Meteorite

'Boom'

Crashed a meteorite in the sea.

Whole world was keeping an eye on that meteorite for a while now. They got the news from scientists that it will hit this sea when the sun of new year will start to rise.

So many people around the world came to witness this scene. Although they can't get too close, many wealthy individuals around the world had their own ways to experience this once in a lifetime incident.

For many people this is a incident that marks the beginning of a new journey while for others it means the end. Many lovers appreciated the incident with various excitement and promises.

It became a great time for couples to form. In reverse, many also said goodbye to their loved ones.

But for good or bad, this day, this moment started and ended many things for many people.

...

Two years later..

There is a city called Dark Cloud City in country X. It is a city which is almost as large as a small country. This city is home to almost three hundred million people.

People come here every day in order to change their life or reinvent themselves. They come here with the dream to improve their career, to study, to set up business, to set up their family etc.

This city because of it's large area is divided into five regions. The five regions are respectively called east region, west region, north region, south region and central region.

Central region is the heart of this city. Other four regions have always been under the rule of central region.

In Dark Cloud city's South region, there is a place called turtle street. Do not be fooled by it's name as this street has no similarity to turtle. It's a very busy street with a crowded stream of people.

Both sides of the road are covered by street peddlers peddling their staff to people. This is a great place to lower to mid- class people for shopping. They can buy various goods in a cheap price here. There were workers returning home, children that returned from tuition, elderly buying vegetables, and the many different travel-worn hiker, causing the dark sky to seem more and more depressing.

Perhaps within a giant city like this, such a region was the disgrace that people looked down upon the most, a region they wished never existed. But for many people this is their home, their lifeline. They can pass their life only because this place exists.

In a corner of this street, there is a stall that sells people various types of pickle. There is so many kinds of pickle here that people can become confused easily.

The stall is operated by a young man. This was a young man covered in oil and dirt, selling pickle. He was wearing a black collared t-shirt , grey coloured three quarters pants, and a pair of striped black plastic slippers.

The young man's hair was messy, but he had a rather mature and handsome face, if one took a closer look, one would notice this was a man with courage and fortitude. It's a pity that no matter how handsome he looked, the ladies walking along the street wouldn't even pay him a glance, because, he was just a pickle peddler.

In this hot weather, his business of pickle is booming. But two dollar per two hundred gram pickle is very expensive for most people.

But he has a very crafty strategy to attract customers. Every weekend he sells pickle for free. Once a customer tastes his pickle, he comes for a second time Every time. His pickle is the same as all the other pickle found in any of the stores but their taste is completely different.

So when a customer returns for pickle the alternative days, he has to pay the price. Still not many people can afford the price. But he is generous enough to sell them the pickle for lesser portion too. But they still have to pay even if they purchase one gram pickle.

However, the young man didn't seem to be dejected by this shortage of sell, he instead had a relaxed and satisfied expression. He sat down on his stool, looking towards the crowded street, as if this view was the prettiest scenery he had ever seen.

"Old Ka, it's about time you paid for what you agreed upon 2 days ago!" A high-pitched male voice suddenly appeared from his left side.

He saw five men coming from that way. The five approaching males didn't look above 20 and were dressed like gangsters, with upright hair, silver chains, holey jeans, scraggy faces, and a cigarette in their mouths.

OId Ka was a peddler selling snacks right beside the young man. But oppositely, due to the hot weather he didn't have much business and was on his seat with a worried expression.

"This...." Old Ka showed a crying face, "My dear friends, please be patient. With this hot weather, how am I able to pay without any business? You have to understand my misery ..."

"Listen here KaKa, don't take a yard after being given an inch. If it wasn't for big bro Zuma protecting you, this stall of yours would've been wrecked long ago." A henchman said in a threatening, yet flattering way.

The henchmen called old Ka by his full name which is disrespectful to call an elderly. But nobody seemed to care.

Old Ka was stuck without a way out and tightly gripped the small stack of notes in his pocket, considering whether or not to spend it like that. The money was meant for his wife to see a doctor, how could he tolerate to use it as a protection fee for these hooligans!?

"I'll pay for him." The young man from the pickle stall suddenly walked over, and took out a few notes from his pocket, not even amounting to 50 dollars. He handed it over and indifferently said: "This is all I have, Old Ka is getting on in years and urgently needs money, you guys should accumulate some good karma for later years too."

The little ruffian squinted his eyes and laughed, then took the notes and passed it to his henchman behind, "Ray Tristan, you want to pretend to be a good person, but you haven't paid your own protection fee!"

The young man named Ray Tristan creased his eyebrows, lamenting in his heart about why these fellas were not properly studying at home at this age. Why be a ruffian, but as he wasn't their father, it wasn't his position to say anything. He also didn't want to stir up trouble now, so he dully said: "Tomorrow, I will pay tomorrow."

"Good, I'm not an heartless person, so everybody should cooperate as that makes everyone's life nice and easy. I protect your businesses and you pay me money as a matter of fact... I will come tomorrow to collect then." After speaking, the little ruffian and his four henchmen strutted towards other stalls, bringing them grief and agony.