Chapter 1 – Failure Upon Failure

[A suspect for the cat serial-killing that had been happening for the past two months was caught last night after the patrol police accidentally saw a woman left poisonous food for stray cats in a small alley in Red Rose City]

The television that was attached to the wall of the convenience store showed the usual 8 pm news. The 8 pm news was where the television station reported on major events or news to the public.

If there were 12 television channels in a country, all the channels would have the 8 pm news.

At the moment, the hot news was the cat serial-killing. It had been a month since the case entered the headlines.

This cruel act happened in Red Rose City, a big city located in the Rose State, south of Flaewery Country.

This case was discovered a month before it made the headlines but the police kept it quiet because it was not a big case in the beginning.

It started with a stray cat but the number kept increasing until a citizen found almost a hundred stray cats were killed cruelly by poison at one location.

This discovery shocked the city's citizens and they demanded strongly for the police to catch the criminal as fast as possible.

They felt bad for the dead cats but they were also worried about their life. Many dramas on television stated that serial killers usually started small.

For example, killing animals and slowly went bigger and bigger until they started killing the humans. This situation was almost similar to the dramas.

Thanks to the many crime dramas, the citizens were in fear. This fear caused the case to go viral on social media and thus, made the headline in the news on every television channel almost every day.

Fortunately, a month had passed and the suspect was identified and caught. It surprised everyone when it was revealed that the suspect was a housewife.

Many speculations appeared online as the motive of that housewife such as stress from marriage, cheating husband, violent husband, disobedient children, and many more.

Be that as it may, they were speculations and the housewife was still a suspect until proved otherwise.

A young man sat on a chair behind the counter while watching the news. He had straight, short black hair with a bang covering his forehead and wore black thick-rimmed glasses.

The young man was on the skinny side but not too skinny. He wore a white t-shirt paired with jeans. On top of the white t-shirt, he had the light blue convenience store's vest indicating that he was an employee there.

"Luckily, this is happening far from this city," the young man mumbled.

The convenience store was located in a small neighborhood in Blue Tulip City. This city was located in Tulip State which was located south of Flaewery Country.

So, the case of the cat serial-killing happened quite far away from his location.

"Yeah, this is scary right?" another man spoke in front of the counter, shocking the young man.

He looked at the front of the counter and a young man stood there with a smile. On the counter were some instant foods and juices.

"I am sorry," the young man apologized. He was so absorbed with the news that he did not notice the customer.

"Hahaha, it is fine. Everyone is worried about this case anyway. Luckily, the perpetrator is caught," the customer added.

"She is not yet confirmed as the perpetrator though. Just a suspect. Other than 'caught in the act', the police had yet to reveal more concrete evidence," the young man spoke.

"Maybe she just saw the food container and went to check it but then, the police accidentally saw it and she was caught," he added.

"Nice deduction but this is not a drama. Maybe she is the real culprit," the customer disagreed.

The young man scanned the items bought by the man and said, "10.75 Fil." Fil was the currency used in this world.

The customer paid with his e-wallet. He took his items and left the store. The young man sat on the chair again and continued watching the news but it was a piece of different news now.

Maybe because of the cat serial-killing case, there was a lot of news about cats. Certain organizations saving stray cats and dogs, searching for people adopting the strays, and many more.

While the young man was watching the news, *Ting!* his phone rang with the message tone.

He checked his phone and saw an email. His eyes widened in excitement and immediately unlocked his phone and checked on the email.

The email appeared on his phone screen and the young man immediately read it.

[Dear Mr. Danial.

Thank you very much for attending our interview for our Architect Intern position at Exev Company. We enjoyed meeting, learning about your skills and experience, and having a really interesting conversation.

Unfortunately, we decided to proceed with our selection with another candidate.

It is a hard decision…]

There was more to the email but Danial was not interested to read the rest. When he saw he failed the interview, there was no need to continue reading.

The excitement he had previously disappeared without a trace but a look of frustration and helplessness substituted his excitement.

"How many times is it now? 13th time?" Danial mumbled. He had been going on many interviews but failed all of them.

Danial graduated in Architecture and had been job-hunting for a while now. His degree was from a good college in the country but he still failed to land a job.

He applied for many companies but the big and popular companies all failed him from the first screening. He passed the first stage for some of them but failed the second stage.

Danial failed to even get an interview at the big companies but he managed to get it for smaller companies.

Be that as it may, even after many interviews, he still failed all of them.

"What did I do wrong this time?" Danial mumbled.

When he first attended an interview, he was too nervous and shy. He stuttered and talked nonsense when asked a question.

Danial recognized this and tried his best to practice in front of a mirror. He also searched for common questions asked during interviews so that he could practice answering them.

However, this problem continued until his fourth interview.

Luckily, he got used to the interview's scenery and he did better in his fifth interview onward. Although not perfect, it was better than his first four interviews.

Still, it looked like luck was not on his side, "Or perhaps I am still stuttering when talking but I did not realize it?"

"Sigh…" Danial sighed and he sat listlessly on the chair. He looked at the air and seemed to be in deep thought but he was merely drowning himself in wallows.

Many of his friends had started working but he and another friend were the only two that had failed to get a job.

If his problem was stuttering, his friend's problem was 'enthusiasm'. They went for interviews with the same company a few times before and his friend always answered the question like he was yelling.

It was so loud that Danial, who was waiting outside the room, could hear it. He could also see some of the employees handling the interviewee outside the room chuckling and shaking their heads.

Moreover, from the content of his answer, it sounded like he was bragging although he was just trying to appeal to them by mentioning and showing off his strength.

His friend was too loud and that bragging might appear annoying to the interviewer.

Danial's enthusiasm right after graduation had dimmed considerably. He had lost hope and had a feeling that he would continue to rack up more failures.

"I need to think of what to do if I keep failing. The recruitment season is ending soon and I still cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel…" Danial mumbled.

*Ni ning ni ning ni ning ni* his phone suddenly rang. Danial looked at his phone and saw it was his friend that had been met with the same fate as him.

"Hello, Bobby," Danial answered the phone.

"I DID IT!!! I GOT THE JOB AT EXEV!!!" Bobby screamed excitedly. Danial put the phone away from his ears. This energy was higher than before. Danial could see that his friend was excited.

Although the Exev Company was a small one, Bobby was happy nonetheless. He had failed many interviews and had finally got a job. Who would not be happy?

"…" When Danial heard that, he was silent for a few seconds. He was sad, jealous but also happy for his friend. Even so, he could not put a smile on his face.

"Hey. You got it too, right?" Bobby asked happily.

"Hmm… I didn't get it," Danial replied bitterly but he added, "Congratulations." He could not smile but he forced one. Although Booby could not see it, he still decided to smile.

Bobby was a bit surprised by that. Danial was a better student than him. Not only that but he was also one of the smartest students in their course.

Although Danial was not the no. 1 student, he was in the top 20. For him to keep failing was a bit weird. Even a small company did not want to hire him?

"Erm, I am sure you will find your opportunity at another place. Don't lose hope," Bobby gave a bit of encouragement. He felt guilty for being too excited earlier but he could not control it.

After facing too many failures, this small success exploded his unhappiness immediately and gave birth to extreme happiness.

Unless the person had some kind of illness, everyone would be happy when met with this situation.

Danial smiled, "Thank you." Although he felt conflict in his mind, he was thankful for Bobby's encouragement.

The duo talked a bit more until a customer came and Danial ended the call.

After he served the customer, Danial was seriously thinking of finding another path. He could not continue like this.

"If no one wants to hire me, how about I hire myself?" Danial thought.

"Setting up my own company sounds like a good idea," he mumbled. Nevertheless, this thought disappeared immediately.

"Heh!" He scoffed at himself.

"I don't even have any capital to set up my own company. What a stupid idea."

"Even if I manage to open my own company, I don't have any reputation. I don't have any successful projects under my belt. I don't have any connection with anyone. My company will close its door immediately after opening."

Danial knew what problem he would encounter if he opened his own company. He was a newbie… No! He was a beginner.

He just graduated from college without any experience other than the college's mandatory internship which did not give him much experience other than being an errand boy.

Who would want to entrust him with jobs when he had no experience?

Learning theories and small group projects were not enough to apply to the real job. They were nothing more than an insignificant school project.

"Getting hired to a company is still a better way. I will be exposed to a real project and gain more experience. I will be able to participate in many projects and will have my name left in those projects which will help me build my reputation."

"If I am to go solo after that, I will not have much problem getting a small project…" Danial kept mumbling but he knew that was all a dream.

Even with reputation, that did not guarantee him with projects. The world was not as simple as that.

Danial continued with his job. There were quite a lot of customers that night. This was common. There would be a lot of customers starting from 5 pm to 12 midnight.

Usually, those that got the afternoon shift would be the busiest with customers. Although the night shift had fewer customers, they needed to do other jobs like stocking, cleaning, arranging, and many more.

So, the morning shift was the best one. Few customers except during the weekend and the staff only needed to do some simple stocking and cleaning because the night shift staff had completed most of them.

It was 11 pm and Danial's shift was over. The night shift staff came and he went home. Along the way, he kept thinking about his future path.

He had a feeling that he would not be able to get a job and needed to find an alternative.

While waiting for the bus, Danial played with his phone and opened the video streaming app, Ayetube.