Chapter 9: You slap like a pussy, Ashton…
Chapter 9: You slap like a pussy, Ashton…
As soaked as sponges, Dobby and Ashton sat opposite each other in a restaurant.
“Feels better eating something other than Pearl Pierce’s cooking. Seriously, I feel sorry for Jin,” Dobby took a bite into his hamburger.
Ashton, tiny droplets of water on his glasses, sipped some of the soft drink he had on the table, “Where’s Jin anyway? He’s been in the bathroom for like…three minutes now? Didn’t he use the one back at his place before we left?”
“I mean, the only reason we’re here right now is because he was so eager to use the bathroom right after Tristan left us.”
“Hey, I give you one point,” Ashton fixed his glasses, “You said Tristan’s name without getting mad again.”
“I don’t know what’s gotten into that guy. He sure is an asshole to do that to us.”
“Something must’ve come up.”
“Whaddya mean something must’ve come up? He didn’t pick up his phone from a phone call,” he raised an index finger, “nor did he look at his wristband,” he raised another finger on the same hand, “What does he have, spidey senses?”
“I don’t know. Even if something did come up, and he actually looked at his wristband, he still had no reason to treat us the way he did.”
Dobby sighed, “True. This whole world’s getting more and more messed up as it ages.”
As Dobby took another bite from his burger, a cup came darting towards his body. It came so fast that he couldn’t dodge it, and so, the liquid inside of it burst out of the plastic cup as it hit his body, and subsequently fell upon him.
Dobby quickly turned his head in the direction of where the cup was tossed. Upon looking at the figure who threw it, he scowled irritatedly.
It was a male Goblin, accompanied by a female one. They both burst into obnoxious laughter, making a ridicule of Dobby who stared at them dead in their faces.
Riled, Dobby, trembling uncontrollably and gritting his teeth, squeezed the burger until all the contained food was squeezed to a pulp, oozing out of the burger patty and onto his plastic plate.
He seized Ashton’s cup from him, and turned his head to face where the Goblins had been sitting again.
“No, don’t even think about doing that,” advised Ashton, peering at Dobby with caring eyes.
“Come on, Dobby. They’re short, but they’re still stronger than us in spite of this.”
Coincidentally, Jin, on his wheelchair, then came out of the restroom, and approached Dobby and Ashton’s table. Having seen him, Ashton moved closer to the other edge of the seat, making room for him.
Sighing, Jin stood up from the wheelchair, and plopped down on the seat again.
He contemplated Dobby’s countenance for a while, and then he turned to Ashton, “What’s wrong with him?”
“You see those Goblins over there? They hit him with a cup filled with soft-drink.”
Jin looked at Dobby, “That’s what you’re mad about? If you are, just forget it, man. They’re not worth our time.”
Slowly, Jin put his hand on Dobby’s shoulder, “Come on, forget about them. The last thing we want right now is a fight.”
In truth, after the events that took place because of Tristan, Dobby, brimming with rage, more than wanted a fight to sate his hunger of lashing out on something.
Ashton then fixed his glasses, furrowed his brows, and peered closely at Dobby.
Quickly, he leaned forward in his seat, stretched his arm back, and launched it into Dobby’s cheek.
Dobby nonetheless winced from the negligible agony brought by Ashton’s weak slap. He turned his head to face Ashton, and snarled, “Whaddya do that for!?”
“N-nothing,” Ashton cowered, raising his shoulders.
“Guys? I think I wanna leave this place. It’s been a long, long day for me,” drawled Jin, eyes slit.
It became quiet for a while. Tristan had a blank facial expression, and Jin, slouching in the seat, had been yawning the whole time.
Even after they finished eating, they sat there in silence. Not saying anything.
But then, Dobby chuckled with a smile on his face. Having heard him, they both tossed their short attention spans at him.
“What’s the matter?”
Dobby’s inner laughter became a boisterous guffaw that drew people’s eyes to the table in which he sat.
After his laugh had come to a gradual halt, he let out a loud sigh, as he shifted his attention towards Ashton; who gawked at him in confusion.
He smiled and said, “You slap like pussy, Ashton…”
Ashton smiled.
***
The boys ended up taking the same taxi home, given that their houses weren’t too far apart from each other.
It was still raining heavily outside.
Jin, in a white shirt, slouched on the couch in his living room, dozing off. His grandmother then sat next to him.
“Jin? Jin?”
Jin flew up, and turned his head to face her.
“Can you explain why Tristan didn’t drop you boys back home?”
“Honestly, Grandma, I have no idea…”
“So he just randomly did that to y’all?”
“I guess…as I said though, I have no idea why he left us there like that.”
“Did you guys fight?”
“Actually, yeah. Tristan and Dobby were quarreling with each other because Dobby, as stubborn as he is, refused to leave the car.”
His Grandmother sighed and shook her head, “What about earlier today? Why’d you leave for fresh air so long? You didn’t go for this fresh air, didn’t you?”
“Grandma, if you’ve been worrying about me…stop. I’m fine, I swear.”
She shook her head again, and turned her face away from him, “I have a lot of concerns about you right now, Jin. Since you’re so quiet, I’ll leave you be…for now. The remote’s next to you. Can you turn on the TV?”
Jin then took up the remote, pointed at the ultra-wide TV screen, and pressed the red ‘power’ button on it.
Accordingly, the TV came on.
“I’ll find something to watch—thanks.”
With slit eyes, Jin then tossed the remote for his grandma, and slouched in his seat. He watched as she switched through different channels.
“No good show’s on today. Why am I even paying for this?” complained his Grandmother.
He had not an iota of care about what was showing on the TV. But then. Something grasped his attention.
On the TV, a news reporter sat down, while images of different colored beacons were shown in turn.
Jin’s eyes widened promptly on the spot, as he peered at the TV screen.
Quickly, his grandma switched to a different channel.
He looked at her, “Hey, grandma! Go back!”
“Where? What’s wrong?”
“Put back on the news for a second…”
She grimaced, “You? News? Alright,” she switched back to the news channel.
“I don’t know why you’re interested in this now. I’ve been watching the channel three days straight, and all they spoke about were the lights that were shot into the sky.”
Jin continued to peer at the screen. His grandmother promptly noticed how enthusiastic he was about what was showing, and she mentally took note.
He listened closely, hoping for some valuable disclosure of information, which he in turn would use to learn more about the ‘Successor System’.
“Today, four more beacons were shut into the sky. A huge red one was spotted in England. The blue one was spotted again this morning here in New York City. And lastly, a white one was spotted in the Atlantic Oceans today at about three fifteen, by a group of sailors.”
“We still have no idea what these lights are and where they came from, but what we do know up to this very day is that we are finding dead bodies in the center of these ‘beacons’.”
The words ‘A successor has fallen’ came back to Jin after hearing the news reporter mention ‘dead bodies’.
“I’d like to switch over to Lisa Carenda, who last time on BBC news made a phenomenal prediction of where a beacon would shine.”
“What’s that? She just left? Just like that? Okay,” The news reporter continued, “Oh, sorry folks. It appears that Lisa Carenda won’t be able to speak to us today. Maybe tomorrow.”
“Lisa Carenda is extraordinary, and she claims to know almost everything about the beacons. Again, maybe she’ll share her knowledge with us again. She deserves for us to allow her to speak to the people of the world after the insane predictions she’s been making.”
“After a short commercial break, we’ll be reporting live to you the events that took place in the school shout-out that took place on the last day of school yesterday.”
Not interested in what was coming up next, Jin stood up and sat in his wheelchair, “You can change the channel, I’m gonna go get some sleep now…”
His grandmother looked at him, “No, I wanna hear about the shoot-out. Also, don’t you want some food, Jin?”
“I ate at a restaurant today,” he rolled to his door, and closed it shut.
After locking his door, he kicked his wheelchair aside, and walked up to his bed. He perched on the edge of the bed.
“I have to learn more about this ‘Loki Successor System’,” he muttered, “It sounds like a big deal to me after listening to the news just now.”
He wanted to start learning about the system, however, he was far too tired. He ultimately laid down on his bed, saying, “I’ll get to the bottom of this. But maybe after a short nap…”
***
As expected, Jin slept until the next dawn. After all, it was truly a long day yesterday, and he was burnt out as fuck.
Laying on his bed; still asleep, he then heard that strange sound he would hear when there is an incoming system screen.
As expected, a new hovering translucent screen materialized from what seemed like thin air, and remained in a fixed position in his face.
Slowly, he opened his eyes, peering at the screen before him. Upon seeing the message on it, he quickly jolted upright to a sitting position, settling at the edge of his bed once more.
He rubbed his eyes, and looked at the screen again.
[Third day of System inheritance]
[Do you wish to fully activate this asset?]
Jin grimaced at the screen, “So it wasn’t fully activated before?”
Looking at it, he couldn’t help but think about how much similar to a game’s User-Interface the System screen was.
Had it been in an actual game, he would not even question it for a second; this goes to show just how much it resembled a user-interface.
The word ‘asset’ lingered on in his mind.
“Surely, if it’s an asset then it must be to some benefit to me. But what benefit?”
“I’m probably overthinking it.”
He was.
“Yeah, I’m definitely overthinking it,” he stood up, “Alright. I’ll accept your offer, system thingy.”
He had decided to grant permission to the system so that it bestows him with the asset. It was clearly stated that it was an asset, and as such, he hoped it would be to some avail to him.
With impatience written all over his face, he grimaced at the screen again, “Hey, didn’t you hear me? I said I’ll accept the offer…”
“Just as I thought—it’s stupid,” he plopped back down on the bed.
Jin then let out a long, stretched, stressful breath, and narrowed his morning eyes.
“Jin, your life sucks,” he told himself, “If God offers another life to me through reincarnation right now, I’d accept. Scratch that. I don’t want to have my memories of this wretched world. Only if he offers me a completely fresh start—only then would I say yes, becau—”
Then suddenly, a new message appeared, truncating his sentence right then.
[Activation word prompted…]
[Activating Successor System…]
“What? Wait-wait-wait,” he jerked backwards, “What was the activation word!?”
[Activating…]
“Was it ‘Yes’?”
In a split instant, the entirety of Jin’s slim body glowed luminously green. His eyes quickly expanded in shock.
“What’s happening?”
[Your System have been activated]