2026-04-24 01:25:03He raised his hand and held the back of his head with both hands. “This is real. This money is actually mine. I have been recruited by some invisible system. No wonder I grew bigger and got more strength,” He whispered.
He kept pacing back and forth as if that would answer his questions. He stopped and smiled. Then he said, “This could actually be good. Now I have money. I will no longer be a Class F citizen and I can do whatever I want including protecting the people I care about.”
He shook his head for a second and said, "You must be delusional Hiroshi. What's really going on? Could this be a real thing? Is someone pulling my legs?”
He put his phone away and went and got food.
He was just one meter away from the restaurant when he saw a group of boys bullying another boy.
He thought to himself, “I have read this in fantasy stories. But those are just mere stories right? It can't be true. But this is too much of a coincidence. This notification comes after I fought for something or I protected something. Hmmm. Let's test the hypothesis then. Just to be sure I am not hallucinating.”
He rushed towards the group. “Hey! Back off now!
The boys saw him and quickly ran away leaving the young boy they bullied. He saw Hiroshi too but he didn't run. His uniform was ruined. He was a high school student. The bullies had poured him dirty water earlier. His face was pale.
Hiroshi leaned forward and said, “Hey boy. Are you alright?”
The boy nodded and said, “Yes.”
“What's your name?”
“My name is Yaki.”
“I am Hiroshi. One word of advice: always stand up for yourself. No one is going to come save you, alright. The next time they approach you, be bold and not hide and shake in fear. They will back off. Fear is a weakness people tend to take advantage off. Even the devil knows that.”
Hiroshi took his handkerchief out of is pocket and wiped Yaki’s face. “You can go. They won't come back soon.”
Yaki smiled and left. Halfway through, he looked back and waved at Hiroshi. Hiroshi smiled and waved back.
A few seconds later, a notification came up.
[Act of Protection Detected: Yaki Mazi
[Reward: 12,000,000 Credits]
[Stat Boost: Agility +1]
[Strength: +2]
“Oh my God! Good gracious God! This is real! My goodness!” Hiroshi said as his eyes widened in surprise. “That means in no time, I could be a billionaire.” He started pacing back and forth again with his hands on his waist. He paused and said, “I can afford to clear all my debts now. This is magnificent.”
His food had gone cold. He didn't even seem to care at that point. He went back to the hospital and cleared all the outstanding medical bills for his mother. His phone buzzed. It was a debit of 50,000 credits.
Evening was here and he went back to his building. There was someone in front of his apartment.
Ren.
Ren Suzuki had been his closest friend since they were both kids on the same streets getting into the same trouble. Always talking, always moving. Something was always going on with him somewhere. When they were younger, they used to sneak into Emiko’s kitchen at night to steal chicken wigs. They were caught most times.
Tonight, he was on the concrete steps with his head down. His shirt untucked. Hair not done. Bottle in a paper bag. He looked up when Hiroshi got close. His eyes were red but that was from the drinking not from anything else.
"You're out," Ren said. His voice came out slow and thick.
"They let me go." Hiroshi sat down next to him. The concrete was cold under him. "What are you doing out here? It's late."
Ren lifted a piece of paper. Crumpled up, one corner missing. "Eviction notice. Out by morning. They're sending guys."
"Your landlord?"
"Works for the Kurodas. Everyone around here does."
Ren took a drink. Didn't offer any over. He continued, "Said they're sending guys to make sure I actually go."
Hiroshi took the paper and read through it. Legal words from top to bottom. It meant only one thing.
"When are they coming?"
Ren shrugged. "Soon. Just said soon."
Headlights came into the street.
A black van with nothing on the side of it stopped right in front of the building and two guys stepped out. Their names were Takeda and Saito. They worked for the Kuroda family as debt collectors. Actually, one of the many workers. Takeda was the big one, wide as a door, with arms that looked like tree branches. He doesn't talk much. He did not need to. Saito was smaller, faster, with a thin face and narrow looking eyes. He was the one who did the talking. Together they had brought lots of people to their knees and emptied houses for five years. They had never failed to collect their debt when they came for it. They had never been scared of anyone they went to see. That was about to change.
“Ren Suzuki,” Takeda said. “You know what this is right.”
Ren stood up. His legs weren't right. The bottle fell off his hand and hit the concrete and broke. It was loud in the quiet street. "I just need a couple more days. I can pull the money together."
"You've had your time." Saito kept walking closer. "You walk out now or we walk you out."
Hiroshi stood up.
He stepped in front of Ren.
Saito stopped. He looked at Hiroshi the way you look at something that turned up somewhere it shouldn't be. "Who's this?" His head was slanted.
"Nobody," Ren said from behind him. "He's nothing to do with this. Let him walk."
"I'm not walking anywhere." Hiroshi kept his eyes on the man holding the bat. "He said he needs more time. Give it to him."
"That's not how this works."
"Make it how it works then."
Saito looked over at Takeda. Takeda just shrugged. Then, he laughed. Short. Empty. "You genuinely don't know what you're standing in front of, do you?"
"I know exactly what I'm standing in front of."
Takeda swung the bat so quickly, aiming at his ribs. Hiroshi blocked the impact with his palm by holding it and brought it to a stop.
The bat hit his palm and stopped.
The wood split straight down through the middle. Splinters off it. Takeda stood there just looking at his own bat like he was trying to work out what went wrong with it. His eyes widened in shock.
Hiroshi's palm was red where the wood hit. That was it.
He was still holding the bat.
"Leave," he said.
Takeda let go and moved back. He threw a punch but Hirishi caught his fist and pushed him back using it. Whatever he came here with on his face was gone now. Saito was already inside the van now. He has never been opposed like this before.
"This isn't finished," he said. But something had left his voice. It was flatter now. Quieter.
"Yes it is."
They both got in. Doors shut. The van pulled away and went around the corner and was gone.
Hiroshi turned around.
Ren's mouth was open. Eyes still red but he was in shock. His eyes were wide open staring at Hiroshi. Something like fear and something like he couldn't make sense of what he just watched and he didn't know what to do with either of those things.
"What are you?," Ren said.
Hiroshi didn't answer. He just held his hand out.
Ren looked at the hand. He looked at the bat in two pieces on the ground. He looked back up at his face.
Then he grabbed it.
Hiroshi pulled him to his feet.
A notification came up.
[Act of Protection Detected: Ren Suzu
[Reward: 12,000,000 Credits]
[Stat Boost: Agility +1]
His phone buzzed in his pocket. He didn't check it. He already knew what it said.
Ren was standing. Still not fully steady but standing. "You caught a bat with your hand. And it broke."
"Yeah." He said moving his eyes right and left.
"How?
Hiroshi looked at his hands. Still not shaking. They hadn't shaken once the whole night. Not when the collector had him up against that wall. Not when the bat came at him. Not at any point through any of it.
"I don't know," he said.
His phone buzzed again. Then two more times right after.
He looked at it.
Four missed calls. All from the same number.
Hana.
The screen lit up again. Another one coming in.
He watched it ring and didn't answer.
Another notification showed up.
[Tutorial Complete. Welcome to the Gratitude System.]
It stayed for a moment. Then it was gone.
He put the phone back in his pocket.
"You're sleeping on my floor tonight," he told Ren.
"Your floor."
"Better than the steps."
Ren didn't argue back. He didn't have anything left in him for that tonight.
They went inside together. The building was dark inside. The stairs made the same noise they always make.
Behind them on the wet street the broken glass and the split bat were the only things left that said anything had happened out there at all.
His phone buzzed one more time.
He didn't look at it.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 21
The east wing of the Kuroda mansion was where sound went to die.Nobody lingered back there. Staff walked in, did what they came to do, and walked out again. You could feel it the moment you turned into that corridor, something that made your voice drop on its own and your feet go careful. Could've been the medicine smell that never left the walls. Could've been something else. The kind of feeling that comes from knowing something sad has been happening in a place for a very long time.Hana walked the hallway. Her shoes were quiet on the carpet. There was nothing on the walls, no pictures, no mirrors, just that same pale paint she'd been looking at for three years now. She knew this corridor the way you know your own bedroom in the dark. The creaky spot under the carpet near door six. The handle on door nine that wobbled if you turned it too fast. She knew all of it without thinking anymore.She stopped at the last door. She held the handle of the door, pushed it open and went in.The
Chapter 20
Hiroshi had both hands on the wheel, knuckles still white. The truck noise was louder than he wanted, but he kept his foot down anyway.Mika spoke again through the earpiece."Next left. Two blocks down. Alley behind the old noodle shop. You shouldn't come down here to the basement. I don't want to be discovered. Do you copy?”“Sure.”He turned left. The tires screamed on the wet road. The truck pulled sideways. He got it back on track."Two blocks," he said."Two blocks."He counted. One. Two. He swung right into the alley. The truck barely fit in. Both sides of the truck scraped the walls the whole way in. The metal was dragging on the brick.He didn't stop."The basement entrance is behind the dumpster. Green door."He parked and cut the engine. The quiet landed all at once. His mind felt like he could still hear the noise and all. But it's all quiet now. He just sat there for a bit with his hands still on the wheel. He finally relaxed his face and shoulders. Then, he took a deep b
Chapter 19
Hiroshi moved before the guard could say jack.Two steps was all he took. He used his hand to cover the guard's mouth. The guards lips were soft under his palm. Breath warm and wet coming out through his nose. He tried to shout but the sound didn't get past Hiroshi's hand.Hiroshi's other hand found the side of the guard's neck. The exact spot Mika had shown him. He pushed his thumb in hard.The guard's eyes rolled up and backwards. His whole body went loose. Knees buckled. Hiroshi caught him on the way down and lowered him to the floor slowly. The guard's head touched the carpet without making a sound.Hiroshi stood up and straightened up. His heart was going hard. He looked at the drive still in the server. The green light was still blinking. A notification came from the system.LitRPG: [Data Transfer: 87%...]Then the radio on the guard's belt crackled."Zen? Are you there? Report."Hiroshi went still. He looked down at the man on the floor. Out cold. Nobody was answering that."Z
Chapter 18
“What? I can do this. You really don't know what I am capable of.”Mika's voice came through the earpiece. Flat and tired."The code changes every hour," she said.His jaw tightened. "I won't be needing that info. I can see it was tightly screwed. I'm gonna unscrew and get back to you."He pressed his palm flat against the door. Cold metal. Solid. He wasn't breaking through it. Not quietly anyway, not fast enough.He looked back down the hallway. The stairwell door was still closed. The guard is still on the floor. But that wouldn't last. "The guards downstairs are going to come check on the one I knocked out."Mika went quiet for a second. Then he heard her breathe out through her nose. Long and slow. “You only have your hands with you. How on earth are you going to break it?“With my hands.”“What are you? Superman?’“Yep. Maybe more. Sometimes, I forget what I really am.”"Then stop talking to me and start working," she said. "Look at the keypad. Is there a panel next to it?"He lo
Chapter 17
He had his back against the north wall of the warehouse. The metal was cold through his jacket. He looked up. The drainage pipe was exactly where the blueprint said it would be. Rusted and old but it looked like it would hold.Mika's voice came through the earpiece. Barely a whisper."Fog's good," she said. "Moves with you. It covers your shape perfectly.""I can taste it," Hiroshi said."Good for you. But you have no time for that now, stop tasting and start climbing."“You right.” He smirked. He grabbed the drainage pipe with both hands. The metal was rough under his fingers. Its lakes of rust started to come off on his palms. He pulled himself up. His feet were finding the brackets. Arms doing the work. Three weeks ago he couldn't have done something like this. Three weeks ago his arms would have given up before he got anywhere near the roof.Now they just moved with no form of fatigue.He climbed fast. Hand over hand. The fog swirled around him.He reached the roof and pulled himse
Chapter 16
For the whole day, the blueprints stayed on the wall of Hiroshi's bedroom.He put them up across from his bed. When he woke up the next morning, they were the first thing he saw. He stood in front of them for hours tracing the hallways with his finger. Counting the cameras. Memorizing the guard rotations until he could close his eyes and walk through the whole building.Mika's voice came through the laptop on his desk that evening. Her camera was off. It was just her voice. Scratchy. Tired."Show me the path again," she said.Hiroshi pointed at the roof. "Skylight here. Drop to the catwalk. East hallway to the server room.""How many steps?""Forty seven.""Cameras?""Six. Two at the start. One at the corner. Two in the middle. One at the door.""Rotations?"Hiroshi closed his eyes. "The first gives fifteen seconds. Second gives twenty. The corner gives ten. The two in the middle give thirty together. Last gives twelve.""Guards?""Twelve on night shift. Two on the ground floor. One i
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