9 p.m. is just the beginning of the night life in any big city and it isn’t any different for New York as the most populous city in the United States.

As Luca left The Plaza Hotel at midtown Manhattan he easily blended into the crowd wandering to wherever his feet led him.

As Luca came to a stop, he was in front of The Garden.

‘Hahaha~ I guess it can be said that I repaid all our debts to the Olympus.’ Luca let out a weak laugh as he fished a small picture of a teenager and a middle-aged man happily laughing and in the background of the photo was the same arena that was in front of him; but no matter how much he looked at the photo, that man would never appear next to him in front of the arena like in the past.

‘Hey Old Man, you really are a shitty liar, you know.’ He looked up staring at the night sky ‘How come I hated that stupid kids show so much yet I can’t forget that night no matter how hard I try.’ he clenched his fist so hard that his joints were turning white ‘You always told me that a man should always keep his words but why is it that you couldn’t keep yours? You said that we were going to live like a normal happy family after you left Olympus and that you wanted to be like all those old grandpas bragging about their grandchild.’ a small tear ran down his face remembering the face of the middle-aged man smiling while carrying him on his shoulders.

There probably was a show going on in the arena at the moment as the sound of music and cheers could be heard from outside and there were a multitude of reporters at the scene outside waiting for the end of the show to try and get any newsworthy material from the event.

After being still for a long time reminiscing of his old memories, the commotion of the end of the show woke him from his daze.

“Looking at all these people happily enjoying themselves … it sure is a bliss to live such a carefree ignorant life.” Luca watched as families, friends and lovers left the arena laughing after watching the show “After thinking it through, even if we left Olympus to live a normal life I wonder how normal would it be? Hahaha~ It sure would be fun watching the all powerful Poseidon wearing an apron and trying to cook. I bet you wouldn’t even know how to change your grandchild’s diaper.”

Luca stood watching and listening on the crowd until the last person from the audience left.

“Did you leave Olympus to perform as a statue on the streets?” A low pitched deep voice came from behind him.

“Hahaha~ Should I? But I don’t know if I would actually earn any money tho.” Luca kept staring at The Garden’s entrance not bothering to turn around to answer.

“Pluto! How coul… “ before the person could finishing speaking he was interrupted by Luca.

“Watch your words.” Luca’s voice was still as calm and easygoing and lazy as usual but to the man it was like thunder running through his body..

“I apologize, Mr.Strauss” the man hastily corrected himself while instinctively retreating a few steps.

“You should go back.” Luca finally turned and in front of him was a man wearing a black suit with neat combed blond hair “From today on you now longer work under me.”

The man in front of him looked as if he wanted to say something but didn’t know how to bring it up.

Seeing his uneasiness Luca spoke first “Instead of following me you should be preparing for the future. I’m sure that the other two are already gathering their forces as we speak in order to suppress you.”

Luca took a small black card with a red helmet imprinted from the chest pocket of his suit and threw it to the man opposite him “By the rules, this card should be at the hands of either Zeus or Poseidon but it seems that I forgot to give it back. I’m feeling too lazy to go back so I decided to just throw it on the streets and let fate decide who would be able to get their hands on it.” the corner of his lips raised as he said those words “The key to Tartarus, a symbol of the rulers. I hope whoever got their hands on it would do his best along Zeus and Poseidon.”

The blond young man lowered his head to look at the black card in his hands and he couldn’t help but squeeze it tighter before looking up again, but unfortunately for him when he looked up the person he was looking for wasn’t there anymore. He disappeared without leaving even a small trace of his existence behind. The only thing that proved that he was there was the black card in his hand.

Luca was already sitting on the second floor of a bar by the window watching that young man standing alone in the crowd “Who is trying to be a statue on the streets now? You will be a better Pluto than I was so … Pluto should be a ruler of the nether not a dictator. A ruler should be respected and admired instead of being feared. Fear is an amazing tool to control and suppress but is the worst when trying to create a prospering system.”

He sat inside the bar for a long time drinking and watching the bustling streets, “Even though I said that I was leaving but I didn’t actually think what I was going to do after leaving Olympus.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“At least I know what I won’t be doing.” Luca ordered another beer and looked at the interior of the bar again “Businessman, employee, student and unemployed. I surely don’t want to involve myself with any organization again so being a businessman is a no but I’m also unwilling to bow my head to anyone so white-collar is also out; blue-collar is out of question since I’ve done my fair share of physical labor already; and pink-collar is also out because I don’t want to deal with any bothersome jackass that may appear.” he kept looking at everyone gathered at the bar, they were people from all walks of life and different age groups “All that is left is student or unemployed.” Luca took a sip from his beer while focusing on a group students a chatting and laughing a few tables away from Luca “I’m already past that age but even if I was the same age I doubt I could relate to anything aside alcohol and women so … unemployed?”

After realizing what he was going to be in the future he couldn’t help but laugh “Haha~ I said I wanted to retire just to make fun of that bag of old bones but I didn’t think that I would actually live a retired lifestyle; I thought that maybe I would be interested in something after leaving Olympus but it doesn’t seem to be that easy to live a normal life.” Luca drank the rest of his beer and stood up intending to leave but when he was a few steps from the door an advertisement playing on the TV at the bar caught his attention.

“Hello Everyone! Final World Corp. is happy to announce to everyone around the globe its first game New Life.” as the ad started playing a beautiful landscape that could be described as paradise was playing on the screen “New Life is the first game to have a reality rate of over 80% for its most basic equipment and up to 95% for the best equipment at the moment.” a series of capsule beds were show on the screen, those were VR capsules that became popular a few years ago and nowadays they were even some capsules that were able to keep someone connected for a full week as long as the user placed enough nutrient pacts and a water channel.

“Final World Corp.’s New Life is a game created by a team of specialists from all over the globe and we can surely guarantee that you can be whatever you want in this place,in this … NEW LIFE” as the ad came to an end and a series of additional info appeared on the screen as to where to acquire the game and the gaming capsules, it seemed to have captured the interest of almost everyone inside the bar as all tables and small groups of people were all chatting about that commercial.

Luca was no exception as he also quite liked that commercial, smiling he said “If I’m going to live a leisure life I might as well enjoy myself playing games. It’s not like I need to work to earn my living after all that slaving I did for Olympus.” Luca left the bar and looked around “Now that I decided what I’m going to do there is only one problem left. Where in the hell am I going to live? Hahaha~”

Luca walked to the side of the street to hail a taxi and soon one quickly stopped for him.

“Hello young man. Where to?” the taxi driver was a friendly old man with white hair.

“Evening, to the airport.” Luca greeted the man and quietly sat by the window watching the rapidly passing scenery before speaking “Hey, old man. What do you prefer: american, italian or chinese food?”

The old driver was already working as a driver for a long time and had seen many things and was asked many questions so he replied to Luca with no hesitation “Chinese food. Their taste goes better with my old taste buds.”

Luca just smiled and kept quiet again.

If that driver knew that what he said would decide where Luca would leave he would probably be weeping ‘Young man it is good to be whimsical when you are young but deciding where you are going to live like that is too much!’

Arriving at the airport Luca quickly bought a ticket to Beijing and went to the duty-free shop.

“Let’s see … we are in the middle of december so it should be quite cold in Beijing so I should buy some winter clothes.” he was choosing some random clothes so he could change before disembarking “Oops, I almost forgot.”

Luca picked his phone and quickly dialed a familiar number and from the other side came a clearly annoyed voice.

“You fucking brat. You dump a shitload of trouble on us and still have the nerve to call me?” the owner of the voice was Zeus but even though his words were on the mean side his voice was actually as if he was waiting for Luca to call him.

“Hahaha~ This time I’m calling to ask you a favor, uncle Eric.” Luca’s voice was different from when he was speaking at the hotel as there was no more cold and detachment in his voice.

“Hmpf, and now you are calling me uncle.” Zeus snorted at being called uncle but at the other side of the phone he was actually smiling “What do you want? You wouldn’t be calling me without a reason now, would you?”

Luca smiled at the old man’s attitude, if he didn’t know better that this sweet old man actually had another identity he would actually believe that he was one of those retired grandpa that would be playing chess and bragging about their grandchild to the others.

“I’m at the duty-free shop and my flight will be leaving in 20 minutes. Can you ready an apartment in Beijing for me?”

“Stinking ungrateful brat!” Zeus from the other side of the phone cursed at Luca before continuing “If you decided to leave the country than you should at least have said goodbye to your aunt Silvia and Chloe! Don't you dare say that I should be the one facing those two, you know better than me that your aunt would skin me alive and Chloe wouldn't talk to me for months.”

“Hahaha~ I’ll call aunt Silvia after we hang up as for Chloe; I’ll call her when I disembark in Beijing.” Luca actually also felt it wasn’t nice of him to leave without telling them anything as they were the closest to family he had.

“Hmpf, you better call her.” Zeus snorted and hung up.

After hanging up with Zeus, Luca quickly called his aunt Silvia, Zeus’ wife.