Derik loved his life. Every morning he would open his window and take a deep breath of that polluted air and immediately have himself a good cough.
Today he walked to his wonderful sixteen hours a day job with a pep in his step. The grey skies, the lack of greenery, this was beautiful scenery. Bumping shoulders with people on the crowded sidewalk as they yell colorful words at him, just some friendly morning hellos to him. He would wave at them and they would give their own special wave with their middle finger. A special wave just for him, it was truly heartwarming.
“Ooh, how refreshing.”
Nothing like a drizzle of acidic rain with just that hint of burning to get one up and adam in the morning. He spread an arm over his head as others brought out specially made acid-resistant umbrellas. When he made it to where he worked and went inside out of the rain his clothes had already begun to deteriorate.
“Looks like I’m going clothes shopping again, how fun!”
He stripped to his underwear, put on a mask and a hair net then entered his workplace. A warehouse with a big open floor with tables evenly spaced appeared before him. Multiple people were at the tables doing the best job they could do.
“You’re late. Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
A buff man carrying a gun called him out.
“Won’t happen again, boss!”
Derik nodded his head as the other man shook his own and turned to inspect the others.
He went to his table and began to weigh and bag little crystals. These crystals would be distributed all over the country for consumption, he truly had an important job. These crystals were not personally for him, but he enjoyed making others happy. Whenever he saw a customer take in a crystal he saw them smile, truly a good feeling to see others smile.
While working he had thoughts of his mother. She loved these crystals, until…
He quickly smiled to himself and focused on weighing and packaging.
Once the clock struck twelve the day was over.
“Good job out their everyone! Looks like we made some good progress!”
The people only responded with grunts and even some snarls.
“Why are you so happy all the time? This sucks.”
One woman did not seem to agree with him.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Oh, come on. Don’t be so glum, chum.”
“No! Stop it. There is no way you are happy!”
He stopped smiling and looked at her dead serious.
“Then what would you have me do?”
She seemed stunned by the question and the sudden change in demeanor.
“Well… I.. Don’t know.”
The woman dejectedly looked away.
“Well, I am going to continue being happy!”
He began smiling again.
His face frowned, then smiled again. It switched between frowning and smiling as he tried to suppress the voice inside his head.
“Oh boy. Look at what you did. You broke my concentration.”
The woman and the others backed up in fear.
“What’s going on here?”
At this moment the buff man carrying a gun came up behind him to see what the commotion was about.
Derik whipped his body around, grabbed the gun, and shot the man in the chest.
BANG!
It was silent for a while. Then everyone screamed and began to run away. He turned back to his coworkers and began taking potshots into the crowd.
BANG! BANG!
“What the hell is going on in here?!”
Reinforcements came through one of the doors upstairs and saw Derik shooting the gun around.
BANG!
Everything went black.
…
< I feel so refreshed.>
Currently, he felt very refreshed, as if he had just dunked his head in cold crystal clear water. His body felt like it had expelled every toxin that he didn’t even know he had.
< It feels like I’ve been reborn.>
//
Species: Venus flytrap
Level: 1
Skills: (Weak acid secretion)
Titles: None
//
A screen appeared in the darkness that he read.
<... Am I a prophet? I guessed it.>
He tested out this plant body that he now had. Trying his hardest to wiggle but to no avail.
< I should at least be able to close my traps right? Or am I still underground as a seed, or maybe I haven’t grown the traps yet?>
In his now previous life, he had at least seen a picture of a venus fly trap, so he knew what he was supposed to look like. A green plant with open traps at the end of his leaves, like tiny mouths waiting for a delicious morsel to fly into them.
This seemed to be the oddest thing. A thinking plant. Who would’ve thought? Certainly not a plant.
The reality of it finally hit home. He had died. He had died to the lowest form of scum.
Bits of his memory was fading away. Forever to be lost. While he thought, he remembered how unhappy he had been.
He was tired of being unhappy, his memories always weighing him down. With this chance of being reborn, he could forget the past, truly be reborn. As the memories faded one by one he smiled to himself, a true smile, the first true smile he had had in a long time.