The next morning.Gabe woke up to the shouting of a certain man named Lorry. It was one of the guys he took 1000 dollars from. With six-year interest, it became 3000 dollars now.“You said you’d win the marathon and pay me everything at once,” Lorry howled. “So why didn’t you contact me after the marathon had finished? Oh, wait, it’s because you didn’t fucking win. Forget about the first place, you didn’t even get in the top ten.”“I finished the race, Lorry,” Gabe tried to calm him down. “I got a blender.”“What the fuck will I do with that 50-dollar blender, huh?” Lorry fumed. “The only reason I gave you money was because you babysit my kid for a year. Now, I don’t have my kid with me because my wife took him and I’m paying for him and her, and I need as much money as you can give me. So, please give me something.” He started pleading. “Give me something. Anything.”“I wish I could, but I don’t have a single dollar on me,”Gabe pitifully said.“What about the blender? At least give m
“You want me to pay the license and registration fees for publishing my designs, right?” Mia was talking with Kiera. “Alright, I’ll pay.”“If everything goes well, we’ll conduct a fashion show with your designs next week,” Kiera said excitedly. “You should prepare yourself to appear on television, and tell your family members to watch the show as well.”Mia’s heart started beating faster. “O-Okay.”The call ended.“I will appear on television?” Mia smiled with moderate happiness. “I wish Mom and Dad were alive to see this.”Meanwhile, Gabe was coming home, but he needed to buy an injection. He didn’t have the money for that, so he was wondering who he should borrow some money from.He went to Monroe’s grocery store and asked Monroe for ten dollars, but Monroe didn’t give him anything. He shook his head saying, “Sorry, I can’t. You should find yourself a solid job, Bro.”“Ah, yes. I will,” Gabe said and was leaving.Just then, a young man was passing by, and he suddenly turned toward t
The next morning.Nicole slowly opened her eyes and realized that she was sleeping with her chest facing the bed, which confused her for a second because she didn’t sleep in that position for years because it would put too much stress on her chest and heart. And yet, she found herself waking up in that position, with her cheek happily pressing into the pillow.Her body felt stiff, and she wasn’t able to properly open and close her fists. Her bones weren’t willing to listen to her command.It took her a few seconds of time, but she managed to turn around with effort and then eventually sat up. Her whole body was aching. Her spine especially felt sore. Her hands weren’t freely opening or closing.“There’s so much heat in my body, but…” she turned her body and put her feet on the floor. Shock was surfacing up into her face, as she was beginning to realize just how much her body had changed overnight. And she was able to get up from the bed and stand up on her feet all by herself, she cov
A week later. Gabe came to Skin Street, which was known for selling all kinds of skin-related products from facial creams and belts to leather mats and raw skin itself. The street was a lively place, and there were many fashion models roaming the street because the Fashion Street was next to this street. “Are you sure it’s in this place?” Gabe asked. [Trust my memories. I’ve come to this place with one of my previous hosts.] “Why do you call us hosts?” Gabe queried. “That sounds a bit creepy. Can’t you just call me master or owner or something?” [When you become a master alpha, I’ll call you that.] “Fair enough.” [We’re here. Take left.] “Left?” Gabe entered a skinning shop, where birds and deer were being skinned right before his eyes. “They have deer, too? Is this legal?” [Nope. Don’t talk too much, or they’ll pick a fight with you.] The men working in the shop were already giving weird looks to him, as if they were holding themselves back from attacking him. Gabe stopped
The Metal Scratcher came at Gabe like a wolf pouncing on a rabbit. But this rabbit was no ordinary rabbit. It had reflexes unlike any other rabbit and made it difficult for the wolf to just touch a tiny bit of its fur. The wolf lost its patience pretty fast and gave into rage and clawed madly, hoping one would connect and put the petty rabbit to rest. However, the rabbit was too good to lose to a mad wolf. It kept ducking and dodging until the wolf grew tired and slowed down to catch its breath. That was when the rabbit leaped and threw a kick in the face of a wolf and sent it flying to the edge of the ring. The wolf pathetically collapsed and moved no more. It was completely out of the game, outmatched by a rabbit that no one thought would win. Gabe was surprised by his own strength because he didn’t expect to win with just one good attack. The referee was most surprised of all because she expected the Metal Scratcher to utterly tear Gangsta’s skin away and make him realize jus
Mia was talking with Kiera on a video call.“The fashion show is postponed for three weeks?” Mia was shocked. “Why?”“There’s too much competition and pressure from popular designers,” Kiera explained politely.“Then what are we going to do? Wait for three more weeks?”“Simple waiting wouldn’t do,” Kiera explained. “Send me more money because the promotion shouldn’t be stopped.”“I already sent you 25,000, didn’t I?”“I’ve already promoted your designs for one week with that money. So, send 75,000 for the next three weeks.”“75,000!” Mia’s heart skipped a beat. “Isn’t that too much? Isn’t there a discount?”“I’m already stating the amount after deducting the discount,” Kiera said. “If you want to keep the hype building until the day of the fashion show, there’s no other way. If you stop promotion now, you will lose all the momentum you’ve built until now.”Kiera’s words made sense. “O-Okay. Is there anything else we need to do?”“Keep making more designs, I guess?” Kiera said.“Yeah.
Gabe came to Skin Street for the second time.The shop owner this time didn’t personally escort Gabe but sent one of the workers to take him to the underground facility.There was already an ongoing match between Metal Scratcher and Bone Basher.The Bone Basher was a much bigger guy compared to the Metal Scratcher, and he pounded the Metal Scratcher’s face with punches and then plucked both of his eyes out after the opponent had already given up.Gabe got chills from watching it, because losing eyes meant that Metal Scratcher’s career was basically gone. “He’s too ruthless. What rank is that guy?”[If you’re at the adept rank, I would have been able to hack their servers using the hacking system and bring out data, but now, we can only get the information from the referee.]“Referee… yeah, the bikini girl,” Gabe could see Rica, and she was wearing a tiny bikini this time, too. It was praiseworthy how she was able to move around in such clothes and not be afraid of the gazes men gave h
Bone Basher got his facial bones broken for sure given how many hits Gangsta had landed in quick succession.Gabe wouldn’t have gone this far, but after seeing how cruel Bone Basher was to Metal Scratcher, he thought it was better to put some ‘tangible and permanent’ fear into Bone Basher.So, he punched Bone Basher’s face dozens of times without any hesitation.The audience were silenced, and so was the referee.Rica took her time before raising Gangsta’s hand and announcing, “The skinner of this match is Gangsta!”The audience started roaring much louder than the last time he heard them. Moreover, some of them started calling his name, which made him feel happy and worth the effort.“What’s my rank now?” Gabe asked Rica.“Let me check. It’s 2,709,113.”“Oh, it’s now higher than Metal Scratcher, right?”“Yes, but it’s still slightly lower than Bone Basher. His rank is 2,703,073 after the defeat. He’s much stronger than what his rank suggests, so you should feel proud.”Gabe just smil