A Man in Need

[Elijah's POV]

<<January 13, 2023>>

<<Manila, Philippines>>

Walking from my place to my workplace has really become a great habit of mine, since not only will I be getting some much-needed exercise but I also get to enjoy the scenery and fresh air. Tonight is no different. I started heading back to my place at a steady pace, just enjoying the peaceful night. Even though night has already fallen, the city seemed to be more alive than ever, especially since it was the weekend. A group of friends laughed rambunctiously, without a care in the world. A group of office workers, enjoying their weekend with a couple of rounds of beers. Cars zoomed by the highway. These are just little things, but I appreciate these little things. I actually started doing that after the catastrophe happened. A shut-in like me learned to start appreciating life a little more after my life was nearly taken away.

Two blocks away from my place, there's a park that I always had to pass by. In the morning, it's filled with the elderly jogging and exercising. At night, it's filled with lovers on dates or just taking a walk. Tonight though, the park was eerily quiet and empty. I wasn't scared by any means, but it was just strange and unnerving. Especially since it's the weekend, more couples should be walking around and filling this place. But other than the usual taco truck and milk tea stand, the park was deserted.

Deciding to no longer dwell on the matter anymore, I went about my way. But as I reached the middle of the park, I suddenly heard a commotion ring out from behind the trees nearby. I strongly willed myself to mind my own business and just keep walking, lest I want to get in trouble. But for some unknown reason, my heart wouldn't just let me do want I wanted to do. So, you guessed it right, I turned my ass back around and decided to take a quick look.

Hiding my presence, I hid behind a tree and carefully peeked over to what was happening. But what I saw almost made my eyes pop out of their sockets. Complete shock and rage burned within me as I witnessed a half-dead man lying on the ground, face planted on the dirt, as multiple burly men relentlessly beat the living daylight out of him. As they were beating the man to death, one of the burly men who's just standing on the side, watching, said.

"So, you said you're hunter now eh? You said you were gonna pay back what your family owed. But not only were you not able to pay, but your family also ran away and ditched you. Making you take responsibility for all their loans." The leader, I would assume, said as he squatted down and grabbed fistfuls of the man's hair, forcefully lifting the man's head to face him. His tone was calm but there was an underlying sarcasm and wicked glee expertly hidden beneath it. It was clear, just by looking at everyone's eyes, including the leader's, that they are enjoying what they are doing.

"Disgusting isn't it? When the heat suddenly gets too intense, human beings won't even hesitate to abandon their so-called "loved ones" for the sake of their own survival. Especially after the catastrophe, life became even more of living proof of the saying "survival of the fittest". The strong live and the weak die. Isn't that just wonderful?" The wicked savageness of the leader's nature began showing as a twisted grin filled his demented face.

"Pl-ese" The man on the ground groaned out with so much pain.

"What was that?" The leader said as he turned his right ear to the man's direction as if to hear him better.

"Pl-ese gi-ve me *gasp* a ano-*cough* *cough*ther cha*wheeze*ce." The man begged, even when talking would cause him so much pain.

"Another chance? Another chance?! Oh hohoho! would you look at that boys! He wants another chance!" The leader let out a booming laugh, which was followed by his lackeys. I don't know what the leader found humorous with what the man had said, but it was clear that his laughs are full of mockery and savage enjoyment.

"Put*** ina! You're making me laugh boy!" The leader said as he started to calm down. Then all of a sudden the humor in his eyes was immediately replaced by a murderous glint. "But you see, there's nothing more that I hate than people asking for another chance. You see, people tend to abuse other people's kindness towards them. When given another chance, they would think that 'If I could ask for another chance, then they would give me another chance if I asked for it again.' Then the cycle would never end, don't you think so? So, please forgive me if I can't give you what you're asking for. Don't blame me for the sh*tty life that you have right now. Blame those who abandoned you and made your life a living hell." The leader then released the man's hair, letting the man's limp head fall to the ground, face first. Standing up, the leader turned around and said, "After you're done with him, cleanly dispose of his body. We don't want those dogs from the association to catch a trail leading this to us. Understood?"

"Yes, boss!" The leader's men answer in unison, as their obvious excitement could be seen in their faces.

"Excellent! Don't take too long on taking care of him. We still have a lot of work to do." The leader instructed his men as he started walking away while lighting a cigarette.

Once the leader has left, the remaining men started cracking their knuckles and necks, ready to savor the ecstasy of beating the man to death. But as they were about to pounce on the injured man, my heart couldn't take it anymore and decided to finally step in.

As one burly man was about to throw a punch at the injured man, I let my freezing but calm voice be heard.

"Stop!"

Getting their attention, the multiple men simultaneously turned their heads towards me.

"Who the hell are you?" One of the men asked with an intimidating tone in his voice.

To answer the man's question, I just lifted my Association's badge and let it speak for itself. Although I'm not really part of the security team of The Hunter's association, these men don't know that. Seeing the Association's badge, the men visibly took a step back as panic starts to bubble up from within them.

"Sh*t! What's the association even doing here?!" One man said in terror as he began to sweat profusely.

"The boss isn't here anymore. It'll be the end of us if we ended up getting caught. I say we just ditch this f*cker and escape, while the rest of the association is not here yet!" One man said as he was ready to hightail out of here.

"What if the boss finds out?" One man asked, filled with dread. It was clear that they are really fearful of their leader.

"F*ck this, I'm out of here!" The previous man said, before running away as fast he could.

Lifting a single intimidating brow towards the rest of the men that were left; they were hesitant at first, but in the end, they all ran away with their tails between their legs. Once all of them were nowhere to be seen, I started letting out the breath I didn't even know I was holding. Letting out a sigh of relief, I thank the Lord for still being alive. I'm completely aware that what I did was extremely foolish and dangerous, and that my life could end at any second. I mean, if those thugs didn't have muscles for brains, then I would've really been dead along with the severely injured man that they already beat half to death.

Speaking of the severely injured man, I rushed to the said man. Checking the pulse on his neck, I felt a faint heartbeat, which meant that he was still alive. The man had already lost all consciousness right after the leader of those thugs left. It's as if he didn't want to feel the pain of his own death and just let the darkness consume him.

I didn't want to carelessly move the man's body, afraid that I might make his situation worse. So, the next best thing I did was to dial 117. About 10 minutes after I dialed 117, I finally heard the sound of loud sirens blaring. Upon arriving, the medic immediately rushed to our location and swiftly tended to the injured man. The medic carefully placed the man on a stretcher and wheeled him off to the ambulance. Being the one to call the emergency, I felt that it was my responsibility to see the man's recovery to its end. So, I ended up going with the medics to the hospital.

Arriving at the hospital, the man was immediately wheeled off to the emergency room, while I stayed in the waiting room. Everything happened so fast, that I really couldn't catch my bearings until now. First of all, I had to smack myself over the head for doing something so foolish, to the point that I would risk my own life. But did I regret doing it? No, of course not. Honestly, if the situation happens again, I would probably be doing the same thing I did. That's just the kind of person that I am, I guess.

Secondly, thankfully my mind didn't completely blanked out and caught a video of the thugs and their leader. After sending the video to the Association's security team, I went to the counter to settle all of the injured man's hospital bills, medicine, potions and made sure that he would get the best accommodations.

Now, why would I spend so much money on a person I barely even know, you may ask. Well, the answer's quite simple really. Because I can. You see after the catastrophe happened, I was left alone in the world when my family died because of the monster waves. They were all out that day, celebrating the new year, while I stayed at home playing video games. Me being a shut-in actually saved my life back then. Of course, I still miss them all dearly up to date. But at that time, I didn't even had the time to mourn, as adapting as quickly as possible has to be the number one priority.

Now, that I'm all alone with so much money to last me a lifetime and even more to spare; where else would I spend my money. If the money that I worked hard on can help a person in need, then why would I even hesitate to give. I guess that was ingrained in me by my parents. They always taught me to be a giver, so that I wouldn't get attached to the material things in this world. It's also the basic principle of sowing and reaping. If you sow a seed then you will reap the harvest. If you give, it will also come back to you many folds. So, yeah! That's the reason why I didn't even bat an eyelash when paying for man's astronomical hospital fees. I mean, as long as there's something for me to give, then I'll keep giving.

As the night went by, I also stayed at the hospital. While the man was in surgery, I got the chance to look through his belongings. The man didn't have much really, only a crushed smartphone and an empty wallet. Opening his wallet, I was finally able to find out the name of the man. When I first saw the man lying on the ground, I had this inkling feeling that I'd already seen the man somewhere, and I was right. Joseph Medoza, age 23, three years older than me. He was one of my trainees that graduated 3 months ago. I remembered him because of the intense tenacity that I would always see in his eyes. He was blessed with a handsome face, added with his fit body. He was quite popular, but for some reason, he always keeps to himself and preferred to always be alone.

There's definitely more to his story, but from what I've gathered earlier, it seems like everything has got something to do with his family.

About 10 PM, I was told that the surgery was a success and that Joseph was already transferred to his room. Thanking the nurse that informed me, I went ahead and rode the elevator to the floor I was told Joseph's room should be. Getting off at top floor, I was taken aback by what greeted me. It felt like I entered a 5-star hotel instead of a hospital. The top floor hallway was adorned with crystal chandeliers. The décor was elegant and immaculate. The floor glimmered like gold while the posts were made with golden mana crystals. It looked like the hospital spared no expense to give out the best accommodations for their VIP patients. Now, the astronomical bill made sense. I just told them to give Joseph the best accommodations, I didn't expect it to be this grand and luxe.

The top floor only has three rooms, which meant that only people with money can really stay here. I mean, for a patient to stay a single day on this hospital's top floor, it'll cost them about a couple of million pesos. And with a perfectly reasonable reason too. Just one look at the posts scattered along the hallway, I could tell that they're made from powerful mana crystals that continuously emit a healing aura, which greatly helps a patient's recovery. These miracle crystals are also said to even help restore abnormalities in a person's body. And top it all off, these mana crystals can only be mined in Gold-ranked gates. That means these certain types of mana crystals are extremely hard to come by.

Swiping in the room card, given to me, on the door; I started feeling like I was really in a hotel instead of a hospital. Entering, the room was slightly dark, with only dimly lit lamps lighting the room. The room resembled more a hotel suite rather than a hospital room. One would've mistaken it as such, if not for the hospital equipment present. The room's pretty big, complete with a lounge area with a ginormous glass TV. A bath room and of course the bed area. Walking in further, I was really surprised to see Joseph already awake. I mean it hasn't been long since his surgery, but I guess potions and mana crystals these days can cure just about anything, and at an extremely fast pace too. Joseph's sitting in the middle of the king-size bed, as he stares outside the floor-to-ceiling glass window. I felt extreme regret and pity for him when I noticed his once tenacity-filled eyes are now devoid of life. My heart stung at the sight of the hard-working young man I once knew, being reduced to this pitiful state.