The door ahead was already opened, but from the stairs I could only see the light coming from it molded in a square. Yet, the cold breeze that blew from outside and gently touched my hair pleasantly contrasted with the burning hell that had already reached the tower base and was making it’s way one step at a time; the freezing energy field pushing the flames more and more to its center, putting then out and freezing .everything that it touched

When I set me feet the other side of the threshold, I felt them smashing the green leaves, soft, yet painful against my skinned limbs, the small grass and well-trimmed plants extending themselves all around the hexagonal top of the tower, with exceptions where other flowers rested, like those I saw only made out of plastic or in VR, multicolored, shining with the small water drops from the fire extinguishes on their pink and blue and purple bodies.

“You sure took your time coming over here”, said the man at the edge of the structure without parapet; a man wearing some kind of fantasy armor, but marked with light spots, pistons, screws, and tubes here an there. It didn’t have a helmet, but was showing a mask with the logo of a dozen brands printed on it. Looking me from tip to toe, added: “Well, I don’ blame you, though..”

Ignoring the man, I walked thru the garden, listening to the stupid music the Tournament organizers were playing... bypassing the previous competitions winner and seating at the edge of that tower, staring at the flames scaling the tower and the cold consuming everything else, and all the massacre down there.

“Hu? What kind of trap is this? Do you expect me to lower my guard so you can push me from here?” the armored man assumed. Sighing, explained: “Sorry, boy, but this won’t work: this armor here can fly you know? And, to be honest, I don’t want a boring end like, just throw you down there and go away”.

“Oh, yeah? What a shame, then”, I replied, feeling the flora with my “good” hand. The stadium rose all around me, and thousands of people were staring, visibly confused.

“Uh…? Excuse me, but, are you… giving up?”, I saw the previous winner's shoulders falling.

“Yeah, go ahead, kill me: I already completed my objective. And I deserve it” I said, and the stupid music immediately got louder, as if that Mercury was trying to drown out my voice under sounds organized so perfectly that triggered the injection of just the right chemicals on the listener’s brain.

“Objective? Deserve? Wait, what do you mean, mister employee? Why did you come here for?”, the former champion got closer, just behind me and in the distance of a push.

“The same reason as everyone: money”

“So, what are you doing there!? Come on, fight me! Try your luck, keep your goal in mind! Treasures await you if you succeed, and if you die, well, it won’t be any different if you just give up”, I didn’t reply. “...Think about all the fame and fortune you’ll have if you win! You’ll never need to work anymore, you can have any woman, man, or whatever the fuck you’re into; vehicles, implementations, houses, you can even change your brain composition to live perpetually in happiness! ...Didn’t you just say that it was for the money you came here? What are you waiting for?”

I opened my mouth and was about to explain, but hesitated. I still remembered pretty clear of my encounter a few minutes ago with Asshole and Doucehbag, I still had the marks of it. The previous winner didn’t immediately kill me, even if he had the chance, actually, he was encouraging me to fight back, what if that guy decided to aim at Gear to make me struggle then? I wasn’t a fool, I knew pretty well that against an upper class, I had no chance, that’s why I hadn’t taken the precision riffle from before; even though in my tortured mind I thought that Douchebag and Asshole could win.

...But, what if I piss off this guy? After I die, my past will be displayed for everyone, if he decides to go after Gear in revenge, then...

“You’re a man of business, right? Promise me something, then… I tell you why I’m giving up, and you don’t destroy it”

“Hu? And, what do I gain with this deal?”

“A chance to convince me to fight; because, if you don’t do like this, I’ll just jump from here, right now”

“...Okay then, we have a deal: rest assured, I won’t destroy your ‘precious thing’”, he must be really confident in his persuasive skills...

“You say ‘precious’, hu? Yeah, I think this is pretty accurate: see, there’s someone who’s precious for me” I listened to the extremely loud music come to silence, as well as the public watching from the grandstand all around. Without really care, I continued: “she’s a Worker, like me: my sister. When I had just completed one year old and should begin to work, I got sick, so my father threw me away. I knew where my sister lived, then I staggered an entire day to her house and asked for help just before close my eyes. And, to my surprise, she did help me! She paid for my expansive treatment even tough almost starved for it, and even let me live with her. Since then, she has been my hero... But, recently, she got a new job: paid better, but it was really dangerous. And, of course, the worst happened, why she’s waiting in the hospital right now, and why I entered this stupid tournament… Why I killed so many innocent people”, I covered my face with my good hand, craving my nails into my flesh and stopping myself from crying. Resting my palm on the ground once again, I looked up, imagining if there was a camera somewhere ahead. “Mercury! You’re there, right? Watching this. Then, I want you to know: I wish that my sister keep 25% of the consolation prize, and the rest to be distributed between the families and friends of everyone who died here today!” I listened to my voice propagate in all directions, hearing it at least three times. Before the audience explodes in a commotion who’s feelings were illegible. “I know”, I said in a soft tone so only I could listen. “I know that what I did is unforgivable. I know that this won’t bring anyone back, but… grant me at least this last selfish wish…!”, I couldn’t hold back that single drop of tear that rolled down my cheek.

I heard the water splashing all around when the former champion moved too fast, grabbed me by the collar and lifted me up, putting myself face to face with him. I couldn’t see thru his mask and into his eyes, but his icy tone let pretty clear his intentions:

“You’re lying. What is this, were you some kind of actor before?”

“If this was you trying to convince me to fight, know you had failed: I’m telling the truth. I know I deserve to die, and I only wish that my sister, and those close to all the other competitors to be able to overcome the grief and continue their life, to find happiness”

“And what about your happiness?! This is the paradise, any dream can become true if you have enough money! And this, right here, right now, is your opportunity to put your hands in this money!”

“You’re right”, I smiled. “I’m not different from anyone else. I’m selfish, I don’t donate my salary to the charity nor nothing like that. I’m also able to… kill… for mine and my only happiness. For this reason, I butchered tens of innocent men and women, lied to my sister and said to myself that a few bucks would solve everythin-”

“YOU’RE LYING!”, the previous winner threw me to the center of the tower and against the ground, marking it with an elongated crater. “Do you pretend to convince the audience to come here and save you or what?!”, reaching me in an instant, the previous champion kicked me on the belly hard enough to broke one of my ribs with a loud “CRACK”. “It doesn’t matter, I’ll show them, everyone, your true self, and intentions and make you fight back!”, lifting me by the hair, he threw my body against the structure in the center of the tower, that lead to the stairs and from where I had come from.

My face shocking against the metallic wall, I painfully felt my skin being torn apart, blood coming out from my opened forehead, eyebrows, lips, and broken nose. Before my body could even touch the ground again, moving so fast that all the water on his body was sent away, the previous winner slid to my side, one hand closed into a fist, and punched right at my exposed left arm bone, not breaking it, but sending it all the way up thru my limb and making it show up again when piercing my shoulder in a blood explosion.

My body spinning away from the former champion just by the force of the last attack I suffered, I kicked on the ground one, two, three times, and saw myself out of the tower top, dangerously close to the energy wall and absolute death. It’s the end… I’m sorry, Gear, I was such a pathetic brother… I thought, just before I felt the terrible grip on my right skinned foot, breaking its bones, and the pull that dislocated it’s joint and threw me back to the garden, a million of blackthorns cutting my skin. I hadn’t even time to think again, when I saw the previous winner already above me, his palm wide open. Yet, every millisecond was way more than enough to the pain: I hadn’t stopped to feel it from the begging.

The wide-open palm was lowered right on my dislocated ankle, smashing it, compressing it to a single centimeter and until the flesh couldn’t hold its insides anymore, to pulverized bones and compressed muscles and blood veins exploding thru the sides of the ankle, and until there was no ankle at all, my right foot being sent flying away like a bullet and separated from the leg of the same side.

When I finally had time to scream, opening my mouth and shouting my pain as loud as I could, crying and feeling my body shaking uncontrollably, in so much agony that I would let loose everything I had inside if I ate “real food” like Gear or hadn’t already pissed myself, I felt a week impact on my chest. Looking down: a gun, a rusty pistol.

“Take it”, said the previous winner, looking me from above. “Fall for your own desires, rejoice in the death of your own kind. Entertain me”.

The fire extinguishers were making water fall like rain in a VR simulation. My blood was being diluted in a pink liquid. Once again the audience fell in silence.

“Take it, you mere employee!”, the previous winner insisted, craving his unstoppable fingers into my skin and behind my collarbone and lifting me with them from there.

I closed my eyes: soon, that guy would get tired and finish me. Everything would be settled then. And, even if things didn’t go this way, I had my secret weapon to end my own suffering; actually, I was just about to use it, if he hadn’t beat me so quickly.

“Will you just destroy everyone’s life and run away, HEAVY?!” I heard a single voice pierced thru the impenetrable silence and made it’s way directly to my heart, beating it with a punch and exactly where it hurt more. Opening my eyes, I, slowly, turned my head to the stadium and the grandstand, finding her: “Do you really think this is for any good?!”, Gear, holding a sphere close to her mouth, screaming, her eyes watery, against it and making herself be heard. “Do you think we’re a bunch of whores?! That you can just throw us a few bucks and go away?! Do you really think that…! That your death would make us more good than if you keep living and dedicating yourself to make this a better world?!”.

The public joined her in a shamble that made the stadium shake. My heart was beating fast again, my good hand shaking.

“...If you just give up now, Heavy… I’ll kill myself..”