After walking for a few minutes, putting distance between myself and Shia's building, a holographic screen materialized in front of my face without warning.
**[Congratulations, Host! You have completed your first quest: "Betrayed by Crush as a Loser!"]**
**[Host, for completing the quest, you have been rewarded with an F-rank sword. As you are currently in your actual world, your reward has been withheld for now. You will receive it once you return to the other world!]**
I stopped dead in my tracks.
Wh...at?
My eyes scanned the message again, slower this time. Each word registered in my mind one by one, and when I reached that particular word, something inside me snapped.
Loser.
The single label I'd spent my entire life trying to escape. The one thing I'd worked endlessly to prove I wasn't.
And now here it was, staring me right in the face.
My jaw clenched. Heat rushed through my veins, spreading from my chest to every limb. The anger that had been simmering since I left that apartment suddenly erupted into something far more intense.
So that's what I am? A loser?
Just another piece of trash, exactly like Shia said.
My breathing got heavier. Faster. The street around me blurred as rage clouded my vision.
This is complete bullshit.
Without thinking, my feet changed direction. I veered off the main road and headed toward a narrow alley I'd spotted nearby. The dim lighting and empty space called to me. I needed to be away from people. Away from their eyes.
The shadows swallowed me as I stepped inside. The sounds of the street faded behind me, replaced by an eerie quiet that matched the storm brewing in my chest.
My back hit the cold brick wall and I let myself slide down slightly, just enough to feel the rough surface against my shoulders.
This betrayal.
Shia. Her mother. Those three men.
Every single one of them.
They destroyed me today. Crushed six years of feelings, hopes, and dreams in a matter of minutes. Made me realize I'd been nothing but a joke to them all along.
My fists clenched at my sides, nails digging deep into my palms until I felt the sting.
But the pain helped. It grounded me. Gave me clarity.
They're going to pay for this.
The thought came naturally, settling into my mind like it had always been there, just waiting for the right moment to surface.
I'm not going to let them walk away from what they did.
"Every single one of them," I muttered, my voice low and steady in the empty alley. "They'll all pay."
I swiped the screen away with a violent motion, my eyes burning with pure, unfiltered hatred.
"System, you up for a deal?"
A moment of silence hung in the air before the mechanical voice crawled into my head.
**[What's the deal, Host?]**
"Replace that worthless F-rank sword with something useful," I said, my voice dangerously calm. "I want a gun. One that doesn't make a single fucking sound when it fires. Not some piece of shit with a silencer bolted on. I want one built to kill silently."
**[Host, I can arrange that, but the weapon won't belong to this world.]**
"I don't give a damn where it comes from," I spat back. "Just give me what I'm asking for."
**[Understood, Host! So—]**
"No. Not now," I cut in sharply. "When I'm ready, I'll tell you. Then you give it to me. Understood?"
**[Of course, Host. As you wish.]**
Good.
A twisted smile crept across my face as I pushed off the wall. The kind of smile that had nothing to do with happiness and everything to do with what I was about to do.
Time to make you pay, Shia.
I turned and walked out of the alley, my footsteps echoing in the empty space. The rage that had been tearing me apart inside had crystallized into something far worse. Something cold and focused and absolutely merciless.
Within minutes, I was back in front of Shia's apartment building.
This time, I didn't waste a second. No looking around, no hesitation. I walked straight through the entrance like I owned the place.
The security guards noticed me immediately. Their expressions had shifted since I'd left. The cheerfulness was gone, replaced by something softer. Sadness, maybe. Or pity.
They stayed at their desk, watching me but keeping their distance.
Part of me wondered why they weren't saying anything this time, but the thought disappeared as quickly as it came.
Right now, nothing else mattered.
Revenge. That was all I could think about.
I walked past them without a glance, my focus entirely on the elevator at the far end of the lobby.
When I got there, I pressed the button and waited. The doors opened with a soft ding, and I stepped inside.
My finger hit the button for the twenty-fifth floor.
The doors closed, and the elevator started moving up. I leaned against the back wall, staring at my distorted reflection in the metal doors.
The person staring back looked different. His eyes were hollow. Cold. Like
something vital had been ripped out of him and nothing warm was left behind.
Maybe that was true.
Maybe that's exactly what I needed to become.
I stood inside the elevator as it climbed toward the twenty-fifth floor, doing nothing but staring at the closed doors in front of me.
Only one thing remained, looping endlessly in my head.
Revenge.
The betrayal. The humiliation. The word that had been carved into me, the one label I had spent my entire life running from.
Loser.
After what felt like far longer than a minute, the elevator finally slowed. A soft chime sounded, and the doors slid open.
I stepped out immediately.
My pace was steady as I moved down the hallway toward Shia's apartment. No rush. No doubt. Each step felt deliberate, like I had already crossed a line and there was no turning back.
Fuck them.
The half-open door came into view.
As soon as I reached it, I spoke quietly, my voice flat and cold.
"System. Give me the gun. Now."
[Ok, Host.]
In an instant, weight appeared in my right hand.
A pistol.
I glanced down at it. It looked ordinary, indistinguishable from any firearm in this world. If not for the circumstances, it could have been mistaken for something mundane.
I did not dwell on it. My thumb flicked the safety off without conscious thought.
I inhaled slowly, filling my lungs, then let the breath out.
This is happening.
My hand closed around the doorknob, and I pushed the door open.
The living room was the first thing I saw.
Two men sat on the couch, wearing shorts, their bodies relaxed as they watched television. The same men from earlier. The ones who had been with Shia and her mother.
They looked comfortable. At ease. As if nothing had happened.
As if nothing had been taken from me.
One of them noticed me first. His head turned. Then the other followed.
Our eyes met.
I raised the gun.
There was no hesitation, no second thought.
I pulled the trigger.
Bang.
Bang.
Two silent shots cut through the room.
One bullet tore into a man's face. The other struck the second man in the neck.
Their bodies collapsed almost immediately, hitting the floor in a tangle of limbs. Blood spread quickly beneath them, staining the room.
I did not react.
I did not look at them again.
I stepped past the bodies and continued forward, my attention fixed on the hallway ahead.
Toward the bedroom.
The room where everything had started.
The place that had shattered my world.
The door opened before I reached it.
Shia's mother stepped out.
She was naked.
For a fraction of a second, confusion crossed her face. Then recognition followed, and her mouth opened in panic.
"Michael, you—"
I pulled the trigger.
The shot snapped through the room. Her body jerked back, expression locked in disbelief as she fell out of view. Blood smeared the doorframe as she hit the floor.
I looked down at her body.
Nothing stirred inside me.
I kicked the bedroom door open and walked in.
The man Shia had called "Master" was standing naked on the bed, frozen mid-movement. Shia sat near the edge, a towel wrapped loosely around her, phone still in her hand.
She looked up.
Her eyes landed on me.
For a moment, she didn't understand what she was seeing.
Then she saw the gun.
Then she saw the blood seeping across the floor behind me.
The phone slipped from her fingers and hit the mattress.
Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
The man recovered first. A crooked grin tried to form, forced and uncertain.
"Well, damn," he said slowly. "If it isn't Shia's little—"
He stopped.
His gaze dropped to my hand. Then to the doorway. Then back to my face.
"You killed her?"
"Shut up and Die," I said.
I raised the gun and fired three times.
His body collapsed backward onto the bed, lifeless before it finished sinking into the sheets.
Silence filled the room.
Shia stared at the body, then at me.
Her face had gone pale, her breath shallow and uneven. She hugged the towel tighter around herself, trembling now, reality finally crashing down on her.
"Michael…" she whispered, her voice breaking.
I looked at her.
Really looked at her.
And felt nothing.
***
I then pointed the gun at her and, said, "Why? Why did you do with me? Why the fuck?"
My voice was cold, detached filled with insane hate.
Yeah, hate for her...
Shia then looked at me with her innocence filled eyes, "Michael, I-"
But, before she could complete her words, I pulled the trigger and, fired the gun.
And, kept firing untill all the bullets in the magazine finished.
After all the bullets finished, I then finally put the gun down and, then looked at the shia's mess of a dead body...
Innocence...
Then, while looking at her dead body, I calmy said, "Should have not showed you innocent face."
I then slowly looked at room which was full of blood pool.
I then sighed...
Fuck...
I finally did it...
I then collapsed on to the bloody floor of room.
I was literally on the sleeping position on the ground...
Beneath me, was blood.
I didn't care.
All I cared now, was that I finally completed my revenge.
Then, while looking at the ceiling of the room, suddenly a system screen appeared in front of me.
[Congratulations, host, you have completed the quest "Revenge of the Betrayer"]
**[Host, for completing the quest, you have been rewarded with an E-rank spear. As you are currently in your actual world, your reward has been withheld for now. You will receive it once you return to the other world!]**
Spear?
Seriously?
While looking, at the rewards I was getting for the completing the quest, my face changed, I wasn't very happy...
Spear only? Fuck, I was expecting more.
Shit, what an useless reward I got...
The main reason I found the spear useless was because I myself didn't even know how to handle a spear properly so, ofcourse it's of no use untill I learn which will definitely take months if not years.
Plus, spear was not my really preferable weapons.
Daggers would be my preferable one...
Anyway, leaving that aside.
Coming back to the topic.
I then said, "System, can you replace this E-rank spear with something else?"
Then suddenly the system screen appeared in front of me.
[Host, as you wish but what do you need instead of the spear?]
I then said, "Nothing much actually, I want you to erase all the evidence of the murder I just committed, can you do that?"
Then the system said.
[Yes, host, I can!]
I then said, "Thank you. By the way, system had I asked for anything other than this then would you have given it to me?"
The system replied.
[No, Host!]
I then laughingly said, "Hahah, I knew it!"
Anyway, leaving that aside.
My life have completed been ruined in this world, right?
There is no turning back...
Even after I taking revenge, I still feel huge amount of sadness and, pain not for others but for myself...
I... I fucking wasted it all in that cheap whore of a bitch...
I am such an idiot... It's too late now...
After cursing myself for five minutes, I then slowly stood up and, then took my phone out of my pocket to check the time.
It was 12:40 PM.
What?
When I looked at the time, I was hugely caught off-guard by it as I didn't expect it to be only 12:35.
I expected it to be something like 12:50 a.m.
Just how?
But before I could understand anything, suddenly I felt a rush wind around me.
And, then when I looked at the room.
Suddenly, all the dead bodues and, blood in room vanished...
It was if it didn't exist in the first place...
Whoa...
System, did you that just now?
Suddenly system said.
[Yes, host, I did it, by the way about the time thing. I also change the time. It's was actually supposed to be 12:50 as you expected but now it's 12:35 because of it.]
I then asked confusingly, "Hey, I get it you disposed all those bodies to erase evidence but how does changing time even helps?"
Then again system said.
[Host, I can't explain it to you properly because of it against my policies but you just need to know that's it for own good.]
Ok...
I see...
I didn't dwell on it much...
If it for my helps then I am okay with it.
Anyway, leaving that aside.
I then quickly started walking out of the room...