Chapter 5: Immortality In Daycity
Some of you would ask, 'Why would a man kill himself so readily at just the notion of immortality?' well, when you've lived on the streets for years, scrounging and begging for scraps to feed a younger sister, when you've had to run and hide from depraved rich demons going after her, any way to go further is like a holy grail. Even if the sword struck true and I was asleep forevermore, that too would have counted as a blessing.
*SHIKHHLHH!* was the sound the sword made as it pierced through my body and then my heart.
Darkness soon covered my mind. I had fulfilled a long-awaited wish, to take my own life and escape the world of the rankings where humanity was nearly dead last.
"AGGHH!!" I screamed for only a short minute before silence spread.
[You have die-Error ERROR ERROR]
Like a TV being turned on, my consciousness snapped back and within moments the crimson energy had healed the wound around the sword.
"Aghhhhh!! It hurts but It fucking worked! I revived!! This is insane! AGHHHHH!!" I shouted as loud as I could.
[The cursed sword [Wolf's Ravaging Edge] has bonded to your soul!]
[The cursed sword [Wolf's Ravaging Edge] is devouring your lifeforce.]
"Eat! Eat all you want!" I said.
The black and deformed longsword piercing through my heart began to pulse and pulse as its shape slowly cleared up and began to return to normal.
Soon, the darkness of death encroached.
[You have die-Erro Error ERROR]
[Pain Tolerance(E-rank)]—>[Pain Tolerance(D-rank)]
[Cursed sword [Wolf's Ravaging Edge] has reached its maximum rank of S. It cannot be strengthened further.]
Only a moment later I had returned. With a swift move, I ripped out the sword and held it in front of me, its deformed shape became a sleek and beautiful one, that of a beautiful black steel longsword with a dark red gem on its handle.
"Let's see if you were worth all of that excruciating pain!"
[S-rank [Wolf's Ravaged Edge]: Attacks will do double the damage at the cost of life force. You can summon three ancient shadow wolves to serve you, they will each have identical stats to yours. The wolves will have basic intelligence and cannot disobey you.]
"This is good, but I'm not sure it was worth all that pain. Status."
NAME: John Crane
LEVEL: 14
RACE: Human(#9998)
GIFT: [Transcendant].
CURSE:[The Immortal].
STATS: Physique-14, Mana-5, Spirit-08
STAT-POINTS: 45
CLASS: None.
SKILLS:[Enhancement(B-rank)],[Pain Tolerance(D-rank],[Cold Heart(S-rank)]
[SHOP](locked)
"Let's split the stats evenly again."
In an instant, a euphoric filling filled my body and my strength and all other aspects had further increased 2 times over. The Mana in my heart had also become more pronounced.
"Good, right I got a couple of new skills."
[Pain Tolerance(D-rank]: You can tolerate more pain.]
[Cold Heart(S-rank)]: You are immune to most negative feelings and psychological trauma but your thirst for revenge when even slightly wronged is tripled.]
"So that's why I hated the hobgoblin so much… I'm not sure this is a good skill considering the downsides. Other than that the system doesn't seem to consider the [Enhancement] I got from my [Gift] a skill. So I have 3 skills but only 2 slots are filled, I wonder if this applies to anything I learn with [Transcendant]." I contemplated.
A thought suddenly came to mind and I couldn't help but smile.
"Now that I'm immortal, I have a few grudges to settle..first though let's try out these wolves." I thought as I imbued [Wolf's Ravaging Edge] with mana.
In an instant three almost shadow-like wolves appeared, the only difference was their eye colors, red, green, and purple each.
The most surprising thing however was their sheer size, their heads touching the 4 meter ceiling of my small room with ease.
"Woo!"
"Woo!"
"Wooo!"
As I got closer to them they lowered their heads and moved towards my hands. As if to ask me to pet them.
"Aren't the three of you too big?" I said.
As I pet one of them the other pushed him and took over his place, they were lively like little children on Christmas morning, repeatedly they pushed each other to get to my palm, their expressions almost serious as if they were fighting, I couldn't help but laugh at their cute actions.
"Woo! Woo!"
"Woo!"
"Woo!"
"The three of you are just big puppies huh? I'll have to name you then, let's see.." I chucked as I thought of suitable names.
"Let's see, the one with the red eyes is Silver, the green eyes will be Loki and the one with the purple eyes will be Ash. Perfect, do all of you know your names?"
"Woo!"X3
"Alright, let's try it this way, Silver!"
"Wooooo!!" replied the red-eyed one.
"Good, so you understood, alright, Loki!"
"Woohoo!!" replied the green-eyed one.
"Good job pups, now Ash!"
"Wooooo!!" replied the purple-eyed one.
"Good job all of you! Such smart wolves! Rest for now, I'll call you out to play later."
"Woo," They replied unwillingly as they returned to the sword.
"They're more like big puppies than shadow wolves. Alright, let's go make some money." I said as I reached under my bed and grabbed a Walters Pistol along with the 9 bullets I could afford.
"9 bullets for 9 men, It was going to be a suicide run but now…" I said with a smile.
As I left my apartment and jumped into the twisted maze of Day City, it was impossible to ignore the stark contrast between the haves and the have-nots.
For those of us scraping by in the lower echelons, life was a constant struggle, confined to the decrepit confines of shitbox apartments in the neglected corners of the city. Dilapidated structures more akin to cages than homes, with crumbling walls and faulty plumbing serving as constant reminders of our precarious existence.
"Fucking bastards!" I said with my eyes aimed at the sky.
Meanwhile, high above the squalor, the wealthy elite dwell in their ivory towers, surrounded by opulence and excess.
Their world is one of floating mansions and golden cars, a realm where money buys everything from security to luxury. A reality so far removed from our own that it might as well be a different universe, existing on the same plot of land yet light-years away in terms of privilege and comfort. The filthy rich were even further above, in their own floating cities or even in the heavens of space.
These feelings weren't of inferiority but rather it was impossible not to feel the weight of the divide pressing down upon us like a leaden sky. While the rich bask in their gilded splendor, we struggle to make ends meet, scavenging for scraps while they dine on caviar and champagne and the ever-luxurious monster meat.
It's a shitty pill to swallow, knowing that just a stone's throw away, there were those who lived lives of unimaginable luxury while the rest barely scraped by. Those above were said to commune with the gods meanwhile we were close to the devil and even he ignored us.
Yet, despite the glaring injustice of it all, there was a sense of solidarity among those of us who called the underbelly of Day City home.
Though we lived in the shadows cast by the gleaming skyscrapers above, we refused to be forgotten or ignored. In our own way, we were a community, bound together by shared hardship and a stubborn refusal to be crushed beneath the weight of inequality. And as long as there was breath in our bodies, we would continue to fight for those floating cities, one where the playing field was level and everyone had a fair shot at killing each other.
One party was always in opposition, however, the gangs. Robbing the poor and the rich with no care for anyone other than themselves.
One such gang took over the close-by part of Heavy Rain district and took the pleasure in robbing me of of one of my father's possessions, a motorcycle I had barely found years later in a ditch near where they were killed. But that only represented their crimes against me, the neighbours and friends of my family they had tortured and killed were a different matter. A matter that beckoned me to spill blood..
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone