Surrounded by an entire gang, a person was vehemently protecting a woman

That person was me...

'True men never lie' is the motto I have been raised with.

And the motto I live by?

'Your utmost priority is yourself, and then everybody else'

...

So, you may now start wondering, 'But Joe, if that's true, then why are you risking your life for this girl right now?'

Well, I have a pretty good reason for it... My survival, and her survival is almost the same thing, cause if she dies, I die...

Well, it isn't that simple, but that was the gist of it.

Just another casual day for me... a supposedly normal student...

normal... student... who am I kidding!

I was fricking tricked by these bastards and her father!

"So, what do we do now? smartass!" A sweet voice was heard behind me, but I paid it no heed. I couldn't afford to get distracted right now. Right now, I am between the line of life and death... only for their misery, I have been in that line far too many times for a normal incident to faze me.

Is what I thought...

"1 million, and you give us the girl!" Someone in the gang yelled.

"Darn, they got me! Ahh I'm hit, I can't protect you anymore... " I turned around and spoke to the girl.

She made a sour face at my joke, but when the next line was heard... both of us were speechelss.

"10 million for the girl, or both of your lives!" An imposing voice resounded in the entire area, most likely of their leader.

And naturally my response was "Take her."

I stopped protecting the girly, and moved towards the gang leader.

Of course, if they didn't give me the money, I was planning on running away with her anyways... only this time it won't be with her.

"Oh, you can't be joking... faggot." The girl I as supposed to be protecting said.

"The money, and I'm as good as gone." I stood before their leader and demanded

To my surprise though, he took a big suitcase and handed over to me without saying a word. Of course I opened the suitcase, and instead of any traps, or hidden tricks, I found more or less what I would assume to be 10 million dollars inside... I checked with a neat device I had with me to see if there were any chips, but none... not even the money was fake... She must have done quite the serious shit to be worth that much as the minimum... of course I wasn't gonna press harder for more money.

Taking the suitcase with me "Well, I guess cya..."

"Wait dumbass! Didn't you say you would protect me for 12 hours?!" She yelled with distress in her voice, as she clearly knew now, that her life was in danger.

To which I replied "It was only an empty promise I made to an old geezer, without even knowing in how much deep shit you were in..."

I wasn't proud of this move... But a man gotta do what he gotta do in order to survive in this world...

Taking benefits and being careful of who you offend were the most crucial.

Just by contrasting who was more worthwhile to offend she went on the top of the list if we compared her to a whole criminal gang...

They had backing, while she did not.

...

After moments of silence I turned and walked away, not even glancing back towards her.

But it turns out I miscalculated...

"I knew you weren't worthy of trust." One of the gangsters said, while pointing a hidden gun towards my head and shooting with unbelievable accuracy.

Turns out she had a backing... and a more powerful one than I imagined...

Also turns out, I can't avoid a bullet... not that I've tried before, but I wouldn't and won't have the chance anyways...

~~~

In a white empty space, a human appeared

'Human Joe Sin has died' a screen appeared in front of me.

I didn't know exactly how was I still alive, but that didn't matter... Or did it?

I am in the exact same state I was 5 minutes before dying... and where is this?

'Due to your actions before death, you have been judged to reincarnate in a lesser world."

Oh shit... Turns out I might have screw up too much in my life...

"But hey, what about during the rest of my life!" I yelled towards the blue window, in hopes of getting a response.

'Your entire life doesn't matter. What does matter is what happens in the situations you are most honest with yourself, and in the moment before you died.'

And now I see what was the reason...

"But hey, not everyone is a saint. And besides, isn't good and evil subjective?" I once again turned to the blue screen and said.

'We have the subject, and we don't judge everyone the same, since not everyone is the same. By our judgement you have been deemed unworthy of your current position.'

Oh, shit... double shit... So, is the next of my entire life going to be screwed up, just cause some idiot judged me, what? A bad person? I should keep these thoughts to myself though...

"And so, do I not have a chance to redeem myself?" I asked again with a surprising calmness, even surprising myself.

'According to a Soul's rights you do indeed have such a right. It is something that many do not bring up, so normally procedures go unaffected'

But aren't how are we supposed to know such a thing?!? This is a scam, but luckily my brain thought of this, or else...

Anyways, it seems like many people let their fate pass by without knowing they could do something about it... Who cares about them anyways, the smart ones won't have such problems anyways... The important part however is, how are they going to let me redeem myself?

'Per your request, you shall be sent in a custom world to fight for your life and be judged by the fairest of all.' the same old blue screen showed...

But I wasn't the type to be fooled easily

"What other options exist, and what is the best one for me?" I asked, hopeful that the system has to answer the questions it was asked... I wasn't betting much on it, because of what happened a few minutes ago, but something is better than nothing.

'There exists 300.000.000 other available options for your case. The most recommended is the default one. Advantages of it that other trials do not have but are not limited to: Possibility for further ascension, redemption, qualitative improvement in all your aspects,..., possibility for revenge.'

The last one I suppose was for the hot-blooded ones, but I would not bother myself with such annoyances.

I didn't expect the screen to even explain it for me... They must really want us to choose the default option... All the more reasons to see what else there is.

"May I ask what are the best options available?" I thought to myself, that a broader aspect should give me more to choose from.

'Other better options are available only for those at the saint level or above. As you don't meet the lowest of the required level of soul redemption, you cannot apply for them. Your only available option is to browse through them. Do you want to?'

I sighed... "I do not." Better if I don't get any weirder ideas for now...

'Trial: chosen | World: Destopia | Level of Difficulty: Slaughter | current soul redemption: -1000'

And then... everything blanked out.