Luke walked to his apartment in silence.
His expression was pale, and the swagger with which he used to walk before was nowhere to be found. His body sluggishly trod along the dreary path before him, his slow movements annoying passersby who were trying to reach their destination quickly.
He ignored them, of course.
Some tried to tell him off, but one look at his dejected face told them not to bother.
'I… I have nothing left.' Will's thoughts trailed as he forced his feet to move. His body suddenly felt heavy, and his heart constantly burned with incredible pain—to the point where he wanted to rip it out himself.
He was in deep-seated agony.
Tears welled up in his eyes the more he thought about it, but there was nothing he could do.
To settle his father's medical bills, he had to use the rest of the ten grand he had stolen, as well as the money he had gotten from working overtime… and even then, it was barely half of the total costs.
'If I didn't pay, they would have stopped providing the medical services to him, and… he would…' Luke didn't want to think about that at the moment. 'Now I barely have anything. Just a few hundred dollars…'
That wasn't nearly enough to settle his debt.
'I owe too much. I have little to nothing left. I… I…' A dark thought suddenly echoed in his mind.
'Maybe it's time I let them put the plug on him.'
"NO! NEVER!" He shouted, frightening everyone around with the sudden noise. Luke quickly noticed this and apologized awkwardly before running along the sidewalk and rushing home.
'Never! He didn't abandon me, no matter how rough things got!' Luke gritted his teeth. 'I will never abandon him too!'
So what if the cost of surgery was in the millions? So what if there was little to no hope of success? So what if life was throwing him so many lemons, not giving him enough time to make lemonades out of them?
So what?!
"I won't give up! No matter what!"
*
*
*
[Synchronization Rate: 9%]
*********
"You better give up." Luke's landlord told him grumpily, his eyes flashing with a dangerous glint the moment he saw him approach his room.
It turned out Luke was a little too late in his arrival.
The landlord had already come, and he brought two muscular thugs with him so they could kick Luke out and plunder any valuable item that they could to offset the debt that he had accrued over the past few months.
Even though he had arrived now, there was nothing Luke could do about it.
He didn't have the money to pay.
"You can't just enter my room like this! At least let me pack up my stuff or something…" Luke protested, trying to reach his front door, but was obstructed by the two thugs that his Landlord brought with him.
While this was happening, the obese man was opening the locked door with the spare key in his possession. He didn't even bother responding to Luke and proceeded to open the door.
In his mind, there was nothing his helpless tenant could do about it.
"Just give me a bit more time! I have your money, I promise!"
"Really? Where is it, then?" Luke's landlord didn't even turn back. His hand was already on the handle, ready to push open the door.
Luke could only watch on helplessly.
How could he explain to this man that he had a game that translated his gains within it into reality, and he currently had 95 System Points waiting to be cashed in. All he needed was for the Synchronization Rate to reach 10.
Unfortunately, the number was still stuck at 9. He could do nothing but try and stall for time.
"Just trust me this last time." He tried to get past the buff men, but they made the obstruction even tighter, and one even tried to shove him.
To the bodyguard's surprise, he was the one who was pushed back.
None of them realized this, but despite looking far stronger than Luke, they were nowhere near his match. The only reason he restrained himself from attacking was the promise he made to himself about not engaging in senseless violence.
Besides, did he really have any right to attack?
He truly was owing rent, and he had been defaulting for quite some time now. The Landlord was well within his right to seize his property from him, as this was even in their agreement when Luke moved into the apartment.
All of these factors made Luke hesitant to do anything about his current predicament.
Then—
"What? So you even had a VR Console with you! Or was it a VR Pod? Ahh… whatever! This would fetch a lot of money!" The Landlord finally entered the room and found the pod in the corner of the room.
His eyes lit up with greed as he licked his lips.
In his mind, he was thinking: 'This is more than enough to offset the kid's debt. Though the model looks old, I can sell it for a decent price. If I add all the other worthless garbage he has in here, I should be back on the green…'
Of course, he wasn't going to let Luke know about all of this.
Instead, he had other intentions.
"Hmph! I'll be seizing all of your properties so I can pay off what you owe me. I reckon it still won't be enough, but considering our past relationship, I'm willing to let it go."
"W-what?!"
"You better scram and get lost before I change my mind!" The Landlord turned to glare at him, his smug smile and gaze revealing pure condescension.
At this point, Will could no longer hold it in anymore.
"Enough."
WHOOSH!
In a flash, he appeared right in front of his landlord.
"H-huh? How did you…?" The oblivious man turned to his two guards, only to see that they were collapsing on the ground—completely unconscious.
It happened so fast that even the landlord could not fully process what was going on.
The only thing he could feel…
"I've had enough."
… Was fear.
[System Notice]
At that moment, the frown on Luke's face slowly vanished. His lips slowly curled up and his lips parted to form barely audible words.
"... About time."
[System Shop can now be used]