“What da hell are ya talkin’ about, old man? You can’t pay up? What da hell do we do for you?!” shouted the strangely dressed man. He had a suit, dress pants, and fedora of various shades of gray, along with a purple tie.

“Please, you increased the price tremendously since last time, I’m not ready to pay it!” pleaded my boss. He had both of his hands clasped together, and despite his eyes being entirely covered by his hair, I could make out a look of desperation on the rest of his face.

“Bullshit! And after all we’ve done for ya?!” the suited man shouted. He raised a fist and rammed it into Hiroi’s stomach.

Hiroi took the hit and fell to his knees.

“Hey!” I shouted, walking in front of the two. “What the hell’s going on here?!”

“Eh? Who da hell are you?” The strange man took the toothpick out of his mouth and tossed it to the ground beside Hiroi.

“The handyman,” I replied, taking a step towards him. “And that’s my boss you just punched.”

“Oh, a tough guy!” he replied with a crooked grin. “I’d call ya cute, but then I’d be lying. So why don’t you actually be handy and fuck off?”

“Why don’t you?” I immediately shot back. My heart began to beat faster, and red started filling the sides of my vision. “I’ll give you a chance to get lost before I rip your tongue out of that ugly mouth of yours with my teeth. No wait, what am I saying? I’m going to do that right now!”

“Wait, Mike! Don’t!” exclaimed my boss.

I took only a single step before ice immediately filled my veins. It wasn’t because of Hiroi’s words, however. The strange man in front of me swept open his jacket and revealed a holstered pistol that his hand was already on. I came to a standstill.

“Oh Hiroi, what’s the cost for giving me lip?”

“T-ten percent,” the old man said in a whisper, slowly getting back to his feet.

“Good, so you do remember! And that’s on top of the money you already owe us.”

“But I can’t afford it! You just raised the price all of a sudden today, do you think raising it even more is going to get you everything when I never even had enough for this?”

“And that’s another ten percent, old man!” The man in the suit let out a laugh. “But you have a good point about not being able to pay if your bill keeps going up, so I’ll just have you pay this way instead!” He threw another blow into Hiroi’s stomach.

My boss screamed as he collapsed to the ground. He was conscious, but gripped his stomach in pain.

My vision began to blur, but the gun always stayed in focus. I so badly wanted to draw blood, make this utter piece of shit suffer for finding enjoyment in brutalizing an old man, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know whose blood would be drawn if I tried.

The rage from my inaction soon began to overflow my head, and something strange happened. I didn’t go berzerk or seize over. I just went numb. Numb enough to try something else out.

“Could I ask who you are, then?” I asked. I felt raw Charisma flow out of my lips, aided by the System. “I just started yesterday, and nobody’s told me what’s going on.” It took a surprising amount of willpower not to sneak an insult into my question.

“Who me? Why, I just repruh-zent a real-estate protection agency, is all,” he said with a smug grin. “We keep these businesses safe and all dat. You knows, from hooligans or any ne'er-do-wells.”

“In a suburb.” It wasn’t a question.

“You never know when you’re gonna need it.” His smile turned sadistic.

The Charisma dropped from my voice and the words on my mind came out as they were. “You’re the fucking mob…”

“Bingo! We’ve got a smaht one here! Though we prefer the term ‘protection agency’, I already told ya that. Now, about your boss’ payment.”

Hiroi was still on the ground. He’d stopped writhing, but he lay still, unable to get back up.

“He said he’s unable to pay because of the sudden price increase.” I said, channeling the System again. “Would it be possible to delay the increase until the next collection?”

“Hmm, I guess I could delay it, but there’s still one more matter.”

“And what would that be? I’m sure we could come to a friendly arrangement.”

“He still owes me another ten percent because of your lip! Talking like you could take me? Ha!”

I froze. Me and my fat mouth.

“But you do look like you could take a punch from me, so that’s outta da question. Oh hey, Hiroi here’s Japanese, right? Don’t they’ve got some kinda special apology dance or something? What’s it called? Oh yeah, Kowtow!”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Urf, Mike,” groaned my boss. “You don’t… have to…”

“On yer fuckin’ knees, twerp!”

My eyes shifted between the two. Hiroi was still on the ground and the goon’s hand was still on his gun.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I lowered myself to my knees.

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? But that’s only step one. Now on your hands.”

I glared at the dirty ground and did as the man asked. Every fiber of my being wanted me to lash out, to strike at the first bastard I’d met who truly had everything coming to him. Even Jeff from back in Edison was just a common fuckboy, but this man…

“Hmm, nice, nice. I like this, no wonder youse Japs made this a thing! Now kiss my foot.”

“That’s not part of it,” growled Hiroi. Anger shone through his pain.

“Don’t care, I’m making the rules! Now kiss ‘em.”

I slowly lowered my head, using all of my willpower not to spit on his feet instead. As I got close enough to make contact, the goon quickly raised his right foot and placed it on top of my head. He pushed down and forced me to the ground.

“Nah wait, I have a better idea. Why don’t you lap up some garbage water?!” He began to laugh. “Like some kinda fuckin’ garbage dog! Woof woof, drink up, bitch!”

The numbness in me grew deeper. Neurons in my brain began wildly firing in some attempt to make sense of how I could be feeling such sheer rage yet not be doing anything about it. One of those neurons happened to be linked to the System.

[Revenge] active.

Oh right, I got that Skill after beating up Jeff. I’d forgotten about it after that incident, since there wasn’t anyone here I really had anything against. Until now.

A minor tingling sensation filled my body. It was unlike the cold rage I was already feeling, but rather focused. Refined. The Skill filled me with both the physical deftness and determination to make the man above me suffer. And I was about to.

My eyes quickly darted to a piece of moldy cheese that must’ve fallen out of someone’s garbage bag. I expertly picked it up with the tips of my fingernails and slapped it onto the goon’s pants. He didn’t notice. He was too busy laughing.

The Skill was happy.

[Skill Level Up! Revenge lv 2 -> 3]

An old cigarette butt caught my attention next. I picked it up and slid it inside the man’s sock. I somehow knew he was allergic to the stuff in it and would get a nasty rash.

[Skill Level Up! Revenge lv 3 -> 4]

[Revenge Perk Obtained! Minor Inconvenience]

What the hell? I forcefully turned the Skill off. What kind of revenge was this? Messing up the guy’s pants with moldy cheese? Oh yeah, that totally makes up for him kicking my head into garbage water and beating up an old man. I bet that dry cleaning bill would totally bankrupt him.

“Haha! Wooh, yeah. Alright, I’ve had my fun, but I need to get going.” The goon lifted his foot from its resting place and began to walk away.

I turned my head and looked back at him. As disappointed as I was from how [Revenge] turned out, that distracting emotion didn’t entirely displace what I was feeling before.

I could see a thick envelope in his back pocket. No doubt Hiroi’s payment.

“Fuck it,” I thought to myself as I focused the Skill on him once more. [Revenge: Minor Inconvenience].

Rather than the envelope flying open or exploding into a shower of bills, the wallet in his other pocket fell out instead.

The mobster didn’t notice, and continued on his merry way.

“Mike, are you alright?” asked Hiroi, rushing over and helping me up.

“Yeah,” I replied, shaking my head. “Wait, I should be the one asking you that.”

“Oh, well when you’ve been through everything I have, you learn how to take a punch without getting hurt. It makes people you’ve pissed off leave you alone faster.” He gave me a wink. “And it looks like I’ve satisfied him enough to leave us a present.”

I quickly forgot about my boss and walked over to the fallen wallet. Seeing that its owner was long gone, I picked it up and began rifling through its contents. Inside was what anyone would expect; a driver’s license, a few dollar bills, and various business cards. One of them in particular caught my eye. A customer card for a casino, Victoria’s Garden. It was a rewards card, and had quite a lot of wear.

“So we’ve got his name,” I said, putting most of the cards back. I stuffed his cash into my pocket. “Should we call the cops?”

“Nah, they won’t be able to do anything.” Hiroi shook his head. “The police used to have them under control, but something changed a few months ago and they’ve been running rampant ever since. I really don’t think I can keep paying them at the rate things are going.”

My arms fell limply by my side. Whatever disappointment from that petty retaliation morphed into a rage that burned even brighter than before. I clenched my teeth as I gripped the wallet with enough force to tear it apart, if it weren’t for the high quality of its leather.

“M-Mike?”

“They need to pay. This is wrong.” My voice dropped down to a seething whisper. “I’m going to make the mob burn.”

Hiroi reflexively took a step back when he saw me. “I know you’re angry, Mike. But don’t do anything you’ll regret. Whatever you do to that man will come back to you, to us, ten fold! Take the day off if you need to, but do not go after him!” He all but shouted those last words.

“Don’t worry, I won’t.” I said, walking away from the dumpsters. “But I hope you don’t mind if I start moonlighting.”

“I don’t, as long as you can still keep up with this job. But why do you need another one? Is it the pay here?”

“That’s not it, Hiroi. You pay very generously. I just need more… experience.” I was soon out of earshot. “I need a job that’ll actually get me some levels.”

[Level Up! (5)]

[Str: +1 | Con: +2 | End: +1 | Cha: +1 | Atr: +0 | Dex: +1 | Int: +2]

[Str: 13 | Con: 14 | End: 13 | Cha: 17 | Atr: 10 | Dex: 13 | Int: 15]

[Skill Level Up! Revenge lv 4 -> 5]