"Az…is that novel really that fun? every time we're on break…you always got your eyes glued to your phone…". (John)
"Hmm? I guess? at the very least for me…. I find reading stuff like this…is quite fulfilling…kinda feel like I am making a full use of my free time…. beside…this stuff is entertaining too…".
"I see…every person got their own taste, right? haha…". (John)
"Yeah...".
John is a good man, compared to me, he is a different breed of man than I was. He is the normal kind of people, he works, enjoy socialize, drink beers and be rowdy, got a normal kind of girlfriend and perhaps a normal life. Me on the other hand, for the normal people like, are pretty hard to understand. First of all, I am a proud homebody, I like novels, games, comics and all sort of stuff like that, I binge this kind of thing all the time, and I am not embarrassed by it at all. Personally, I don't really care about what people thought about me, I am not socially inept, but I rather loved to keep everything to myself.
All the people that got to know me, sees me as a kind callous person, and oddity among the nerd folks that they know. The nerd/Otaku certainly had a lot of bad rep, they were awkward, disgusting or distasteful or never learn how to use deodorant, this what the common folks often thought of Nerds/Otaku. So, when they see me with my sort of personality, the people around me just simply treat me like a unicorn, not that it affects me too much, in fact, some times, my unique personality and hobby can also help me in a lot of situations. Like I can just easily avoid an awkward conversation, with a snap of my finger.
When someone tried to speaks about a topic that I found distasteful, I can just pull out my phone and tell everyone that I got a new chapter update on my favorite fan-fiction novel and just ditched everyone. Every time I do that, everyone just stunned, unable to refute me, whilst I already gone, and all that they can do is just chalk it all up to 'Just let him be' it was as simple as that. Nifty trick when you already fill your socialize battery, also people around tend not to mess with me, as I am quite a big fella, stand at 190cm tall, chubby but I work as a full-time labor, as a Construction worker and a carpenter, I can use my palm as a sandpaper on wood, and I also quite like to brawl.
Back in my school days, bullies always tried to bully me, just because I was chubby and I joined the Manga/Comics club. But instead of getting bullied, I hunt the bullies, I fought in school and after school like a mad bull. It doesn't matter how many people I fought, I fought back like a mad person, kids felt scared when they beat someone and that someone always stood back up like a zombie and hunt you down. As a result, in my school days, the Manga/Comics Club become a no-touch zone for the bullies and jocks, all because I was there.
Raised in a military family, my father was a military man and my mother was a gentle housewife, that means your upbringing is like a military camp at all time and discipline was just the key to success. Don't back away from a fight, stand up for yourself, be a man, stop doing useless thing, this is the sort of mantra that accompanied my life, does it work, for something, yes, for me, not really. I become emotionally callous as a person, depressed and stressed all the time, but instead of recovering emotionally and mentally through, I instead bottled up everything inside of me, and then add the final garnish, that is becoming a soldier just to make my Father and Mother proud, and then goes to service, add the grueling training, add the war, and the gunshots and trauma, and then to make the recipe complete, after I done my service valiantly, I come back home only to be greet with the death of my parents due to car accidents.
With such rich backstory, born me, a broken man, that after all the hard time only now able to be myself and enjoy my hobby to the fullest. Am I happy, I got to enjoy my hobby, I got my parent house which is mine now, so I think I'm good. Do I still deal with depression and stress, yes, but in these days and age, who doesn't. so, all that I can do is just deal with it and just do the thing that would make me happy, I'm sure that a better day will come.
"Azrael, John! breaks over guys! resume work!". (Foreman George)
Like a well time cut cue, George the foreman aka our site boss, shouted to remind everyone that our sweet and brief rest time is over, and it was time for everyone to toil their sweats once again.
"Az..that's us…let's go...". (John)
"Okay…".
For me, working in construction is quite relaxing, sure it was a hard work, exhausting, but at the very least, what need to be done is quite simple, just follow the plans and get things done. When bricklaying, you just bricklaying, that was it, I as always would always find it easy to lost myself when I am working. In gaming terms, I only use stamina and never use my MP, which for a physical person like me, is just an easy task. And right now, I am laying a brick wall for the first floor of a house that we were building and I am in the heat of it.
"<HONK! HONK!>".
"What the heck is wrong with that Cement truck?!…". (John)
As the construction site were bustling with work, everyone was wakened up from their stupor of their rhythms bangs of hammers and nails, most of the worker were up on the second floor and some were spread across the site, busy with their own work. The only person on the ground is just Azrael, the construction site favorite unicorn nerd, aka John's friend.
"<HONK! HONK!>".
"That truck…aren't it a bit too fast?". (Foreman George)
On everyone gaze, a massive concrete truck that supposed to come to the site for the promised concrete pour has arrived, but its arrival is rather peculiar. The truck was speeding like crazy, it even honking from afar like mad, and as seconds passes by, at distance where the truck was supposed so slow down and come to a stop, it didn't, and instead, the speed just increasing.
"<HONK! HONK!> ...BBAAAMMMM!!!…CRASH!!….".
"Damn it!!!…. everyone gets out of the way!!!!…". (Foreman George)
Like a nightmare become a reality, the cement truck come into the sight like a wrecking ball. Cars, barriers, materials that were laid next to the street, that also act like a barrier or sort to the construction site, were rammed by the truck and scattered all over the place. All the workers, ran away like mad, scamper everywhere, running for their safety, all but one.
"AZZZ!!!!…. RUNN!!!!!…". (John)
"Huh? what?".
All of a sudden John were shouting like a mad man at me, I don't really hear what he said, but from the shape of his mouth, he is shouting. So, I pulled off my headphone and looked at him, and then around me, the site was empty.
"<HONK! HONK!>".
"AZZ!!!…RUN!!TRUCK BEHIND YOU!!!". (Foreman George)
"Truck? Huh? Truck-kun?
The massive cement truck rammed the entire construction site like it was nothing, the shape of the 2-story house turned to rubble, disaster strikes. Luckily or unluckily, the disaster only claimed one life, Azrael, the Lucky Strike Construction Company, favorite one of a kind Unicorn nerd, the company best employee for 1 year straight, the worker favorite emotional counselor, where they can speak about their depressive thought and be listened, and answered by his favorite phrase 'oh'. Azra or Azrael by his full name, died in an instant via being turned into a meat paste, by a Cement Truck.
-------------------------------
Hours after the crash,
"You turned the poor guy into a meat paste. My friend. Probably you should just stick to just using a Japanese truck…". (ROB)
"....my usual truck is on repair now…. I used the meteor style method the last time I sent someone….so…I have to improvise…. but I did what must be done….at the very least…the sendoff, is quick and painless….". (Truck-Kun)
Like a manly self-peeled potato that jumped into a curry pot, saluting its fellow vegetable, Truck-Kun driver pulled down his cap bill with respect to the man that he just sent off, and drive away into the void, perhaps on the hunt for another lucky soul to send to another world.