Inside the casino, lights flashed and coins rang. Tenner remained at the entrance, his jaw grinding. If he went in, he’d get a chance at regaining the money this filthy place had no right of stealing. Such disrespect--playing him for a fool, taking what was rightfully his--frustrated Tenner to the bone, but his instincts locked him in place. He could tell when a con tried to pull him in deeper and he’d fight back.

In fact, why was he even contemplating giving this shitty place more of his attention? They didn’t deserve a single second of his time he could be using to make ten times the coins stolen!

The door slammed.

Tenner turned on his heel and walked away, inspecting his coins. His balance showed 33C$. For a moment, Tenner wondered how the system worked: the casino charged 55C$, yet 105C$ still remained in his hands. Then he realized two thirds of his coins didn’t glow. He guessed he could deposit the spent coins somewhere or keep them until he got paid and they started glowing again.

Civilization had adopted the most confusing system of currency it could’ve.

Though Tenner’s hands didn’t hold fortunes, these coins kept him away from the minus. He’d have to keep them as safe as he could.

Something touched his right shoulder, then his left. A furry creature flew by his eyes, hung onto a wire flapping from a neon sign and jumped to the other side of the street.

Tenner’s gaze followed the creature before shooting straight down. The coins had waved him goodbye. He stopped, limbs cold, mind dull to how this could've happened. As a chain reaction of senses hit him, he dashed after the creature, a breathless “inspect” leaving his mouth.

[Name: Tamed Monkey

HP: 20]

[Non-C creature]

The monkey swung on the buildings’ heads of hair, hopping from one side of the street to the other. Sprinting, Tenner neared. The monkey noticed. Luckily, it had finished tucking the coins into a small leather pack, and jumped into the crowd.

Tears streamed down Tenner’s bloodshot eyes. Even in the outskirts of Via Light, the light was hard to bear. Nonetheless, they remained open, keeping track of the creature carrying his every credit.

“Stop! Get out of the way!”

The pedestrians looked at him sideways, cursing and pushing back. Via Light traffic had thickened their skins to being budged and shoved. But once Tenner unsheathed his axe and its blade sparkled, the people cleared the way, revealing the monkey two meters ahead.

It squealed. It tried to hop from shoulder to shoulder. This was not a monkey’s playground.

Tenner swung his axe one last time, pushing away every nearby shoulder.

Stranded, the monkey panicked on a confused pedestrian.Tenner kicked the man in the back. A black footprint appeared on the his back and he fell face first.

The monkey jumped before he hit the ground. Tenner swooped in and grabbed the creature by the neck. He reached for its leather bag and couldn't find it. Their eyes made contact. Then Tenner started shaking it.

I will get my fucking money.

A small crowd of quiet, bedazzled people formed around him. From inside it, a voice murmured to itself.

“Stay strong, Joha, the money is worth the pain.”

After the adrenaline cooled in his veins, goosebumps ran down Tenner’s back. He dropped the monkey and turned to the crowd, jerking his head so the onlookers would clear. The man who’d whispered dispersed a second later than everyone, shaking a bag of treats in one hand, hiding a leather bag with the other.

Tenner grabbed the man’s neck, slapped his face and kicked his leg.

“Tenshot worked for that money, unlike you, fucking lunarist!”

“Joha!” The man gasped. He whacked Tenner with the bag of treats and, in the rain of monkey food, threw his creature the leather bag.

Tenner kicked the man down and stomped on his stomach then jumped to the monkey and smashed it to the ground.

Once again, the bag wasn’t on it.

Screaming, Tenner jumped to his feet and strided after the man. The scammer had made a damn quick recovery and ran at an incredible speed, his shape like a soldier’s.

Skill, natural talent and technique were important in running and made all the difference, but couldn’t fight the overwhelming force of the age difference. There were at least thirty years between Tenner and the man -- he was bound to catch up eventually. And that he did… until a bearded man, in all black clothes and a wide white hat struck him down at the last second and pointed a laserpistol in his face.

“Tenshot!” the stranger spoke. “Where you hurrying to?”

“What now?!” Tenner squirmed then went still. Anger, axe and a plan meant nothing when a laserpistol pointed at one’s forehead from a centimeter away.

“Well, I’ve found you don’t mess around. I don’t have to either. The matter is quite simple -- I came here to kill you,” the man explained. “My name is Valerius and I’m a bounty hunter. You are too, I see. Which is odd. Haven’t seen a bounty on a bounty hunter in many months.”

“I have a bounty?”

“Debt, probably. CHEK placed one on you automatically,” Valerius explained.

“I was just chasing after the lunarist who stole my money,” Tenner said. “If you let go of me, I can pay it off.”

“You misunderstood, Tenshot. I don’t work to keep the law in order. I don’t want you to pay off your debt. I’m a bounty hunter. A bounty’s on your head right now.” The man kept a straight face. Usually, people who spoke so openly to someone they intended to kill either wept or struggled to contain a smile.

“No, I understand it all and... I want a deal.”

“What deal can you offer me that’ll compensate for an amount of money you don't have, Tenshot? Hold on. I don’t need you to answer -- I already figured it out.”

Tenner’s eyebrow rose. He stared at the bounty hunter’s eyes whilst his hands planned to chop his back. Though Valerius had pinned Tenner down at an uncomfortable position -- if he moved up, Tenner could slide his hand out and kill the hunter.

“You have twenty four hours to lose your debt. If you don’t, everything’s fair game. If I see you within those twenty fours, everything’s fair game. If I see you without a debt, you pay me every credit you have. Deal, Tenshot?”

“Deal.”

The bounty hunter gave Tenner a hand up and a handshake then disappeared within the crowd.

He’d just made quite an investment.

Tenner looked around, hopelessness, that of a massive sinkhole opening up under the feet of a measly desolation traveller, swallowing him from inside. He wanted to run in the scammer’s direction, but no matter how fast he’d go, the ground collapsed faster.

He could only stand--a few dozen meters away from the main plaza--and stare aimlessly. Tenner expected to find nothing--a murderous numbness--inside the depths of hopelessness. Instead, he found anger, blazing with the fire of a thousand lasers. The inferno rose, swallowing everything...

***

The main plaza bustled, only a little less crowded once the illusions of the sky turned to night. A group of kids played tag and speedclimb around the four-armed statue. With every hour that passed, their group shrunk until two remained. It was time to call it a day… Once they made it to the top one last time.

The first kid started clambering up. He’d done it many times and hastened with every attempt. A few more and he’d break the record -- maybe this run would prove itself as the one. Yet halfway up he froze. And started trembling.

“What’s going on?” his friend below asked.

Shaking his head, the kid slid down and ran. “Good-d-d-bye,” he stuttered and pointed.

The friend turned around. And started. Her hands scrambled for her bag. All in seconds, both kids had removed themselves, not to be coming back any time soon.

Tenner stared at the statue. It’d been three hours since he last blinked. Three hours since he moved. But the fire, which had enveloped every centimeter of his body and throbbed in his veins, kept getting hotter by the second. The only thing he could compare it to was leveling up, how it took over his body and overwhelmed his senses.

Tenner didn’t see the things ahead, but he could see the truth.

Great realizations flowed through his mind, filling it with fantasies and hope. The darkness had revealed itself. It revealed endless possibilities. The desire to ravage the streets, to go back to the casino and kill the owners, to find the scammer and crush his every bone. He could do it all, get whatever he wanted. He could remove the uncontrollable variables with his own hands. And he could not only listen to dad’s lessons -- he would teach them too.

The darkness allowed it. But in exchange, it wanted something more.

Dad never beat people to a pulp on a needless whim.

Mom didn’t clean the company’s vault out to buy nice jewelry.

They did it for the family.

No, Tenner wouldn’t forfeit his dream of glory. No, on top of it, he would save the world -- his new family.

In Realm 224, vermin and scum revealed themselves, a generation who scammed, killed, stole and ruined everything in the process. The difference between Realm 349 and 224 could stagger a rock. The latter soon would turn to the desolation outside its walls. His duty, in exchange for the darkness allowing him to do anything in the pursuit of greatness, was to stop the evil. Annihilate the vermin. Do the world a favor. Maybe raise an army.

Yes… yes, yes, yes! This was what he’d needed all along. Not to achieve the foolish dream of becoming a rockstar, not to become the greatest bounty hunter, but to shape the world into what it should be!

[Congratulations! Gained perk: Still As Death’s Gaze]

Slowly, he returned to the world. His eyes blinked and the surroundings came into focus. He’d stood there for five hours, but he didn’t need a second of sleep. Eventually, his mind would make him pass out. Until then, he’d hunt. Yes, the restoration of righteousness--

A person appeared in front of him, waving.

“Howdy, fella,” he said. “Are you okay? You’ve been standing here for a while now…”

Tenner cleared his throat.

“...Well, for ages, actually,” the man continued. “Saw you heading home this eve. I’m back and you’re still here. Maybe we bumped just into one another, ha-ha.”

[Gerald Anthony

LVL: 2

Bounty: 170C$

Crimes: unspecified

Wanted: dead

Comment(s): green sweater, moustache, cross necklace]

[Required to accept contract before claiming bounty (failure penalty -- 20C$)]

Tenner moved his hands around, cracking joints and warming up the bones. A smile formed on his face, mimicking the man’s, as he swung his axe.

The blade grazed Gerald’s chest, tearing half of his sweater off. Gerald screamed and tripped. The axe chopped into his right foot as he started crawling backwards, in a gory mess, ripping his toes off.

Just like that, the hunt began.

Shellshocked, Gerald continued crawling until an idea shot to his head. He kicked with the gored leg, missing, but covering Tenner’s face in blood. Tenner shut his eyes and cleaned them with his sleeve. They blinked a few times and opened to see the man not there anymore.

Gerald ran. Tenner followed. This was another ordinary chase, yet this time, no matter what happened, he wouldn’t stop.

The target weaved in and out of main streets and alleys, using the lack of a crowd, which usually was a curse, to his advantage. Tenner got close a few times, landed a pair of swings, which unbalanced the target, but couldn’t ever land a killing blow. Then a small satchel fell out of Gerald’s pocket, starting to smoke. The fumes turned black and the thing exploded, knocking Tenner back and filling the air with the smell of sewage and char.

Not a moment later, Tenner was back up, swerving into a street leading away into a district with few buildings.

Gerald’s breaths deepened and quickened. His feet, engulfed in pain, and muscles, trembling from the vigorous run, couldn’t take him any farther. A few more meters and he’d fall, dying under the blade of Tenner’s axe. But he didn’t need more than a few meters: ahead, the skyline cleared, revealing a large building.

Tenner quickly bridged the gap. The closer he got, the slower the difference between them shrunk: his eyes stared at the incredible church and took his focus away from speed. Massive throbbing pipes wrapped around the black building like ropes holding a bag of flour together, and its sharp towers, piercing the skyline, were almost invisible in the night illusion.

Little pyramids floated around the church’s perimeter, scanning the ground under them. One reached Tenner and shined a light on him. A screen started appearing in his vision.

In one smooth move, he hopped right, chopped the machine in half, hopped left and continued chasing.

[Congratulations! Gained perk: Being vs. Machine = Being]

Gerald’s breath ran out and he fell to his fours, but continued nonetheless. Crawling, like the filthy dog he was, he made it through the church’s grand entrance and fell to the cold floor. After a deep breath burned his exhausted lungs, he started pleading.

“Lord! Help me, pleas--”

Tenner stepped on his head, silencing his worthless words. Such disrespect, he thought. First, he wastes my energy by running away. Second, he thinks a god could defeat me. Third, he has a bounty, and anyone who does is vermin.

The axe’s blade went above his head, but didn’t strike down. A senile voice spoke in front, followed by many pairs of footsteps.

Tenner raised his gaze from Gerald then looked over his shoulder.

A group of men--dressed in white clothes and white CHEKs--surrounded him. In their middle stood a priest, a black hat with a white cross covering most of his long, gray hair. His head shook.

“I do believe in peace, my son, but I don’t think that you do,” the priest’s words echoed off the walls. “So I’ll speak in an understandable manner: let evil’s whispers into your head and strike Gerald? Then my men will let the lord’s in and strike you.”