Marcus rushed up, his leather crossbody bag was long gone when he dived sideways into the pub and his phone was jiggling in his pocket, threatening to fly out any moment.
"Shit!!, why me?!!!"
Marcus yelled out aloud, the avenue was already devoid of living people, only those caught up the the skidding accident of cars and trucks remained on the lane and inside the cars.
Blood had painted almost all of the lane red.
Marcus kept scampering off and turned to a street.
"THUD!!..RUMBLE!!.. THUD!!..RUMBLE!!..
Marcus could hear the rumbling of the ground as the beast bear the height of a high-rise building bound toward him.
Unfortunately, he was the only one in the area, everywhere was cleared of people.
Marcus saw an alley by his left, he looked back, the beast bear was still at a considerable distance.
He could scampered between the row of parked cars and turned to enter the alleyway,
'Damn! it shouldn't be able to see me, after all, I was smaller, thirty times smaller'
His mind raced with thoughts.
Marcus had already scampered between the row of cars, but before he could even think of turning into the alleyway, Marcus noticed a shadow looming.
He looked up reflexively, and it was the beast bear. With one leap, it had closed the distance between them.
"THUD!!...
Marcus had forgotten that bears are also animals that can leap across a six-foot man, let alone one as tall as a high-rise building.
"Fuck!!"
He dived sideways into the alleyway but what was an alleyway was now a clear open space as the beast bear landed its forepaws on the row of buildings that formed the alleyway.
"RUMBLE!!... BOOM!!...WHAM!!...
Marcus was caught up in the blast as he flew and hit rubbles of buildings by the right.
"WHACK!!...
"Arrrrgh!!"
"Kyahk!!...
His body was covered in dust, Marcus felt he had fractured his right leg as he tried to stand, perhaps he could still escape but to no avail.
Dust filled his eyes as dust enveloped the whole area, reducing visibility to zero.
Marcus knew that even if he wasn't injured and tried to run, he might run into the beast bear's paw in the zero visibility.
He lay there without any struggle, Marcus closed his eyes to prevent more dust that was settling from entering them.
Emotions started welling up in him, he thought about his mum, the thought of leaving her all alone hit him hard, now she was all alone in this fucked up world.
But it seemed Marcus' suffering was yet to come to an end as he felt something huge connect with his body.
"Aarrrgh!!...
The impact sent him spiraling away at least a hundred feet in the air.
"SHOOSH!!...
Pain shot across every part of Marcus being midair as he kept flying, he couldn't think of anything as the pain coursed through every fibre of his being.
"SWOOSH!!...
The atmosphere was getting darker by the second.
"SHOOSH!!...
The pain was unbearable so Marcus tried to groan but his mouth wouldn't open.
If he had to count it, he would have broken a neck, backbone, and skull due to the impact that sent him flying.
Not long Marcus' suffering ended with another sharp pain that coursed from his forehead through his body as he hit a tall building head-on.
He was stuck to the building side for a split second before a freefall, blood streaming down from his head, he could feel his head swimming.
"THUD!!...
Marcus landed on his butt, the bone vibrating with the impact and pain shooting from his tailbone across his body.
"SWU...
He sucked air hard into his lung due to the overwhelming pain.
Perhaps he had broken a coccyx bone. His head turned around and it seemed he had landed in an empty and silent alleyway.
Marcua's vision was starting to become blurry, it seemed he had lost a lot of blood when he hit the tall building head-on.
'Damn!! So this is the end, dammit!'
Then a voice rang in his head.
*Ding!*
[System Integration Begins!]
Even though Marcus' body was battered, even though his vision had started to fade, he was still stunned somehow.
Even though his spine would have been broken, his body still shuddered at the sound of the articulate female voice he heard in his head.
'Wha-what system?'
[System completely integrated! Would you like to initiate system?]
[Initiating system comes with rewards!]
Marcus forced his shuddery body to calm down because it seemed every shudder brought more excruciating pain.
[Five seconds remain for your heart to stop if you don't accept!]
Marcus knew quite well about his body's critical condition and It's not like he don't like free stuff and benefits, it's just that what was the point of rewards when it remain only five seconds to die.
When he hesitated it seemed the system detected it and spoke out once again as if urging.
[Three seconds remain! health recovery reward will become void!]
'Health recovery!' Marcus exclaimed in his mind.
'I will fucking accept, if the damn system could manage to make me recover'
"I fucking accept!!" Marcus yelled in the silent alleyway with his remaining life force even though the voice was speaking in his head and it seemed to understand his thoughts.
[Initiating!]
[System initiation complete!]
Marcus was somehow happy, now it remained for his body to be healed.
But it seemed his vision was on the verge of closing.
The pain in his body wouldn't stop, even his forehead continued to throb and bleed, the blood streamed down to his lips, he even tasted it with the tip of his tongue.
'Fuck!!'
'System! So much for the rewards!'
Being tricked and having his hopes raised made Marcus feel even more frustrated.
Even at the point of dying when a glimmer of hope is seen, human would cling to it no matter what.
But in Marcus' case, it seemed the glimmer of hope was a prank, He looked around him before his consciousness started fading.
It was already dark in the night but he managed to catch a glimpse of the alleyway—it was the corner that led to his street—then the image blurred and everywhere darkened...