Feror punched me in the gut, knocking the wind out of me. His fists felt like they were made of steel.

It took everything in me not to vomit my breakfast and remain standing. My legs locked from a mix of me lacking air and from paralyzing fear. I could feel my heart beating in my ears.

He met my eyes with a murderous glare. I couldn’t move.

My paralysis, which felt like an eternity, was short-lived. It was ended by another blow to the gut. Then, for the first time in a long time, my fight or flight kicked it.

It chose flight.

I scanned the roof for the ladder I came up. Of course, it was behind him.

My legs moved on their own, running to the side to pass him. However, he matched each of my steps with ease.

Noticing I was trying to escape, he gave me a sadistic grin and a kick to my leg. Something broke.

My running became awkward. I kept limp-sprinting, but I couldn’t get past the one-man, moving wall.

I frantically continued until I was met with a kick to my other leg. Something else broke.

My legs protested to move from their spot. The adrenaline was losing out to the pain. Escape seemed impossible.

“Done running?” he goaded.

He didn’t wait for a response as he connected a jab to my face.

My head spun, and my vision started to darken. All I could manage was moving my arms to guard my head in response.

“Watch it, that part’s expensive.” I coughed out my reply along with blood. Then, the beating continued.

His attacks whaled on me, and my arms, legs, and gut wailed out in pain. I lost track of the amount of times I was hit and had no clue how I was still standing. More importantly, though, why am I still standing?

It was only a moment ago I was ready to die. My body took control in the face of a predator. It’s a bit more painful, but isn’t this what I wanted?

His strikes carried on.

Perhaps I should just… I lowered my arms.

I met his gaze. His eyes were crazed, and he had a toothy smile. His movements included unnecessary actions, playing as if he were shadowboxing against a punching bag.

“Done already?” His smile faded. He let out a sigh and removed a switchblade from his pocket. “Fine by me.”

At least this pain will end sooner.

The man took his sweet time dramatically opening the knife. Now that I had a moment to observe him, his expression pissed me off. This whole time he had been playing around to torment me. Sure, some delays are due to him having to avoid expensive selling organs, but most of the delays were because he was having fun being in control.

He took his time raising the knife and taking on a villainous pose. And that stupid grin was back again.

Fine then.

I turned and ran. This time to the edge behind me. He failed to react in time, but instead of jumping off, I stopped just short. With a spin, my heels rested off the edge.

“Stop right there, I have a hostage.” Despite the protest of my arms, I raised my hands to point a finger gun to the side of my head.

He halted. His cocky grin finally disappeared.

He had already spent 100,000 dollars to initiate the contract. He would be down money if my organs ruptured from the fall. The financial blow would be far stronger than any punch I could do.

“Take a few steps back,” I threatened, planting my finger gun into my neck.

He stared at me in place. I knew I wouldn’t be able to survive the hour. Some organs are better than none.

Seeing him not move, I lifted one leg off the edge.

“Woah–” My facetious self almost fell off. It was only a joke, but a broken leg wasn’t the best at balancing. The leg’s screaming pain also protested my joke. It achieved its purpose, though. He backed off a couple steps, his expression vexed.

It was my turn to smile.

How does it feel?

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“If you make monkey noises for me, and let me have a swift death, I won’t jump off.” A small price to pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The moment dragged on, only widening my smile. I could almost see fumes coming from his ears. He shot threatening stares at me, but I didn’t budge. What did I have to lose?

I dangled my leg off the edge again.

The moment dragged on longer until whispers of monkey grunts could be heard. My grin reached its crescendo. Then, the noises stopped as abruptly as they started.

“Happy?” He snarled.

“Yes,” I replied. I was ecstatic as someone who wanted to die could be, I guessed. “Have fun in debt.”

I threw my arms back and planned to follow with my body, but I paused in shock. In front of me, my pursuer was running at me at former olympian speeds.

I expected that.

No, what shocked me was behind my pursuer, a muscular person in a tie-dye tank top was climbing up the ladder. Bruno.

Is the girlfriend I wished for here? My skin crawled. But I’m not into men! No, they may be female. I couldn’t be sure.

The moment that shock provided was all Feror needed. He closed the remaining distance and grabbed me tightly. So tight, I couldn’t break free.

The knife planted into my leg.

The bastard wanted my pain to drag on. It did, but even then, my focus was on the scene behind him.

Bruno’s right arm set ablaze. The surrounding temperature rose several degrees.

Feror turned towards the heat wave behind him.

“Back off! This is my prey,” he shouted. His shout fell on deaf ears, as Bruno’s pace remained steady.

That’s all I was. A pile of money that could maybe manage to walk a few more steps before collapsing. Nothing illegal was taking place. I signed up for this rigged game. Now, my fate was being decided by the ones more powerful.

“Take your hands off of him,” boisterously announced my potential knight in tie-dye armor. Bruno stopped a few paces away, but the flames on their arm surged, raising the surrounding temperature.

“He’s mine!” My attacker pulled the knife from my leg and went for my throat. The primary detail of my contract. If a person finished me off, they would have the right to my dead body.

The knife closed in, then it was all over. For Feror at least.

Bruno placed his hand atop my attacker’s head. Feror’s scream of rage didn’t have time to turn to one of pain before his body turned into a puddle. The flame never spread. Goo of his remains and his unscathed clothes fell at my feet.

[Contract completed, rewarding 100,000 wealth]

A crime. A real crime.

The only one who signed away their life was me. Hell, I couldn’t have even hit back if I wanted to. It would have been physical assault.

That was murder. The illegal kind.

I wasn’t as scared as I was surprised. I already maxed out on the amount of fear I could for the day. I envisioned the scenario to play out closer to a game of basketball where they each try to score - kill me - without fouling each other.

It was odd, though. Seconds passed in silence, and I still hadn’t received a new system message of someone accepting the contract.

Based on Bruno’s power, their level couldn’t be low. With level comes wealth and riches, meaning 100,000 dollars may not be much to them. Yet, none of this answered the most important question.

“Why?”

“Why what?” The tone turned flat. Bruno sounded different from his previously headlong self.

“Why did you save me?” If they saved me. I could barely get the words off my tongue. I didn’t want to hear the answer.

“He got in the way.”

Ah, so it was that. A deep breath escaped me. I stared at Bruno.

Their arm was no longer on fire. Something about their eyes reminded me of our final moment the other day. They were studying me closely.

Something about those eyes captivated me. This was a much better person to die to. With one last breath, I resolved myself.

“Well, please don’t make it painful.” I gave my best smile.

I braced myself, waiting. I could take down my deal, but it’s not like they were afraid to murder.

But nothing happened. No system notification. No movements. Nothing.

“I don’t want to kill you.”

Huh?

“You don’t?”

“No, so you can go back to what you were doing before.”

What I was doing before… It took me a second to collect my scattered thoughts, then I realized.

“You want me to go back to killing myself?”

Bruno nodded.

“He got in the way before. Now, are you going to jump?”

I froze. I wasn’t sure if this was some test, not that I would understand any reasoning behind it. They phrased it as a question over a command, which was a good sign. If it was a serious inquiry…

That was a good question. And it was one I wouldn’t spend more than a second thinking on. A dozen reasons to do it, and a dozen reasons to not do it zipped past, going ignored.

I have money now so that kinda ruined my plan.

I shook my head, “I don’t think I can, let alone will.”

My legs had given up. All I could do was stare up at Bruno while they decided what to do.

Bruno didn’t keep me waiting long. They met my eyes one last time and turned off.

“Fine.”

Bruno walked to the ladder at a casual pace.

“Wait!” I shouted. Bruno paused without turning back. “Can you tell me what’s the meaning of your life?”

A cheesy question, I know, but I was aimless, bleeding, and wanted something to latch onto. And even if I knew nothing about Bruno, there was something genuine in their eyes.

A cliche reason for a stupid question.

“Unfortunately, it isn’t my job to explain to you what it is.” Bruno resumed to the ladder, soon leaving me alone on the roof.

I could almost laugh if I didn’t feel something poking one of my lungs.

I was left staring at the familiar sky. The one I barely gave a moment to stare up at. The pain last time was incomparable to what I was feeling this time, the sight incomparable too.

Dusk was ending soon. The reds, oranges, yellows, and blues blended together to form an abstract art piece as my vision faded to black.

System, remove my contract offering.

System, call 1-2-1.