Hard To Believe

Nathan didn't remember everything, especially minor details. But he told his parents how one day, the Vijang Syndicate had bombed key locations around the city, including the Triangle. They lit fires, tore down buildings, and killed everyone they came across or who tried to stop them.

The Vijang Syndicate swept through Avalio like a tsunami and razed it to the ground, eradicating any resistance.

Through some miracle, Nathan made it back home, where he saw a few of the Syndicate members clobber his parents to death.

After that, mindless rage consumed Nathan as he awakened his skill.

He regained clarity of mind after slaying the syndicate members. But his memories of everything that had happened and what he had done were clear as glass.

At that point, he had been surprised at how still his heart was. He was empty, void of emotion. He was lost.

However, he wasn't lost for long.

As reluctant as he was, his brain started spinning.

Nathan was weak back then. He had just awakened his skill. Yet, he had brought down the entire syndicate, which was powerful enough to take over the city.

He had done it all on his own, but he hadn't been fast.

As he fought, hunted, and killed all the members of the syndicate, working himself up the ladder, several weeks passed.

But in that time, not a single hero stepped in.

No one interfered with the Vijang Syndicate's actions of razing an entire city to the ground and slaughtering its citizens.

No one.

But eventually, someone did show up to investigate. They saw one living person sitting in front of a smashed restaurant surrounded by corpses. In the entire city, only one person was left alive.

Questions? No, there was no need for such a thing.

The very last shredded fragment of hope in Nathan's heart faded out of existence as he dodged the hero's attack before killing them.

After that, it was a bloody road, filled with heroes coming to take down the villain who destroyed Avalio and massacred all its residents. Then, the heroes came to avenge their fallen comrades.

Then, other villains came to recruit a rising bloody star.

Of course, none of them succeeded. They all died.

Nathan's skill gave him a preview of everyone who was strong enough to be his rival or had the potential to become one. It also counted people who could become his rival if he grew strong enough.

It wasn't a perfect skill that accounted for everyone targeting him.

But by using his skill, Nathan prepared for every hero, villain, officer, bitch, scoundrel, or motherfucker that came close to him.

When that got boring, or rather, when Nathan got sick and tired of it, he flipped the game around. He started going after everyone else. He hunted, stalked, and toyed with anyone that caught his fancy. He stole their fortune, their treasures, or their keys from them, tormenting them until they broke.

Around the same time, the true ramifications of Pandora's Opening revealed themselves, and the world once again went to absolute shit. But this time, it wasn't a matter of solving internal strife to save the world. It was a foreign threat.

That was when Nathan finally caught wind of a hero who had started making a big name for themselves. They had worked as a hero for a long time. But it wasn't until the world started dying again that they rose through the ranks and became a beacon of hope for those who knew about him.

The Shrouded Hero. Nathan's archrival.

The Shrouded Hero was the only one who didn't break, crumble, falter, or succumb to Nathan's games. He even beat him a few times.

It was the most fun Nathan had since before the Vijang Syndicate. Naturally, he couldn't stop doing everything to torment the fucker. Speeding up the world's destruction was just a bonus.

But in the end, the Shrouded Hero exacted one final win over Nathan.

It wasn't unexpected.

What was unexpected, however, was the fact that Nathan regressed.

That brought him to a couple of days ago when he failed his delivery, tried again, and beat up the thugs from the Vijang Syndicate.

Nathan's parents silently looked at him with complicated faces.

Hard to believe, was it? Certainly, such a chain of events wasn't easy to believe. If it had been anyone else telling such a story, they wouldn't have believed it for a moment. They might have been supportive if it was the idea for a movie or novel franchise.

But it wasn't. It was supposedly the future, their son's future, to be specific.

Anita looked at her son. Her mouth gaped like she was about to say something, but she couldn't find any words.

For some reason, she didn't think her son was lying or delusional. The sincerity, clarity, and worry in his eyes was just too honest.

"...I-I'm going to need a couple of minutes."

Terrence stood up and left the restaurant to take a walk. His son was a rude brat with no respect for his father. But he wasn't a lying rude brat with no respect for his father. 

The consequences if his story was true were too great to assume it was all nonsense.

Besides, logic and reason had taken an indefinite vacation after Pandora's Opening all those years ago. Things that made sense weren't the only part of reality anymore.

Terrence needed a few minutes to gather his thoughts and process everything Nathan had told him, especially the part where he and Anita died.

Back in the restaurant, Anita stood up, pulled Nathan up with her, and embraced him in a tight, warm hug. He needed it. She needed it.

It didn't matter whether Nathan had regressed, hallucinated, or seen the future, he believed it to be the truth. In his mind, he had been alone, unloved, and persecuted for decades. He had also done unspeakable things to other humans.

But the death of his parents and the heartache it caused had broken him.

He needed someone to comfort him, and who better than his mother?