The strong eat the weak

"Any last words?" The man asked, holding a gun to the woman's head.

There was a corpse of a dead man right next to her. Despite that, she managed to regain control of her unsteady breath and stifled the urge to cry.

"Yes. Kas, there is a a green system pill under our—" She bit her tongue. "No, my bed. Please take it out, dear."

A teenage boy, frightened to death only flinched at first, but soon he rushed to the bed, stumbling along the way. He feverishly took a small, green shard from beneath the bed and and displayed it on his hand waiting for further instructions.

"Green?" The murderer couldn't resist the urge to laugh. "That's not even enough to cover a quarter of your debt."

"It's not much, but it's all I can give him. At the very least, it will be a good start in his life." The woman explained, her expression filled with regret.

"And what is it that makes you think I'd let him get away?" The man asked, sneering.

"You'll have to."

The man looked visibly confused by the woman's statement, probably wondering how a woman only inches from her death can maintain such a confident attitude. He indulged in his thoughts a bit too much, and reacted just a bit too late when she grabbed his gun and pulled it away from her face.

The gun fired and the bullet missed the woman's head, sewering a strand of her hair.

"Run, Kas! Now!" She bellowed, trying to immobilize the gun, while the murderer struggled to pull it away.

The boy didn't falter this time and despite his eyes brimming with tears, he tightened his fist on the green gem and ran out of the room. He ran, ran and ran. The sound of a gun being fired had reached his ears, but he still continued to run, down through the staircase, out on the street, past many street lamps. And then he stopped.

"I'm so sorry, mom, dad. I'm sorry for being so weak."

Wailing, he stood in the middle of a bridge over the river. He cussed, gritted his teeth and tossed the gem into the river.

"I'm sorry…"

When the realization dawned upon him that throwing away his mother's last gift, probably wasn't a very smart idea, he jumped forward and down into the water with a splash.

He dived down. The water was muddy, and it was dark, so he had a hard time trying to see anything at all. He lingered in inertia looking around, his hope drowning within him. But then he noticed something shimmering from afar. He dived deeper and swam towards it, and as he did the light shined brighter and brighter. But it wasn't green like he thought. It was rather goldish.

He grabbed it and emerged to the surface, panting and heavily grasping for air. He carefully assessed the gem that he had found. His shock was so unmeasurable, that it even dwarfed the urge to cry. The shard was far bigger than the green one, though it still easily fit in his hand. Also, its edges were more rough. He looked in awe at this revelation.

The sound of patter and rustling spread through the air, and he quickly hid the gem behind his back.

"There you are," the murderer said without any distinct emotion in his voice.

"I'll kill you!" The boy screamed. "I'll become powerful enough and I'll kill every single one of you!"

The man cocked an eyebrow. "And just how do you plan on doing that?" He lifted his gun up and aimed at the boy.

Kas turned around and shoved the legendary system pill down his throat, doing his best so that the color of the crystal couldn't be seen. But the shard got stuck midway through, and he began coughing and swallowing ferociously in an attempt to push it through. Its rough edges injured the sides of his throat, and soon he coughed up blood, and it trickled down his mouth.

The murderer laughed. "Look at you! How pathetic! Choking from a measly basic system pill! And you wanted to become powerful."

In response Kas just dropped to the ground and continued vomiting blood while his body writhed in agony.

"Well, guess my work here is done." The man just turned around and left, glancing once more to make sure that the boy has no way of coming out of this alive.

Dark specks danced around Kas's vision, becoming larger and larger. Both from the lack of air and the amount of blood that he had lost, he was losing consciousness. Seeing that the bandit had left, he motioned his fingers to his mouth, and with the last force he had he pushed the crystal down his throat.

With the last bit of consciousness, he noticed a pleasant vibration travel through his body, though it did little to ease his pain. He also heard a distant voice.

"Acquired the devil system."