SKY'S JETS : THE RETRIBUTION SYSTEM

Chapter 5 The Killer's Wallet, Emotional Damage, and Instant Cosmic Muscle

That dirty, stuffy alley was left with a symphony of incredibly absurd suffering.

Two elite hitmen from the Cult of the God of Deception, who usually took lives silently, were now sprawled out miserably. One moaned in a high-pitched voice while clutching his ruined future assets over a puddle of spoiled rendang oil. The other was lightly spasming, having nearly strangled himself with his own signature cloak.

Amar stood frozen for a few seconds. He looked left and right, making sure no local CCTV was recording this nonsensical scene.

As a former laborer and college dropout who'd been scammed plenty, Amar's first instinct upon seeing thugs go down wasn't to call the police, but to ... survive.

"Sorry, pal. Better I use this for my business capital than having the state seize it," Amar muttered as he crouched down.

His thin hands deftly slid into the tactical pockets of the two killers. The first treasure was found: two thick leather wallets full of hundred-thousand bills that totaled fifteen million rupiah.

"Thank God, the blessings of a pious college dropout," Amar grinned widely, stuffing the money into his new tote bag.

Besides the cash, Amar found a pitch-black obsidian coin engraved with a two-headed snake and an old flip phone. Amar only took the coin because it looked cool, leaving the phone behind for fear of GPS tracking.

As he stepped out of the alley and back onto the noisy main road, a barrage of System notifications exploded on his retina like New Year's fireworks.

[ BATTLE EVALUATION COMPLETE ]

[ Flawless Victory! Without even touching the targets, you absolutely destroyed their self-esteem, biological future, and combat psyche! ]

[ Total Cosmic Points: 800 E ]

[ Bonus Loot: Cult Coin (Malakor Affiliation Token): +50 E ]

[ Current Balance: 840 E ]

In his consciousness, Astraeus was still frozen. The War God who once burned continents and split seas of blood for a drop of Supreme Essence Power was now having a severe existential crisis.

"No ... this is wrong. This defies the order of the universe!" Astraeus's voice trembled, half-fuming, half-confused. "I once slaughtered a thousand armored Cyclopes in the Pantheon War, and the Absolute Energy I gained wasn't even worth, compared to ...."

With just some trash talk and a puddle of spoiled beef stew? Amar interrupted casually while hailing a passing taxi. Chill, God-man. You’ve been living in the ancient times for too long.

Amar got into the taxi with its cold AC, leaning back with a smile as he watched the city streets. Buddy, listen to me. In the real modern world, hurting someone physically gets you jail time. But destroying someone's ego and mental health? That's an art. Physical damage can be fixed with some antiseptic, but emotional damage? Man, that trauma sticks with you until the grave, boss!

Astraeus fell silent for a long time. As an ancient entity, this particular human’s logic sounded completely depraved. And yet ... the pure Cosmic Energy now flowing warmly, reconstructing the shards of his divine soul, couldn't lie. The energy derived from "Shame" was apparently far more delicious and potent than the energy from "Fear" or "Death."

"You cunning and disgusting mortal," Astraeus muttered, and for some reason, a hint of respect was beginning to bleed into his tone. "But very well. Teach me your way of crushing enemies without a sword, Amar. Let us make those heavenly bastards weep tears of blood!"

Now we’re talking. That’s the spirit of cooperation I like, Amar chuckled. "Driver, take me to the nearest four-star hotel. One with a soft mattress and a bathtub in the room."

Thirty minutes later, Amar was sprawled out on the bed of a Deluxe room that cost two million per night. He had just finished soaking in a warm bath for a full hour. It felt as if the layers of grime and the filth of his suffering had finally peeled off, washed away by expensive soap suds.

Wearing a thick white bathrobe like the son of a billionaire, Amar summoned his System screen.

"System, I’ve got 840 points. You said I could unlock the Basic Stats Function. How do I use it?"

The silver screen flickered to life, displaying his pathetic attribute numbers:

Physical : 8 Agility : 10 Rationality & Cunning : 14 Charisma : 4 (Permanent incel aura detected)

[ UPGRADE FUNCTION UNLOCKED! ]

[ Each 1 Basic Attribute Point costs 50 E. Does the Host wish to increase attributes? ]

"Damn, that’s pricey," Amar grumbled. But remembering how his laborer’s physique often left him with back pain, he made an immediate decision. "Boost my Physical by five points. Then add five to Agility. Save the rest of the points for more data ... I mean, just in case I need to use my thick-skinned abilities."

[ Confirming Purchase: +5 Physical, +5 Agility. Cost: 500 E. ]

[ Remaining Balance: 340 E. ]

[ WARNING: Modifying mortal cellular structures using Divine Energy will result in temporary side effects. Prepare yourself in 3 ... 2 ]

"Wait, side eff, AARGHHH!"

Amar collapsed from the bed, rolling onto the thick hotel carpet. It felt as if thousands of fire ants were being injected directly into his bloodstream. His muscles, which were originally saggy and thin due to malnutrition, suddenly contracted violently. His bones let out soft crack-crack sounds, densifying and hardening by force.

Foul-smelling black sweat slowly seeped from his pores, an instant detoxification process flushing out years of road dust, cheap diner MSG, and exhaust fumes that had settled in his body.

The agonizing process lasted for three minutes, but to Amar, it felt like three hours of being electrocuted by a dead car battery.

When Amar finally managed to crawl up and look into the wardrobe mirror ... he stood there agape.

His face was still the same Amar. However, his skin was now clear, free of stress-induced acne. His previously hunched posture was now perfectly upright. Beneath his slightly parted bathrobe, the outlines of dry but dense pectoral and abdominal muscles had formed, exactly like those of an elite gymnast.

Amar touched his own stomach. It was rock hard. "Holy crap ... I could apply as a cover model for Men’s Health and get picked instantly. Lord Astraeus, your body shop service is top-tier, man!"

Astraeus snorted pridefully. "That is nothing, Boy. If our synchronization reaches 10%, you could snap steel with two fingers. But for now, do not be arrogant. Your body is still vulnerable to heavy weaponry."

Amar clenched his fists, feeling a surge of energy he had never felt in his entire life. He was no longer just a pathetic loser waiting for death.

While Amar was busy admiring his new muscles in the mirror, in another part of the city, tensions were reaching a breaking point.

In the basement of an elite private hospital (which served as a secret hideout for the Malakor Sector’s underground organization), Surya, the slick lawyer, lay on a medical bed with his groin heavily bandaged like a mummy. He winced in pain from the second-degree burns on his most private area.

Suddenly, the door swung open. A burly man with a face full of scars entered, dragging two black-clad bodies bound in chains. They were the two assassins who had attacked Amar. Both were in a state of severe trauma, constantly mumbling the words "Slippery, tea, mother, forgive me."

"What is the meaning of this, Brutus?!" Surya barked from his bed. "Why has our Shadow Squad returned looking like mental patients?!"

Brutus, the scarred man, threw the two assassins onto the floor. His face was tense, covered in a cold sweat.

"Master Surya ... the target named Amar. He is not human," Brutus reported with a trembling voice.

"Nonsense! He’s just a poor factory laborer! Dammit, because of him, my future is scorched!" Surya roared, shedding manly tears.

"Master, listen to me!" Brutus stepped forward, presenting an encrypted recording from one of the assassins' contact lenses and playing it on a projector screen.

The video showed the moment Amar was ambushed. Amar just stood there with both hands in his pockets, a mocking smile on his face, not taking any stance at all. Amar uttered a few taunting sentences, and suddenly.

One assassin inexplicably slipped on a dry surface so hard his own organs were crushed. The second assassin leaped, but invisibly, his robe’s drawstring wrapped around his own neck until he was paralyzed. In the video, Amar truly did not touch them even an inch. It was as if the universe itself was slaughtering them for Amar’s sake.

"Our cosmic sorcery experts have analyzed the footage," Brutus swallowed hard, his eyes widening in horror. "There are no traces of mana energy, no fluctuations of attack from the target. He can distort the probability of fate with his words! He is using Karmic Causality!"

Surya’s eyes bulged so far they nearly popped out. His breath hitched. Karmic Causality? That was a legendary technique that could only be mastered by S-Class Elder Gods in ancient times! Controlling space, destiny, and fate without even lifting a hand!

"So you mean ...." Surya’s lips trembled as he looked down at his bandaged groin. "That hot tea, it wasn't because he accidentally bumped the table? He calculated the weight of the teapot, the wind direction, the force of gravity, and my reaction in milliseconds with just a flick of a finger?!"

"Precisely, Master!" Brutus knelt on one knee. "That youth is a thousand-year-old monster disguised as a hobo! He is playing with us! The Shadow Squad won't be enough. We must summon ... The Star Executioner!"

Panic spread throughout the emergency room. The deadly organization belonging to the God of Deception was now shaking with fear, imagining a god-level conspiracy from a merciless, genius 'Karmic Monster.'

Meanwhile, at that exact same moment.

The thousand-year-old Karmic Monster was sitting cross-legged on a four-star hotel bed, busy ordering three portions of special fried rice through a delivery app because he was starving after growing all those muscles.

"Big Bro Astra, you think we should go out tonight and find some more enemies to bully? Those points are pretty sweet."

The celestial joke had truly only just begun.