Even someone born with a silver spoon, sharp-minded and raised by loving parents, sailing smoothly through life, would have probably thought this at least once.
Living is truly a difficult thing.
Me? When I was young, it was good.
I wasn’t exactly born with a silver spoon, but we were well-off in our own way.
Up until I was little.........
Thinking back, my life was full of questions.
Why did my parents have to die like that?
Why was I the one who survived?
Why did my relatives swallow up the inheritance and compensation money and still not take proper care of me?
After I became an adult, I tried filing a lawsuit, but the property I got back wasn’t even a third.
The lawyer explained that assets lost through investments and business ventures were hard to recover.
Not one of my relatives apologized.
Instead, they cursed me out, calling me a rude bastard who didn’t even know gratitude for being raised.
After eating that much, it should’ve been enough—those conscience-dead bastards.
Now I’m calm about it, but back then, I was hurt quite a lot in my own way.
Maybe that’s why I hate mingling with people.
I’ve probably seen too many people whose outsides and insides didn’t match.
The sound of the automatic door opening.
A customer came in.
Instinctively, I lowered my head.
An unfamiliar shadow crossing past the glass door.
“Uh, w-welcome.”
The voice that slipped out by habit was quiet, so quiet I could barely hear it myself.
Without lifting my head, I only glanced sideways at the monitor next to the counter.
The image of a man and woman caught on four CCTV cameras.
A hoodie and a mask. What they were holding in their hands was.... a cellphone?
Still, I couldn’t let my guard down.
With my left hand on the cash register release button, my right hand reached toward the box cutter.
If they rush me or something...?
I recalled the escape route and what I had to do, step by step.
The first thing to do was open the cash register.
Then I’d have to shout.
‘You can take the money, just please don’t hurt me.’
Shouldn’t I stop them from stealing the money?
No matter how stingy and tightfisted our boss was, he’d think it was better for the convenience store to get robbed than for me to die.
...Probably.
While they grabbed the money, I’d move as fast as possible.
To slip out from behind the counter, I’d have to lower my body halfway.
After squeezing into the narrow space beside the refrigerator attached to the pillar, I could head for the storage room.
The storage room could be locked from the inside.
It was also connected to the outside.
It was built so you could lock it and leave after work.
From there, the nearby police station was about 400 meters away......
That was the reason I chose this convenience store among the many jobs the detective had suggested.
The person who had taken care of me for ten years after I was the sole survivor in a sea of blood.
If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have known what kind of work to do.
If I run like hell, I can make it in under a minute.
My back was a bit hunched, but I was confident in my running.
I checked my shoelaces.
As always, they were tightly tied.
My palms grew damp with sweat.
Keeping my eyes on the CCTV, I suppressed my pounding heart.
I tried not to give anything away, but the shadows of customers moving around the store bothered me.
The convenience store lights flickered mechanically, giving off the characteristic white glow of fluorescent lamps.
The customer approached.
Finally, the counter.
I put strength into my fingertips.
My heartbeat sounded unbearably loud.
The boss used to look at timid, fearful me with pity.
‘You’re way too scared for a kid these days. Be more active, get out more. You talk fine once you get close, so why are you so shy? Just think of them as customers and greet them—raise your voice!’
He said that while clicking his tongue, but.......
That was because he’d never experienced something truly terrifying.
Once again, that day came to mind.
My parents’ bodies soaked in blood.
The criminal’s shadow falling over me as I sat frozen, unable to run.
The warm, soft fur of our cat Ginger that I clutched in terror.
The sharp sensation of metal digging into my prone back.
..People are the most dangerous of all.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
An item was placed on the counter.
“Checkout, please.”
My blinking eyes widened.
It took a few seconds to come back to my senses.
I needed to reflect.
Spacing out with a person right in front of me.
That was dangerous.
Without lifting my head, I mechanically scanned the barcodes of the items the customer had placed down.
Two bottles of cola. Two packets of chips. And a convenience store sandwich.
“$15. Would you like a bag?”
I rattled it off as fast as possible so I wouldn’t have to speak again.
“If you don’t give us a bag, are we supposed to carry all that in our hands?”
The couple, who had been snickering among themselves, soon headed for the door.
“Fuck, everywhere you go these days it’s all about charging for bags.”
“Just leave it. He looks timid as hell. Creepy, too, with that mosquito-like voice. Don’t you think his body looks kinda weird as well?”
I could hear the backbiting, but I didn’t really care.
As long as they didn’t attack me directly.
Phew.... sent another one off.
A sigh of relief escaped me.
The next customer walked straight into the store.
Once again, my palms began to sweat.
***
“Man, I’m exhausted....”
As soon as I opened the front door and stepped inside, I let out a sigh.
Home, sweet home.
A small apartment I bought with the inheritance I managed to get back.
It was an old apartment in a remote corner of California, but still, it was something. I liked that there was a security guard on duty 24 hours a day and that the security was solid.
I had poured all my money into buying the apartment, so I had to start working part-time.
Still, having work at all was a blessing.
The world was cruel to the weak.
Even more so to an orphan with a disability and only a GED to his name.
If that orphan was also timid and bad with words, it went without saying.
To someone like me, the helping hand sent by the detective was like rain in a drought.
I didn’t need to submit documents or sit through interviews with strangers.
My hands busily locked the security devices.
I fastened the safety chain and inserted the door brace beneath the handle.
The same method the police use when barricading an entrance.
Even if someone forced it, it would never open.
Then I checked the security camera connected to the front door.
“So far, nothing unusual.”
—Meow
My only family, Ginger, came over.
Ginger, who meowed pitifully while looking at me, brushed past my legs with his long tail.
Then, gathering his front paws elegantly, he let out a loud cry.
—Myaa, myaaah
The eyes looking up at me were desperate.
The last trip to the shopping center I went on with my parents.
The exact same gaze from inside a small metal cage.
That day, I gained a new little sibling.
And only the two of us survived.
“Yeah, yeah. Big brother’s here. You waited a long time, didn’t you? I’ll give you something tasty right away.”
At the words “something tasty,” Ginger’s whiskers gathered forward.
—Myaa, myaa.
Standing up on his hind legs, he placed his front paws on my knee.
The soft sensation from his paws naturally eased my heart.
“Just wait a bit. I’ll wash my hands and give it to you right away.”
Ginger and I sat side by side and ate.
I ate a discarded store sandwich, and Ginger ate his staple canned food.
After the meal, I turned on the computer with Ginger sitting on my lap.
I could hear a purring sound.
The familiar sound I’d heard for over ten years calmed my mind.
While occasionally petting Ginger, I loaded up the game I’d been deeply into lately.
Aside from the hours I went out to work part-time, I stayed at home all the time, so my only hobby was gaming.
I started with RPGs and went through all kinds of role-playing and online games.
Since I tried to avoid spending as much as possible, it was hard to get into the rankings, but I’d still been called a veteran in more than a few games.
Then I found a game called [Fresh Immortal].
An MMORPG.
That genre called massively multiplayer online role-playing whatever.
It was a game based on the concept that humans with spiritual roots could become immortals.
“Wow, can’t even eat this.”
Humans fighting, bickering, gathering resources..
And when your character died, you had to start all over again.
“Ah, damn it, died again!”
I hammered the keyboard and clicked the mouse wildly.
No matter how timid I was, it was impossible not to swear when playing online games.
I had finally rolled traits I liked and was raising the character diligently, but on the way home after selling spirit herbs, some crazy bastard robbed me and I died a pointless death.
This luck-dependent trash game.
This damn game only gave you 5 points to invest when you first started.
With those 5 points, you had to allocate them into stats that started at a base value of 10.
No wonder it was a trash game.
Most people started with fourth- or fifth-grade roots, and you had to be lucky just to get third-grade.
Only one person had ever proven a first-grade root with screenshots.
No wonder it flopped.
At least it gave you something called traits, but even those were left to luck.
Up until now, I’d kept trying, but the best trait I’d gotten was ‘Recover HP when eating.’
I had to keep stuffing something into my mouth all day, but.......
Still, with second-grade roots and all-in investment in the Luck stat, it was a blessed character people envied.
And that character died.
Grumbling, I opened the character creation screen.
A sparkling banner at the top caught my eye.
[This game is scheduled to shut down at 12 a.m. on May 8.]
I glanced at the desk clock beside the computer.
The current time was 8:30 p.m.
When did so much time pass?
I got off work at 4 p.m. and came home, so it meant I’d been absorbed in the game for hours already.
My mood’s ruined anyway.... should I just turn it off?
But the remaining coins felt like a waste.
Let’s just spin roulette until the server shuts down.
With an indifferent expression, I poured all the coins I’d earned through grinding into the character creation roulette.
The game was ending anyway—why save coins?
Let’s roll an insane trait and post a screenshot for proof once.
The familiar interface.
The spinning wheel I’d seen to the point of nausea began to turn.
With that strangely infuriating sound effect, the screen froze and a character was created.
I felt a bit of anticipation.
***
...Anticipation, my ass.
The wheel of rage kept spinning.
On a whim, I dumped all other stats and invested all 5 points into Luck.
I’d done this before and gotten a good character.
Three hours passed as I blankly stared at the screen, which kept spitting out nothing but garbage traits.
Ginger was still asleep soundly on my lap.
Less than a minute remained until the server shut down.
My legs were numb, but I endured.
Fuck it, if it’s come to this, let’s see it through.
Spin the wheel until the very last moment!
...That was probably a mistake.
One second before server shutdown, the screen suddenly glowed gold.
No, the area around the computer started glowing.
And a strange message appeared.
[Thank you for loving ‘Fresh Immortal’ until the very end. You, who remained as the final one, now become an immortal in reality.]
...What the hell does that mean?
Startled, I hurriedly turned off the computer’s power.
It wouldn’t turn off.
The spinning screen warped as if mocking me.
In the midst of it, a new character was created, accompanied by the sound effect.
[A Unique-grade trait is being granted.]
“Fuck, forget your Unique-grade trait and all that!”
Terrified, I desperately kicked the computer.
A premonition that something ominous was about to happen pierced my entire body.
Just like that day my parents were murdered.
Startled by my sudden movement, Ginger screamed.
—Myaaa
I saw Ginger reaching out his front paws toward me.
The moment I reached out my hand to calm the startled Ginger.
A cold mechanical voice rang out.
[Trait acquired!]
[Immortality: You can live an eternal life as long as you are not killed by injury, natural disasters, disease, or poison.]
Along with the mechanical voice, darkness swallowed me.
