Maverick Calle

Calle still remembered exactly what had just happened to him as the picture of the truck speeding towards him was as clear as an 8K resolution video replaying again and again in his head, reminding him of the stupid thing that he had just done even though he had his eyes shut, in hopes of not feeling any kinds of pain as his consciousness fades away from within him.

And it seems to work for him as Calle didn't feel even the slightest bits of pain from being hit by a truck. The only thing that he felt was his body vibrating for a split second before he was put inside his current situation.

The feeling of his body freely floating without restraint as if he was in space. With no force such as gravity bounding his body or even the heavy thoughts in his head chaining his mind from wandering to wherever he wanted it to go. The feeling of totally unrestrained freedom filled both his mind and body as Calle's body floated in empty space without anyone or anything pushing him to move anywhere from his current place.

Different from being submerged in deep water where you would feel the water pressure filling your ears and nose, and you have to hold your breath while underwater, Calle didn't feel any of that as he didn't feel any pressure on his ears and he was now breathing better than ever, taking huge breaths and releasing them without heaving a single sigh.

'Well, reincarnation and afterlife might be just some made-up stories. But I don't think people would mind even if they were told that what awaits after their death is this sense of… liberty… freedom… and…sereness.' Calle said aloud in his mind as he enjoyed his current situation and thought about the life that he had lived so far.

He wouldn't say that his life was miserable, nor would he say that he lived a fulfilling life. At first, he thought that life was unfair when both of his parents died in an accident in a place somewhere that he didn't even know the name of and suddenly left him and his sister alone. However, after learning that such cases were happening all over the world and hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands of kids were also being left by their parents due to one reason to another, Calle thought that it was just meant to happen to him and his sister, and he didn't think that he should feel that he deserve more attention or care just because of it.

His mother had a little sister, which means that Calle and his sister had an aunt, and he expected that he would be living with his aunt since his mother was quite close with his aunt.

But he never expected that his aunt would put him and his sister in an orphanage after he gave her his mother's bank account. She had actually also asked about his father's bank account, but since he didn't know anything about either, the aunt didn't pry him any further and seems to be happy with the money that she got just from his mother's account.

The aunt didn't actually dump him and his sister just like that without any reason, she told him that she would be holding onto his mother's money until he grew up and she would send money to him and his sister monthly, and the reason for throwing him and his sister to the orphanage is that they didn't have any space left for them in their house.

Calle was still young back then and he didn't know how much money his mother had, but after he grew up, he had known that his aunt could have bought a bigger home that was big enough for him, his sister, and her whole family to live comfortably.

As years went by, the aunt stopped sending them money, saying that their mother's money had all been used up and the aunt couldn't afford to spend more expenses as her family was also struggling. And of course, little Calle also believed her and didn't know about the 1000 credits clothes that she wore when she visited him to tell him about the news of her 'struggle'. It only looked like plain clothes to him back then, but after knowing about brands and recognizing the Louis Futon brand on his aunt's clothes back then, Calle also found out about the bullcr*p that she had told him about.

Fortunately for him, he was saving up the monthly allowance that her aunt gave him and it was enough for him to rent a small room for him and his sister to live and he still had some money left to buy the cheapest second-hand virtual gaming pod available after he posted about it online.

He had seen people making money from the incredibly popular game and it wasn't that hard to earn money as even just the in-game currency had many potential buyers. So as he worked part-time during the night, as the place where he was working gave a higher salary for people taking night shifts, he also played the game during the day after he got some sleep so that he would be able to boost his income even more because his sister was on her last year of high school and he wanted his sister to go into a good college so that she can live comfortably after she graduated and possibly meet and marry someone rich so that she won't have to work hard to achieve a happy life.

It was a good choice for Calle to start playing the game as he found out that he was really good at it and he was eventually able to make money by doing miscellaneous requests from people in the game, and the moment he met Merce, his income had been greatly boosted as Merce gave him jobs that pay a lot from all kinds of people. And that is when he created his mercenary guild and met Alex and Rey when he was doing his job and invited them to join since he felt they have a lot in common with each other.

His life then went uphill from that point on and it didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon as he got more and more money, he moved to a bigger apartment complex, his sister got into a prestigious college, and if he wanted anything he would have the money to afford it. But he wasn't even able to reach his peak as his life was suddenly cut short because of his stupid act and empathy, saving strangers that he didn't even know the name of because they reminded him of himself and his sister.

'But dying might not be that bad after all…' He said after he reached the end of his thoughts.

Calle was about to try and shut his mind down since he had nothing to think about anymore and just wanted to enjoy the emptiness, but before he was able to do that, a blinding light suddenly appeared right in front of him.

A bundle of light was all that he could see at first, but after the light calmed down, Calle could finally see that the brilliant shine in front of him all came from a single person that was floating some distance above himself.

"Nice to meet you, Maverick Calle."