"Ugh…" A young man groaned as his face was decorated with the expression of stress mixed with worry as he looked at his bank account after a failed interview, "God, please not again, I'm on my wits end already, how would I even survive until the next month? Mom's and Dad's savings are almost gone and yet I haven't even paid all sorts of bills and even the rent… sooner or later I'm going to end up the street if things keep going like this…"
He couldn't help but sigh in disappointment and regret as he reminisced of his past that he wished to change if given the opportunity.
'If only I didn't follow through with my decision at that time to quit school then I may have the chance to get even just an average job at some company, but with the fact that I am a highschool dropout that doesn't really have anything going on for him… such thing are nothing more than a daydream,' His thoughts halted before an unwanted memory that has been suppressed began to resurface, "Hah… the moment my parents died is also the moment my life decides to fall and turned out to be much worse, is this a sign of god's wrath upon myself? If that was the case, may I claim the title of the world record holder of the God's most hated man? It would be quite hilarious." He muttered to himself as he walked towards his apartment.
He stared at the rundown apartment, the condition was poor and quite unsafe lookinh but at the end of the day, not really that dangerous, also that was the reason why it was pretty cheap, "I arrived…" He breathes heavily as he muttered to himself, "I hope Mister Tang doesn't kick me out…" A slight chuckle escaped his mouth.
He stepped inside his apartment before he was greeted with the sight of a middle-aged chinese man watching a documentary about chicken while sitting down on the sofa.
After he properly entered the apartment, Mister Tang turned his head towards the door and noticed that he had arrived. Mister Tang's eyes locked onto the young man's figure, "Ah, you've finally return?" He spoke, a shiver was felt by the youth as Mister Tang continued, "You know, my daughter I have come here to ask you to start paying the rent or I might need to kick you out." The homeowner said with a slightly threatening tone.
The young man's back was almost covered in sweats before he answered, "Ah hahaha- Well," He awkwardly laughed and gulped at the homeowner's request, "Mister Tang, can you please give me a little bit more time? Luck has not been in my favor for the past months so I would really appreciate the gesture of postponing the rent payment to another time, I promise to pay twice- No! Thrice the amount I owe you! Please don't kick me out!" He pleaded.
"Sorry Senja, but I still need to feed myself and my family, it's either you pay me the rent or just get the fuck out of my law- Ahem! I mean my apartment." The homeowner said.
The young man quickly opened his bank account and see his remaining balance before hesitantly saying, "The rent is supposedly only around 2,850, right? Ithink I can pay that."
He thought of it as a necessary sacrifice as he still had around 180,000 of his combined salary and his parents savings.
"No? You haven't paid me anything for about the past 6 years of you living here, and everytime you always promised to multiply the payment by three, so 2,580 multiplied by 72 is 185,760, and you want to pay it thrice again so… 557,280, this is the amount you need to pay." The homeowner explained with a happy tone.
The youth was stunned, "Um… sir? Can you wait for another month? This time I promise to pay you this amount multiplied by four!"
"You already lived at this place for basically free for such a long time and I tolerated your presence, but now, it's either you pay to stay or try to delay and go away." The homeowner said to Senja coldly.
'Fuck, what a bummer… now I really need to leave… well, I maybe could try to live off these remaining money and piece my life back together… somehow…'
"Hold on," The homeowner said, "Before you leave, you need to pay me all of your money and I will absolve you of your remaining debt." He added.
"Do you have pro-" The young man tried to act cocky but before his sentence could finish the homeowner hold out a contract with his signature and a recording device out of his pocket.
'I'm totally fucked.'
"Here you go sir~!" The young man handed over his smartphone to the homeowner so that he can do whatever he needs.
After Senja had given away all of his money and the homeowner also took many of his property and only left him with some items, his smartphone, a backpack full of clothes, photos of his parents and a bodycam that he purchased a few weeks ago for no reason.
The severity of the situation finally came down to Senja, he laughed at his pitiful and unforgiving circumstance, "Hahaha… all of this is just quite hilarious, do this sort of thing have a world record too? Heh, in all seriousness, I have zero percent chance of recovery financially… I am officially too broke." He took a deep breath, "Should I finally end it all?" He momentarily muttered before he dispersed such thoughts from his mind.
He stood up and walked around aimlessly to find a temporary shelter for the night, he would prefer a decent and comfortable place but at this point anything could be good enough.
His tiring aimless wandering lasted over two hours, he ended up in a strange, cold and ominous dark alleyway, he felt weird, as if death was watching him from afar but he doesn't bother to think about such thing as the exhaustion might be the first thing that kill him.
It was already too dark and the time is rapidly approaching midnight, his exhaustion overcame him as he lay flat on the cold concrete floor, sleeping peacefully.
•••
Somewhere.
"Argh!" He groaned in pain as he woke up from his deep slumber.
Senja observed his unfamiliar surroundings, it was not the place he fell asleep at, the suspicious and ominous alleyway was not present in front of his eyes, "Where is this place? Where… am I?" He muttered under his breath.
"Good." An ominous muffled voice was heard from the shadow.
From the darkness stepped out a figure donned a costume that of a plague doctor from the 16th to 17th centuries albeit a bit modernized and stylized, "Now that you're awake, I finally can start the job~!"
Since he had woken up, Senja's eyesight was incredibly blurry and his mind was hazy, he muttered in a confused manner, "A plague doctor…? Am I in a cosplay convention or something…? What the actual fuck is happening…?"
"Silence." The figure commands offended and pissed.
Senja chuckled in response, "Are you mad, bro? Your plague doctor wannabe ass? Bitch, where was you when Covid-19 strikes?" He mocked the figure, his mind was quite foggy as he thought of this as a mere absurd dream.
The figure patience almost ran out as they muttered, "This damned fool." The figure approached Senja with a knife gripped tightly in their right hand.
"What the-" Senja screamed was muffled under the cloth that was stuffed inside his mouth as the figure slowly peeled off his exposed skin.
It was nothing but a start of the hellish months of his remaining life tortured mercilessly by the unknown madman dressed in plague doctor costume but the horrific experience has come to a conclusion upon the lack of reaction from Senja that made the figure lose interest on him.
To end their 'job', the figure tied Senja on a wooden chair and pour an extremely flammable liquid all over his body.
Soon, the figure tried to threaten him by lighting up a lighter in front of his face, in response Senja only stared at the flame as he made a mocking face that challenged the figure.
After seeing that, the figure quickly let go of the lighter and in an instant, Senja was engulfed in a horrifying flame as he fall on the ground, the burning body of Senja desperately tried to reach the figure's leg before he succumbed to the merciless fire that turned his body into ash.
The figure quietly stared upon the remains of the former Senja, as a memorial, the figure kept the ashes in a jar because they're fascinated by Senja.
•••
Is this death?
Not bad, not bad, this coldness… I can actually get used to it.
Not to mention, it's pretty calming.
I wonder where will I ended up?
Hell? Heaven? If they even exist of course.
Well, even if they didn't, then I just need to float around this empty place devoid of anything for eternity.
At least, I hope to meet my parents again, and also my ancestors, that would be neat… I can't wait for whatever happens!
Suddenly Senja's thoughts drifted into oblivion as he fall unconscious, at that time it was nothing.
What happened?
Where am I?
'Ugh… my head hurts' Senja thought in pain, fortunately the pain quickly subsided as all of his sense returned.
He instinctively opened his eyes as he unconsciously flinched when his eyes was assaulted by the light of day.
His eyes opened, surrounding him was many modern buildings with a some futuristic design, people walking around him, some taking a glance at his face mostly woman, the world around him are similar to his previous world but… his eyes focused on the fact that in this world exist superpowers, in return Superheroes and Supervillains! The billboards were holographic and high tech, there's many advertisements that feature superheroes as if they're celebrities.
His eyes widen in shock, he conclude this world as heaven or just a mere illusion but soon he managed to confirm the reality he inhabited currently are indeed the reality.
Not long after, a figure can be seen thrown into a large skyscraper at an incredible speed that caused an explosion, the debris of the building was falling down and one of them almost fall on top of Senja. Fortunately, he was saved.
An announcer voice rang out from a drone that was tied to a large speaker, [ "As we can see at this moment, the hero, 'Carbon Copy of Superman' has been overwhelmed by the A-ranked monster, King Rock Titan! It seems that his body of steel are not as strong as everyone made it out to be! On the other hand, the speedster hero, 'Thunderfeet' swiftly saved the bystanders from being crushed by the debris with his lightning speed! A true hero!" ]
"Are you alright, mate? Anywhere hurts?" The hero, Thunderfeet asked with a thick british accent.
"Well, yeah… I'm alright…" Senja replied still quite shocked.
"Marvellous! Now please stay safe, goodbye." Thunderfeet said before disappearing in a trail of blue lightning.
Soon, he reappeared beside the struggling figure of the man who was launched by the monster.
A brilliant idea popped into his mind as Thunderfeet asked, "Do you need some help, mate? I got just the right thing you need!"
The struggling figure's face contorted into the face of annoyance as he said, "Don't you dare, you-!"
Thunderfeet face was decorated with a devious smile as he revealed a solar system model out from his back, "Here's a yellow sun, absorb it." He said in a mocking tone.
The struggling hero was filled with rage as he screamed, "You dumb british bastard! How many times have I told you… to NOT compare me with Superman ever again!" His face was distorted by anger as he flew outside rushing towards the monster.
"God, this joke never gets old." Thunderfeet muttered as he saw from afar that the monster was killed instantly by his friend fist.
It was dead by the time the hero's fist come in contact with its body.
Senja's eyes locked into the scene, it was something he only ever saw inside the paper of a comic, behind the screen of his phone or described by the words in a book but right now, he witnessed such thing with his own two eyes, everything is real.
"God… this is so fucking cool!" Senja excitedly muttered as he closed his mouth to muffle his voice.
A wide smile erupted from his still face, his eyes locked onto the hero, he thought that the heroes especially their superpowers… are fucking badass!