Shi Zhang, 32, an unremarkable salaryman who works at an unremarkable organization and does so, like a dog for most of the week, sometimes into the weekends for but a meager pay. He can barely feed himself and keep his necessities like electricity and to pay the rent for his measly apartment. Despite his above average looks, his empty wallet and drinking habit chases away any women who he doesn't have to pay willing to talk with him.
For his misfortune, he is often mocked by his peers, who can survive the low pay because of their wealthier family backgrounds, at least, when compared to him, who lost his parents a few years ago, losing his rightful access to the small wealth that they left behind and also his dearest little brother in a drunk driving accident a few months ago. Apart from this, he lived almost like a recluse, except for his workplace duties, he hardly ever spoke to anyone besides his superiors and even they took every chance to mock him, with his old shirts and shoes with cracks along the extremely worn faux leather, in the age of ultrawatches he could only manage to carry around a battered, outdated and almost unusable Pineapple pPhone 8X+, it was his first major purchase in the early days of his university, for his greedy uncle had yet to usurp the family fortune back then. He spent his days working and spent his nights racking up tabs at numerous bars as he tried to drink away his frustrations...
Present Day, 2147, 11:37pm, Rainbow Sun Bar, City B Slums
A knackered Shi Zhang stumbled out of a bar in the city slums, making vague promises to clear his tab as the bar owner followed him out, demanding payment for all the alcohol he had consumed. "Listen here you drunk bastard! You better pay up right now or else we're gonna have some problems!", the owner kept shouting at Shi Zhang who kept stumbling along on his way, the bar owner had a few of his friends go after the man who owed a fine amount to him, to rough him up a little, or a lot... As long as they took anything of monetary value from him as payment, except for his disheveled clothes and shoes, almost anyone who could afford clothes in even this part of the city would not pay half-a-dime for such heavily used clothes.
5 minutes later, in a dark, deserted alley,
"Righty then, are you going to pay up now or do we need to persuade you?", said the burliest of the three men, as he pinned Shi Zhang against the wall. Too drunk to answer, Shi Zhang murmured a slew of insults that this menacing man picked up on, "I'll take that as a yes to the latter", he said with a sadistic grin spreading across his face, the other two thugs picked up junk they could use as blunt weapons and swung with zeal at both of Shi Zhang's legs, aiming to shatter his bones from the get go... As soon as the hits landed, Shi Zhang roared in pain, it pervaded all his senses, but his mind was too foggy for him to focus and try to defend himself. Dissatisfied that their victim's legs had not been bent in towards them, they quickly prepared to take another wild swing, this time they heard clear sound of bone breaking apart, earning another deeply pained gurgle from Shi Zhang, again they prepared to swing, but they were stopped by their leader, who asked Shi Zhang once more, "Right then, will you pay up? Or should we keep playing this game?! We're havin' a blast, can't say the same for your poor ass", memories of getting bullied by low-life asshats in school resurfaced, fueling a raging anger in Shi Zhang's conscious, or whatever was left of it anyways... The pain was too unbearable, in his mind, Shi Zhang was just wishing for these sick bastards to end his misery, he could not live with the constant insults he had to hear everyday, he had yet to come to terms with his brother's untimely death and he thought, 'My life has been a series of absolute misfortunes... and now this immense pain spreading throughout my body, one would surely choose death over all this suffering, I am a fool for having fought my pain so much just to end up like this...'
Shi Zhang was ready for them to kill him, he realized what they followed him for and wanted to push them along on that path, at least he would not suffer after this ended, so he mustered every last bit of his willpower and said but three words, "Go fuck yourselves", lifting his middle finger in the all too courteous gesture, thrusting his half-closed fist at the nose of the man holding him up against the wall, pissing him off further. The now enraged thug threw him to the floor, where he landed hard on his back, struggling to breath from the impact. "This little prick! Kill this bastard!", but he didn't need to say it, the other two had already resumed swinging their weapons, thrashing all of Shi Zhang's limbs, breaking them, including several of his ribs, the decisive blow was the biggest fucker stomping down on his chest, causing the darkness around Shi Zhang's vision to intensify as his brain had its oxygen supply cut off, leaving Shi Zhang's conscious encapsulated by a vast, cold darkness...
'So this is what dying feels like? Well, it sure is a lot of nothingness... fuck the world, all it ever gave me were troubles... first my parents, then my brother, then that sleazy shit pile of an uncle, who cared about money more than anything, and everyone that ever made rude comments about me as I passed by them...', he thought, building up another wild idea in his waning senses, 'Why couldn't I live a prosperous life? Did god create my fate to be so vile?'... His sensation of pain had begun to dull, his heart was about to stop beating and his brain was suffocated, 'Of course I fucking want to live! Nobody gave me any choice in my life! Now I want the chance to make my own choices...', and he faded into the darkness entirely...