Jack Carlos, born in 2049, of Western Hemisphere descent, with ancestral roots near what was once Central America, in Nest City No. 4.

The Carlos Family, where he belongs, migrated to Nest City No. 3 in Asia at the beginning of the century, forming a rather large clan.

However, calling it a family is merely a pleasant facade.

In essence, or rather in its previous incarnation, the Carlos Clan was actually a "Cartel" group, that is a large criminal gang engaged in the trafficking and smuggling of contraband substances.

In the fifties or sixties, the Carlos Clan was among the most dazzling gangs in Nest City No. 3.

They were vast in number, had many branches, and even connected with middle-managers of a giant enterprise, thriving for a time.

In Jack's memory, his childhood was always carefree and without worries.

Though the stronghold of the Carlos was also in the slums, family members like Jack could live in villas and estates, enjoy the service of robots and human servants, and squander precious grains and fresh natural fruits... while most commoners had to live in shanties, eating cheap industrially-produced food.

In those times, Jack couldn't feel any trouble.

For him, the hardest moments in a year might have been when adults in the family forced him to hold a gun... to execute those "traitors" and "moles."

However, this wasn't really a difficult task.

After all, the family's method of raising children was quite simple and crude: giving them the best material life while indoctrinating them with the idea that "the clan is above all else; betrayers are unforgivable," making them love the family group fanatically and hate outsiders to the core.

Under such circumstances, killing a traitor was just a matter of closing your eyes... then pulling the trigger, just like that, nothing too hard to do...

However, the days without worries didn't last forever.

I mentioned earlier that the rise of the Carlos Clan was due to their business in contraband and their connection to management in a giant enterprise, which allowed them to develop smoothly.

The saying goes "it's comfortable under the big tree's shade," in Nest City, having backing was naturally good, but likewise, if your backing fell, the ants enjoying the shade would naturally be implicated.

The Carlos Clan found itself in such a situation.

In 2061, the giant enterprise [Heart's Desire Cola Group] encountered a scandal, being found to add excessive contraband substances into its flagship product "Heart's Desire Cola," excessive intake of which led to neurological damage, dependency, and severe addiction.

Originally, adding some ingredients to beverages and foods wasn't particularly unusual.

Most giant enterprises have done this to some extent, though not openly.

The reason this time Heart's Desire Cola got exposed wasn't because its product caused tens of thousands of deaths, making a boom for Nest City No. 3's rehab centers... but because they added too much, snatching a large share of the market, which was unacceptable to other giant enterprises, leading them to expose it together.

Once the incident emerged, the public opinion became uncontrollable.

To calm the public's anger... and more importantly, to give an explanation to their peer companies, Heart's Desire Cola Group had to fire many middle-managers, dismantle several production lines and voluntarily form patrol teams to crack down on "Cartel Groups" selling contraband raw materials...

The Carlos Clan, and their backing, naturally became the target of this crackdown.

Even though the giant enterprises usually have punishments that are "all thunder and no rain," just the thunder is enough to deeply bury a small family.

Many of the lower-tier criminal gangs were eradicated in this wave of crackdowns.

The Carlos Clan, having a large industry, barely survived... but it also fell into a predicament of halved assets and powerful enemies around.

Originally, their family was fairly dignified, even though they engaged in dark industries, their overall conduct had some semblance to the "Corleone Godfather" family in old films, acting with bottom lines like rarely killing children, avoiding unnecessary destruction, maintaining order as much as possible, striving for dignity.

But now, the situation no longer allowed for dignity.

To survive, the Carlos Clan had to engage in businesses it once looked down upon, such as selling loose contraband drugs to commoners, engaging in prostitution, and human trafficking...

Although there's no distinction of high and low in crime, doing so undoubtedly meant abandoning their former facade, exposing their most vicious and darkest side.

The lies Jack faced were also utterly shattered during an execution activity.

In 2063, Jack was 14 years old.

To be honest, this year didn't go well for him.

His mother passed away early, his father was still lost in a drunken daze, often ending up jailed briefly, and though the family barely regained stability, they also had to abandon appearances, engaging in dirty deeds... even involving these underaged kids in watching them.

The only joy was the birth of his sister, Soya Carlos.

Soya was an illegitimate child, born to Jack's father and a bar companion girl in a drunken stupor, who died of illness after birthing Soya.

According to the Carlos Family tradition, illegitimate children have no status or inheritance rights, not even deserving to return to the family for recognition.

Soya's mother, that bar companion girl, although low in status, wasn't bad, wishing on her deathbed for her daughter to escape a bottom-tier fate, thus entrusted people to send the girl to the Carlos Family doorstep.

Yet, even so, the family didn't accept this illegitimate child.

Some old stiffs even wanted to bury Soya alive to avoid her being used by rival gangs.

Jack's father, that dejected alcoholic, though he yelled for people to stop, as a drunkard, he didn't have the position to stop the old stiffs.

In the end, 14-year-old Jack stood up, saving his half-sister at the cost of giving up all his family shares.

Logically, a legitimate heir should hate illegitimate children... after all, an illegitimate child is solid proof of their father's infidelity, and they often bring considerable trouble to legitimate heirs.

Yet somehow, Jack didn't hate Soya... On the contrary, he liked that red-haired, green-eyed little girl very much, especially when the little girl reached out her hand, giggling at him, he felt as though this monotonous life suddenly gained some new colors.

So, he adopted Soya.

Similarly, on this same night, a person bound tightly, head covered with a black plastic bag, all limbs broken, was brought before Jack.

The Patriarch said that this person was an unforgivable traitor who betrayed in action, causing the death of many brothers, thus must be executed publicly.

And the executioner was Jack, who had just settled Soya.

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