Legend of the Golden Techniques

Section 1: The Man Brian Owed Everything To

Brian returned to the office with the thousand bucks. As he passed the boss’s office, he slowed down and glanced inside.

The boss sat behind his desk with his legs crossed, dressed in a crisp white shirt tucked into dark slacks, a leather belt around his waist and polished dress shoes on his feet. He looked sharp, composed, and undeniably good-looking.

Brian gave him a casual greeting.

“Hey, Colin. You doing alright?”

Colin didn’t even look up. He remained leaned back in his chair, his attention still on whatever was in front of him.

“Good. Thanks.”

That was it.

He didn’t sound rude or annoyed. Just distant, almost indifferent, as if nothing around him was important enough to hold his attention for long. There was a quiet authority in the way he carried himself now—a far cry from the Colin Brian remembered years ago.

Later that night, Brian dragged his tired body back home.

The moment he walked in, he pulled off his tank top and lazily tossed it toward the washing machine. It missed completely and landed in the trash can beside it.

Brian looked at it for a second.

Whatever.

He dropped onto the couch, folded his arms behind his head, and stretched out. One foot hung over the top of the cushion while the other rested flat. He wasn’t sleepy. He was just completely drained.

His eyes burned.

He had pushed the Golden Eyes too hard today. All that scanning, flickering, and pulsing golden light might have looked impressive to everyone else, but the Golden Techniques demanded far more than just his eyes. They burned through his mental energy, and prolonged use could leave his entire body drained.

Brian closed his eyes. Not to sleep—just to give his eyes and mind a break.

As the strain slowly began to fade, his body relaxed into the couch, and his thoughts started to wander.

Brian was making tens of thousands a month now, a high-ranking executive at a publicly traded company.

And much of it traced back to one person.

Colin.

He was the one who had given Brian a chance and helped him climb the ladder.

With his eyes closed, Brian drifted back to a time long before the suits and the Golden Techniques—when he and Colin were just two skinny kids in elementary school, chasing each other across the playground and laughing like idiots.

Those were simpler days.

Section 2: The Giant First Grader

Years ago, on that same elementary school playground, Colin and a bunch of kids were messing around after lunch when a giant of a boy walked onto the field.

He was nearly 160 centimeters tall, towering over every other kid around him.

And somehow, he was in first grade.

Supposedly.

Nobody knew if it was genetics, hormones, or just way too much steak at home. He looked more like a middle schooler who had wandered onto the wrong playground.

Brian couldn’t remember his name anymore. Not even a hint.

So for now, let’s just call him Dudu.

Short for douchebag.

Dudu walked straight over to Colin and started picking on him for no apparent reason. Maybe he was jealous of Colin’s handsomeness. Maybe it was something else. Who knew?

Whatever the reason, Colin wasn’t about to take it quietly.

He threw a few punches, but Dudu’s arms were simply too long. The giant kid kept him at a distance while Colin’s little fists swung through empty air, unable to reach him.

Not one punch landed.

Then Dudu lifted one leg and kicked Colin square in the chest.

Colin flew nearly three meters across the playground and slammed into the dirt.

A moment later, blood trickled from his mouth.

Without hesitation, Brian charged at Dudu and started swinging.

Unlike Colin, he actually managed to put up a fight. The two went back and forth for ten, maybe fifteen rounds, and for a first grader, Brian wasn’t bad.

But he ended up the same way—kicked through the air and sent crashing into the dirt beside Colin, bruised and battered, with blood running from his hands and knees.

Now Colin and Brian lay side by side in the dirt, bruised, bleeding, and completely outmatched.

But Dudu wasn’t finished. The giant started walking toward them, each heavy step seeming to make the ground tremble beneath him.

To the two battered kids lying there, he seemed unstoppable.

Dudu stopped in front of them and looked down at the two battered kids.

“You two weaklings are pathetic,” he sneered. “I could beat both of you into a pile of crap with one hand.”

Coincidentally, a few meters behind him sat an actual pile of dog shit.

A big one.

Fresh, warm, and steaming under the afternoon sun, with flies buzzing happily around it.

Colin slowly pushed himself back to his feet.

Behind him, Brian struggled to rise.

“Colin, go!” Brian shouted through the pain. “Just go! Don’t worry about me. I’ll hold him off! And if I die… promise me you’ll always remember your good friend Brian!”

But Colin didn’t move.

They were cornered. If he ran, Brian would take the beating alone. If he stayed, they might both get beaten to death right here in the middle of a peaceful elementary school playground.

He had to think of something. Fast.

Section 3: The First Golden Speech

Colin gathered every bit of mental power he had and focused.

Inside his mind, neurons began firing one after another, flashes of light connecting like stars across a vast universe. His thoughts raced faster and faster, pushing against the very limits of the human mind.

Then something awakened.

Colin looked up at Dudu, and the corner of his mouth slowly curled into a confident smirk.

Colin stared straight at Dudu, his mind focused like a laser on the words he was about to say.

“If you like shit so much… why don’t you go eat that one over there?”

The moment the words left his mouth, they transformed into glowing golden letters, visible in the air. They streaked across the playground and shot straight into Dudu’s body.

Dudu froze for a second, then slowly turned his head toward the steaming pile of dog shit a few meters away. Without saying a word, he turned around and walked straight toward it.

The moment he did, Colin dropped to one knee.

He looked completely drained, as if his brain had been grinding through LeetCode problems for days without sleep. Sweat ran down his face as he struggled to catch his breath.

Still, he turned toward Brian and slowly raised a thumb.

“We won,” he said weakly. “It’s over.”

The golden letters had already entered Dudu’s body, racing through his nervous system like coded instructions until they reached his brain.

His brain cells tried to resist. They really did.

Unfortunately, Dudu wasn’t exactly the sharpest kid in class. His mental firewall didn’t stand much of a chance. Within seconds, Colin’s words slipped through and rewrote his logic from the inside.

The idea no longer sounded ridiculous. To Dudu, eating that pile of dog shit now made perfect sense.

Installation complete.

Back in the real world, Dudu had already stopped in front of the pile. He lowered himself into a squat and slowly reached toward it with both hands.

Dudu scooped up the pile and held it in front of him like something precious. He brought it beneath his nose and took a long, deep sniff.

“Mm…”

His face lit up with satisfaction.

Then, grinning from ear to ear, Dudu raised it toward his mouth like a fresh burger straight off the grill and took a huge bite.

“OH YEAH!” he shouted through a mouthful. “SO GOOD!”

As he chewed, the rewritten memories came with it.

In Dudu’s mind, he was a little boy again, sitting in his grandmother’s kitchen. She smiled warmly as she lifted the lid from a steaming pot, revealing a fresh, fragrant pile of shit—his favorite childhood meal.

The smell. The taste. The warmth.

It all felt completely real.

Back on the playground, Dudu hugged the pile against his chest like a dear old friend he hadn’t seen in years.

Then he kept eating, happily savoring every bite.

The playground exploded into chaos.

Dozens of kids screamed and scattered in every direction. Some ran. Some froze in horror. A few threw up. Teachers came rushing across the field, shouting and demanding to know what was happening.

It took three adults to wrestle Dudu to the ground and pry what remained from his hands. But Dudu fought like a wild animal, desperately reaching for his beloved meal as they dragged it away.

“I’m not done! I’m not done yet! Let go of me!”

One teacher fainted.

Within minutes, an ambulance and a psychiatric van were pulling up outside the school as sirens howled through the neighborhood. Over the loudspeaker, every student was ordered back to class and told not to look out the windows.

Section 4: Golden Eyes

At the edge of the field, away from all the screaming and sirens, Colin slowly got back to his feet.

He looked over at Brian and smiled—a soft, innocent smile, almost angelic, as if he had absolutely nothing to do with the disaster unfolding behind him.

Colin walked over and held out his hand.

Brian looked up at him, still bruised and aching, then reached out and took it. Colin pulled him to his feet and slipped one of Brian’s arms over his shoulder for support.

As the two boys slowly made their way back toward the classroom, Brian was still completely confused about what he had just witnessed. Colin explained what had happened—how, in that desperate moment, he had awakened a strange ability that allowed his spoken words to alter another person’s mind.

He called it Golden Speech.

By the time they reached the classroom, Brian finally understood why Dudu had suddenly decided that eating a pile of dog shit was the most reasonable thing in the world.

Back in class, the bell rang as if nothing had happened.

Colin sat in front of Brian. After a moment, he turned around and studied his friend carefully, his eyes moving up and down as if he were evaluating something important.

“Brian, your eyes are really big,” he said. “And you’re pretty handsome too. Almost as handsome as me. Just a little less.”

Brian stared at him, unsure where this was going.

“And you’re smart. Really smart. High IQ.” Colin nodded thoughtfully. “I think you could learn a Golden Technique too.”

Brian’s eyes widened.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Golden Eyes.” Colin pointed at his eyes. “I think that one suits you.”

Brian lit up and shot out of his seat.

“Oh yeah, baby!”

Before anyone could react, he climbed onto his chair, threw both arms high above his head, and proudly announced to the entire classroom:

“I’m going to learn Golden Eyes! I’m going to have my own Golden Technique!”

The whole class turned to stare at him.

At the blackboard, the teacher spun around, still holding a piece of chalk. She pointed it straight at Brian.

“Hey! Get down from that chair and sit properly! What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

And that was where Brian’s memory ended.

Section 5: The Legend of the Golden Techniques

After that day, Dudu was never seen at school again.

Some kids said his family had moved away. Others claimed he had been locked up in a psychiatric hospital. A few even swore he had somehow gotten AIDS and died.

Nobody really knew what happened to him, and before long, everyone stopped asking.

The years passed.

Brian never forgot what Colin had told him that day. He practiced, trained, and pushed himself constantly, determined to awaken the Golden Eyes.

But nothing happened.

Elementary school passed. Then middle school. Still nothing.

Colin, meanwhile, went in the opposite direction.

Golden Speech had only been the beginning.

Over the years, he continued developing one Golden Technique after another, each stranger and more powerful than the last.

Golden Eyes. Golden Tongue. Golden Bow.

Even Golden Dick.

Yes. Golden Dick. You heard that right.

As the years passed, Colin grew stronger while the two childhood friends gradually drifted apart.

Colin eventually founded Humble Inc., which later grew into the publicly traded Humble Organization.

Years later, he brought Brian into the company. Their friendship opened the door, but Brian earned his place, eventually rising to become one of its highest-ranking executives.

Brian slowly opened his eyes, his mind returning to the present. He stayed on the couch for another moment until his stomach finally reminded him that he hadn’t eaten.

“Hmm… instant noodles or McDonald’s?”

He considered it for a few seconds, then pushed himself up.

“Fuck it. McDonald’s.”

And with that, he headed for the door.

Section 6: Dudu

A few minutes later, Brian was walking down the street toward McDonald’s when he suddenly realized he had forgotten something.

His shirt.

He looked down at his bare chest.

Whatever.

Years at the gym had paid off. He was lean, muscular, and in damn good shape, so he kept walking like nothing was wrong.

A few women turned their heads as he passed. One did a double take and nearly walked straight into a parking meter.

Brian noticed.

He smiled to himself and kept walking.

As Brian continued down the street, a very short man passed him in the opposite direction. He was barely 160 centimeters tall—if that.

Brian slowed down.

Something about the man looked strangely familiar.

He glanced back, stared for another second, and then it hit him.

Dudu.

Brian could hardly believe it. The giant who had terrorized the playground all those years ago was now shorter than almost every grown man around him.

Apparently, Dudu had simply hit puberty early.

Then he stopped growing.

Before Brian could call out to him, Dudu slipped into a nearby alley and disappeared from sight.

A moment later, the sounds of a beating came from inside—heavy thuds, fists and kicks landing on flesh, followed by a familiar voice crying out in pain.

“Please! Don’t hit me! I’ll give you everything I have! I swear! Just don’t hit me anymore!”

Brian immediately recognized the voice.

Dudu.

He stared toward the alley for a moment, then walked over to see what was going on.