or something in between?" came his reply with a small smirk.
"I think four something?" I confirmed.
'Yeah, four years in this life. I mean, I can't exactly say I was an adult and would go to Sunbucks for coffee and that I remembered my past life.', I would sound crazy.
As Brian enjoyed eating a simple meal cooked by Axel.
By the time he had finished eating, it was already 6:20 am as he left the dishes for Axel. He slowly got up from the couch and looked over to me.
"Let's go, kid. Time ain't waiting for nobody."
As both of us walked towards the front door I glanced back at the large bed and asked, "Shouldn't I wake my mother up since I'm going outside?"
Brian sighed and looked down towards me as I stood near his legs.
"Ah, this is going to be our little secret. Just don't tell her." he replied with a small smile.
I nodded before Brian opened the door.
I nervously swallowed before taking my first step outside the small world I had lived in.
I glanced at another door in front of my house, glancing left and right, summarizing that there were six apartments on this floor, including mine. As we enter the elevator.
Brian asked, "Arwin, have you ever been in an elevator before?"
I was slightly alarmed and tried to think of a reason I wasn't surprised by the elevator. "We-well, I've watched many movies, so I've seen how elevators look. But this is my first time experiencing one."
I looked up to see Brian's reaction, but the elevator door suddenly opened, grabbing both of ours attention. A young man with black hair, covered by a beanie and thick warm clothes, stepped inside. He was emaciated, sunken eyes and cheeks gave him a sickly appearance.
Brian shielded me by walking in front of me, as I followed behind closely.
As we left the building premises, I looked up to see darkness coloring the sky, with a few twinkles dotting the dark canvas.
I huffed out a breath and saw it immediately turn into mist as I do it a couple of times more enamored by it, before I am hit in the face with a bitter-cold wind. I immediately covered my mouth and nose with the mask.
"Haha, kid it's cold, isn't it? Come on, there's much to see at this hour. Get in the car."
I nodded and followed him to a red car. It wasn't as bulky as Ambra's, but compared to the cars in my previous world, it was still quite large but not sci-fi looking.
Brian took out a small gadget and used it to unlock his car with a loud beep. He glanced at me, explaining, "This is used to unlock my car."
While getting in I asked, "Does my mother also use that thing to unlock her car?"
I pointed to the small device Brian placed in front of the steering wheel.
"Well, your mother uses her bracelet to unlock her car. But that bracelet can be stolen quite easily, so I don't use it. And it's also a bit expensive—not that I can't buy it! I just have no need for it," Brian replied, trying to sound cool at least from my perspective.
"Lets go I will show you all the good places of Zimnocień city."
As we traveled, I noticed that the infrastructure of buildings, shops and how roads were constructed was pretty much the same as my old world, just with an added touch of sci–fi appearance with neon 3D signboards and all.
The first place we stopped by was a large playground for kids to play, except it was filled with homeless people in thick clothes sleeping on the slides or benches, with robots cleaning the footpath.
"Is there only one playground or are there more like this?" I asked genuinely curious, watching the robots clear away dead leaves.
"There are more, but this is the largest one in this city. Lucky for you it is just 5 minutes away from your house." Brian stated while walking around the playground. I looked around watching people sleeping on the slides and other playthings meant for children, as well as public benches.
I noticed Brian was observing me before taking a look at the big watch at the center of the playground.
"Don't worry they will get up before 7am, since there are law enforcers who start making rounds around that time. Until then, they will sleep here."
"Do these people not have their own home?" I asked with a curious expression.
"Ah! You see buying a house is very expensive and not everyone can afford it.", seeing my expression fall he quickly added, "but they can pay to stay in a motel as a less expensive option for couple of days. There are homeless shelter as well."
I put on a sad expression, even though I wasn't actually upset, "Does my mother also pay rent? So, we can only live in our house for a few days?"
"No! no, kiddo. Your mom has bought that place, you can live there for a looong time. So don't worry."
I nodded and went to explore the playground for a while.
'Thank the gods, I don't have to worry about it, not that it matters since shit will hit the ceiling when I reach fifteen.' I was purposefully making slow progress in learning, but as days went by, it was only becoming harder holding myself back from grinding 10hrs or even 15hrs a day to focus on learning as much as I could.
He walked towards me and said, "Let's go kiddo, there are other things I have to show you."
I followed Brian back to his car, as we started traveling once again.
Only this time, some of the shops along the way seemed to be opening. I constantly saw the same old big metal shutters on storefronts meant to prevent theft. The side roads were run-down with homeless people sleeping against the shop shutters, while a few others had already begun shuffling around.
'I guess this world ain't much different from mine, but its better than being cooped up in that small room for years on end.'
I turned to face Brian driving, 'If it weren't for you I would have gone crazy staying with that woman and her numerous 'boyfriends'. But now I can actually ask someone, someone who knows about the reality of this world.'
'I guess atleast one good thing came out of my situation, a person I can use in this world.'
I turned to look at the time. It was 6:40am as I turned my attention back to different buildings padding by. I began to notice that the buildings only seemed become taller as we traveled.
"Where are we going Brian?"
"I want to show you a view, that you can't watch from your house."
After another stretch of awkward silence, Brian broke it, "So kid, who named you Arwin? Was it your mom? dad?"
I turned in surprise at the question.
'Oh you want to know? Well I named myself, Why? Because my supposed 'Mother' was not too interested in naming me, or forgot about the importance of naming your own child.'
'So I gave myself my previous name, so I could avoid confusion when someone asks for my name. And also so I wouldn't forget to pay attention when someone calls me by my name.'
'Not that I can tell Brian this!'
"Well... my mother gave me the name since I don't have a dad, so I think she named me when I could read and write. It's good name right?"
Brian looked at me with a strange expression, before nodding and replied.
"Its a good name for a handsome kid like you."
"What about you uncle, who named you?"
Brian seemed falter a bit, but replied with a sad smile.
"I didn't have my ma and pa. I grew up in an orphanage so I gave myself a name."
"Ohh! I am so sorry uncle.", my expression immediately turned apologetic.
'Oh shit. Of course he is an orphan. I just hope he doesn't stop coming to my house. Dude, you are the only guy who can take me out of that grey prison.'
"Arwin, why are you apologizing?", he barked out a small laugh.
"You didn't say anything wrong and you know, I believe they couldn't give me as good of name as Brian."
"Is your name special uncle?", I asked.
"Hm? yeah. You see, when I was young and handsome just like you, there used to be a show about a young boy called Brian who joins the military and becomes a national hero, defeating all the bad aliens and helping the good folks, saving our world despite being an orphan. I believed that I could do the same, be a hero." he scoffed at the end.
I nodded slowly only to ask innocently, "What do you then uncle? Are you a hero like the one in that show?"
"Oh—oh! I? I... um, I work with people in import and export but that you can ask later kiddo, we have reached the place." As Brian stopped infront of a tall building.
I had to bend my neck down just to try and look at the tall building with no end.
'Definitely a skyscraper.'
"Woah, thats so tall. Wait, how tall is this building?" I turned towards Brian asking with amazement.
With amusement in his voice, "Why don't we find out Arwin? Come on lets go."
I exited the car only to now see how tall the building actually was. 'Damn that must have more than 50 floors.'
"Come on kid, you are gong to freeze to death if you stand there gawking." he replied with a smirk.
I sprinted towards him to cover the distance with my small feets, "I was not gawking alright, I was just surprised... a bit."
"Yeah, yeah. Did you know this building is the place where many big companies host their events and meeting, and also have their own offices, so if you ever want to measure your success in life, getting here means you have reached it." his expression was serious before turning back to smiling again.
'Successful, huh?' I glanced at the skyscraper before following behind Brian. The moment I entered, warm air hit my face. Warming up my cold gloves and clothes as I exhaled a sigh of relief from the bitter cold that had been crawling up my skin.
Brian spoke with the young woman in the red dress at the counter before grabbing my hands as he took me to an elevator.
'Don't tell me he's secretly filthy rich and is playing poor just so he can experience the "simple life".'
Suddenly I was lifted off from my feet, as Brian carried me in his arms.
Surprised I asked, "Wait, what are you doing?"
"Well, you won't be able to see the view with your height."
I nodded with understanding but was internally I was fuming.
'Hah, can't even look at things I normally could. Guess this is just one of the many things on the long list of cons that come with being a kid.'
Ting
My attention was suddenly taken by the sound of the elevator, slowly opening.
"Arwin can you close your eyes. There is something I want to show you."
I obliged to Brian's request, putting hands on my own eyes to cover them.
Although I had covered my face only to hide the face that I was peeking here and there to watch where Brian was taking me, walking through the corridors with wooden doors on both side, Brian approached a steel door. Only to get hit with a wind even colder and much more freezing than before. As Brian had taken me to a balcony.
'Shit, the air here is even colder than from that playground.'
As Brian suddenly stopped, I quickly closed the gap between the fingers.
"Arwin." Brian calls out.
'Shit, he didn't see me peeking, right?'
"Arwin, you can open your eyes now."
I slowly removed my hands, only to be met with the dark sky, and all kinds of tall buildings with different architecture, shops had started to open up, large buildings with offices seemed to have their lights still on.
I looked around with genuine wonder, 'Damn, I thought I had seen all there was to the concrete jungle of cities, but this view takes that to a whole new level.'
I focused from building to building, comparing them. Some seemed to be just offices while other seemed to host luxurious shops even on higher floors. But that was not the most important part. There was a swarm of drones, not emitting any light. As they traveled in the airspace between buildings and they were not making any of their known 'buzzing' sound while flying.
I beheld the view for few moments more, taking in the breathtaking view as light itself seemed to bounce against the swarm of drones flying around, the sky was dark with few twinkling specks of light, unable to match the glamour of the city lights.
"I—I...thank you Brian. Its beautiful.", was all I could say.
Brian nodded with a smirk. Was it because I had called him Brian instead of uncle? I had got accustomed to the view that I glanced back at Brian gesturing him to put me down.
Only for him to respond with a serene smile.
"Be patient, Arwin."
I was confused, not that he could read my expression with the mask covering the lower half of my face.
"This city view is only half of what I want to show you."
I nodded at his response and went back to viewing the swarm of drones, with a few vehicle traveling the road. As I was then suddenly nudged by Brian towards another direction.
I turned—and froze.
The dark sky was slowly turning to a shade of indigo, as the dark sky started to brighten up, turning more and more to the shade of blue.
A speck of light emerged from the horizon, slowly climbing and becoming larger as its light spread across the sky, turning it to a beautiful shades of maroon.
It was a beautiful sunrise, my first ever sunrise ever since coming to this fantasy world.
"Happy birthday Arwin." Brian said with a smile.
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AN: The old ch was posted on 1/7/2025
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Ch Facts: Interesting fact about bilingual people is that learning two very different languages, such as English and Chinese can make the brain use some language processes differently especially when reading and writing. English and Chinese language share many of the same brain networks used for language. However their writing systems are very different, English uses letters that are connected to individual speech sounds, while Chinese uses complex characters that often require more attention to their overall visual structure and their connection to meaning and pronunciation.
One interesting example is Ben McMahon, an Australian who reportedly(take this with a grain of salt) became much more comfortable speaking Chinese after recovering from a serious car accident induced coma. According to him Chinese seemed to come to him automatically and he described thinking in Chinese rather than constantly translating from English first.
In simple terms, English reading relies heavily on connecting letters to sounds while Chinese reading relies on additional demands such as recognizing the complex visual structure of characters. But both languages still use many of the same major language networks in the brain.