5 Ride or Die

The planet Pulsar was a unique world, out here in the lonely cosmos. Since the moment a little tadpole swam out of the muck and washed up ashore and developed legs to crawl and struggle against fate with, until early life had first gained its sentience and till these modern days everyone had found themselves reluctantly greeting, strength and violence were universally accepted as both Justice and Law. If you were strong, you were unmistakably in the right. If you had killed someone and your backing just happened to be strong enough, you were also still in the right. The promise everyone believed in on this world and its many continents was that Strength equalled Justice.

This was a lie.

Only the rich truly had the resources necessary to become stronger. Thus, 'Justice' was the best friend of the wealthy and why everyone would be more than ecstatic for an opportunity to serve the wealthiest families and the nobility. Grabbing onto the right pants leg meant the chance to turn your whole life around, defying one's fate and attaining the right to be counted amongst the strong and enjoy the stipend of resources that would inevitably trickle down your way.

Was this fair? Hardly, but fortunately these wealthy elite were usually always too busy fighting amongst themselves to bother with those weaker than them. Karma is a funny temptress that way.

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Inside the penthouse, an interesting tableau was occurring. Two women and a man were locked together grappling. The women were attempting to lift him off his feet and lie him down on the leather sofa a feet away from the trio, whilst the man was protesting and trying to reassure them that he wasn't an invalid. It was a mess.

"I've already said I'm fine! I don't need a doctor. You two..." Kiran wailed.

"You were in a coma for two years, Royal Husband. Let us at least call a doctor to make sure you're fine." Hong Ga Eun patiently advised, whilst she had grabbed hold of his waist with both arms and was fiercely pressing her face to his belly.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Going outside can wait until after we get an all-clear from the doctor." Liu Yan Yan had a leg in her hands whilst she struggled to latch onto the remaining one.

"You two! Stop it! Just stop and let's talk!! You're pulling my pants down!" Kiran Bei ended up having to raise his voice and yell.

Reluctantly, and with embarrassment showing on their faces, Ga Eun and Yan Yan let go, but both eyed him sternly, as if afraid he would turn into bubbles and disappear before their very eyes. Perhaps feeling the severity of their gazes, Kiran's brain worked at a faster pace than normal before he continued speaking, almost out of breath.

"Listen. You've got to listen. The reason why I fell into a coma was, because I was breaking through. Everyone knows I had trouble cultivating and that I was essentially a waste due to being poisoned as a kid, but I never gave up trying. I finally found a way to fix the problem and began to cultivate it, but I miscalculated, okay." Kiran huffed.

"I thought I had a bit more time to settle matters before the coma would eventually arrive, but it just had to arrive on our wedding night. So! I'm sorry." here Kiran prayed. He prayed with all his might that they'd buy his bluff. These two women were just a little bit too strong in the force. And their strength frightened him.

"Is that really true? Why haven't I ever heard of someone falling into a coma whilst cultivating? Yan-Er, have you heard of anything like that?" Ga Eun refused to budge as she looked quizzically at Liu Yan Yan. Her cute face had wrinkled as she frowned and pursed her ruby red lips in doubt.

"No, Your Highness. This is Yan-Er's first time too..." the lady in the white suit shook her heard gently. Kiran had to admit she looked adorable when she blinked her eyes and her long lashes quivered.

This was an embarrassment of riches. He wanted to grab them both and hug them close, but the two of them could easily overpower him when they worked together. He looked at the floating three lines of text above their heads in doubt. Their names and levels were displayed alongside a health bar. According to the data, Hong Ga Eun was at level 21, whilst Liu Yan Yan was at level 20, so where did their crazy strength come from? Sure, he wasn't trying to resist them with all his level 50 might, but when two women jump you as they had done previously, the struggle quickly becomes real enough. This puzzled Kiran quite a bit.

"Wifey, you said that it's been two years since I fell into a coma?"

"Yes, it's been two years."

"This place doesn't look like the Bei clan?" Kiran continued.

As soon as the Bei clan was mentioned, the two beauties wore unpleasant expressions on both their faces. Kiran was certain that he saw traces of anger in their visages, alongside clear and apparent disappointment and disgust.

" Sigh. Tell me what happened." with a foreboding feeling welling up inside his chest, he took Ga Eun's hand and led her towards the sofa. Her soft touch and dainty hands felt incredibly refreshing in his hands. Kiran had to admit he was enjoying her touch and even after they had sat down, he didn't let go of her hands.

Meanwhile, Ga Eun couldn't help staring at her husband. His actions were different from what she expected. She could have almost sworn that he was taking advantage of her, but when she remembered the serious and pained look he had worn during their wedding she became confused.

'Didn't he hate me? Why is he so different now?' She thought to herself whilst staring at his face, searching for answers that never came.

"Ga Eun." Kiran reminded her, as he had noticed her drifting off.

"Yes?" the beautiful wife nearly jumped up in surprise.

"Tell me what has happened during these past two years. Please."

After taking a deep breath, Hong Ga Eun took hold of her husband's hands too and held them in hers. What was strange was that signs of pity surfaced in her expression, before she began to recount the events of the past two years.

"Your Bei clan. They abandoned you and kicked us out a few weeks after you had fallen into the coma. The doctors said... that you were a vegetable. They said you'd never wake up ever again and your Bei clan kicked us husband and wife out just like that. So I brought you here to my Hong Enterprise hotel"

"So your family are looking out for us?"

"They...aren't." Ga Eun hung her head down and became silent.

"Then..." Kiran wanted to continue asking her, but it looked like she didn't have the strength to continue. He looked towards Liu Yan Yan for answers. Sensing him staring at her, she carried on for Ga Eun.

"The Hong family wanted Her Highness to annul the marriage with you, Your Majesty. Her Highness fell out with her family, because she did not wish to abandon you." Yan Yan couldn't help clenching her fists at her sides as she spoke, though it was unclear who her anger was directed at.

"If it weren't for her grandmother who gave Her Highness this hotel eight years ago, you two would have been destitute long ago. Now everyone is bullying her, because she is you wife!"

"What do you mean?" Kiran began to ask in puzzlement.

"Because of your Northern territories. There are people coveting your territory and since I am your wife, they are trying to get me to sign it over to them while you are comatose and unable to do anything to stop it." Ga Eun now looked up, but her beautiful face was awash with fatigue.

"They've invited Her Highness to the 3rd Centennial banquet tomorrow, using her position as royalty as an excuse for her to show up, but this is very obviously a trap!" Yan Yan waved a cream coloured and gold embossed card around in the air in anger and frustration at the unfairness of the world.

After listening to everything, Kiran became silent as solemnity took hold of him. Kiran felt that it was unfair. In both the worlds that he knew, he'd suffered losses and discrimination due to others, but he truly felt touched that he'd met someone unwilling to ditch him even in the face of such hardships. He looked at the cheat system floating overhead to his left and mulled over a difficult decision, before he looked gently at Ga Eun and smiled.

Ga Eun didn't know why, but at that exact moment, all her worries that had plagued her over the years just happened to vanish into thin air. There was something irresistibly charming and reassuring about her husband's confident smile.

"Wifey, buy me a tuxedo, okay? I have nothing to wear to the party tomorrow." Kiran whined like a spoiled boy toy.