Surviving World's End

Mark - the fortunate or Unfortunate

"Good morning, Mark. Late again today? The manager's not going to be happy. Third time this week already."Gavin leaned against the office partition with a grin that practically begged to be punched.Mark dropped his bag onto the desk and shot him a tired look.

"Gavin, quit the sarcasm. Today is the third day of the week. You're acting like I've been late for half the month."

"Details." Gavin waved dismissively. "Anyway, the manager's waiting for you."

The moment Mark heard those words, his expression stiffened.

"…You could've led with that."

He hurried toward the manager's office like a prisoner marching toward execution.The door shut behind him.A few seconds later, the muffled roar of a middle-aged man echoed through the workplace.Everyone in the office silently lowered their heads and pretended to work harder.

After what felt like an eternity, the office door finally opened.Mark stepped out looking like a man who had narrowly escaped death row. His shoulders sagged in relief as he inhaled deeply, grateful to still be alive.

Gavin snorted. "So? How was your quality time with the manager? You've been getting yelled at a lot lately."

Mark wiped his face with a tissue in disgust."The yelling I can handle. It's the spit that's unbearable. The man talks like a broken sprinkler." He grimaced. "I swear I just took a bath in his saliva."

Gavin burst out laughing."Alright, jokes aside." His expression softened slightly. "What's going on with you lately? You've been distracted for days now. Your focus at work is terrible."

Mark hesitated. Dark circles hung beneath his eyes, making him look far older than twenty-three."I haven't been sleeping much," he muttered. "Something weird's been happening to me recently."

Gavin raised an eyebrow."Weird how?"

Mark glanced around before lowering his voice.

"I think I awakened memories from a past life."

There was complete silence between them for a moment

"I also think I might've gained some kind of supernatural power."

Gavin stared at him for two whole seconds.Then he slowly reached out and placed the back of his hand against Mark's forehead.

"Hm." He narrowed his eyes dramatically. "No fever."

Mark's eyelid twitched.Gavin continued in a grave tone."So what exactly caused a smart and practical man like you to become delusional overnight?"

He leaned closer, lowering his voice into a conspiratorial whisper.

"…Are you on drugs?" Mark stared at him blankly."Who's your dealer?" Gavin whispered eagerly. "Share the contact. I also want hallucinations powerful enough to fulfill my dream of becoming a pornstar."

Mark felt an overwhelming urge to knock out Gavin's front teeth.Unfortunately for him, fate clearly hated him.

At that exact moment, the manager exited his office.From the manager's perspective, the scene before him was crystal clear:Gavin, the hardworking employee, was diligently discussing work.Meanwhile Mark—the always late, lazy troublemaker—was loitering around and distracting others during office hours.

The manager's face darkened instantly."Mark!"

Mark froze when he heard the voice that reminded him of a Devil in human skin "Do you want to visit my office again so soon?" the manager barked. "Already missing me?"

A horrified expression appeared on Mark's face.Without another word, he immediately fled back to his desk.Behind him, Gavin nearly choked trying to suppress his laughter.

 

Mark's POV

My name is Mark.

I'm just your average guy. Tall, black hair, black eyes, around six feet in height. My face isn't exactly movie-star handsome, but it's not ugly either.

If you asked me to rate myself from one to ten, I'd confidently say ten.Of course, the haters would probably say I barely qualify as a six.

But honestly, who cares what haters think?

Anyway, back to the point.

I'm twenty-three years old this year. An orphan… technically.Well, I wasn't always one.I became one ten years ago.

I was raised by my grandparents in a small rural mountain village. My grandmother died when I was ten. Three years later, my grandfather followed after her.

But before he died, the old man casually dropped a truth bomb that completely shattered my worldview.His exact words were:

"Mark, I treated you well and raised you into a fine young man… but unfortunately, you're not our real grandson."

At the time, listening to the dying man's words i thought that he was pulling the last prank of his life on me .The old man has been playing pranks on me since childhood.

But The old man continued speaking while lying there on his deathbed with the attitude of someone discussing the weather.

"Your grandmother and I picked you up from a hospital in the city during one of our health checkups. We were already old and had no retirement savings, so we planned to raise you properly first… then later sell your organs for money."

Silence.

For a moment, I genuinely wondered if the old man had already died and some mountain demon had possessed his corpse.

But no.The bastard kept talking.

At that moment i realised that he might be telling the truth

"Unfortunately, before we could carry out the plan, that old hag died first. And now I'm about to kick the bucket too. What a shame. If I had five more years left, I could've enjoyed retirement properly."

I stared at him in disbelief.

"Fuck you, old geezer! Even after Grandma died, you were still planning to harvest my organs?!"

The old man shamelessly grinned.

"What do you know? The city has beautiful young women who provide full service for only 1,999 dollars. With the money from your organs, I could've spent the rest of my life buried between soft arms, big breasts, and long legs."

"..."

At that moment, a realization suddenly hit me so I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

"You old bastard… how do you know the exact price?"

The old man instantly coughed and looked away."I-I heard it from another old man in the village." But His guilty expression sold him out immediately.

Suddenly, an old memory surfaced in my mind."Wait a second."

I looked at him carefully.

"Four years ago, twenty-five hundred dollars suddenly disappeared from our savings. You blamed me for stealing it, convinced Grandma I did it and even convinced me to take the blame willingly, then both of you beat the hell out of me and made me kneel outside all night."

The old man slowly turned his head away.

"And right after that, you disappeared for four days claiming you went hunting in the mountains."

I stared at him.

"You didn't steal the money and go enjoy yourself in the city… did you?"

The old man remained silent.But the constantly shifting expression on his wrinkled face already gave me the answer.

I was stunned speechless.

"You old geezer…" I muttered weakly. "Do you feel no shame scamming a child?"

I wanted to curse him. I wanted to tell him he deserved to go straight to hell.

But looking at the dying old man lying on the bed… the words just wouldn't come out.

Whether his story was true or not, I still couldn't understand why he chose to reveal everything right before dying.

Was I really not their grandson?

Did they truly raise me just to sell my organs someday?

And if that was true…

Should I feel fortunate that I survived with all my organs intact or unfortunate knowing my entire childhood might have been one giant scam?