1. The End That Will Be Beginning

This was the end of the fight Edward had been waiting for.

For years Edward had been involved in the game of those damn conglomerates. Edward waited that long in order to reach the pinnacle of this game level, a point that all the townspeople failed to reach.

Edward's breathing was irregular. His palm holding his stomach was covered in blood. The rest of his energy seemed to have been almost drained from the two hours of fighting. The man standing a few meters in front of him, Arthur Aldebaron, gave a smirking smile.

"Can you kill me, Edward?"

Level after level.

Mission after mission.

Edward has faced so many people trying to kill him. They were all after the topmost position. All manner of things, murders and uncontrollable things, were done by the people of the city. The game has taken hold of them, the elite and the poor, to the point of fighting each other.

Edward was fed up.

Now he didn't care who could win the game of wealth. The most important thing now was to finish them all. Edward wanted to stop this game-even destroy the city's deadly system.

"From the beginning, you shouldn't have been so desperate to face me," Arthur said again as he stepped closer to Edward.

Edward gritted his teeth. In a slumped position, his irises silently focused on Arthur.

A box of information then appeared on the system's holographic display screen in front of his face. The information writing that appeared was read seriously by Edward.

[ENEMY DETAILS]

[Enemy Name: Arthur Aldebaron]

[Enemy Level: 98]

[Strength: Excellent Punch and Kick Stamina, Sharp Senses, and Accurate Navigation Ability]

[Weakness: Difficult to identify]

Both of Edward's brows furrowed after reading the 'Weakness' part of the information. Edward had already stood up from his downed position, looking at the screen in disbelief.

A sly smile was etched on Edward's face. Weaknesses are hard to identify?

The direction of Edward's gaze shifted to Arthur who was still striding towards him. As they were about to stand close together, Edward felt challenged. His eyes were keenly watching Arthur to guess what was the weakness of someone with the three most targeted power abilities.

"If I'm going to die, I have to take you with me, Arthur," Edward replied as he stepped sideways while reading Arthur's gestures.

Arthur chuckled. An intrigued laugh. "We're both at level 98, Edward. How about you give up your victory for me?"

In between stepping in a circle in place to avoid Arthur, Edward spontaneously laughed amusedly. Mocking Arthur's question.

"After all you've done?" asked Edward. "You should have some shame and guilt, Papa-in-Law."

Arthur raised both eyebrows. "Why should I? You're just a useless son-in-law from the poor. You... wouldn't belong in the elite, Edward."

Those words did not faze Edward at all. This was not the first time Edward had heard similar words said by Arthur. Therefore, there was no anger or hurt at all.

No matter what, Edward had vowed to finish the last round. Even if his body was torn apart or ended up dead.

"I never asked for your opinion, Arthur. You should know your portion of the conversation," Edward replied as his eyes intensely watched Arthur's body movements.

That second, just as Arthur was about to lunge at Edward, the system's navigation feature brought up motion detection dots. Edward read the information that Arthur was about to lunge and throw a punch from the right.

Edward then dodged to the left, making Arthur's fist punch the air. A sardonic smile appeared on Edward's face before he finally grabbed Arthur's hand. With a glare at Arthur, Edward twisted the hand he was holding.

"Arrgggh!" Arthur groaned watching his hand being twisted.

"Combo skill attack," Edward muttered the keyword.

[DING!]

[ACTIVATES DOUBLE COMBO SKILL ATTACK!

[PROCESSING...

[10%... 33%... 55%... 65%...]

In between the activation of the 'Double Combo Skill', Arthur reversed the attack. His one free hand gripped Edward's hand as he twisted his body and approached.

Arthur's free hand quickly switched to twisting Edward's hand. While twisting, Arthur lifted Edward's body as much as possible on his back to slam forward.

Edward had no time to dodge due to the speed of Arthur's attack. But his body only staggered a few steps back without being slammed.

[DOUBLE COMBO SKILL ATTACK ACTIVE!]

[STRONG POWER KICK SKILL

[Level 10 - Maximum]

[SKILL DEXTERITY PUNCH

[Level 10 - Maximum]

[COMBINATION OF TWO SUCCESSFUL SKILLS!]

After getting the notification of the successful combination of two skills, Edward immediately ran forward. The navigation feature of detecting the opponent's movement direction was still on in his system.

As a result, when Arthur had dodged, Edward changed the initial movement plan. Edward attacked to the right while giving a leg swing at Arthur's stomach. In no time, after the leg swing, Edward's two clenched hands gave a jaw fist.

Instantly, Arthur jerked back and looked up. He stepped back far enough to fall down due to loss of balance.

Edward managed to catch his breath after knocking Arthur down.

"You!" Arthur coughed while holding his stomach. "Did you really think you could win?!"

"I don't want to win to beat your wealth, Arthur," Edward replied, then walked quickly over to Arthur. "I just want you to hand over the city system files to me. Stop this wealth system game!"

Arthur smirked at Edward's words. There was an implied mockery behind his laughter.

"Stop the game?" Arthur asked.

Edward clenched both hands on either side of his body. The closer he got to Arthur, the sharper Edward's gaze became.

"If you don't want to, I'll make you stop the game!"

Just as Edward was about to deliver another attack, Arthur suddenly rolled out of the way. Edward's fist landed on the asphalt of the building's roof.

Arthur got up from his position, running at Edward to grab the back collar of his shirt. Edward quickly jerked Arthur's hand away after getting back to his feet and growled.

"I know where you put that file," Edward said later with a satisfied smile.

In the next second, without saying anything, Edward and Arthur gave each other a flurry of attacks. They repeatedly dodged each other's attacks. Kicks, punches, fists, grabbing hands and then slamming the body, all attacks were not given.

Edward felt that his energy had reached its minimum limit. After getting a combo of attack skills from Arthur, his body was unsteady.

"I..."

Before he finished speaking, Edward saw a system warning notification appear.

[WARNING!]

[DOUBLE COMBO SKILL ATTACK DISABLED!]

[THE SYSTEM CAN'T READ THE OPPONENT'S MOVEMENT. TRY AGAIN!]

[THE SYSTEM FAILS TO ENABLE ACCURATE DIRECTIONAL NAVIGATION! LEVEL UP AND TRY AGAIN!]

[DING!

[Your remaining Health Energy: 40%

[Below the minimum limit!]

[Please increase your health energy and recover your body!]

Edward was struck with instant panic after seeing the warning notification windows appear in succession. All lined up like system chaos. On the other hand, Edward immediately looked forward and was surprised that Arthur had pointed a gun.

Arthur eyed Edward sharply. "You only have a little energy left, right?"

Edward suddenly felt his body relax even more. There was a slight loss of balance so Edward almost staggered. But he tried to keep his body upright so as not to appear to be experiencing a system error.

"I'll still try to face you, Arthur. My system can still survive."

Hearing that, Arthur smiled a grin. Very wide. Then he said, "Then we'll see how far you can go."

Suddenly, Arthur fired bullet after bullet at Edward. Luckily, Edward's reflexes moved his body to dodge.

The blood from Edward's stomach kept flowing. Along with that, his energy diminished and his body could not be as upright as before. Edward forced himself to run towards the point where Arthur was in the center of the eruption of bullets from the man's gun.

'I'll take the bullets...' Edward said inwardly.

Edward deliberately only dodged the bullets of the gun. After a fraction of a minute, Edward took advantage of Arthur's time to check the gun's bullets.

[WARNING!]

[SYSTEM ERROR!]

[SYSTEM CANNOT ACTIVATE SKILL!]

'Damn it! What happened to my system?!' Edward's mind rebelled.

"Argh! I know where you keep-"

Before Edward could finish his sentence, Arthur suddenly turned around and pulled the trigger of the gun. Twice. Bullets erupted from the gun, speeding through Edward's right chest.

Edward's steps instantly stopped. His body stiffened. Blood gushed from the bullet wound that seemed to pierce his flesh. Edward was wide-eyed with his mouth open, touching the part of his chest that was stabbed by the bullet.

The blood was getting more and more profuse.

Edward was stunned. As his blood flowed faster and faster, his body energy was drastically reduced. The system alert notification showed that his Health Energy points were decreasing rapidly.

"You won't be able to reach the top level of this wealth system game, Crazy Bastard!"

DUAGH!

As Edward froze and relaxed, Arthur spun around and delivered a powerful kick to the head. Suddenly Edward's body was thrown sideways, falling limply. There was no balance as his energy points were already severely depleted.

Edward coughed, spurting blood.

Edward's vision blurred as dizziness pressed down on his head. The last thing he saw was Arthur stepping closer while pointing a gun.

Arthur smiled with satisfaction. As if mocking Edward who was already coughing up blood.

"Goodbye, Edward," Arthur said, before pulling the trigger and popping a bullet into Edward's head.

[INFORMATION]

[[NAME: EDWARD NICCO LIVINGSTON]]

[AGE: 33]

[LEVEL: 98/100]

[STATUS: AN OWNER OF NICCO WARD GROUP COMPANY, THE ONLY ONE HUMAN WHO RICHES TO THE TOP]

[TOTAL POINT: 188.000 POINTS]

——————————

[SKILL LEVEL: EXCELLENT]

[GAME STATUS: FAILED QUEST IN THE LAST ROUND]

[SORRY, YOU FAILED TO COMPLETE THE GAME!]