Chapter 1: The Boy Who Dared to Dream
The slums of Denshima weren't made for dreamers.
The rooftops leaked. The roads cracked. The people? Most of them were cracked too — beaten down by life, broken by the city.
But even in the dirt, even in the gutters… some seeds still sprouted.
Urime Atsumi was one of them.
At fourteen, he was already taller than most of the street kids. Skin and bones. Sharp eyes that saw too much. A stubborn jaw that got him in trouble more than once.
He sat on a broken crate outside his family's apartment — if you could call a leaking box of bricks an apartment — flipping an old, rusted coin between his fingers.
"One day…" he whispered to himself. "I'll buy the whole damn city."
The older boys laughed when they heard him. The addicts sneered. Even his own father, drunk and bitter, told him:
> "Dreams? They'll get you killed, boy. Stick to reality."
But Urime never listened.
He polished shoes until his fingers blistered. He ran ramen deliveries through the dangerous alleys. He cleaned the floors of shops that spat on his name.
Day. Night. Repeat.
And when the streets went quiet, when the city's sirens finally fell silent, Urime would sit by the candlelight, reading the only book that ever made sense to him:
"Money Talks: The Hustler's Guide."
He studied the rich like a hunter studies prey.
While other kids played, Urime was planning. Plotting.
And as the days turned to months, as his work turned to small wins, one truth grew inside him like fire:
"I wasn't made to survive the slums… I was made to escape them."
But destiny?
It has a sick sense of humor.
And before Urime would rise… he had to fall.
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To Be Continued…