SKY'S JETS : THE RETRIBUTION SYSTEM

Chapter 2 Luxury, Insults, and Hot Water

For a warehouse laborer, waking up to the soft scent of lavender was a bad sign.

Amar's instincts immediately screamed : I've definitely been kidnapped by an organ-harvesting syndicate.

He opened his eyes slowly. Instead of the dusty ceiling of his rented room, Amar saw a chandelier, a crystal hanging lamp whose price could probably pay off his entire village's debt to the moneylenders. His body was lying on a massive bed with silk sheets. There was no IV drip in his arm, but the pain and exhaustion from the supernatural truck impact yesterday had vanished without a trace.

Amar reflexively felt for his left kidney. It was safe. No stitches.

"Thank God ... my kidneys are intact. Wait, where am I? Heaven? Does a poor guy like me get a room like this in heaven?" he muttered quietly.

"This isn't heaven, you foolish Host."

Astraeus's voice echoed in his head again, heavy, arrogant, and incredibly annoying. "And stop offering thanks to any gods. I am the only divine existence in your head."

Oh, brother, Amar thought, combing his long hair back with his fingers. You're still hanging around, pal? I thought I was just hallucinating last night from swallowing too much night air.

"If it weren't for my Cosmic Energy wrapping your frail body, you'd be getting sliced up in an autopsy room right now! Know your limits—"

Astraeus's voice was suddenly cut off as the hinges of a giant ebony wood door at the end of the room opened elegantly.

The silence of the room was instantly filled with the scent of luxury perfume, a combination of jasmine, musk, and something that, for some reason, made any man's adrenaline spike instinctively.

A woman stepped inside. Amar swallowed hard.

She was nearly statuesque, wearing a white silk long-sleeved shirt and a black pencil skirt that highlighted her perfect posture. Her long black hair was left loose, partially covering eyes as sharp as a cat tracking its prey. She was beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful. The kind of beauty that carried an "aura of death."

"Did you sleep well, Mr. Amar?" Her voice was crisp, a thin smile spreading across her crimson lips. She placed a steaming cup of hot tea on the nightstand beside the bed.

"Uh ... well enough, Miss," Amar replied awkwardly, hurriedly pulling the silk blanket up to his chest, afraid his "loser" physique might be exposed. "Did you bring me here? What should I call you?"

The woman's smile widened. "Just call me Erisia. I happened to be passing by the scene last night. Three ambulances almost got into a fight over you because they thought there was a corpse on the asphalt. Unfortunately ... oh, wait, fortunately, you were still alive, so I brought you to my private property."

Inside Amar's head, Astraeus's voice hissed like a rattlesnake. "What a sickening smell ... there is an unusual energy distortion in this human. Get away from her, Boy! Kill her if you have to!"

Are you crazy? Telling me to kill an angel! Amar shot back internally.

Before Amar could respond further to Erisia's words, a small commotion broke out at the doorway.

Three men burst in without permission. Two were massive, looking like debt-collector bodyguards in tight suits. One man walked in the center: a slick, dapper man in a sharp suit, wearing sunglasses indoors. He looked incredibly arrogant.

"Excuse me, Miss Erisia, my apologies for the interruption," the slick man said. Though his words were polite, his tone was condescending. He then looked at Amar as if he were staring at cat droppings. "Ah. The street rat is awake, it seems. Good."

Erisia simply crossed her arms, a small smile on her face as she remained silent. Her eyes were fixed on Amar, waiting.

"Who are you? Are you here to collect my rent?" Amar asked, squinting his eyes.

The man snorted, reached into his jacket, and tossed a thick brown envelope onto Amar's lap.

Thud!

"My name is Surya, an attorney for ... well, let's just say my client was in a hurry last night. But it seems you're quite stubborn for refusing to die after being hit by a steel plate. My client is feeling generous. There's thirty million rupiah in there," Surya said pompously. "Pack your things, take that pocket change, and don't you ever go to the media, let alone the police. If you mention anything about a wrecked truck or anything supernatural from last night, you won't just lose your life on the road, I'll pluck it from you slowly while you're six feet under."

Amar stared blankly at the thick envelope on his lap.

Thirty million.

THIRTY MILLION!

For a young man whose balance was constantly in the negatives due to monthly admin fees, this was a national treasure. Amar almost wanted to cry and kiss the lawyer's hand out of pure joy, until a visual distortion flickered across his retinas.

Ding!

A clear chiming sound echoed. A silver system interface window, glowing with blood-red edges, popped up exactly an inch from his nose.

[ Mission Activated! ]

Mission Type : First Retribution.

Target : Surya the "Arrogant Simp Dog."

Description : The enemy has intentionally treated the host like street filth to protect the mastermind behind the Modern Pantheon War. As the host of the God of War, submitting to the insults of a third-rate human is an eternal taboo!

Objective : Humiliate him, crush his ego, and destroy the target's self-esteem in front of an audience.

Reward : Based on the target's percentage of shame. Unlock Basic Stats Function + First Active Ability.

Failure : Right kidney shattered to pieces!

WHAT THE?! WHY THE HELL IS THE PENALTY AIMING FOR MY KIDNEY?! Amar screamed internally, his face instinctively turning pale.

"Damn right, Boy!" roared Astraeus, fury beginning to flood Amar's consciousness, causing the young man's right muscles to twitch violently. "Rise! Twist that arrogant human's neck! Rip his belly open, turn his intestines into a room decoration—"

Ripping out guts won't make him feel ashamed, you moron! Amar snapped back quickly in his head, instantly cutting off Astraeus's psychopathic speech. I'll just end up in prison. Shut up and watch how the underclass plays chess, Lord God.

"Well? You understand my language, don't you, pauper?" Surya pressed, since Amar had been silently staring into thin air for a while. Erisia observed Amar with a gaze that felt like she was peeling back his skin.

Amar's demeanor slowly shifted. He abandoned the intention of touching the envelope, leaning his back against the stack of silk pillows in the most comfortable position possible. He glanced briefly at Erisia before looking at Surya with pure disdain.

"Thirty million. Is your client a corporate board member of a conglomerate or a minibus boss?" Amar commented suddenly. His high-pitched, laborer-like voice instantly vanished, replaced by a cold, annoying tone typical of an internet know-it-all. "Thirty million wouldn't even cover a single month's worth of daily gas for a Mercedes S-Class."

Surya's face tensed for a moment. How does this hobo know what kind of car my master drives?

"Don't push your luck, country bumpkin," barked one of the bodyguards, preparing to step forward, but Surya's hand held him back.

"Tch," Surya clicked his tongue, crossing his arms arrogantly while leaning against the small table next to the nightstand where Amar's hot tea had been placed. "Take it, or by tomorrow, you'll be nothing but a memory."

Realizing Surya was at very close range, Amar's small-fry survival instincts and, as his system put it, his yet-to-be-visualized absurd luck, began to heat up.

If I get beaten up, I'm the one who's toast ... but the system said to humiliate him, right ... Amar curled the corner of his lip into a provocative smirk.

Amar intentionally raised his right hand to stretch, pretending to be stiff, right above Surya's face which was leaning dominantly over the side of the bed. But the movement didn't stop there. Amar's left elbow "seemed" to slip off the edge of the pillow, twisting his torso slightly in an awkward manner. Amar's long arm missed as he patted the air.

Or so it seemed, until.

CLICK.

Amar's pinky finger, "accidently" and nearly beyond the calculation of any common physical logic, flicked the base edge of the kettle for the cup of boiling tea that Erisia had placed near Surya's leaning hip.

The gravitational center point was perfect. That eccentric flick became an instant lever! The dainty luxury cup filled with tea at nearly ninety degrees Celsius flipped gracefully through the air.

Everything felt like slow motion to Astraeus's cosmic system. The tea didn't spill on the lawyer's hands or feet. Oh, certainly not. Consistent with Amar's Luck which seemed to "intentionally guide fate".

The entire contents of the steaming hot tea landed with absolute precision right on the crotch of his expensive grey trousers! It landed dead center, being entirely absorbed behind his fly.

SPLASH!!

"HHAAARRRGGGGGHHH!!!"

Surya shrieked in a high-pitched feminine octave that pierced the frequency limits of a tracking swine. He jumped as if a firecracker had been detonated inside his pants, screaming incoherently and crashing into his own bodyguard. The cunning man's hands automatically protected and clutched his private area, creating an illusion that was very, very suggestive.

The spilled tea seeped through, not just turning his pants a severe red ... it soaked everything! At a glance, it looked more like this arrogant man had aggressively peed his pants on a massive scale due to some wild, uncontrollable urge, especially while clutching his unfortunate parts with a hysterical expression. His previously arrogant face was utterly wrecked, replaced by groans of agonizing torture mixed with nuclear-level shame.

Amar widened his eyes dramatically, and incredibly annoyingly.

"Good grief, Mr. Lawyer!" Amar exclaimed, hiding his face behind his palm while pretending to be shocked, pointing at Surya's wet crotch. "I mean, if you see Miss Erisia's aura ... well, we all know how a healthy guy feels ... but don't spray tea and relieve yourself in front of me like this, Sir! That's so disrespectful, man!! That's freaking gross!!"

A brief silence fell with an awkward tension as Erisia glanced elegantly at the lawyer's reddened crotch, slowly pulling the tip of her collar to her nose as if pretending to be disturbed. Amar, oh, Amar was lucky to have his audience.

The subordinates stood frozen with expressions of horrific confusion mixed with a "pungent smell."

Bursts of purple and crimson exploded across Surya's face, he was no longer able to speak, unable to contain his rage at the words and the sharp gaze of the socialite Miss Erisia toward his "condition" added to his scalding crotch. With a pained cry, he stumbled and fled, leaving his dignity far behind in a humiliating retreat.

"YOU, YOU BASTARD, get me to the ER, you idiots! It's hooooootttt, AARrRR!!" he raged before being hauled away by the two confused bodyguards! It created an annoying ruckus of dress shoes thumping in a scattered run. He had forgotten his thirty million, which was, unfortunately for him, left in his shirt pocket where Amar snatched the thick brown envelope from atop his blanket. He left it behind, friend!

Amar smiled sweetly.

Inside his head, the screen suddenly fired off virtual fireworks and lit up!!

[ DING!! HUMILIATION SUCCESSFUL! TARGET'S EMOTIONAL STATUS : PANTS-ERECTION TRAUMA! EGO CRUMBLED + TEA-OOZING MESS!! MAXIMUM LEVEL OF INSULT IN FRONT OF THE ELITE FEMALE! ]

[ You have received Retribution Cosmic Energy : 50 Points! ]

[ Unique Performance Reward (Above the Standards of Human Logic, Peak Absurdity Value) : You are entitled to the First Special Status Wheel Spin!! ]

Hehe, that's what you get for waking a snoring lion, Amar thought with a tacky, cheerful wink at the hologram that was invisible to the public.

Astraeus truly felt a shiver down his spine at the boundary of his majestic reality within that soul ... He hadn't ripped a neck with his war axe, but rather ... what was that divine flick? How could a pathetic, trashy deity without any physical merit contribute that much Absolute Energy?!! This is thicker than a holy blood sacrifice?! What am I feeling! What kind of crazy god is this broke brat?! While Astraeus's arrogant echo was pinned in momentary cosmic silence, Amar exhaled with pride and relief.

As Amar took a breath and smirked, a soft sound of laughter that conquered the tension spread out, smooth and crisp, bringing his frantic heartbeat to life.

A single clap was heard. Amar looked up.

Erisia brushed off some imaginary mortal dust from her chair. Her beautiful gaze looked down with a threatening pressure, yet it was different, stimulating a marvelous instinct of hunger for anyone obsessed with curiosity.

"Miraculous, terrifyingly beyond the logic of coincidence, Young Master Amar, you just ... injured an official messenger of 'Western' Panteo? Without even flinching? Are you sure you are a mere crumb of a human, or are you hiding sweet wolf claws, hm?" she asked, leaning in, her fine hair tickled the itchy nose of the scruffy, unemployed student as she winked, not with mere cynical suspicion, but with the flirtation of an apex predator looking at a strange sheep ... Erisia tasted the instinct that—"This could be very exciting or end in a hanging grave for one who merely enjoys spreading cheap bravado," thought the queen of charm, exhaling a breathtakingly lethal breath onto his tense, boiling face.

Boom!! Wrong button!! Amar thought, nearly fainting on the spot. Already dealing with a rowdy War God’s demands and a parasitic system that was basically extorting his kidneys, Amar had to keep up a front with this terrifyingly gorgeous model. She radiated a lethal aura but was drop-dead radiant, and standing at this crossroads with her made his heart hammer with a deathly rhythm. How he was going to survive the hours ahead was anyone's guess, Amar could only swallow the bitter lump in his throat!