Mortal Kindness

Two weeks after that whole fiasco. The heat died down and I lost all my wanted levels after.

[Health: 100]

[Armor: 100]

[Wanted Level: 0]

[Reputation: Associate]

[Status: Stable]

I became an associate of the Sullivan Fam after that. Boss Shawn had to trust my rookie ass because he had no one. The rest of his thugs called me a reckless idiot for it. I was particularly careful and with my ability to hide things from the 5-O's who have been sniffing around the precinct.

It's a handy cheat. But other than that there wasn't much about it. Stupid cheat couldn't even be used in first-person which is seriously unnerving if you spend too much time in it.

The more time I spend, the more painful memories come up. It was not so tragic. It was actually pretty normal. Poor guy who couldn't live up to others expectations, and then his life fell apart. I guess that's the reason why I got into his body as well. We agreed on some hardships and then our souls somewhat became one big ball of patheticness.

At least that's what the bullshit I can explain about this one. The poor bastard ended up with me. Then again, I was controlling this body sometimes like I would be playing a third-person open world game.

Now one would expect for me to suddenly become some greedy idiot. I made drug runs for the Sullivan Fam lately. They think of me as handy and it does pay off my bills. Do you know what the most problematic shit I have lately?

The fucking rent.

Really, the most terrible enemy that I have right now is the fucking landlord. Amir Zeev wanted me to pay double my rent because the police had broken my door. And since I had gotten accustomed to the apartment. I didn't want to leave. If anything, this apartment was one of the best things that I have. It was not isolated and even the supermarket and wet market was near me.

I didn't want to cause trouble so I endured Mr. Zeev's constant bickering about my rent. I managed to get rid of my student loan. Though I lost most of my cut from paying them. The school administration that I was enrolled to was quite fucked up. Then again, ah, it was better than having no fucking way of paying.

My phone rang. I took the call. "Hello?"

"Get your ass here, man. Boss wants this to be your fucking job."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Course' it is. Listen Nik, I ain't forcing you here. But the pay is good and I heard that Zeev isn't giving you light rent."

"Oh wow, can you do something about it?"

"Nah, he's one of the big bosses here. Can't do shit without offending the Bergs."

"Bloody hell. So, uh, what's the biz about?"

"What else are you good for, pussy? Can't even shoot a cat."

"Sorry for being sane. I have good legs, but I ain't a killa."

"Says the dude who cracks head and sends folks into half a month of treatment. Should have busted their heads, save them from trouble."

"Just give me the biz."

"Come here. Nance is going to be your partner here."

"Who?"

"Some of our girls here. You didn't see her in the bar? She was the smoky baby serving the bar."

"Oh, so why is she coming?"

"Cause the boss thinks that she should. This one is going to be about Roxi's Club. You've been there?"

"No?"

"Damn, what do you spend your cut on?"

"Rent?" I could hear him suppressing his laugh. "Damn, I forgot that you kids are buried in that damn student loan. You poor fuck, so you haven't been spending it on anything else other than necessities?"

"Nope."

"Alright, better take this job since your broke as fuck boy. Side, Nance might even give you a kiss or something."

He hung up. I got off my bed and was about to change my clothes when someone knocked four times on my door. "Wait a moment," I shouted at the door before changing my clothes. I opened the door and found the bartender. Dyed blue hair, white tank top, and then a short denim jacket with ragged pants.

"Come here to fetch ya," she scanned me from top to bottom. "Heard you got good legs. Well, Tim sure as he didn't say something about you looking hand-crafted. You always look like this? No surgery or something?"

"No? I ain't going to run drugs if I was not broke."

She sat on the kitchen counter. "Could earn a lot as a gigolo. How's your stamina?"

"What? No, I ain't turning myself into a manwhore."

"Sure?" she clicked her tongue. "I can be your customer or something."

I looked at her oddly. Then she smiled. "Damn, you sure are tight. Just a joke. So, about Timotei's biz. Are you up for it?"

"Need details."

"Roxi wants drugs. Roxi had a fling with Shawn and doesn't trust their lackey. She hates Tim for being a fuckup and since most of them runners got caught. They want you to deliver the package."

I rested my elbows on my thighs. "So the package is?"

"In the car. You don't have a ride so I'm here to give you one. Seems like your broke ass."

Nance mocked me. I sighed and followed her out. I looked around for Mr. Zeev but he wasn't around so I went around the alley and took a look at the package. Then rode shotgun with Nance driving. Her car was small, but it was good enough for her. She wasn't really that into cars. Though the back smells like cigs and booze.

"Damn, do you even clean this shit?"

"Shut up. Expensive cleaning. They'd ripped you off."

I leaned on the window. She growled at the traffic while I stared listlessly. Nothing much other than the usual Pacifica City weather. Air tastes and smells like salt mixed with oil. The congested roads and the tall buildings corralling the roads. They were near the sea so there were less advertisements. Didn't take long until we reached the fun districts where most gangs or degenerates were.

"Hey, don't get distracted. No fucking during work."

"I'm not interested. I'm broke, man."

"Sure, you can probably get some if you try hard enough. Make them drunk and they'd be up for anything really."

I didn't have the heart to reply. She parked in Roxi's club. I took the package with me and followed her walking so comfortably. I switched to watching over my shoulder to ease my worries. I followed Roxi to the back entrance where this black man, taller than me, stopped us.

"Hey Nance, who is this?"

"Runner."

He sized me up. "Yo, name's Kev. You're Sullivan's Runner?"

"I am."

"Aiyo, hmm, you look pasty as shit man."

My facial reaction was kinda stiff. Kev snorted at my reaction as Nance elbowed me on the rib.

"Yo, stop looking so stiff. Hello?"

That didn't change anything. I still remained in third-person and navigated my body to the center of the club where everyone was busy shaking their limbs and moving their hips. After a while we reached this narrow entrance with these disk-like curtains. Entering this place I could smell that thick nasty scent of drugs and alcohol. One of the high ones tried to snatch the bag, but my boogeyman reflexes caught the wrist while my peak human strength almost broke his wrist.

"Fuck off," I said once. The high as fuck degenerates plopped in the floor while Nance continued moving until we reach the private rooms. Could hear moaning and all kinds of stuff in them, but I remained placid as we waited outside of Roxi's booth.

Nance eyed me. "Damn you ain't getting any reaction from this shit?"

I looked at my pants. "Nope."

"Uh, so you hit on boys?"

"I'm not exactly that excited when I'm still dealing drugs, Nance."

"Oh, so you're a workaholic, got it."

"I just don't get turned on by danger."

"Sure you don't have puss there on your pants?"

I ignored her. They let us in and we met Roxi who by far was quite looking well despite her age. She's one of those women that don't age as much until she shits the wall. Then again, this was a world that was supposed to be a mix of urban fantasy, sci-fi, and crime stories. My existence and my system was from a completely different genre that it made me confused why I got here instead of the world where there were no augmented or mutants instead. Not that I have complaints since it's already lucky as shit to be alive. I only have to caress the scar on the side of my head.

Roxi's smoking through one of the smoking pipes. She made a gesture with her finger to place the package on the glass table. The place was lit with red lights that made it hard to see, unless they were looking over the shoulder.

One of them checked the package. Special sugar was inside the package. It took a while that I had my body leaned on the side of the wall while Nance smoked heavily. She was smoking her own cig to keep the other substances from affecting her.

"Damn, no wonder you've been running well. This must be that professionalism that they were talking about. Timotei is acting like you are his golden goose. Too bad that you ain't a full member."

No way I was going to be a full on member of the Sullivan Family. I was satisfied being the associate rookie working for the family. Seeing that I wasn't speaking. Roxi told me that it was expected, but at the time no one liked fence sitters like me. But I wasn't expecting anything other than getting my pay.

I could be a runner, the driver, and the muscle. But beyond that I wouldn't cross the line. I am not a psychopath. I can't just kill so easily. That was the one line that I wouldn't take a step on no matter what.

They were done dealing with the drugs so I waited for Nance to take the cash from them. The case was large enough to hide on my hoodie so I took it from Nance. She didn't complain as I secretly stored the briefcase into my inventory wheel.

[Inventory: Choco box, switchblade, pistol, pistol ammunition, wallet, documents, phone, house keys, water bottle, briefcase]

The briefcase took the tenth slot of my inventory wheel. Roxi smiled at the two of us and said, "So since you are still here, why don't you two enjoy some free drinks?"

I looked at Nance. She shook her head. "Can't do. Need to deliver this since Mr. Shawn's grumpy and all that."

"Tell that man to lighten up once in a while."

Nance nodded. I followed her out of the club while bringing the briefcase with me. I felt stares but they were disappointed after not seeing the briefcase. There were some who bumped into me, trying to feel the briefcase, but they were just confused after feeling that the briefcase wasn't there. When we got in the car I took the briefcase out and then placed it on my lap.

"Good job. Either you're blessed doing this or we are lucky as well today. I'll go with bless since most runs like this can be dangerous. Either someone is trying to take the cash or there are some bad dealings happening. Anyway, let's go back and hand this over. Don't want to carry that amount of cash on my own," she coughed harshly.

"You alright?"

"I am. Hate the club's inner room, that's all. Glad that's over with."

Nance drove the car to the underground bar and fight club that Timotei was managing. We took the money straight to the boss and got our cut. After that, I parted ways with the Sullivan Family and went back home.

There wasn't much to do after the run. I just lounged around the couch watching television while also playing on my personal computer that I brought with my cut. They say that once you have great power you have great ambition. But since I was cut off from my full abilities during first-person. That desire dies out immediately. The ability is there but it just felt like I was just a normal healthy person while looking over the shoulder, I feel calmer and deadlier.

And for that reason I couldn't stay too long in third-person. It desensitizes me to the point that urges like one should just give in to these urges. It scares me knowing that I could do so and then find out that I don't have that respawning ability. I don't want to find out if I could just walk out of the hospital after being shot in the head again or blown to pieces.

In the event that I can respawn.

I don't know what I'd do to myself.

Being mortal keeps me in line.