"AIIM GONNA KICK UR ASHH KIID" A drunken voice yelled from Jing's right. The driver in the car to his left had opened the window and screamed at Jing before tossing a bottle at him, missing him and Uru entirely. The bottle clattered on the ground as Jing brought his attention back to the front.

He tightened his grip on the wheel while Uru giddily laughed. He felt like he was the only one who wasn't ready to be here.

"Remember you're doing this so you can finally get some answers" Uru comforted him "Just focus on having fun and we'll have our answers soon".

Jing remembered the terms of the race and settled into his seat. Hopefully, he didn't have a heart attack from whatever was going through his system. His eyes felt like they were glued open, and he could see and hear everything.

What he didn't need these super senses was to hear what was happening in front of him. He could see chunks of road floating up into the sky, forming a familiar sight with the road creating a roller coaster of a track in front of him. There was a giant stone arch right in front of him that served as the start and end of this race.

Jing gulped, trying again to find moisture in his mouth. He watched as the angel he saw on the orb previously floated in front of him and the other car. She pulled a shining gem out of her pockets and spoke into it, her voice ringing outwards. He closed his eyes as she made her pre-race announcements, only opening his eyes again when he began hearing her give the countdown.

5...

"Alright, Uru let's take it slow okay?"

4...

"Absolutely not"

3...

"Godammit Uru"

2...

"EAGH MY DUSHT KID"

1...

GO!!!

...

...

...

Earlier that day:

Jing's hand grabbed towards his nightstand, blindly reaching for the phone that was ringing there.

"Hello?"

"Yes, is this Mr. Jing Lee?" A slightly familiar voice asked

"Uh yeah. Who's calling?"

"This is Nathan Kim, we met yesterday for a moment"

Jing sat straight up

"Yes sir, we did! What are you calling for?"

"I have some good news, but I think it would be best if we spoke in person, ah, please bring a checkbook"

"Absolutely! When should I head into the office?"

"Ah, I'm already here but I haven't eaten, so let's meet in about an hour?"

"Absolutely, have a good breakfast!" Jing could hardly contain the joy in his voice. He had woken up to what (seemed to be) the best news possible.

"Uru! We gotta go!"

"ghrhrmemregHImsleepy" a horrible groaning sound came from a toy car on his desk. It was a simple SpicyWheels toy that he had. Jing and Uru were discussing car covers and new forms of overnight care until Jing got home, where suddenly, he found that Uru was possessing his old toy car. She had no explanation other than "I wanted to be inside". It turned out that she could possess car-shaped toys, and even zip around in them like a tiny RC car.

That toy car was now in an oven mitt on his desk, somehow turned upside down.

"We gotta go! I'm not driving off in your body without you!"

He grabbed the grumbling automobile and ran to the actual car outside.

When he hopped into the car, he tossed Uru into the passenger seat, and as the car turned on, a (￣ρ￣)..zzZZ face appeared on his console.

"I'm going whether or not you're awake," Jing warned.

He pulled out of the parking garage near his apartment and began making his way toward the loan office.

Eventually, the (￣ρ￣)..zzZZ Face on the console disappeared and he heard a yawn.

"Waking up to the breeze on your face is excellent!" Uru said happily.

"Well I'm glad you're feeling more awake but I'll probably need coffee bef-" Jing stopped when he registered exactly how he felt.

"Before what"

"I was gonna say fall asleep at the wheel but I honestly feel fine" Jing looked at the clock, which read 7:15

"Didn't we go to sleep at like 4 or 5 am?" Jing scratched his head

Uru responded with another deep yawn.

"Also, who the hell calls someone at 7 am on a Saturday?!" Jing fumed "Anyways, I'm still going to get breakfast since I'm up this early, and we'd get there like 30 minutes early if I went straight there"

Jing took a quick detour. Along the edges of Frontline City, there were a large number of Asian communities with their own markets and restaurants. He parked and left Uru to nod off while he obtained breakfast.

...

"Whatcha eating?"

"Tofu brains and fried dough"(1) Jing happily replied through a mouthful of food.

"It's delicious!"

Jing looked down in surprise and found that some of his tofu and dough sticks had gone missing

"Those were mine!"

"Whaffevfer" Uru replied.

"How do you even eat food!?, actually yeah yesterday too! How do you eat?!"

"Like this!"

Jing watched as one of his fried dough sticks simply rose into the air, and then started disappearing bite by bite.

"That's the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. And that's including that bridge I drove on yesterday!"

"Well you asked"

...

...

"Wait, that was the last one!"

Jing and Uru continued to bicker until they finally reached the office. Uru swapped her consciousness over to the toy car and Jing put her in his pocket before heading in. He quickly flattened the crumpled check and tried to wipe off his tear stains before heading in.

"Hello, Mr.Lee. Thank you for coming in so early today, I just thought you would like to hear the news sooner rather than later. Please, come in!"

Nathan Kim greeted him at the door, and Jing was about to respond in kind when he noticed that the office was in complete disarray. Nearly every filing cabinet was open, and there were papers spread over nearly every single horizontal surface in the office. Jing could even see a few energy drink bottles next to delivery meals on a small table in the corner. This was especially strange

"Ah yes I'm very sorry for the mess -actually-, could you please look away for a moment?"

Nathan Kim grabbed the spreadsheets over the coffee table and stacked them neatly into a Manilla folder.

"Just some client information, aaaand let me get yours" Nathan sifted through the folder and pulled out a form.

"So just to quickly cover your terms again..." Nathan Kim quickly described the terrible loan agreement that he currently had with the office, outlining the awful penalties and the strict requirements for repayment.

"And so I wasn't supposed to take your payment yesterday, because you were supposed to drop it off here".

Jing's confused face prompted Nathan to continue.

"As you know, we closed a little early yesterday. To make things fair for our clients, I had left instructions on the door about how to leave the payment in this drop box I had put out yesterday". He pulled out a locked metal box with a slot on top. "This box has a lid that can close at a certain time, and it was set to the end of the day".

Jing began to protest that he had seen neither box nor sign before Nathan reassured him

"I'm aware. Which leads us to right now. Joe told me that you arrived before official closing hours, and more importantly, that the box wasn't outside when you got there. With his testimony alone, I feel comfortable accepting your payment as it was on time"

"Oh thank god. Here it is. There should be no penalties right?" Jing fumbled to get the check out of his pocket.

Nathan put his hand up for Jing to wait. "That gets us to the next situation. What I'm about to tell you should not be shared with anyone else in this office until I gather more details, but you ought to know now. The box not being outside was something that might be considered an accident. What didn't seem like an accident was the fact that the sign with my instructions on it had been pulled down. I believe that someone in this office attempted to sabotage your repayment here."

"Excuse me?"

"In this envelope, is a collection of loans that are in situations similar to yours" He flipped through the first few pages. "Almost all of them are fresh graduates, and have missed a payment this month, across a multitude of branches across this country" Nathan snapped the folder closed.

"Now, due to professional codes, I cannot tell you who they are, or exactly how many there are. What I can you is there are a lot. Far more people 'happened' to miss a payment this month than what is normal."

Nathan sat in the chair across from him before looking Jing in the eye. "Something is going on here. While I can't promise any immediate justice, I can keep an eye on this situation."

Jing sat for a moment before asking "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because of the same professional codes," Nathan rubbed his temples. "I'm certain that anyone who would be doing this to you will have noticed exactly who and what I was looking at today. Consequently, I don't think that reaching out to anyone else is safe" He adjusted his glasses before continuing. "This meeting only worked because we happened to meet at a very lucky time, and that I happened to be back in the office for something I forgot earlier. Anything different, and I would have had my hands completely tied when it came to even helping you here today. If I hadn't come in last night, your fees would have already been triggered at midnight and added to your account, and due to the nature of your" Nathan pointed at the folder on the table "And their contracts, it would have been really difficult to counter the fees." He took a deep sigh before continuing. "I expect that my client interactions will be monitored in the future and that I won't be able to tell anyone else. All I'd be able to do is put you in the same room as someone in a similar situation, and hope you can warn them as well".

He pulled off his glasses and began sighing, which turned into a yawn while pressing his fingers to between his eyes. "The only other thing I could hope for is that you keep receipts of every interaction you take with anyone from this office in the future. I expect that at some point something is going to go horribly wrong"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Are you going to be okay with all of this?" Jing questioned

Nathan widened his eyes in surprise before chuckling "Thanks for worrying about me but I'm officially just a representative of a different branch while working here. I could get removed from here tomorrow and the worst thing that would happen is my boss in Korea giving me a hard time." After chuckling one more time, he put on his glasses again and spoke seriously "And that boss is the reason I'm staying. If he ever found that I left this situation without trying to help, he'd probably fire me on the spot. And so I'm staying until this is figured out. Get some good software on your phone for recording conversations, but don't tell anyone until it's time"

Jing sat for several moments. Nathan Kim noted his pensive mood and waited patiently until Jing finally spoke again.

"So what do we do now?"

"Well, first, we address the outstanding balance on your account" Nathan addressed with a smile.

Jing grabbed the check and pushed it across the table towards Nathan.

"Ah here we are, and I can accept this today Mr. Jing, you should see your account set back to normal momentarily. I will likely reach out soon."

Nathan and Jing shared a handshake before Jing left the office.

...

Jing stepped back outside, savoring the morning air. His face showed a relaxation that he hadn't felt in months.

"I think you can trust him Jing" Uru said

"Why do you think that?"

"Because I don't think he's slept since he met you last time," Uru said, peeking out of his pocket. She was able to see and hear just about everything in the office, including the stacked delivery packages and mess of the office.

"Yeah I thought it was strange he was wearing *exactly* the same outfit but yeah there's no way he could have done that much research without pulling an all-nighter"

"Well, other than getting a good recording app, there's nothing else to do until he contacts you again about it I guess."

Jing and Uru made their way back to the car, talking about what they were going to do for the day.

Jing decided that it would be a great time to just get out, as he had been in a stressed-out mood for several weeks up until that point.

They enjoyed each other's company until Jing decided to spend some time in the afternoon working out.

One of the perks that came with his current job was a membership to a multitude of the services initially intended for the resort, which included a beautiful multi-story gym with several floors that included activity rooms, and even individual workout rooms.

While he didn't train competitively, Jing trained as often as he could, especially since he didn't have the cash to enjoy many other experiences on New Gold Island. After warming up, he set up the bench press to his regular weight and did one rep before nearly dropping the weight on his face. He quickly re-racked the weight, ignoring all of the other gym goers nearby who had been startled at the noise. What had happened was that Jing had pressed with full strength, and the weight had nearly flown out of his hands when he pushed it away. He had barely caught it and nearly dropped it on his face as a result. After he had taken a moment to make sure he hadn't damaged himself or the equipment, he laid down again and started his reps at a much slower speed.

The weight, which had felt quite heavy to him only a few days ago, felt now like he was just doing pushups. Surprised at the situation, Jing kept doing reps past his usual count until he started tiring and eventually re-racked the weights around 30 reps. He looked at the bar and counted again exactly how much weight was there. There was about 100 kg, and he felt like he was doing pushups.

Jing quickly de-racked the weight and ran out of the gym. Covered in a sweat that seemed to have nothing to do with his recent exercise.

He ran to Uru, hopped in, and spoke before Uru could speak

"I think I'm on drugs"

"Uh, what?"

"I just did the most incredible set of bench presses that I've ever done, I ran across the parking lot and I'm not even winded, and I'm doing this on less than 2 hours of sleep, oh my god I just remembered I barely slept"

"So why do you think you're on drugs?"

"Because I ATE A FREAKING ROCK! Why did I let her convince me to eat a rock?! Who knows what kind of weird shit might have been in there? Steroids? Cocaine?!" Jing pulled at his hair "I gotta find her and figure out what exactly I ate".

"Jing calm down, do you feel like you need to go to the hospital first?"

Jing's panic was halted as he assessed his body again.

"No, I feel fantastic, better than I have in months. But that's also why I'm concerned! Uru, can you take me back to that place?"

"I mean sure Jing, but take a breath first. We'll get there"

"Thanks Uru, I'll try to not freak out"

Jing continued to freak out as Uru took them back towards the Left only calming down several minutes later.

...

...

Jing approached a massive building that most certainly wasn't there in the regular world. He had gone back to the town square and inquired of the butler that he was looking for the woman who had paid for his dinner last night.

"You'll find the devil woman down at their headquarters most likely. Take that road and please don't come back" the red-haired man quipped at Jing and Uru.

Almost immediately, a floating hand came and smacked the man on the head. He winced, rubbing his head as he stood back up. "I mean please have a nice trip".

Jing hurried away and requested additional directions from other people before he antagonized the shop any further.

"I still don't know her name," Jing murmured while driving down the road. "And I don't see anything down this way."

"The other people we asked said that you can't miss it as long as you go down this way"

"Sure, but we're going away from downtown. There shouldn't be any huge buildings over..."

Jing trailed off as he saw a shining castle, or rather, a fortress. While not incredibly tall, especially relative to the business buildings nearby, it was quite imposing. The building was surrounded by a large wall, and Jing could see towers on each corner, and in the distance, a building inside of the walls. The style of the building was completely different from the area around it. On each side was a modern skyscraper, and its ancient style but pristine appearance looked like someone had grabbed a replica castle from ancient China and put it right in the middle of the area.

"Well color me surprised"

"How much do you think it costs to live here?" Uru asked

"Uh, I'm not actually sure how people would pay rent here. Who would you even pay?"

As he approached, he found that there were a large number of people going in and out of the building. Some restaurant owners had also set up shop near the entrance. Uru decided to make the rest of the way on foot (wheel?), as a small car, not wanting to drive a full-sized vehicle through the busy area.

As they walked through the gate, Jing noticed many guards stationed along the walls. They were equipped with a variety of weapons from different timelines. He saw men in robes holding classical weapons like swords and bows walking alongside what appeared to be mercenaries wearing thermal goggles and assault rifles.

Past the gate was a large courtyard that looked more like a park. Many different people were milling around. Some were enjoying the park itself while many others seemed to be in a rush one way or another. It reminded Jing of a college quad other than the fact that a majority of the entitles moving around were not human.

Jing made his way to the opposite side of the courtyard, noticing that many of the people on the move were going to or from a large building on that side. When he entered, he was surprised at how modern the building was on the inside. In front of him was a desk with not one but five people handling greetings. Jing noticed then that all five looked exactly the same. Every single one of them was incredibly handsome, had sharp brown eyes, long black hair tied back into a ponytail, and wore the same black suit. Their only difference was that they wore different ties. He walked up to one who was wearing a solid orange tie, which seemed like it would clash with their look but failed to ruin their appearance.

"Uhm hello" Jing greeted the secretary.

"Hello, how can I help you today?"

"Yes, ah I met someone yesterday and they helped pay for my dinner. I wanted to come by and give my thanks in person."

The man across from him paused and looked at Jing closely before responding "May I know who you might be looking for?"

"See that's the thing. I don't actually know her name. She's got hair like this long with red highlights and she wears-" The man across from him cut him off "I see, Ms. Valencia. While I highly doubt it, Do you have an appointment?"

"Uh, no. Like I said I only met her yesterday"

"Uh-huh"

Jing and the gentleman stared at each other for a few seconds.

Eventually, the man sighed "You're trying to tell me you met her" and pointed behind and above Jing.

Jing turned and saw behind him five large portraits, one of which included the woman he saw yesterday.

"Yeah"

"And you said she paid for your dinner?"

"Yeah..."

They looked at each other another few moments before the man spoke again

"Sir if you continue this prank any further I'm going to have to ask you to leave"

"No wait she really-"

"Security!"

Immediately, Jing was lifted by his arms and was dragged away by a group of men that suddenly appeared around him. Uru was similarly apprehended by another person who had managed to grab her before she could zip away.

"Wait, sorry I'll leave on my own!" Jing protested and struggled. Despite his new strength, he found that he was unable to budge his arms even a tiny bit from the two security guards.

"Oh hey it's you"

Jing felt himself drop slightly as the two guards holding him raised one arm each to salute the voice"

The woman whose name he learned was Valencia had just entered the building.

"Hey put them down, will you? They're my guests."

Immediately, the gentleman in the orange tie ran out and bowed towards her. "I'm so sorry miss I nearly threw out an honored guest of yours"

Valencia narrowed her eyes at him before waving him off "You were doing your job Xiao Ju Zi. Back to work everyone!"

The two men around Jing disappeared and he fell to the ground at the sudden loss of support. Uru grumbled about scratched paint and insurance rates as Jing stood back up, Valencia looked at him.

"So? What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh well, it's about that rock from-" Jing was cut off by Valencia's hand covering his face.

"Maybe we should have this conversation in my office?" She was smiling at him but he felt an incredible danger in that smile. He nodded and she took her hand off and stepped away.

He followed her up an elevator and hallway and ended up in a large office, in the back was a large glass window where he could see the front desk. He noticed that he was behind the portrait of Valencia he saw from the lobby. While he was wondering how this kind of one-way glass worked, Valencia sat on the desk and interrupted his thoughts.

"Why are you here?" Valencia asked directly.

"I need to know what was in that rock I ate yesterday. Were there steroids or something in there?" Jing responded worriedly "That rock became like a liquid and I just thought it was food but then I've felt really good since then and I'm worried that I've been drugged"

Valencia stared in shock before laughing. Jing was about to angrily respond to her laughter before she spoke again "No no you're right you don't know what's going on. I'll explain." She wiped the tears from laughter from her eyes before she started again.

"The thing you ate was manifested kar-"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The entire building shook as crashing sounds came from the lobby below. Valencia hopped off of the desk and looked below. A man made his way into the building and stomped on the floor, leaving cracks in the ground that spread through the lobby. The man in the center was yelling at the secretary he was speaking to earlier.

Jing couldn't hear what was being said down at the bottom level, but he could see that many of the guards had surrounded the man at a distance, seeming quite unwilling to approach him.

"Man, that guy has anger issues," Uru said.

Valencia ignored Uru, and instead pressed a button on her desk and spoke into a microphone "Just send him up I'll deal with him".

The entirety of the downstairs seemed to have heard, and the man made his way to the elevator. Less than a minute later, a man came crashing through the door.

"What the FUCK ish thish Valencia? I raced that good and yall sain I didn'n MAKE IT?" The man slurred through his sentence.

"You lost, and that was the deal" Valencia replied coolly

"YEAH NO SHIT. NO one WINS againast HIM" The man continued to rage

"Max, you lose your chance. Go home before I make you"

Max looked around, only finally registering that Jing was in the room, and saw Uru next to him.

"A KID? a fugGING KID? Yer gonna tell me to GO and recruit a fUCKING KID?"

"Oh no sir, I'm just-" Jing tried quickly to clarify but was cut off by Valencia.

"Yes and he doesn't smell like alcohol all the time"

"ILL SMOKE THIS DUMB KID!"

"No, I don't want to-"

"Fine, go get your ride Max, and have your stupid race"

"FINE" The drunken man stomped his way out of the room, slamming the door on his way out.

"What the hell was that? I don't wanna race that dude?!" Jing immediately protested.

Valencia sat back on the desk before replying "If you race, I'll tell you want you want to know, and I'll tell you how to get more easily"

"No, I don't want any more of whatever that shit was I just need to know what it was! And besides, I don't want to get hurt racing!"

Valencia shrugged before replying.

"Look, I'll happily answer any questions you might have even if you lose the race."

Jing was about to protest again before Uru spoke up "Jing, I kinda want to race" Before Jing could respond she continued "He called you dumb, and I kind of want to knock him down a peg"

"But I don't know anything about racing!" Jing argued

"The Oligarchs can promise 100% safety in this race if that gets you to go" Valencia cut in

"What do you mean promise safety?"

"Like this" Valencia lifted Jing up by the wrist and bodily threw him against the wall.

"WHAT THE SHI-" Jing closed his eyes and braced for impact... but the impact never came. When he opened his eyes, he saw that a shining light had appeared between him and the wall and the floor. He floated against the wall momentarily until he was placed on the ground.

"What you're wearing on your wrist will be able to protect you and your car from at least one serious injury. If you use it, feel free to stop racing".

Jing found that a bronze bracelet with a dozen turtles was on his wrist. 11 of the turtles were glowing, with one being slightly dimmer than the rest.

Jing sat on the ground for a moment, trying to process exactly what had just happened before turning to Valencia.

"You'll explain how this bracelet works too?"

"Like I said, I'll answer any questions you have even if you lose as long as you race" Valencia played with her hair with disinterest, as if this whole situation had nothing to do with her.

"Fine, I'll do it. When are we racing"

Valencia turned to him in surprise. "You're racing right now. Don't you remember me telling Max to go get his ride?"

"Uhh" "Actually now that you've agreed we need to clean you up. You look like you went to the gym and never showered"

"Well I-" "Charles! Makeover for the gentleman please!"

A man whose size beggared belief came through the door. Appearing to be over three meters tall, he hunched over to simply be in the room.

He grabbed Jing who began yelling as he was once again lifted bodily as the giant pulled him out of the room. "Put me dowwwwwwwwwn" His voice quieted down as he was brought down the hallway.

"Uh, he'll be okay with that guy right?" Uru spoke nervously.

"Don't worry! You'll be joining him! Cheryl!"

A woman whose size mirrored Charles stepped in and grabbed Uru before she had a chance to run. Her screaming voice could also be heard as she was dragged away.

Valencia chuckled as she opened a phone and dialed.

"Yeah, I managed to get him to race," She said with a smile "I think he has something good to show us."