Chapter 57(Start of Stage 4, part 2)

...

"Hey, mom, why is my name Karma?"

...

My mother looks at me and smiles. "It is to remind you that every action causes consequences. Do something bad and no matter how much you try to get away, something bad will happen to you in return! So, you should be kind instead and help everyone! Then will good fortune come your way."

...

Those words of my late mother.

Although it was a very long time ago, it felt as if it was yesterday.

I still remember clearly, every single small detail of that day.

Up until now, I still don't understand what she said. It makes no sense. I tried to show kindness and yet I was betrayed.

Shit...

I...

Dad... Mom... I miss all of you...

----------

I open my eyes.

I dreamt of my mother saying that line to me again.

...

How many times has it been?

It was blissful to see her face but at the same time, it was a nightmare.

Tears are already flowing from my eyes uncontrollably.

...

Looking at my clock, I realised I woke up in the middle of the night and went back to sleep...

After that incident, I registered my sister at another hospital and paid for her surgery. To avoid suspicions, I called the police and told them about what happened.

As expected, Aki was released but the family of Arase and Leon's friends were arrested. I don't know why though.

The hospital my sister was originally in suffered a lot. The media absolutely "destroyed" that hospital about my incident and the hospital was demolished because business and clients there declined by 90%. Nobody wants their family and friends to be kidnapped as well.

I was able to go scot-free because of the brutally mutilated corpse and the van.

No one will believe or think that I did all that.

And if they did, it still comes under the category of self-defence, although I will start to attract the government's attention and they will probably start to spy on me.

I asked Mino to do me a favour. She managed to recover a deleted email from Arase to Aki, asking for cooperation.

I saw the email and smirked.

Hehehe...

Arase offered 100 million yen.

And let me guess. Since Aki is smart enough to not just bank that large

Sum of money into his account, he hid it somewhere in his garden.

And I was right.

While he was still in the police station, I went to his house and dug up the bag of cash.

"Woah, that's a lot of cash."

Using the remaining cash from Azusa and so on, I bought a decent looking, average size, 4 room apartment which doesn't look shabby, unlike my previous trash hole.

Reina and Ika moved into the apartment next door. They know that buying two apartments is too costly so they decided to share.

...

Heh...

I also found out that Aki already started forming his team. Since I'm not there, the name this time was just simply "Glory".

...

Since I still have some free time until the next part of the stage. Let me prepare then.

It's about time I deal with this annoying cunning little bastard

Aki...

I won't kill him.

It is not worth it.

-------

A few days later.

-------

I call Aki.

After a while, he picked up.

"Sup," I say.

"...Yeah, sup. What's up, why did you call me?" Says Aki.

"I wanted to discuss something with you but you sound stressed. What's wrong?"

"Ah uh... I rather not talk about it...haha... Some weird things have been happening to people and things around me. You know, like misfortunes..."

"I see. Let's meet up. You've helped me so much, I want to at least help you in your darkest times."

"...sure."

I smirk.

I went to his apartment.

He opens the door. And it is a mess inside.

"My bad... Let me tidy everything up here first."

I close the door behind us and lock it.

"Say... You said misfortunes keep happening to you right?" I ask.

Aki nods his head silently while tying the trash bags.

"Let me guess, your company went bankrupt didn't you?"

!

"Y-You... How did you know?"

I smile. "And you were the cause of it."

"H-Huh?..."

I elbow the doorknob to jam the door and prevent his escape.

"Your senior in that company started going out with one of your colleagues a few days ago. You were jealous as you have a crush on her. So you wanted to play a little prank and sabotage her boyfriend. Turns out, you accidentally burned the entire department as you didn't realise there were stacks of paper nearby. How foolish..."

!!

"K-Karma... How do you know this?"

"Not only did your company go bankrupt, but people also started leaving your team in BOG, saying that you are causing trouble for them when you didn't do anything right?" I ask.

"I-..."

"Oh yeah!! That's not the end of everything. If I'm not wrong, you wanted to hang out with our friends from high school. But they suddenly started giving you the cold shoulders. Once they saw you by coincidence at... Whatever place, they will start to tremble and run away, right? The girls that once admired your charisma now tremble at the sight of you."

"W-Wait, what did you do? And how did you know?" Asks Aki.

His eyes are wide open now. He has his complete focus on me.

"Oh yeah!! Those are not the worse of all!!... Your sister. You knew what happened to her, right?"

Aki snaps and grabs my collar.

"DID YOU DO THAT? WHAT HAPPENED TO MY SISTER... DID YOU-"

"You see... Your sister was kind. Like the best sister, anyone in this world could have. Yet you showed or done nothing to repay her kindness. So after she found out what I was trying to do to you, she obeyed silently in return."

"Y-You BASTARD!!"

Aki attempts to punch me. His punch was so weak I wanted to wheeze from it.

With just a simple kick, he trips and hits his head on the counter.

Blood appears from his forehead and I walk to him, grab his head and force him to look at me.

"You can expose my sister to danger so why can't I? You can do whatever the heck you want with my life and mess it up so why can't I?" I say.

!!!!

"S-Since when did you realise..." He asks.

I smile. "Since the beginning, ever since you offered to be my friend. I know that you think of me as a vulnerable and weak kid. I also know that you ordered those bullies to bully me while you come to save me almost every time and so on..."

!!

"You knew all of this?!! Then you were acting kind and hopeless while knowing everything?!" Exclaims Aki.

"Maybe."

Aki's eyes widen as he finally realises he bought everything upon himself. If he hasn't done all that, this wouldn't have happened to him.

No, if he hasn't approached me, this wouldn't have happened.

This...is amazing.

Even though I'm not torturing him physically at all. His pathetic look gives me more pleasure than hearing the cries of every bastard I killed.

I did not rape his sister. But I did tell his sister what he did. She cooperated with me afterwards as she no longer can overlook the crimes committed by Aki.

Aki's younger sister, Yuri, wrote a letter saying about her being raped and being depressed so she ran away from home. It's of course, not true. She's staying at my place.

"Don't worry," I say. "This is only the start of even more shitty things you will face."

I release his head and kick his stomach.

"W-Wait... WAIT! I-I'm sorry!! I'M SORRY!"

I ignored Aki's cry for forgiveness and left his apartment.

I won't kill Aki. I will let him suffer for the rest of his life. He is neither worth torturing nor a quick death.

Just like how he made me suffer...

---------

Although my revenge is almost complete, I still have things I need to do.

I log back into the game and waited in the lobby.

Everyone starts to stare at me but they made quite an effort to stay far away.

Until a group of players approached me.

?

"You are Karma, right?" Asks the one at the front.

I nod.

"Oh! That's great. Alright, we are the representative of I.Co and we would officially invite you to join our ranks. Upon agreeing, you would receive 30% of our company's profit monthly alongside the world's famous gaming prodigy, Joseph. That's not all"

I.Co? Oh yeah... That's the prestigious company Joseph joined.

...

"Nah. Scrum. I prefer Solo." I interrupt him.

!!

"Y-You are not scared of being the entire community's enemy? Karma, I advise that you drop your pride and arrogance and think this through-"

"I already did. There are no actual benefits to joining the company except the salary."

!!!

"Y-You!!"

Those players belonging to I.Co starts to glare at me. "Since you are this arrogant. Don't blame me what happens next-"

I flick at that player talking and his head explodes, killing him immediately.

!!!

"The I.Co company wants to go into war with me? Sure." I smirk. "Come at me as much as you like."

---------

*BOOOM!!*

The director of I.Co slams his hand on the table. "That arrogant little!!"

Executives look at one another and nod. "This incident will surely spread and our reputation will be tarnished if we let this be. But don't worry. No matter how strong Karma is, he is still only a young arrogant player. He cannot win against 200 thousand players in I.Co... Not to mention Joseph at our side. Let's show the world what we can achieve." Says one of the executives.

The director looks at the executives and laughs. "Hahaha!! That's right. Why am I getting mad over a young lad? We will do as you say... Destroy Karma."

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I enter the game and into the second part of stage 4.

I immediately see a pop-up notification.

?

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The system is starting to interfere.

Your location will be revealed to every player.

Players near you will gain a buff of 300% stats.

You will receive a debuff of 50% indefinitely.

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What...

Pfft!! Haha!

Only 50% debuff... Is the system looking down on me? Don't make me laugh.

----------

System announcement:

Special event!

Task:

Hunt the player "Karma." Before the stage ends.

Reward:

900000000000 Exp

$900000000000

Trident of lighting(Divine weapon)

Celestial Staff(Divine weapon)

×3 Dracula's Heart(Divine material)

×5 Potion of Immunity(Divine potion)

Thunder Dragon's Armour(Divine armour)

-----------

!!

Nice...

It's taking advantage of the greed human possesses huh...but...

I sigh.

When will the system realise it's helping me instead of trying to eliminate me...

This is too easy.