Fate Online: Shadow

"Oh my, you've really grown to be a handsome man from the few months that we haven't seen each other"

"Yesh Miss"

An old black haired woman is currently standing in front of him and pinching both of his cheeks which made the other volunteers and the kids laugh at his silly expression.

Michael is also feeling bitter inside, because he had almost forgotten about the quirks of this old lady!

While Michael and the old lady is busy catching up with each other, Tina is busy playing with the little kids while Dylan went over to the kitchen and started helping them prepare for lunch.

"Come" the old director called Melissa, pulled Michael's hand and brought him to a nearby sofa where they both sat together.

"Tell me, how have you been lately?"

"I think I'm doing great, I recently started playing a game called Fate Online"

"Fate Online!? You're playing Fate Online!?"

Suddenly, a cute chubby little boy around eight years old suddenly yelled in excitement from behind him, Michael looked back and smiled, as he knew that this kid is a big fan of virtual games.

"Wahh! Awesome!" the kid exclaimed, and looked at Michael with shining eyes as he slowly sat down on the floor and kept looking at him.

Michael gave a helpless look at the director, and started narrating his adventures inside the game, which the kid listened carefully, and would nod his head from time to time.

And other kids also started joining them, and started listening to Michael, all of them had looks of fascination in their faces as they imagined that they were the ones fighting the monsters inside the game instead of Michael.

The old director and some of the volunteers were also intrigued alongside Tina as they also listened to Micheal telling his stories and experience playing Fate Online, but of course, he told a fake in game name, and the only people who knew about his name in the game is the two siblings, Dylan and Athena.

"Then I met a pack of large wolves that wanted to eat me but I…"

Michael felt that he's really a great story teller when he saw how attentive his audience is, and he even had an impulse thought that he should become a writer or author, instead of playing a virtual game.

Half an hour later, Michael was finally done with his story, of course, some of them got a little bit...exaggerated.

"Can you we also play the game? I want to become a great warrior too!" the kids yelled in excitement..and yes, Michael told them that he was a warrior instead of an assassin.

After all, kids would certainly love to become brave heroes, instead of being a person that lives in the shadows of darkness.

"Mister, can you bring me out to play the game?" the chubby little kid earlier, called Anton, tugged on one of Michael's arms while blinking cutely.

"Me too!""Me too!""Me too!"

When they heard Anton, the other younger kids started surrounding Michael while those older kids just watch on, and some of the older girls even rolled their eyes towards the scene in front of them.

Michael didn't know what to do with the kids as the old director just watched on with a huge smile on her face, and he had just realized that the orphanage that only had seven kids before, now have a total of fifteen of them, and with most of them around seven to nine years old, and the oldest being only fourteen years old.

"Alright, alright. I'll see what I can do, okay?" Michael raised his hands helplessly in the air.

"Yeey~!" The kids started celebrating and started running around the place when they heard Michael.

"Alright, don't bother him anymore. Go out and play with yourselves" the old directly said while clapping her hands.

""Yes!""

The kids immediately scattered, some of them went outside to play while the other stayed indoors, and those older kids then went around the house and started looking for things to do.

"Don't take their words seriously, okay? They're just kids, I'm sure they will forget it the next day" the old director said to Michael, knowing how expensive the virtual helmets are.

Michael just smiled at her comment, because Michael knows that kids never forgets, they just forgive and act like they don't remember it.

Actually, it wasn't a problem for Michael to do it, and he could also ask Jenny about donating to the orphanage as she still owes him, but the only problem for the kids is that they would need to be supervised by adults, and can't get out of the city where they would spawn.

Yes, the game has a special place where kids between eight years old to twelve can play the game, but the catch is that they are restricted from going out, and would need an adult's supervision.

Michael, and probably everyone knows about it as its been all over the news lately, and if it doesn't work with Jenny, then he could just ask those old coots back at the mansion to sponsor the orphanage.

After all, with how many missions they have completed so far, they are as rich as those multi millionaires, they're just not as extravagant as them.

You could say that those Five Blade rankers could earn up to five to ten million every year, and that increases per every promotion, because the higher they are in rank, the more people would ask for their services.

After all, there are at least over a hundred requests everyday that's being sent to the organization, which varies from assassinations to being bodyguards of influential people, and payments differ based on their ranks.

And Michael back then would only take requests with a payment of over one hundred million dollars, and anything below that is unacceptable.

He experienced a lot, from being a presidential bodyguard, to assassinating one, and even being a bodyguard to an annoying princess brat, he had already experienced all kinds of difficulties on every job, and he even annihilated a group of powerful rebels back in the Land of Sands before, and in that place, there's five countries or kingdoms founded on that vast desert, but it's more known as the Land of Sands or the Sharahan Desert.

After that, Michael and the others started talking with each other about various things, but most of them talked about Michael as he was only one of the few who had lived here before that would visit the orphanage from time to time, while the others who grew up with Michael when they were kids seem to have forgotten where they have come from as they never visit anymore, which made the old director really sad about it, but at least she is really happy about Michael as he still hasn't forgotten about them.

In actuality, Michael is only familiar with the old director and Jessica who was a former nun, because those people who took care of him and the others when they were still children already have a life of their own.

Michael had even already forgotten their names and faces due to how long they haven't seen each other.

Michael then started helping around, as he took a bowl of chopped meats and went outside with some kids following behind him.

He started grilling the meat on the grill, as the scent of barbecued meat wafted through the air which made the stomach of the kids grumble in hunger.

*****

Michael and the others had a great time at the orphanage, they ate, laughed and shared stories with each other, and being surrounded by cute kids made Athena laughed happily

They spent the entire morning at the orphanage before they finally decided to head back.

"Mister, please don't forget your promise! We will be waiting for it!".

"Bye misters and sis Athena!"

"Bye!" Athena laughed as she gave the little kids a kiss on their cheeks before boarding the car.

"We'll get going now director"

"Yes, make sure to visit anytime"

Then Michael started the car, and finally left for the road while the kids wave them goodbye with faces filled with anticipation.

He dropped Dyland and Tina at their house before making his way over towards the direction of the mansion where the others are, Michael is really satisfied with their progress, as all of them are already around Level 9 -10 in just a few days of levelling up, and all of them went with their codename as their in game names, which would certainly make people who had worked with them think if it was them or not, or it was just a coincidence.

Arriving at the mansion.

Swoosh~!

Michael had just opened the front door, and was just about to step inside when something suddenly came flying towards his head, and Michael's left hand immediately flashed in front of his face and caught the thing in between his fingers.

He narrowed his eyes and looked at the long nail in between his fingers, and then he quickly threw it back to where it came from!

Swoosh!

Genesis, who was on the second floor balcony immediately caught and looked at Michael with a huge grin on his face, and Viper who is standing behind him was amazed, as he knew that not anyone could just catch it when thrown by Genesis.

After all, Genesis' weapons throws are almost as fast as an arrow flying towards its target, but dodging it is easy for Viper, but catching it?

He would be putting his life at risk if he does something as stupid as that!

And among them, probably old Monk is the only one capable of catching it, and now, there's also a second one, and that's Michael.

"You're good kid" Genesis said, with an approving look on his face.

"Hmmp!"

Michael just snorted at the old guy, before making his way over them.