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Potter CityOn a somewhat crowded street in a hot summer's afternoon, a young man in his late teens could be seen pedaling a bike as quickly as his legs would allow him.Looking at this young man, his body was already entirely drenched in sweat, and his attractive face, which was also completely covered in sweat beads was etched with fatigue.But despite this, the young man appeared unconcerned as the hastiness in his eyes was much more intense.He continued to cycle the bike hysterically as if his life depended on it, dodging both objects and creatures.The young man's eyes finally shone with intense light after a prolonged period of unceasing cycling, as if he had suddenly seen light at the end of a totally dark tunnel.The young man immediately increased his pedaling speed and applied more energy to his legs when he abruptly heard the unexpectedly loud vroom of an approaching car.The young man's delight first gave way to a bewildered and perplexed expression since he was fully aware that he wasn't riding his bike in the car's lane.He quickly controlled and steered his bike away just as the red sports car driving as if the owner has a spare life somewhere else was about to crash into him. But unfortunately for him, the moment he turned away, the red sporting vehicle collided with his back wheel, sending him, his bike, and everything on it flying away into the distance before finally crashing down with loud scattering sounds."What the hell! Bastard, are you blind? Didn't you see my approach?" A ferocious roar exited as the car came to an abrupt stop with a loud screech, leaving behind black markings on the interlocked road.Upon hearing the ferocious roar that erupted, the unfortunate orphan Alex Johnson, who was on his way to deliver pizza to a customer, groaned in excruciating pain.After much struggle, he managed to pull himself up onto his knees from the flat-faced posture into which he had fallen. After this, a great expression of uncertainty suddenly formed on his pale, inflamed face. "Was I the one at fault?"Although he was currently in so much agony that he had to lock his teeth together to stop himself from yelling and sobbing, he was still able to look around to see whether he was to be blamed for this, which he wasn't.After a little while, he moaned in misery and looked around the crowd of people that had begun to assemble and currently staring at him with sorrowful emotions on their faces. Yet, from the way they were standing, it was clear that they had no desire to become involved. Well... Alex Johnson doesn’t have the time or space to be bothered about this.Just as he was about to start looking around for the pizza he was going to deliver to the customer, a bone-biting ache ran through his entire body, notably in his elbows.With this, he raised them. But he quickly wrinkled his brows in response to what he saw.Right now, the flesh on his elbows had fully been peeled off and was oozing thick, crimson-red blood.Upon seeing this, Alex's thoughts temporarily went blank. He then began to try to grasp how things had come to this when he heard a voice that sent a cold and vengeful fear down his spine from his back“Are you blind or what, I ask you?”Alex Johnson instantly became startled, then he quickly swirled around.However, a wry expression formed on his face when he saw the speaker, a young man who likewise didn't appear to be 20 yet, but who had a bully look on his face and was wearing brightly colored pants and shirts.‘Great! I just have to encounter this bastard at a moment like this!’ He sighed mockingly in his mind despite the bone-rupturing pain he was going through.As for the speaker, Cliff Sotto, he was one of Alex Johnson's worst bullies. The instant he also saw Alex Johnson's face his initial rage quickly vanished, and for a brief moment, a look of bewilderment was in its place. This was followed by a look of great scorn, disgust, and eventually ridicule.“Look who we’ve got here, the school's slave,” he suddenly laughed brilliantly, but Alex Johnson dared not utter a voice despite the agony he was feeling.He intended to stay in this position until Cliff Sotto have enough pleasure and then leave him alone, but what Cliff Sotto said afterward voided this decision.“Now that you’ve caused a dent in my car, how're you going to pay now?”Immediately he heard this, Alex’s face became filled with nervousness and fear, then he stuttered. “But… but… but you… you're clear… clearly the one who drove on the wrong lane, why… why would I still pay for the damage caused?”The moment he stuttered this, the crowd who were initially giving him pitiful gazes gasped, then their eyes widen and they began to mutter behind their breaths in shock.“He… he actually dares to blame Cliff Sotto?”“Wow! What great courage he has there!’“Is he tired of living a good life?”They continued gasping and gaping with shock, amazement, ridicule, contempt, and all sort of emotions in their voices.As for Cliff Sotto, a cold look that could petrify someone to death already covered his mockery-filled face, while the scared expression on Alex Johnson's face directly intensified.He already understood that he had messed up right now since he has played right into Cliff Sotto's hands in the end.Just as he was going to say something in self-defense, he saw Cliff Sotto's arm tightening up and lifting in an offensive stance.Alex Johnson immediately squinted and shut his eyes firmly. But just as he felt the fist's air on his face—clearly a warning that it was about to strike him, perhaps mutilating his face and breaking his teeth, a cool, melodic voice that seemed to be like that of an angel entered Alex's ears.“What's going on here?”As soon as the voice was heard, Cliff Sotto's arms came to an abrupt stop and quickly grew weak, then he patted Alex Johnson's shoulder with a phony concern.“You okay, right?”He uttered while clenching his teeth unhappily.***** The speaker was an extraordinarily beautiful lady who has a killer body but a cold countenance. As if she was a goddess, she trotted to the place, then it instantly became completely quiet and everybody turned their gazes filled with bright light and enviousness at her, but as if the beautiful lady wasn't aware, she ignored them all. Her eyes abruptly furrowed slightly before reverting to the initial coldness in them. “What's going on here?” She asked again, then Cliff Sotto hurriedly swirled around. “Class President, what are you doing here?” A bright flattery smile appeared on his face as he gazed at the beautiful lady before him, but what he got in response was an unchanging emotionless gaze. “I ask you, what’s going on here?” The smile on Cliff Sotto's face Immediately disappeared before his face became pitiful, then he pointed with a helpless countenance at Alex Johnson. “It was him. I don’t know what was going on with him that made him have suicidal thoughts. Coul
***** Inside a huge dormitory room that was well furnished and doesn’t resemble that of students, five boys could be seen currently seated in a circular position on the floor, playing cards.One of them was displaying unreserved excitement on his face, while the other two were showing signs of nervousness. he As for the remaining two, they wore expressions of unhappiness on their faces.“Fuck you, just one more minute and I would win!”The boy with an unhidden excitement on his face exclaimed loudly as he enthusiastically played a card.“Fuck you too, you bastard. Anything can happen before then, so don’t you dare raise your hope too high or you'd end up weeping!”One of the boys with nervousness on their face spat angrily before also playing his card, making the boy that first spoke giggle without any sign of being offended by the foul language used.“Who’s still minding this cheater? I should have known you were up to a shady business when you suggested this game all in t
***** “YOU BASTARD AND USELESS PIECE OF TRASH, DON’T YOU DARE TELL ME NONSENSE. PACK ALL YOUR THINGS NOW AND LEAVE, YOU ARE FIRED!”At this moment, the filthy-looking and overtly wounded-stricken Alex Johnson could be seen standing with his head bowed while shivering. And before him was an out-of-the-world furiously middle-aged man whose eyes were currently crimson red as he sent his spits flying across the place. This middle-aged man was Alex Johnson's boss at the pizza shop who had never once treated Alex Johnson nicely since he’s been working for him.As if Alex Johnson had offended him somewhere before, he had hated him to the bone since his first day at work.He always gave Alex Johnson a lot of tasks above his pay, but no matter how great Alex Johnson behaves and no matter what he does right, he was always scolded by him and even punished a lot of times by having his Salary deducted.Poor Alex Johnson.This was why he had become utterly petrified when he realized his
***** Although Alex was physically and emotionally broken to the extent that he could barely stand up straight, he knew he mustn’t be lazy, not yet, not even if he was only left with just a thread of life.So, upon leaving his former workplace, Alex instantly rushed to his and his grandmother's house which was located in a slum area.On his way there, it was as if he was a jinx or something nobody wants to get close to. Everybody he passes by would Immediately cover their mouths and run away from him as far as they could, but Alex simply wasn’t bothered by this.He doesn’t even have the time to notice them.Rushing back home, he took a cold water bath to wash away all the dried blood and dirt on him despite the extremely biting pain killing him.When he was done, he hurriedly treated himself with the expired first-aid kits in a corner at home.Just as he was done and deliberating on where to go work next, Alex received a call from one of his customers, and although his f
***** Presently, Alex Johnson could be seen gazing at his front with a dumbfounded expression on his face.Looking at him now, it was as if he was witnessing the most unbelievable and unexpected thing in his life.That’s right.After leaving the Café, he started searching about worriedly, but no matter how much he searched for her, she was nowhere to be found.He went to her hostel and was given cold shoulders and treated like a beggar by her friends before he was contemptuously chased away.Just when he was about to become overwhelmed with extreme nervousness, he found her, but never in his entire life had he imagined what he saw her doing.Growing up, because Alex Johnson was almost the twin brother of poverty, he has no friends apart from one.Although her family wasn’t as poor as his, they had clicked perfectly well right from toddler, and they became best friends who couldn’t do without each other for just a single day.They even promised to marry each other once
**** Standing before Alex Johnson right now was a disheveled and vagrant elderly man who was clad in a raggedy brown garment whose initial color should have been pure white, and his grey hair was filled with bits of flower seeds and small twigs from trees and the woods.It was as if the old man just came out of a jungle.Seeing this elderly man, Alex suddenly looked stomped for a while, then a bright and foolish grin appeared on his face as if the old man was his long lost friend, completely forgetting his troubles for a second, then suddenly, he sighed pitifully with a nostalgic expression on his face.Before two years ago, when their circumstances hadn’t gotten this worst, Alex and his grandmother were always able to eat their fill every day despite their struggles. However, ever since he knew this old man which was ten years prior, he was always homeless and extremely impoverished.Because of how pitiful he felt the old man's life to be, Alex always made sure to sneak f
***** “Old man, I need to go urgently,” Returning to his senses, Alex hurriedly uttered before turning around.As he prepared to hastily hobble away, an object unexpectedly landed in his hand, specifically wrapping one of his fingers. Because of his extreme nervousness which caused him to be unaware of what had occurred, he instinctively clenched his hand around the object.Although all that happened, he has no idea at all, so he continued scurrying away as if someone was chasing him.Without realizing it, the hand with which he grasped the object was the one he had previously used to wipe away blood from his nose. As he does so, a faint bluish light suddenly appears, intensifying and piercing through his skin before vanishing entirely.The old man who saw all this watched Alex's back with a thoughtful expression on his face for a while until Alex disappeared, then suddenly, a bright smile appeared on his aged face.“I knew it! I’m so smart!”He chuckled happily to himself
***** The moment Alex reached the hospital, he raced once again like he was being chased by a hungry lion, startling everybody he met on the way.With a loud bang, he entered the public ward where his grandmother had been admitted for over a year now, then to the bed she has been using.But the moment he got there, his eyes widen and his body trembled slightly because the person on the bed was unknown to him, and he knew that there were only three possibilities for that, one, his grandmother has been discharged, two, she was moved to another place, and three, she was gone.Knowing well that nothing could be done without his consent, he automatically cleared the first two possibilities, then his breathing abruptly quickened and his legs began to tremble.He suddenly gazed at the faces of the people within the ward, but most of them were unknown to him and were presently staring curiously at his face.Just as he was having a high hope, thinking he had entered the wrong ward,