5

Grace looked at David with pity, she knew the young man since he was in his mother's womb. All his life, he had done nothing but suffer. He had to work twice as hard as normal students because he worked shifts and still needed to read to meet up with his scholarship.

Perhaps he wasn't destined to live a good life, Grace usually thought. He didn't have a girlfriend or any friends because he was too poor. She knew that Caroline only came near him to extort his money but she couldn't bring herself to tell the young man. He would be heartbroken.

"David, what are you thinking about? You should go back to work because the landlord has rented out your apartment, he says he would..." Before Grace finished her words, the small door was kicked open and the lock broke.

Some men rushed in and they looked around looking for someone until they found David. David was too weak to acknowledge them, the death of his mother and the choice that the system brought had weakened him. However, when the men saw him, they rushed to him and grabbed him by the arm.

Grace fell to her knees quickly and begged them to leave him alone.

"Please, he just lost his mother. Please..." Grace begged but the other men did not listen. They dragged David into the middle of the living room and they began to punch him and whack him.

David coughed out blood as each whip touched him, his face moved to the other side, and another blood gushed out of his mouth. As the men were beating David, a big man walked in.

"Leave him alone." The man ordered.

David recognized the voice of the man but he couldn't remember the face. Right on the floor, he was breathing like a broken record, some of his ones were broken as well.

"Do you remember me, David?" Asked the man.

David said nothing, he wanted to open his eyes gently but everywhere was blurry and he couldn't lift his head to look at the man, he had been beaten to a pulp.

"When you remember, come find me." After the man said this, he went away and then the other men followed him.

Grace ran to David, she held his head in her palms.

"Who are those men?" She asked with concern, gently massaging his head. David didn't know, he recognized the voice but couldn't put a face to it.

"Activating Self Healing." The system sounded in his head and then he started to feel himself gain some energy and the pain lessened.

"David Bowis, you have to choose your answer in five seconds or you will self-destruct." The system added, beeping loudly in David's ears. He had no choice but to make his choice immediately.

David picked himself off the floor after making his decision and he walked out of Grace's house. Grace wondered how he had the strength to pick himself up and before she got herself to ask any question, he had gone.

She stood and went to make sure he was truly gone before she went back into her house and picked up her phone and then called a number.

"You said you were going to kill him but your men just came in here, beat him up and they left," Gloria uttered over the phone. The person on the other end was mute for some seconds before responding.

"They are not my men."

Gloria furrowed her brows.

"Well, he is gone now. What about my money?"

"You will only receive the rest of your money when David is dead!" With this, the call ended abruptly.

*

David took a cab to one of the finest hotels in the city, he needed somewhere to stay to execute his forthcoming plans. Getting to the front of the reception, the woman over there welcomed him with a great smile.

"Get me one of your finest suits." He ordered, his mood not very friendly. He had just lost his mother and was beaten up by some group of men he didn't know. Yes, he wasn't in a great mood.

The woman over the counter looked at David from his head down to his toe, he didn't look like he could afford a room. There had been news of con artists everywhere, she quickly believed that David was one of them.

"I know who you are, you should leave here before I signal the security over here." The lady's face was quick to change from friendly to enemy.

David sighed, his dressing didn't complement the money in his bank account. Because he didn't have time to argue with the lady, he took out the black card he acquired and swiped it against the payment teller.

"What did you just do?" The woman widened her eyes, she didn't even look at the screen of the teller, she just signaled the security and he rushed to the scene.

"He is a scam, I think he transferred all of our money into that black card!" She screamed, looking at him with contempt.

The burly security officer looked at David with an angry face. Unfortunately, the security whose name was Paul just found out his sister had been arrested for killing her husband. He wasn't in a very good mood.

The next second he took David by the shirt and gave him a hard punch and this sent David to the floor. Another tooth fell out as he was still fragile from being beaten earlier. David was massaging his left cheek when Paul picked him up again, and was going to send another punch in his belly when the counter lady shouted,

"Stop!" She screamed.

"What?" Paul yelled back.

"He didn't take money, he sent money. He sent one million dollars." The counter lady looked at David who fell to the floor after Paul left him in shock.

"Oh, Mr. Bowis...." The counter lady ran to him and then helped him up. David pushed her hands off him, and then dust himself up. The system had healed him again but he still felt little pain.

"I'm so sorry..."

"Where is your manager?" He glared at her.

Just then, a middle-aged man walked out and went to David.

"Mr. Bowis..."

"Are you the manager?" David interrupted.

"Yes, I.."

"Fire her or I am leaving." David shut the manager with a deep scowl. His face morphed into shades of red and even when the counter lady fell on her knees and cried in apology, David didn't look at her.

He had spent his entire life pleasing people and trying to get them to like him. Until now, he realized unless you're rich, no one cares about you.

"Abigail, you are fired!" Manager Lee uttered without remorse and then gestured for Paul to carry her out.

Paul thought that David would say the same for him but he didn't. He was thankful to his spirit that he wasn't fired, it wouldn't be nice to have two bad news in a day. He did as told and carried Abigail out of the hotel.

"Paul, beg him for me." Abigail continued to sob. She was just trying to protect the company from con artists. She had a mother and siblings at home who are expecting her to return with money.

While Abigail was lamenting and regretting her action, two groups of men walked toward her. They wore suits and sunshades. Abigail wondered who these men are until she was shown a black Lexus car which she got into.

In there she saw another man in a gray suit

"Can you help us kill David Bowis?" Questioned the man without looking at her.

Abigail widened her eyes.

"You will be given one million dollars to execute the man that just got you fired." added the grey suit man.