Chapter 353: Mortality’s Shadow
Darkness swallowed me whole, and I found myself floating in a void that felt both familiar and alien. But I wasn’t experiencing it...It was more like I was watching it, observing myself from somewhere outside my own body as the world around me shifted and reformed.
The first scene materialized with startling clarity. I was at that fateful night once more, ready to end my own life. Just moments before I jump I receive the notification informing me of my new job title...Jobmaster (SSS-Rank). But my reaction was different from what had actually happened in the past.
"What’s the point?" the other me whispered, his voice hollow with despair. "Mom’s dead, Dad’s gone, and I’m worthless. Just another F-Rank piece of garbage that nobody will ever care about. And this? This isn’t going to change anything...I hate my life."
I watched with detached horror as my younger self leapt off the bridge, tears streaming down his face. I lean over to see my own corpse. It was still alive... For now at least. Blood flowed freely onto the ground with his life draining out of him with each weakening heartbeat.
"At least this way, the pain stops," he breathed, eyes growing dim. "At least this way, I don’t have to be a burden anymore."
The scene faded to black, and I felt nothing. No sadness, no relief, just... emptiness.
The void shifted, reforming into another familiar setting. I was back in a burning building wearing my Mr. Fox mask. Chief Ryan was trapped under the collapsed beam. But this time, when the ceiling started to give way, I didn’t move fast enough. The flaming debris crashed down on top of me instead of him, pinning me beneath tons of burning rubble.
I watched myself scream as the fire consumed my flesh, my body lacking the anything that could have saved me at the time. Chief Ryan called out my name, trying to reach me, but the flames were too intense, the smoke too thick.
"I’m sorry," I gasped through the pain, my voice barely audible over the roar of the fire. "I couldn’t... I wasn’t strong enough..."
My body went still as the flames finished their work, leaving nothing but charred remains in a hero’s grave that should have belonged to someone else.
The dream shifted again. Now I was bound to that chair in Cipher’s cabin, Logan standing over me with that same sadistic smile. But this time, He began torturing me, before asking any questions, my body gave out much earlier than I had expected. The pain overwhelmed my nervous system completely, sending me into cardiac arrest before I could reveal any useful information.
"DON’T YOU DARE DIE ON ME," Logan sneered, checking my pulse and finding nothing. "TELL ME! HOW DO I JUMP RANKS?!"