The moonlight bathed the rooftop, as I stood at the edge of the tallest building of the city, looking at nightlife, wondering what the purpose of life is?

-Ring! Ring!

‘Who could be calling me right now? I believe I had already killed everyone I knew?’ I thought with an objective look before looking at the caller ID

[Charles Richard]

“Ah! Inspector Charles. Because of everything that has occurred lately, I totally forgot that I had some people with good intentions in my life as well… I must be getting old,” I thought as I looked back at my life. The past 10 years especially.

“Should I pick it up or-”

-Thud!

The door of the rooftop opened with a loud noise, making me turn around and look at who in the world is disturbing my last moments of peace. 

‘Can’t even let a man die in peac-’ my thoughts stopped in between as I looked at that man, Charles Richard, trying to catch his breath as he stood at a distance in front of the door to the rooftop.

Even though the only light that was shining on that man’s face was the moonlight, it wasn’t hard to distinguish those features of his. Blonde hair and that cream coloured signature suit of his, that tall build and the square glasses which reeks of nerdiness. Yup, it’s my favourite inspector, Charles Richard.

“Why… cough cough… “ he said as he coughed a lot. He must have been continuously running to put himself in that condition. 

I turned around and stood up before waiting for him to catch his breath.

“Why did you have to do that?” he asked in a slight despair filled voice. As he looked up, his eyes were shaking, and his expression was filled with questions.

“You are speaking as if you don’t know the answer to that,” I answered in a serene voice as my eyes observed his expressions.

“You could have done things better…” his pleading eyes looked at me. 

“Now, now, Charles, you are smarter than that. For someone who has been trying to find dirt on me for the past two years, you already know that I have done everything I could. For me, there was no point in living anymore… My mom died, father got killed in an ‘accident’, my girlfriend betrayed me, my only best friend died the death of a dog, the only person who had loved me was forcefully taken from me only to end up committing suicide. 

And what happened a week before kind of sealed the deal too,” I explained almost every major event that has happened in my life. It was kind of a sad life honestly. Nothing really good about it.

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“The TimeUser Class,” spoke Charles in a sudden realisation as he asked,”did they succeed in taking that class from you?” 

TimeUser Class… one of the seven most powerful Classes of Arcadia Online. 

“It’s not possible to take any of those classes and you know that. They just… destroyed that class by joining their hands together,” I spoke with a long sigh as my heart ached even thinking about it.

It took me months to get that class and years to perfect it. And after I finally succeeded, I was hunted by the users of the other six classes day and night. Though I survived for 3 years… until they finally managed a way to destroy my class for once and all.

“Destroyed?!! How can they-” Charles was shocked to hear the news. I guess he didn’t know about it after all… 

“Well. Now you know,” I spoke as I observed him before a sudden thought came into my mind…

“Since I am dying… ummm… Charles. Can you do me a favour?” I asked Charles, as he kept looking at me,”favour?”

“Yeah. Since, I am already beyond the point of saving… Can you be the person who takes my life?” I asked with a small smile and he looked at me with confusion.

“I mean, dying as a coward who jumped off a building doesn't sound as cool as the guy who took a bullet to the face, does it?” I joked and he just looked at me for a few moments before he sighed,”they are both quite stupid sounding honestly.”

Then I saw him moving towards me one step at a time and I carefully observed him.

“I… Well, I was here to arrest you, honestly. But as someone who knows the complete truth… I honestly don’t know what choice I should make here,” he spoke with a melancholic expression as he walked past me and looked at the night city view.

Turning at him, I asked,”Well, it’s not like we can change the past though, can we?” 

“Maybe… maybe not?” He spoke with a slight confusion before he turned at me and observed me carefully. His eyes seem to be calculating something.

After a few seconds of silence he asked,”can you answer a question of mine?”

“Okay, go ahead,” I nodded at him and he continued,”Can you save someone for me? A couple of people actually.”

For a few moments, I just looked at him… and then…

“Haha! Is this your way of forcing me to live a little bit more?” I asked as I chuckled and he just smiled before speaking,

“Okay, let me rephrase this. If you were given a choice to save your lover, would you do it in exchange for saving a couple of people? Don’t think much about it, just answer what’s in your heart.” 

It was a truly odd question but if it’s about saving Aurora then… “Yes. I guess I can do that.”

At my answer, he smiled as he spoke,”Evan Castro, Serah Rose, Damian White, Ciana Grace and… Charles Richard. Please save them, Mikael. I am putting my trust in you.”

He spoke as he took out a gun from his pocket. It was an odd gun… a silver green coloured gun that looked really strange…  

“It’s the last bullet… Make sure it doesn't go to waste,” he spoke as he pointed that gun at my forehead,”Remember those names, Mikael. Burn them in your memory. Make sure to save them. You will find your answers on your journey. I wish I could help but even if I tell you anything else regarding that, you will forget so…”

“What are you-” and before I could even question anything…

-Bang!

Everything turned black…