Chapter 24: Criminal

"There's no good or bad my friend. I once believed that the world was divided into parts of black and white, but the truth is that it's made up of different shades of grey. I think that should simplify things for you."

Those were the same words Murry, his good friend, had said to him after he watched Ivan get electrocuted to death. And these were the same words he said to the bloodied man tied to an armless metal chair in front of him.

With fresh bloody gashes all over his naked torso, one could only imagine the amount of pain it caused just by looking at them.

With great effort, the bloody tied-up man raised his head to stare at the tall man in a black tight-fitting suit. "*sniff* p-please, let me go, I beg of you." He pleaded in a weak voice.

Al'ravee shook his head and smiled. "That philosophy has been in my mind for a long time, even though I didn't like it at first." He paused to look up, he couldn't let the man see the tears in his eyes "I believed that there should be good and bad people, no, there MUST be good and bad people."

The bloody man started crying, ignoring whatever Al'ravee was saying. "Please... you have done what you want...Please."

"But I only recently understood it. If I were a king and I proclaimed that it was good to kill continuously for the next few years, children would grow up thinking that killing is good and not the other way around. I know because I tested it, I set those orphans free from the constraints of society.

Some people say that they are good but good people will kill to protect their families. Isn't killing a bad thing, see, it's all about the fucking perspective." Al'ravee continued as he pointed the muzzle of his pistol at his own head to emphasize his last phrase.

Seeing the appearance of the gun, the tortured man couldn't help but flinch in fear.

"That's why I murdered all my first gang members. They said they were my comrades and preached loyalty to the leader. Haha, the leader was just a pawn to the big guys, and you see... I have come to dislike being a pawn." Al'ravee stated as he looked down with an emotionless face.

"They would eventually stand in my way, so...they had to go."Al'races went silent as he could remember their screams while they burned to death after that explosion.

"Your daughter just had to be a bitch you know, being the chief of the law enforcement agency doesn't give her the audacity to cross me... Multiple times at that."

When he heard Al'ravee referring to his daughter, the bloody man cried even harder in grief and despair. "No no..." He choked on his words.

"Shhhh..." Al'ravee put a finger on the man's lips. "When I got you, you should have seen the way she ran everywhere to save you. She tired out and one thing led to another, I caught her too."

"You know she's dead but you don't know how she died, *sigh* I would have tortured her a bit to break her mind but she was just too fierce and arrogant. So I told her that I would kill you if she didn't offer her body to me, hahaha!"

If Murry, Selou, Ivan, or Eva were here, they would be shocked to see the sickening villainous smile on their friend's face. What had happened to Al'ravee?

The bloodied man was shocked at what he just heard.

"Oh, you thought I just shot her, of course not. She naturally refused at first. A video of my men carving your skin got her into the right frame of mind...

After I was done with her beautiful body, I told her that I was going to kill you anyway.

You should have seen the way she struggled to free herself, the horror, the agony, the pain. I wish she saw the pain in the families of those men she put behind bars. What? Don't look at me that way, I'm an extremist."

The bloodied man started crying again, this time with more fervor. "You monster, you animal..."

Al'ravee gave him a wry smile. "I'm a monster, yes, to you I'm a bad man, to my men... I'm their benefactor. Hahaha, it's a whole den of monsters. Don't worry, I won't be a monster for too long. I'm going to set you free so that you can wallow very well in your despair."

The man was shocked, was he going to be left to go, but his daughter...

"I know you might report this to the law enforcement agencies, and I'm in no mood to entertain them. You did nothing wrong honestly, to me that is. The money you and your daughter gave us has been split among many untraceable accounts for me and my men, best thing about this decade's hackers if you ask me.

By the time people can trace it, it would have been removed permanently from the main-net. With all our other wealth, you can wish us all a happy retirement. These last thirty-five years of crime have been interesting. I've done all the things this era could evaluate as a crime, just one more thing before I go"

Al'ravee did not tell him that he was going to commit to most heinous crime he could think of, suicide bombing, and after that move on to the next item on his bucket list.

As for his loyal men in prison, he was not ready to conduct a breakout. Not yet.

...

And just like that, an orphanage with over a thousand children was blown to smithereens along with its inhabitants.

Not everyone was like Al'ravee who could let go and do whatever he or she wanted even though he had something to lose.

Morality? That is as useless as a piece of paper, he has come to find out. Thirty-five years was all it took for Al'ravee to become the boss of the vilest criminal syndicate globally.

Of course, there were times he was close to death... again, with multiple gunshot wounds.

The instinct to avoid causes of death was still there. It wasn't until a few days ago that Al'ravee decided to commit suicide, he had no idea what would happen to him after that.

…

*Three Years Later*

"ugh"

Among a pile of decaying bones, a fresh adult body sat up, pushing away the limbs to the side.

The adult torso still had a half-decayed face with parts of his skull exposed and one missing arm. Eyelids flipped open to reveal pale grey dead eyes which quickly recovered to their original black. The burnt bald head grew back its dark brown hair.

The head turned as its gaze rested upon the shoulder stump where his arm should have been. With pain-filled eyes, he stood up to check his surroundings. Seeing the dead bodies, he could guess what happened.

After the suicide bombing, to reduce panic, they most likely didn't tell the public the actual number of people who died. Him being one of the few adult bodies that they couldn't identify, he was piled up with some selected others so that the vultures would clean up for them.

He knew about this because he had done something similar in the past. The vultures must have eaten his body clean of any flesh. Luckily his bones were still there.

'So that's how it is. Every time I die, the effects of mortality wear out. In my first century, my physiology was pretty much similar to a mortal human, I could die from the usual stuff.

After waking up the first time, the effects had reduced and the aging had slowed down a bit. Injuries took the same time to heal and didn't leave scars. I could get hungry but not die of starvation.

Once said effect completely wears off, it is safe to say that I will truly stop aging. Ris only said gods don't die from aging, he didn't say anything about other means.'

He thought to himself as he observed how bones grew out of his shoulder stump and flesh wrapped around it like fine cloth to finally reveal a slightly muscular arm with a light tan skin tone. Al'ravee brought the hand to his face to observe the minute details on it.

'Death? I'm not sure my parents will allow that.' Al'ravee looked to the sky with a smile that wasn't really a smile on his face.

"The location they dumped me is quite unfamiliar. It'll take some time to find that school again. Anyways, I've always wanted to journey across the continent on foot..."

As he continued talking to himself in a hushed time, he walked away from the skulls and bones, stark naked.

Luckily, the place he was going to was supposed to be on the same continent but some other country far away.

When he finally stepped out of the forest and saw the vast ocean, he knew he had messed up.

After getting some clothes due to the way the locals stared at him, he tried the old method.

Al'ravee spent a few months asking for directions, traveling from one location to another before eventually reaching his destination on his two feet.

I'm front of him was an old temple with an inscription above 'Hidden Gem Templel'.

"Hahaha, hidden gem indeed." Al'ravee laughed out loud in excitement. He remembered watching those guys on the television, showing off their cool fighting skills, those rich kids in the martial arts club who beat him up.

Even if those guys were still alive, Al'ravee had already lost the desire for vengeance.

[Current Age: 140 years]