Huang Zitao hates winter as much as he hates his own life.

It’s always hard during winter to find the necessities in order to live. Driven by thirst and hunger, he kept knocking on cars’ doors to ask for spare change in order to stay alive. Freezing, Zitao kept warm by putting his hands inside his coat – the only memory that was left of his parents. Ever since he was an infant, his life is full of abandonment and betrayal. His tragic story began when he was left by his parents on the doorstep of his uncle, wrapped by the very coat he was using now. His uncle, the only family left of him, tried to get rid of him many times and finally succeeded when he got his own family. “Zitao, come home later at 5pm. Your aunt and I are, well, going to go somewhere” These are the last words he ever heard of before he went savaging for food on the dumpster and depending on small craters of boxes for shelter.

He never felt so much lonely in life until he was found by the SAO. He was found when he was tinkering with a useless and out of date cellphone he found in the dumpster. A man wearing a black trench coat came up to him and said “We want to recruit young minds like yours to help in the development in the society”.

Zitao didn’t understand. He didn’t understand that in a situation like this, a man like him can say that thing so casually and professionally. The young Zitao just blinked at the man in daze.

Eventually, the man understood his cause and knelt beside him, “Listen kid, I’m just new and I’m not scaring you or anything. What I’m saying a while ago is, there’s a secret agency in the government who recruits kids like you, like me, who has minds that exceed the capacity of normal kids”

Zitao breathed in the words.

“See what you’re doing with that phone? That’s an evidence of an extraordinary mind. The SAO will take care of you like a family and will not let you die in this cold harsh weather. So are you up for it?”

Zitao never had to think twice about it.

He said yes.