Theodore woke up after an unknown period of time. His phone was vibrating non-stop, he must have been receiving a call. Looking at the clock on the wall, he saw he had missed work, and that it was now late into the night. He still couldn't move, so he checked the system.
[Overclock penalty: 10 hours left.]
He seemed to have been sleeping for 20 hours now! He was truly exhausted still, but he had to check everything. He looked at his notifications and saw that the system had healed him, so he wasn't dying due to that. He was grateful, but he was feeling another wave of drowsiness. He decided to look at the rest of the rewards after the penalty was over, so he closed his eyes and went to sleep again.
**** Ryan Holton's POV ****
"This useless fuck, why isn't he answering his phone? I even had to leave the club last night, and it was definitely the night I would get the dancer Cherry to come home with me! It was finally going to be my night, and he just had to ruin it by not answering my call. I just needed another $10,000. Fuck, I am going to beat him today!" Ryan said. Ryan was Theodore's brother, and on his way to his brother's run down apartment building. As he walked the familiar streets, he had a look of disdain on his face while looking around. Dirty children running around on the street, homeless people laying in heaps of garbage, and every building was dilapidated. It was a shit hole.
Ryan quickened his steps, hoping to spend even one less minute in this place. He arrived at a building, walking up one of the doors on the ground floor, he began pounding on the door.
"Theodore, it's your brother, you better answer this Goddamn door!"
I kept pounding on the door, until finally it opened when I went to go hit it again. In the doorway, I saw my brother. He was still the same dirty beggar I remembered.
Theodore had blue eyes, and blonde hair. It was long and disheveled, looking almost brown from the dirt he had accumulated from his work. He was lanky, with no muscle to be seen, and he was terribly skinny. He had that disfigured leg, and also burn marks on his face from his accident. 6 ft 2, 130 pounds.
Wait. 6 ft 2?
Ryan was confused as he looked UP at his brother. When did this fucker grow so tall?!
**** Theodore's POV ****
I had just woken up to pounding at my door, and I was still tired from sleeping for so long. I was reading through the messages I received while walking to the door, and when I heard the familiar voice I knew it was going to be trouble.
I opened the door, and noticed that it seemed a little small today. I looked at my brother, and HE looked a little small today. Usually he stood over me with his 5 ft 6 height, but now I stood looking down at him. After a moment of silence, he barged his way into my house.
"What were you doing last night?! I needed some money and you didn't answer! I missed out on an important business deal because of you! Just give me $30,000 and I'll forget about this." Ryan said, shaking his head.
I didn't like his tone. I didn't like how he only came today, and not any time before, to ask for money. I didn't like it.
"No."
"It's okay you don't have to say sor-... What did you just say to me Theodore? Did you just say no?"
I could see Ryan's face contorting with anger. He walked over to me, trying to tower over me like he used to, but once again I confirmed something: I had gotten taller. He stood below me, and I could see that he was hesitant. I just stared at him with a cold and indifferent look. There was no brotherly love, or even respect for a fellow human being. My brother was trash. Ryan had abused me verbally all these years, and occasionally hit me to vent his anger for losing while gambling my money away. After the dungeon, I felt reinvigorated about life. I wanted to see how far I could go. The dungeon seemed like a mystical place, all the while it was equally dangerous. I had a small hope I could find something to fix my leg. Maybe I could go back to living a normal life.
While these thoughts were going through my head, I had started to completely ignore Ryan. Ryan stood there looking at his brother who was ignoring him, and a rising tide of anger built inside of him.
"You'll learn the lesson for defying your brother, Theodore. Don't blame me for what's going to come." Ryan said. After which, he left the house.
I looked at his departing back, and I knew he would get revenge. The anger in his heart would only grow as he mulled in his thoughts. He would probably do something drastic, such as hiring some thugs to beat me. I figured that would be the most probable thing, and so I began to make preparations. I planned to move today. I still had the last $100,000 of my settlement, and so I packed up my personal belongings into a backpack. I left the apartment and began walking to the bus stop nearby. I would take it to go into the city, and find a real estate agency to help me buy a house.