One foot in front of the other, Biff left behind the big hall where he spent the last few years working. Before going through the main gate and into the streets, he leaned over the steel fence to catch his breath.

‘This hurts so much…’ the pain got worse in the last few months. At the moment, it was so intense that he wanted to cry. He slowly stretched his leg in hopes of finding even a bit of relief. Biff wanted to just lay down right there for at least a couple more hours, but that would be too troublesome. Gritting his teeth, and concealing his contorted expression, Biff went into the streets, and continued to limp away towards his home.

He already tried to take a longer break, just maybe his leg would get better; unfortunately, that did not work out. If he didn’t do any physical activities for a prolonged time, the results seemed to be even more appalling.

Slowly and steadily, Biff advanced through the somewhat crowded street. Everyone had their own matters and problems, so no one gave him a second glance. This place was more to the periphery of the small city, so it wasn’t anything too fancy.

The roads, as well as the alley ways were masterfully made by using rocks mixed with certain elements that provided a very stable, and durable base. Part of the people walked on foot while the ones that had to traverse a bigger distance used carriages which were pulled by horses, or other similar tamed creatures.

Of course, there were also public artifacts specially designed, and deployed by the city to aid the movement of its citizens. Those were similar to the one that came to pick up the boxes from Bart, albeit, smaller, simpler, and unable to take of to the skies. There were only a few such artifacts, and they were used only on a few main routes.

Everything was clean, and a multitude of flowers, and other ornamental pieces enriched the atmosphere, bringing joy to anyone that took a moment to appreciate these things. Regrettably, Biff’s entire focus was on his next step, and nothing else.

After an unknown amount of time, he finally opened the door to his room. Locking the door, he crashed to the floor, and quickly fell asleep.

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Biff’s eye-lids trembled and he opened his eyes. “What time is it?” Judging by the amount of light that came through the window, it was almost noon. “Shit! I slept way too much…” It was already way too late to go to work.

The moment he moved, a sharp wave of pain took a hold of him. The cause was the same as always, his leg. Enduring the throbbing, and the soreness, Biff got up, and sat on the bed.

His room was very simple. A bed, a desk, a small wardrobe, and nothing else except a small area for cooking and a bathroom. The place was temporarily rented, and didn’t belong to him.

Biff just stood there, barely blinking. During the last years, most of his time was spent at work, and sleeping in that plain room. Big part of the money he earned was spent on the rent, while whatever remained was carefully gathered with the hope of treating his problematic leg. As for eating, or going out, he couldn’t afford much at all.

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His eyes became moist, and a few tears fell down. His current situation was very far away from what he dreamed about in the past. It was painful on more than one level. After some time, Biff got up and went with his usual morning routine. It was already noon, but since he just recently got up, it was still ‘morning’ for him.

Such a situation where he couldn’t get up and go to work happened only once in the past. It appeared like he reached a certain limit.

‘I need a week off,’ thought Biff while washing his teeth. It was the first time he decided to take some time off work. It wasn’t an easy decision, but his body could not go much further at the current pace.

After finishing with his hygiene, Biff went to the window and looked outside. He was slightly envious of the people that didn’t seem to have any disabilities. But then again, part of them could just fake their current situation, the same way as he did.

Looking at the house across the street, he let out a small smile. It wasn’t anything too big, but the materials used to build it were of excellent quality, and the design was much to his taste. ‘What a beautiful house! I hope someday I will be able to own such a building, and not live by paying such an unreasonable amount of money as rent.’

For the conditions he had, the amount of money he paid was a little too much. Sadly, with his current situation, he couldn’t afford to spend too much time and effort on looking for a cheaper alternative. On a second note, he disliked haggling too much unless absolutely necessary.

Laying on the bed, Biff closed his eyes. His brain started to think of various solutions to his present situation. “If I want other results, I need to chance something. But what?!”

He desperately wanted to change his situation for the better, or at least try it. “What should I do? There surely must be a few other paths that I could take…”

Minute after minute, hour after hour, he brainstormed for better solutions to his circumstances. It wasn’t an easy feat by any means. ‘Should I use the money that I managed to gather until now to try and partially heal my leg?’

With a better leg, maybe he could try again being a mercenary, or at least a porter. That implied a ton of risks, however, the rewards were more consistent and came way faster. There was also the risk that the medicine would have no effect whatsoever, rendering his hard efforts useless. This kind of outcome would be the worst scenario.

Regrettably, he didn’t have enough funds to seek a specialist, and at the same time buy his medicine. Biff was conflicted about what he should choose for the maximum results.

“I don’t think I can wait much longer, something needs to change…”

His leg was gradually getting worse. At this rate, the chances of being unable to walk were getting higher and closer. On the other hand, the Great Wilderness was the place where he got injured in the first place, so he was still fairly scared to go there again.

“I need to think this through…” Regret was the last thing that he wanted right now. Since his resources and circumstances were quite unfavorable, every decision needed to be carefully calculated.

His head started to hurt from all the thinking, so Biff stopped. At this moment it was already evening. It was time for dinner. Slowly getting out of bed, Biff went to the kitchen. Thankfully, the pain crisis which began the previous day was starting to settle down, making things bearable again.

Taking a pot, Biff poured some rice inside, washed it, then waited patiently for it to boil. During this time, he performed some easy leg exercises that proved to have some benefit to his injury. It wasn’t much, but he would take it anyway.

Twenty minutes passed in the blink of an eye. Biff emptied the content of the pot into a plate. Taking a spoon, and sitting down, he started to eat. Plain rice without a speck of any kind of seasoning, this was his dinner for some time already.

Hope was still there, so Biff started to hum a song that he liked. At this moment, he was unperturbed by all the bad things that happened recently. He decided to try his hardest no matter what happened, and until the very last moment.