"I'm sorry, but we have to lay off a large amount of employees due to budget cuts," the manager said with a stern face feigning sadness to the group in the first team. There was muttering in the audience, 'Guess another day of having no lunch,' I thought, leaning back in my chair with my hands sweeping my face. I've been there a year with almost no pay despite having sucked up to the higher-ups every day just to get this treatment? Our team was the one keeping stock managed and forming the path to get business deals done, guess they're saving their asses after a deal gone wrong.
One of the employees stood up and asked, "Are we still getting paid?" They looked tired, like they haven't slept for a few days, and a few people murmured in agreement.
The manager looked displeased and scowled, his worn-out horn-rimmed glasses pressed tightly to his face, "Pack up by lunch, or I'll call security to drag you out." The few that had gathered in front looked irritated.
"You don't want to? The bosses wouldn't like the ruckus," he pointed to the electronic clock on the wall, which said 11:28, and the employees ran off quickly to get their stuff. I felt tired from getting lectured in the morning. I didn't bring much, to begin with, so I felt relaxed from the quiet of the office I massaged my eyes, leaning into the chair I was sitting on, *sigh* 'Third job this year.' I guess I fell asleep from staying up all night because when I came to it was 11:59, 'shit!' I quickly got up to leave, grabbed what I had and walked towards the door. When I tried to turn the knob, it swung open suddenly, and the manager and the thugs that called themselves the so-called "security department" but spent more time abusing the employees than doing their job appeared. I stared up at them, slightly dazed from the abrupt entrance.
"You heard what we'd do and still stayed, you've got some balls." the manager casually said. He gestured to the men behind him. One of them kneed him in the stomach while another punched him in the jaw. They were hitting me for so long that suddenly, they stopped hitting me, which left me gasping on the floor. The guards wrapped their arms around my shoulders and dragged me out of the building and threw me onto the sidewalk with my stuff barely in my arms. They spit on me and left me on the ground. There were a few onlookers murmuring but I ignored them. I wiped off some blood from a scrape on my elbow, picked up my keys which had dropped and limped home. Once I got to my crappy apartment, which had more paint from spray cans on the walls than actual paint. I opened the door and quickly checked my ankle for wounds.
I winced as I bent down with some ice I got from the store on the way home. There was a big orange bruise on the underside of my left ankle, and I hissed when I accidentally brushed against it. After taking some ibuprofen I laid down on the small futon in the corner of the room and took out my phone to read my favourite web novel, "The Dark Hero's Salvation".
I read it mostly for the villain. I felt like I had an emotional connection with him through the villain's childhood as someone born in a relatively traditional house having a single mother we were looked badly at by my grandparents. He was mistreated for being the bastard child between Beelzebub and the sole daughter of the Delilah Duke family. As the relationship between demons and humans was hostile, she would've been outcasted by high society. Had the duke not intervened and hid it, but the servants within the manor and the Duke didn't want to see the shame of the house for bearing the child of a demon. The Duke decided to move Heron and his mother to a manor in the woods, out of sight of others but occasionally his cousins would visit and both verbally and physically abuse them both. He endured for a few years until his mother fell ill and died. The Duke kicked him out on account of his demon heritage and made a funeral but no one came. After he was abandoned he began hiding in the woods outside of the dukedom. He came to the conclusion that the gods and demons were the initial cause of all the discrimination of half-demons; he began to research how to potentially kill or seal all the gods and devils of hell. He then endeavoured to train his magic and absorbed the energy of his enemies to get stronger. Once he got strong enough he set out to imprison and use the power of the saints to cut off the connection from Heaven and Earth and seal Hell's demons. He almost accomplished his goal but he acquired an internal injury from a fight with the Male Protagonist and the Earth Saint with his Mana Heart getting ruptured leading to him losing control of the magic. The ritual failed and he ended up imprisoned in the last chapter.
I saw the author had updated the latest chapter. As I laid back my expression changed rapidly seeing my fav character get executed. I typed out an angry comment in the comment section banging the wall loudly with my fist which made me swear lightly from the pain. The few comments responding were questioning why I liked the villain. I ignored them as they were largely aggressive. I tried to calm down by lighting a small incense candle in the middle of the room and as my energy faded I started to fall asleep maybe because I was slipping into a dream state I saw flashes of an execution stand that looked like the setting of the chapter I just read. My consciousness faded out for a second and then suddenly the guillotine felt very solid for a dream. I felt the rough edges of the poorly sanded wooden on my neck feeling very real. As my senses came back to me I could start to hear the crowd screaming in front of me. A man with a mask on his face who looked like an executioner from medieval history books looked down on me with a sneer that touched his eyes and pushed the wooden plank holding my head in place more securely. I felt something was off about the situation as to how I got there and suddenly I heard a *ding!* around me. A neon blue window appeared in front of my eyes.
[Secondary Host has been contracted, upon death timeline will reset]
"Secondary? What's happening here?!" I exclaimed. The executioner gave me an odd look before letting go of the rope holding the blade. The seconds before it fell felt like an eternity.
[STARTING RESETTING PROCESS]
[Good luck :)]