The awareness of losing everything makes our skin crawl that reaches deep in our soul, and we would rather die than see it happen, right before our eyes.
Planet Earth, Country J, City 3, one of the 60 cities in Country J, in a dark alleyway in the middle of the silent cold night.
"Kyaaaaaaaa!!!!"
A scream of a lady resounded.
Her face was painted with dread. She was holding her stomach with a bag as if pained.
Smeared makeup on her eyes and lips, one shoe missing, has ragged clothing despite being colourful and looking like she had just bought it anew.
The lady is running, trying hard as fast as she can. She never thought that this was real or would even happen to her.
Her body is numb, and she feels like giving up every second she is chased.
Her feet and nails were bleeding.
She is aware that there's no one around this corner.
"HELLLPPP!! HEELLLLPP!!"
She still shouted.
It was loud.
Her eyes were also tired.
However, she was soon startled by a heavy banging sound creeping near the darkness.
The source of her dread.
Her lips quivered, her eyes were wet, her breathing was incoherent, and her body shook nonstop.
She still walked forward, doing everything to move forward with brushes on her legs, but because her head was dizzy, she fell.
She did not notice that something tripped her and caused her to fall, as her mind was occupied by nothing but helplessness.
Pak!
The lady just realised what had happened.
Tears started to fall from her eyes when she looked back. She saw the thing that was chasing her.
"Heerrmmm..."
A scared biff from her mouth sounded.
A terrifying creature stood tall, about seven feet in front of her.
It has a long black nose, clear red eyes, sharp-lined teeth, an hourglass body, and fur as thick as metal.
Standing on two dog-like legs, with no clear emotions in its eyes.
"We-"
The lady wanted to say the words from what she was seeing, yet it was too late!
Swack!
In a split second, a long sharp claw of the beast's monstrous hands separated the lady's head from her body.
Her neck took about seconds and soon spurted a fountain of blood and bloody mist.
The creature stood still, pulled back its beast-like hand, and whipped it with its nose.
It licked the blood smeared left on its claws.
"Worry no more. Soon you will be forgotten by your family, loved ones, and dog."
It said while licking himself.
"So soft pudding."
After licking its finger clean, the creature was about to bend over to take a bite at the lady's corpse.
However, it stopped as its ears caught a familiar vibration from a living creature behind its back.
"A werewolf this time?"
The voice said.
When the werewolf turned around, it saw a slightly built man with somewhat long blonde hair going to his back, golden eyes, a white undershirt, about 5'7 feet tall, and almost skeletal small shoulders.
The man was carrying a boxing glove, hooking his thumb, wrist, and hands up to his knuckles while going between his fingers and keeping the wrap slightly tight.
He shook it, trying to figure out if it was okay now.
It shouldn't be too tight, or they could disrupt the blood flow in his hands.
He is doing this while looking at the werewolf straight in the eyes as if he was looking at its soul.
The werewolf's face felt uncomfortable from the gaze of the man. It wondered where that look came from.
It tried to snarl to deny the discomfort it felt inside with its savage nature, followed by a mighty booming roar from its mouth.
"ROOOAAARRR!!"
A roar ensures that the feeling entering its mind disappears entirely and only acts on its wild instinct.
Roars' vibration cause the dark matter on the alley to become even darker.
It seems they came alive and squirmed like serpents of the dead of night.
Somehow, one could see that it was slowly slithering and trying to go in the direction of the small blonde man with a boxing glove.
Slow, fast, slow, fast.
Feels like it's being cautious while getting closer.
The petite blonde man just stood there. There was no sign of panic written in his eyes.
He even looked like he was smirking at the said werewolf.
Soon the man managed to put the boxing glove on his right hand.
Swoosh!
As soon as he put it in, tentacles of darkness sprouted from out of nowhere on his back and found their way toward the head of the blonde man.
However, the petite blonde man only smiled at it.
A smile that almost reached his ear.
It froze when the shadow tentacle landed on his hair to pierce through it.
It froze because the small man earlier slowly became a massively built man.
His body exploded, and muscles grew into it, making it four times bigger.
Limbs started growing, and his five-point-seven feet slowly became nine feet tall.
His shoulder became five times wider, and his white undershirt became fit so that one could see that it only needed one slit, and it would rip into shreds.
Soon the slithering serpent-like shadows squirmed harder.
After a while, it froze again, and a little later, the slithering shadow serpents cracked like ice and slowly broke into pieces.
Some of them went straight to the back of the blonde man because of its momentum, yet they were still ignored.
Seeing this change, the face of the werewolf hardened because the muscles on its back were constricting.
Its mouth was wide open, with all its canine teeth being seen.
When the werewolf's eyes landed on the face of the blonde man, its body trembled uncontrollably.
From the werewolf's eyes, he was smiling with confidence.
It turned around and hurried to get away.
Since in its mind, there was only one thought.
Run.
The blonde man opened his eyes.
Seeing that the werewolf started running away from him, he only smiled confidently.
Pleased with the creature's reaction.
"That attack of yours causes a lot of punching to do."
He said.
"You need to pay it with your life."
He continued.
To taunt the werewolf a little.
After discerning that he was ignored, the massive blonde man made a boxing stance.
He jumped a little to relax his body.
After establishing a solid boxing stance, he used his legs to step forward.
While initiating the movement, he turned his hips to continue the motion and built momentum.
Afterwards, he engaged his core, shoulders, and arms for the follow-through.
Swoof!
He drove his punch with his shoulder and his weight.
The power of the massive blonde man's fist whistled through the air as it felt like it was vibrating in the air.
Far away, the werewolf felt the chill on its spine becoming more robust as little time passed.
When it turned its big dog head, it saw massive boxing gloves close to its face.
A warm gut-wrenching feeling stopped as the werewolf face, and the giant boxing glove collided.
It made a crisp sound before turning into an explosion.
Bang!
The impact made air cracks!
The upper body of the werewolf disappeared.
With only two feet that were left were rolling over and over till it stopped.
The blonde man still had a smile on his face. He flexed his arms and muscles to admire himself.
After a while, he put his fist with boxing gloves near to his lips.
"What a bang!"
He said.
Then he kissed the boxing gloves on his fist he loves so much.
Suddenly, the blonde man's eyes fixated in a particular direction.
Out of nowhere, a system screen was formed.
Ding!
[ The host killed a werewolf! ]
[ 220,000 experience points received ]
The blonde man nodded.
Waiting for the subsequent system notification.
[ The host reached the 10th order! ]
[ The host can no longer improve ]
Seeing this, his eyes widened.
He was taken aback by the message.
"Why?"
He asked.
The blonde man was a midget, tiny and skinny in the past.
His name was Steve Marciano Martinez.
When he first discovered the system, it was a time when his life was in peril, a life-and-death situation.
How does it work?
The system's use was straightforward and simple.
Obliterate everything or anything on his path in one punch as long as he is wearing a boxing glove!
If the enemy or foe doesn't have a weakness, the system will find a weakness for them and obliterate them.
As long as Steve put on his boxing gloves, he would be invincible, just like now.
However, there are also drawbacks.
If the enemy is too strong, or the punch he sends faces a lot of barriers, he will receive debt he needs to pay.
The payment?
Steve needed to perform countless punches while performing shadowboxing.
Ding!
[ The host still has performed 97 727 punches saved. ]
[ The host borrowed punching power comparable to 33,400 punches. ]
He was surprised.
He didn't expect that it was too high.
Stave took another look at the severed feet of the werewolf, and he never thought that the power he would borrow would be this high.
"What the?"
He said.
Wanting to slap himself.
"No wonder the experience points were that high."
He exclaimed.
While the blonde man was still in shock, the system notification didn't end there.
Ding!
[ The host borrowed level surmounting attack, attacking 19th order foe comparable to 36,000 punching power. ]
[ The host borrowed anti-immortality level 3, comparable to the 40,000 punching power. ]
Steve could only fix his hair unconsciously.
Thinking of returning to zero after performing a whole month of shadowboxing or punching in the punching bag.
His breathing became a little erratic while looking at the sky.
Thinking of the days he spent doing those routines of shadow boxing.
Ding!
[ The host borrowed darkness corruption resistance and eraser, comparable to 32,000 punches. ]
Seeing this, a dark circle appeared below his eyes.
"Fawk me."
He said.
As if there were tears in his eyes.
This is the second drawback of the system, Steve is invincible, and the system can defend him from anything.
However, if any attack hit him, the more damaging or the more the attacks have special effects, the more he would need to borrow punching power.
He also needed to pay for it with a series of punches while shadowboxing.
Yet, the system is not done.
Ding!
[ The host needed to perform shadowboxing with 43,273 punches, or the host would die in 15 days. ]
Steve's soul felt like it was being stabbed by these forty-three thousand and two hundred-three needles in every part of his body.
Soon, after a minute of grimacing, he stood up.
"In my 9th order, I can perform 12,000 punches a week. I can do this and store it for the future."
Steve said.
"I need to do some punching with techniques then. Since I stepped in the 10th order."
He continued.
However, his eating time would be less, and he needed to do nasty stuff to get money.
Suddenly, another system notification made him jump from where he was standing.
Ding!
[ The host is in his invincible state. The host punching performance would be added by two performances every second. ]
Lastly, the third drawback of the system is.
Every second whenever he is wearing a boxing glove, he might be invincible, but he would receive a punching debt.
The longer he wore it, the more debt added, or he needed to perform a punch to pay for it.
He won't be invincible only when he puts his boxing gloves off his hands.
That's also the time when he won't be punished by punching the debt of the system.
After a while, Steve's eyes landed on the body of the dead lady, and a light of regret in his eyes appeared before going dark again.
He may not be a hero, yet he knows he is still a human. If someone were in trouble, he would do anything to help them.
Especially if they are weak or helpless like a kid or woman.
"If only I found you in time."
The massive Steve said softly.
He went to the body of the deceased lady and prayed for it for a minute.
Steve checked her purse and the bag her body was still holding.
After some time, he found money.
Then he stood up, left, looked back, and bowed again before turning around completely.