Arthur awoke from his sleep, or better call it a nightmare, because of the sound of the Iron door opening. He just knew it would be another day for them to torture him. It has been like that for months now, he stopped counting after passing the 100th day, he couldn't even scream from pain anymore, as he slowly yet surely, got used to this inhuman torture and all of it, for what? Just money, apparently his so-called 'wife' just married him and wanted his money, so she plotted to kidnap then torture to force him to give her all his assets and money.

They tortured him in all kinds of ways, cutting, whipping, starving him for several days, and even forcing him to watch her as she copulated just so she could see the look in his eyes when she was doing it with another man. First, he was asking her why all this cruelty, but as the days went on, Arthur knew his begging and crying wouldn't do him any good so he just turned into a mute, neither responding to her questions nor showing any reaction.

He just stopped that and accepted his fate, yet the hatred and rage that dwelled within him kept growing every second, in fact, he wanted to kill them in the worst possible way and payback everything they had done to him until now, yet he knew that it was just wishful thinking.

He was never a religious man, but he believed in God. Yet after all that happened, he's sure that God had forsaken him, or just never cared at all. Arthur is but an insignificant being to God, why would HE do anything to save him?

And so the hellish days continued and Arthur's rage only grew greater and greater until one day, while they were torturing him, everything seemed to stop moving, his 'wife', the man with her, everything. And then he saw a human-like figure appear out of thin air and stand in front of him, he couldn't really distinguish the silhouette's face, it seemed blurry, but maybe it was him being dizzy after all the torture and he just couldn't see right, after all, they had ripped his right eye out, and he could barely see with his left one.

"Hello there! Hehe, I can see that you are in a bad situation here, ain't ya?"

Said the ‘man'

First, Arthur thought he was obviously hallucinating, after all, how could this be possible? But this 'man' kept talking to him and waving his hand.

"Ara... perhaps you can't see me with one eye?"

The man approached him and touched his forehead with his index finger, and just like that, Arthur’s right eye was back, he didn't know how to describe it, but his right eyes was fully restored, he felt no pain whatsoever throughout the entire process.

He could see with it and even his left eye was completely healed. Arthur stood there dazed for a second before looking at the 'man' in front of him in disbelief.

"Ahah, you finally noticed me ehh? Good, good I am 'X' it's nice to meet you" said the ‘man’.

"Who're you? And what did you do to me?"-Arthur.

The ‘man’ replied with a rather nonchalant tone:

"No need to get angry, I just said it, I’m 'X', I’m just a random entity that roams the universe, it's complicated to explain but I’m here to propose a deal for you."

"A deal? What kind of deal?"-Arthur.

‘X’ then approached him and extended his hand, suddenly, a black orb with some purple lines in it appeared in his hand, he then said:

"I want to give you a second chance, a new life in a different world. I guess you can call it some form of a reincarnation and obviously, being the generous person that I am, I'll let you keep your memory of this life. However, nothing is free in this life, as a businessman, you know that more than I do, so I have a few conditions."

To be honest, Arthur couldn't believe what he had just heard, a second chance? He thought about that a lot while being tortured and wondered if he had chosen a better wife, would things have turned out differently? Or maybe if he had been more careful, he wouldn't be trapped in such a desolate place for so long.

To become a wealthy CEO of an international company, Arthur passed many hurdles in his life but the only problem he had was that he trusted people easily, to be more accurate, he drops his guard against people whom he's familiar with. No one would expect a dear friend to backstab you or a wife to betray you, or so thought Arthur before all of this happened. He never had a clear goal in his life, he became a businessman just to obtain money and live an easy life, he had all the luxuries a person could have but such things were only means to an end.

He looked at this 'man' carefully, this strange person in front of him seemed kind of demonic, he wore a black suit and had a gold cane in his right hand, he really seemed like an evil person, but he talked with a friendly tone, so Arthur guessed he shouldn't judge him by just his appearance albeit feeling a bit cautious.

He gazed at the entity before him and said:

"Why did you choose me? Surely there are people suffering from a life more miserable than mine, better candidates or suitable choices."

"Indeed there are, but you have something special, something that not every miserable person can have. The hatred and rage that have been accumulating in you through the past months are something really unbelievable, I have never seen any person with as much rage as you while still being so calm around the people who caused it, it really is quite terrifying to see, even for someone like me." Replied 'X' with a praising tone.

Maybe he was right, whenever those people came to torture Arthur, he never uttered a single word. It's as if he was a body without a soul, but that was only because he was keeping his hatred hidden, imagining what he would do to him if he were to escape.

"So 'X', what are the conditions for you to be able to reincarnate me?"

X laughed hearing Arthur's reply then answered

"Good, good, straight into business, huh? That's what I like! Well, first I need to seal your hatred and rage until you can control them, or else you'll just slaughter everybody in your next life. Second, I need you to 'eat' this orb in my hand, it is quite special, believe me, it will help you a lot in your next life."

"I thought the conditions would be harsher or disadvantageous to me, but if it's only that, then I accept your offer."

"Alright, it'll be really exciting to watch you grow, I’ll also gift you some unique abilities. By the way, you have to kill yourself to be able to reincarnate, since I can't interfere in this world's matters."

He then passed him the black orb, which Arthur swallowed straight away. It tasted sour, but it was not that bad, actually, he really couldn't feel anything after swallowing it, so he asked 'X' why, but the latter just shrugged while chuckling.

'X' then sealed his rage, while saying that it would be better to keep it in check, just tapping his shoulder with his cane he had supposedly achieved such a feat.

After talking about the conditions once more 'X' vanished just like he appeared and time resumed once again.

Everything returned to normal and the people in the room resumed their movements. Just like that, they continued torturing him like any other day, yet this time he didn't care, because he knew he would soon die and leave this miserable world.

While they were leaving the room after having their 'fun' with him, Arthur laughed and was noticed by his wife, Claudia.

"What are you laughing at? Did you finally turn insane?" asked Claudia.

He just ignored her and kept laughing…

"You’ll rot in here for your entire life or until you give us what we want, so no use laughing or searching for pity from me, I’m just your wife on paper, you didn't even take care of me or say that you loved me even once.” exclaimed Claudia.

Arthur finally stopped laughing and looked at her

"you'll get what's coming to you, one day I’ll come back and KILL ALL OF YOU, DO YOU HEAR ME YOU B#*¤!"

He kept cursing her over and over again until she left while laughing at him.

When he was alone, he thought about how his life was meaningless here and how he was going to start a new one and hopefully, not be as carefree as he was here, while avoiding humans who were simple creatures full of greed.

After being lost in thought for a couple of minutes he bit his tongue as hard as he could to kill himself, the pain from biting his tongue was almost nonexistent, compared to what he had been through, it was simply nothing.

Though biting the tongue would not kill someone instantly, he kept doing it until blood flowed endlessly from his mangled tongue. Time slowly passed and when enough blood leaked out, his breathing became slower and his skin turned paler, a few more minutes passed before he finally took his last breath and died.

'X' never told him what the world he was going be reincarnated in was and which race he was going to be.

usually, reincarnation would lead him to a new life with a baby’s body, while keeping his present memories, but this time maybe not? Maybe 'X' would let him keep his present body?

Void surrounded him for a long time until he felt the fresh air and opened his eyes, it was kind of blurry for a second as he adjusted his vision and tried to move his sluggish body.

But what surprised him was that he could see plants as big as mountains around him, first, he thought this was just a weird world, but then he saw some kind of animal that was as big as a mountain. Arthur dazed off for a second before thinking of a possibility...

'No, it couldn't be, right? 'X' wouldn't reincarnate me as a worm or an insect right? RIGHT? 'X!'