"Take this blunt, my friend!"
In an alleyway, a long-haired bearded man with lifeless brown eyes adorning a dirty white shirt and torn-up trousers gave a dirty transparent cylinder object to a man in gold-white robes who crouched next to him.
Lin fang stared at the object with disgust before waving his hands, signifying a no.
"Tsk, don't regret it in future!" The homeless man said before smoking it himself as it released a dense pink smoke with white bubbles inside it.
Lin looked away, not wanting whatever that smoke contained to get into his system.
After the man finished, Lin asked, "Why are you the only one here!"
The alleyway was filled with just the two of them even on other boardwalks. This man caught his attention, so he came here to talk to him and maybe get some info on the world.
The man had a sad face as he answered, "Because I chose to be here!"
Lin understood nothing of what he said.
"Chose!?"
The Man continued, "A long time ago…
I was very rich. I was on the billboard for the richest in the damn solar system…! They hailed me for my hard work and innovation…! But only I knew what it took for me to reach that level."
The man looked at his hands before saying, "Do you know how much their souls hunt me…the planets I extorted,—the towns I wiped out for their minerals! I don't eve-"
Lin interrupted him with a scoff and said, "You lie! If that was the case, I am sure no one would just pass by here and ignore the 'richest person in the system'-"
"I didn't say I was the richest oh no, there were those who were much, much crueler than me!"
The man interrupted, and Lin had an embarrassed expression as he replied,
"Hmph, same thing."
"I suppose you are right. I might just be a poor man suffering from his delusions! But I might be right too, you know."
The man said with a smile, taking another puff of the transparent cigarette.
"Ok, I'll play along, Mr richest, so! How did you reduce to this level?"
Lin asked, now sitting down on the glass-like floors.
"This planet is the cause! I built this paradise! Making a planet is more expensive than they would make you think, Ha Ha Ha."
"You built what!?"
Lin did not want to believe, so he uttered a runic word, ᛏᚱᚢᛏᚺ ᛋᛖᛖᛁᚾᚷ ᛖᚤᛖ{Truth seeing eye}
His eyes glowed gold as he watched the confident man with sweat dripping down his cheeks.
.
.
.
[Boom!]
An explosion sounded in a faraway glass skyscraper, and the wind from the blast moved their hair as they stared at it while moving their hands to cover their faces.
The mysterious man nudged Lin, causing him to look in his direction. He noticed the man covered his face with his{the man} back facing him for some reason and raised an eyebrow at his action.
[Clank!]
A bunch of glass sounded around them as they collided on the floor, with some pieces landing on Lin's back.
It made him flinch, and he wanted to open up a portal instinctively, but the Old Man placed his hands on Lin's shoulders, calming him.
"You are very tense, young man, it will cause you to make mistakes!"
Lin nodded, and the man continued, "Ah, the typical anarchist who wants nothing but to overthrow the order, but… they are going about it the wrong way. this path will only lead to a dead-end."
As he said that, a couple of masked men came out from the explosion, holding laser files as they stepped into a pod.
Lin watched the scenario that took place on the destroyed portion of the building on the other side of the street as the man said, "it's never the villains that rule the world, it's the 'heroes.'"
Lin's magic slowly flared, like he found his purpose—
"The villain destroys the system, the hero makes a new system from its ashes, that's how it will always be, it's an eternal cycle, yes…but one that will always work."
Lin then slowly stood up while staring at the militants who put the hostages into the pods
A memory soon emerged from the depths of his mind.
__
"Lin, Lin, stop drinking, Jesus! You are turning into an alcoholic at this rate! Are you trying to kill yourself?"
A woman in a tuxedo that delivered drinks at the other side of the bar stand said.
She had a fair complexion, Pink hair that was packed with bangs, and a round face adorned with black-tinted glasses.
"Whos… gonna… stop me? I own this.. city! My father is mayor and my mother uhh, barrhhhh."
Lin vomited the drinks on the marble floor with red eyes, and other people in the fancy bar looked at him in disgust.
"Ohhh… you? what Re ypu looking …? Huh! You don't know who I am? i am son of Barhhhh!"
Lin vomited again, and the people close to him hurriedly escaped.
"Oh? Now... you're running? Why don't you run from my father's money huh!!! If I was poor, none of you would even look at me!?"
He said as he strumbled about, "Why are ypu taking pictores… stop it, you… motherfu,"
Lin took the cellphone close to him and bit it, scratching his lips while injuring it in the process, "Pfft, just a scratch!"
Lin stumbled, and his bodyguard noticed the commotion and ran to help him up, but Lin shoved him away.
"I don't need you??? Barhhh, I don't need all of you!!! You are all… hypocrites… every last one offff you…" Lin shook his head as his vision now turned completely blurry.
"I am feeling…narphh."
Lin fell to the ground as his head blood pressure skyrocketed.
The bartender came to him and knelt by his side as she checked up on him and kept asking, "Lin!!! Are you ok? Speak to me!?"
And Lin whispered, "I… am tired of this life… I want something… different… I want to… die!"
As his vision faded away.
___
Lin slowly opened his eyes to a hospital room and looked around, and saw a woman lying by the side of his bed.
The woman noticed his movement and looked up, and a happy expression made it on her face as she hurriedly went to the door and screamed, "Honey!!! Our son is awake!!"
.
.
.
A few moments later, a low-cut silver-bearded white-haired man in a black suit that adorned a flower on its chest area while wearing glasses walked in.
His expression seemed to be—rage.
The white-haired man held a paper and dropped it to Lin's side as he said one sentence, "Why are you a disgrace!?"
In the coldest tone he could muster, Lin could only look towards the blinds.
"Well, I guess you are not so useless… you made headlines… but why… did you have to be so moronic you, bastard!!!"
[Crack!]
The man said in rage as he threw a phone to the window and smashed it.
"Honey, it was a mistake-"
"Shut up!!"
The man pointed to Lin's mom before continuing, "We have spoiled this boy too much!!! Now he's going around disgracing our family name."
The man then laid on a table, placed facing the wall, and said, "We should have just adopted."
He then pointed at Lin and said, "December 28, Rosebud Garden, you will be making an apology in front of National Tv for your actions! Be there, or you will see what it really means for me to be angry."
Lin's dad then threw a stack of money to Lin's face and said, "Be useful for once in your life and pay for the damaged mirror, now will you, boy."
[Bang!]
With that said, he left, banging the door as he crossed the door while Lin's mother rushed to Lin's side, petting him on the shoulders and consoling him.
But her words fell on deaf ears as Lin just the bed sheets with tears falling down his cheeks, and from the corner of his eyes, he saw a tv show.
"Ultra…man."
___
The memory ends with a tear flowing down Lin's eyes, and the mysterious man at his back chuckled.
Lin looked as the robbers entered the bullet-shaped pod that floated on the spot.
Lin placed his hands in front of him and a portal manifested in front of him.
Lin had a determined expression as the wind blew his gold-white silver-like mage robes, and before entering the portal, he said, "In this life."
.
.
.
"I want to… a hero."