Jerome and his crew left after a bit. I didn't hand the knife to anyone. I didn't trust them too much to hand over my only insurance. Now, I just had to wait for the police to find me. Or I could just call the police. I tried to crawl and barely managed to. Crawling, I went outside and threw Jerome's phone which I already smashed to the bits and the knife in a small swamp nearby. I kind of wanted that knife for later and didn't want police to have it. Next, I set up a password for my cloud and set it so that if I didn't input the password every week then all the contents would be posted online. Then I checked the creatine room. Almost 3/4th of all the cases were taken. I felt great regret for the leftover ones. But I couldn't do much about that.
'I am so tired.'
I then picked up my phone and called 988. It was the number for police in this world. When someone picked up, I didn't feel like talking. I simply laid there. My injuries were severe but not enough to kill me. I let my consciousness drift away with the person on the other side of the phone continuously saying hello. Before I passed out, I felt as if I could hear a voice saying 'Good Job' in my head. It was the voice of that ma-monster.
***
"Beep Beep Beep. It's 6-25 am. Beep Beep Beep."
I slowly opened my eyes only to be greeted by the familiar ceiling above. It was another Monday. I had to go to school today, but I felt very reluctant to go. Regardless, I got up, freshened up and headed downstairs to get breakfast. I sat down at a chair and finished my breakfast as fast as I could before heading upstairs to get ready. However, I unexpectedly met someone on my way to my room.
"Good morning, father."
"..."
The man walked by me without even acknowledging my existence was my father, Fajmin Lumien. My stepfather to be precise. A young girl was following him closely. I looked at her and said,
"Goodmorning, sister."
"Mmm. Morning."
Both of them went downstairs to have their breakfast. I looked at the young girl, my stepsister, Yasmin with envy but kept my face impassive. She was Fajmin's real daughter. We shared the same mother. Everyone in our family had black hair except me, who possessed some weird whitish hair. White hair wasn't uncommon in this country. However, it was enough to raise some suspicions. After a simple DNA test, it was obvious I was not Fajmin's real son. I had no clue where my mother was or if she was still alive. My parents divorced long ago. Ever since then I have been living in this house. My father ignored my existence, and my sister barely acknowledged it. One might wonder why there was such a discrepancy between my name and everyone else in my family. Well, the reason was simple. No one really cared enough to come up with a decent name for me. Actually, if I am not wrong, Fin is abbreviated form of something else they used to call me. I tried my best to get into my fathers' good graces. Good grades, proper behavior and everything else a damn 8-year-old could do. But nothing worked so I just gave up. What I now wanted was to simply live a peaceful life. However, I still kept my proper behavior and good grades. I don't know why but something about doing that felt right. Whatever I really don't mind my life too much. Once you let go of all your worries, life could suddenly turn really beautiful.
***
I opened my eyes slowly. White. I turned my head sideways and noticed a brilliant ray of sunshine on my blanket. I looked around the room and checked my body. Then I smiled. Success. I was in a hospital.
As I was looking around, the door to my room opened and a petite woman walked inside. A nurse. She seemed a little shocked to see awake. I was anxious about knowing if Jerome and rest got away and how ended up in the hospital, so I asked.
"Where am I?"
"S-Sir Kez, you are awake. It's a miracle. You are the Yezold City General Hospital. The police found you unconscious in a warehouse. Your family is waiting outside for you."
'As I expected'
"T-THAT GUY. The person who kidnapped me. Did police catch him?" I asked anxiously.
"That..."
The nurse seemed a little hesitant about replying, worrying about my mental well-being but then gave up and said,
"The police is still looking for him. They found many traces of him, so it won't be long before they catch him."
'Not bad'
"What!! They still haven't caught that man? Even after I fought against that treacherous man, potentially risking my life, he still managed to get away. How do you expect me to accept this?!!!"
"Sir, please calm down. The police are doing all they can to bring you justice. Also, rankers' association have decided to take over this case. Please be assured that he will be apprehended at any moments."
"Still unacceptable! Incompetent. All of them are incompetent, I say."
"A-Ah please calm down. I'll call a doctor to check up your condition and inform your family."
Before I could say anything, she walked out. I began reiterating my story that I organized for the police. In this situation, an arrogant attitude is rather helpful.
I wanted to just lay down and relax for a bit before having to talk to everyone, so I simply closed my eyes. But peace didn't last long. The door swung open and a young girl with brown hair, tied back with ribbons, entered. I offered her a simple smile while hiding my clenched fist under the hospital blanket. She walked towards my bed slowly. As she approached closer and closer, I could see she seemed a little anxious and worried?
'Should I just say hello? I have no clue what you are supposed to say in this situation.'
'Well, I guess anything but hello should work.'
"Hello"
"...what?"
'Damn, I messed up already.'
"Ahem...I said hello."
"...hello? That's all you have to say? Hello? Sigh. I'll just leave it at that. So tell me, how does a grown ass man like you manage to get kidnapped in broad daylight."
"I...umm...got in the wrong buber."
"..."
"..."
"...h-how can someone take a wrong buber? They literally send you updates constantly as to where the drive is. Plus they also send you a picture of the driver!"
'She does have a point. I have been acting pretty laid-back lately which is reasonable because I can't believe how peaceful and unthreatening life had been ever since I came to this world. Even after getting kidnapped, I didn't feel threatened. As if I knew getting out of this would be easy. But I do have to be a little more careful in the future.'
"Well I...had a lot in my head"
"I know you do. But would it kill you to not get in a mess every week? Dad is already fuming. Sigh anyway, at least this time you managed to clean your mess on your own."
'I already studied Kez's background a bit. He's a good for nothing who gets into new shenanigans every week. So, it's not a surprise for her to act like this.'
The door moved again and another person entered as Kei was running off her mouth about who knows what. It was Nora Jolkev. She approached the bed with somewhat of a concerned expression and asked,
"Are you alright?"
"Ya I am fine."
"Good. Don't worry about the kidnappers. I already sent people to track them. We will find them soon."
"Ah...hahaha is that s-so? Th-thats good. I do love justice hahahah..."
'I swear if those dumbasses get caught before I can make some money...'
"Also, some people from rankers' association wants to interview you. If you don't feel like you are up for it then I can arrange something."
"No, it's fine. I don't mind talking about it."
"Okay. Do remember they use truth detector artifacts. Don't lie casually. If needed distort it with some truth."
"Yes, I understand."
After a while, three more people entered the room. Two females and one male. All of them were in suits. Alas my beloved peace and serenity. I went over the script I prepared once again in my head. After that I simply looked at them and offered them a generous smile.
"Hello Mr. Kez Jolkev, how are you feeling?" The woman in the lead asked.
"I...feel better now."
"I'm glad to hear you are doing alright. I am Yonna, 3rd division captain from the ranker association. Will you be willing to answer some questions regarding what happened last night?"
'Screw you too. I never said I was doing alright.'
"Yes. I don't mind answering some questions. Last night...it was akin to a nightmare. I really don't want to recall those horrible events surrounding last night but I am willing to step forward for the sake of justice."
"...awesome. I am glad to meet such a noble person like you. Ahem. Can you go over everything that happened after you left SkillPull yesterday?"
'Shit. Their investigation led them to SkillPull. I should try to impede their investigation regarding that area.'
"Yes...I was scrolling through some skills there and called a Buber after leaving. However, this...this guy named Jerome, a master con-artist, pretended to be my driver and fooled me. Then they held me hostage for money. Later, they started asking about my bank information, but I didn't memorize those so I couldn't tell them, but they started beating me up and I might've passed out. Horrible. Horrible night that was...
***
"Mmm, this coffee is delicious. It's perfect for some reason."
I was sitting on a hospital bench, drinking coffee from a vending machine. The people from rankers' association were already gone after I finished my bullshit story and answered their questions with some more bullshit.
"Absolutely heartless people. No one dropped a single tear even after hearing my story. Heartless, I say."
I already got released from the hospital. My body was surprisingly healed up. I also felt a little stronger although my status screen was same as before. Nora and Kai were taking care of hospital paperwork, so I had some time alone.
'That Trop thing is coming up very soon too. I'll have to leave in 4 days.'
"You look pretty carefree for someone who just got kidnapped."
I turned around to find Kei walking towards me. She went to the vending machine and got herself a coffee as well.
"Well I WAS kidnapped. But now I am not so what's the point of worrying about something like that?"
"And here I was hoping you would become more serious about life after this incident."
"Hmph my personality is perfect. Full of dazzles and sparkles."
Over the last few days, I have studied original Kez's personality. His personality was surprisingly similar to mine. He was a good for nothing basically. He was carefree, lazy and untalented. But he was academically smart. I heard he placed within top 25 in TROP's written exam! That was one of the biggest reason he could get in TROP despite being so untalented. To give some context, TROP is basically the Harvard or Oxford of this world. It's placed first within all categories of studies including combat, mana, physics, engineering and every other subject. Almost close to 1 million students take the entrance test and only 2500 gets in. The entrance test consists of combat test and written test. Of course, Kez failed the combat test but apparently, Jolkev family was influential enough to get Kez admitted with their off-handed methods.
"Whatever, lets head back. Oh right, you should prepare an explanation for why the kidnappers called you a drugie. Dad is extremely pissed. You might even get disowned because of that."
"HUH? What kind of bullshit? I never touched drugs. Fucccccck, Life is so damn unfair."