I had always had bad luck, but it was true that when I hit puberty, it got a lot worse. Then when I was almost 18, near-death occurrences started to happen.
"Did this happen to me?" I asked, and that made Zeus laugh out loud.
"Happen to you? Did you know that 6 divine beings died trying to kill you? Every one of the ones that we sent save for the last one that Jim sent as a test. Sarah, or Virgo as she is known here, is still in a mental hospital in your world. Since she failed, she will have to live out her life in your world, but I think she will only last a year. I am sure she will be back here before you leave if you want to say hi. You probably don't. She is going to be pissed, and since she can't lash out at Jim, shit rolls downhill," Zeus said, and then picked up a piece of paper with very little on it. "Anyways, here is a list of your earnings, but it only has the 3 million Mana for a heavily assisted kill without death and a 500,000 bonus for the new friend betrayal," Zeus explained as I took the paper and folded it up.
"So? What now? And what is up with the time difference?" I asked.
"1 year in the world is one day here, do the math yourself. Now, you are going to meet with Helena, Hades' daughter. She is a good divine being, but she failed and was killed. Now the competition is the only one left with the target, Ace Mentura. While normally, this would be fine, and we would just send another being, this world is reaching a Critical Chaos State, or CCS for short," Zeus explained.
"What is a CCS?"
"It is a rare phenomenon where the universe adapts to the increasing chaos, and instead of trying to kill the target, I work to protect him. These targets are special but are lost most of the time because they take insane amounts of chaos before something bad happens. This event is known as a CCS. We normally can't do anything about it, and we almost always look at our targets. This is a test to see if you can be the solution to this problem."
"You mean, you don't know if I can even kill him?"
"No, we know that you have the ability to, but the question is if you can. Think what it would be like if that chaos that has bothered you your entire life didn't try to kill you? What would it be like if it worked to protect you?" Zeus asked, and I blinked at him.
"If my back luck was good?" I asked, and he nodded, but I just shook my head. "I can't even fathom what that would be like, but I think I understand what you mean. Everything will work to protect him and tries to stop me from killing him, unlike with Brice, right?"
"Exactly! Your Chaos Trigger gives you the same ability, but it is only what it is; a trigger. The more that you use it, the more you will reshape your relationship with chaos. While the chaos will be protecting your next target, he can not control it. The chaos is controlling him. We need you to kill Ace, and we need you to make sure that you do him good and dirty," Zeus said, his voice getting dark.
I flinched back and scrunched up my face. "Huh? Do him dirty?!" I asked in confusion, but then I remembered something Jim had congratulated me on and the bonus. "Wait, you want me to betray him or something?!"
"Ha! Sharp as a whip!" Zeus laughed.
"Why?! Why am I getting paid bonuses for something like a betrayal?" I asked. I hadn't even really thought about it with everything that was going on.
"So, the way it works is, you go in, kill them, and they get sent to your client, right? Well, there is this thing called the Chaos System. It governs how the person's life goes on the road to becoming a divine being. It works strangely, but the basics are that the worse your first life is, the better your first transmigrated life is. After that, they need to have a successful life, or they get an extra lifetime tacked on. There is a bunch of other stuff, but that doesn't matter to you. What matters is that you need to try and make their life hard and give them lots of problems. The more problems, the better Blessings the clients can give them. You got to see one of the moments in the Spirit World."
"So I am just bad news, and luck walking is what you are trying to say? Tack on a multi-universal killer?"
"Pretty much. Your job is to shit in the target's cereal, piss in their bed, steal their girl, whatever it takes, but do not use violence. The only time violence is okay with a target is when you are trying to kill them. You can not torture, rape, abuse, or anything of that nature or you will summon Wraiths. These fuckers will just remove you from existence. This extends to anyone close to them as well. We are not sure why it is or what the Wraiths are, but we just don't when it comes to that stuff. Protecting a person close, or even the target, is fine, and that will even get you some points, but it has to be a life-saving save, if you know what I mean," Zeus explained, and I nodded.
"What if something other than me kills them?" I asked.
"Job ends, and then, only if the target has received 50% of the total chaos by a divine being, they move on with that one, and you don't get paid, and you have to pay for world damages out of your own pocket. You were lucky this time and had an easy kill, and the truck was covered by insurance. Sometimes you will end up making a mess of the world, and it takes Mana to reconstruct them. Someone has to pay for that. This is why poverty is such a problem right now. There is always a loser."