Job Offer

The black chains, as if feeling their owner’s irritation, quickly surged forward, aiming directly at Cyril’s neck with no hesitation.

“Alexei? What the hell are you doing? What are these chains? Why are you attacking me?” The ‘Thing’ posing as Cyril blinked with the characteristic nonchalance of the original body and stared as the chains swung at his neck, aiming to separate the head from the shoulders.

“Who are you?”

The thing posing as Cyril immediately ducked before rolling on the ground as the chains grazed the wall before pulling back as if they didn’t want to damage it.

“Alexei, what the hell are you doing, you bastard? I’m obviously Cyril.”

“Keep lying. I’ll see how long you can dodge.”

With an expressionless face, Alexei activated his Prowess skill, taking a deep breath as the strange energy surged through his body, every one of his senses completely focused on the figure in front of him.

The breathing, the stance, the cadence of his voice, and even the faint smell of bamboo-scented shampoo all seemed like it was Cyril. If he hadn’t gotten confirmation, hadn’t seen the blood stain on the ground and collected Cyrils’ things, he would have believed that it was Cyril.

And yet, before he could make peace with the fact, something waltzed in, pretending to be his dead friend.

He must seem like a joke to people. That would be quickly rectified.

“Last chance to reveal yourself.” As Alexei cracked his neck to loosen it up, the chains rattled like an angry snake while circling the intruder.

“I keep telling you! I’m Cyril! Are your eyes just for decoration, you boomer? You’ve finally gone crazy from dealing with crazy people at work, Lexie.”

“Very good.”

Whooosh-

Five chains struck a single individual from different directions while Alexei charged forward, his fist swinging directly at the young man’s torso.

Blue eyes that appeared slightly purple glared at him but Alexei directly ignored it, swinging with all his strength.

First he would knock the imposter out, then drag them outside before blowing their head off.

Before his fist or chains could grab the imposter….

A blood-red mist barrier appeared, blocking all the chains and the fierce fist for a brief second before Alexei activated the Magic Nullification area at the point of impact, and his fist drove through at full force, slamming directly into the chin of the pale young man and sending him flying backward.

Before the imposter could slam into the wall, the same red mist appeared, surrounding the figure like a cloud before fading away as he expanded his Magic Nullification area and the disguise began melting.

Soon, instead of a white-haired, pale young man wearing simple white clothes, a bombshell with fiery red hair that fell to her waist, brilliant green eyes, and golden freckles dotting her pale skin appeared. She wore simple dark jeans and a white T-shirt, but the outfit was tailored to cling to every inch of her body.

And on her face was a cheeky smile he was quite familiar with.

After all, they knew each other decently.

Ritta O’Malley.

One of the top newscasters in the city. A resident of this building and a neighbor to Cyril.

“State Attorney Alexei, you sure don’t know how to treat a lady, hitting me in the face like that. I’m hurt.” She rubbed her face in a teasing manner while looking at him with total interest as the red mist barrier flickered around her before it faded away.

“Miss O’Malley, what are you doing here? You should be charged for breaking and entering.”

“I’ve told you to call me Ritta. And wow, you caught me quick. How did you know? I thought my disguise was pretty good.” Ritta pouted charmingly while batting her eyes.

“Perfume.” Alexei spat the words out while the usual warm expression in those unique amber eyes was gone, making her shiver as a chill went down her back.

Since it was the first time she had seen him like this in person, Ritta was a bit shocked but quickly regained her composure, sniffing her body with a small smile.

“Ah? I thought I properly covered it up, but it makes me happy that you remember my scent. I’m touched.”

“Why did you do this?”

“Do what?”

In response, Alexei rattled the chains that were slowly creeping toward her feet.

“Hmmm~ Well, since Cyril didn’t come back yet, I figured he had died. When I saw you come in, I thought, wow, wouldn't it be nice for you to be taken care of by the diligent state attorney? That disguise wasn’t one that should be seen through that easily, though. I had to spend a lot of coins on it, so I was crushed. You broke it so easily. How did you do that, by the way?”

“You spent coins?” Alexei immediately latched onto the part of the conversation that interested him.

At the question, Rita glanced at the crystal lying on the kitchen table before looking back at him with curved lips.

“Don’t tell me the great state attorney doesn’t know about coins and how to spend them. You were covered in blood earlier and even have a souvenir, so I don’t believe it. Shall I tell you about how to spend it? If you say please, I’m willing to share. Oh? Maybe you were the one who got rid of Cyril? Am I the first to know this breaking news?”

“If that’s all you have to say, please leave and don’t return. And don’t assume that form ever again. I’ll let you go off this once.”

“Well, I’d love to go, but I actually came to give you a job offer. Someone is very interested in your talents, and seeing your skills right now, they want you even more. I can’t say that I disagree.”

“I’ll pass.”

“Not so fast. The offer is quite good. You’ll definitely want to take a look, I promise…” Ritta looked into the air as a red glow surrounded her once more and seemed to click on an invisible screen.

Then, a hologram appeared in front of Alexei’s vision.

[Hello Mr. Alexei Damien Vasilios.]

[ H.E.L.P Apocalypse Corporation is impressed with the skills, strength, judgment, and potential that you have displayed so far.]

[The Peace Keepers Branch of H.E.L.P Apocalypse Corporation would like to extend an offer of employment to Mr. Vasilios for the minimum term of 365 days.]

[Reward: Immediate revival of any individual that has died within the past 120 hours.]

[What do you say? If you have any questions about the position, please feel free to ask me. All your questions may not receive an answer right now, but we sincerely want Mr. Vasilios to have a good experience and join the team, so we will do our best to accommodate you as much as possible.]

[Yes][24h Defer Decision][No]

After reading the screen, Alexei pressed defer with no hesitation.

[You have chosen to defer your decision. We at H.E.L.P Apocalypse Corporation understand that this is a big decision that requires much thought. Please take your time and feel free to ask any questions you may have. We at The Peace Keepers branch be at your service 24 hours a day.]

Seeing the polite message, Alexei kept his gaze neutral while looking at Ritta, who stared at him with a wide smile.

“Are you working for this…corporation?”

“I am. Pretty good offer, right? And the job itself is only as hard as you want it to be. You can choose your tasks, get your reward immediately, and even get great benefits and helpful contacts. You should accept it.”

“Is that right?”

“That’s right. I’ve always wanted to work closely with you, Alexei, so it seems the heavens have answered my wish. Are you going to accept?” as Ritta stared at him with sparkling eyes, Alexei quickly dashed her dreams.

“I’ll think about it. Instead, can I ask you some questions?”

“Boooo. Although, I guess it makes sense since you’re a lawyer. I can answer somethings but….”

“You have to do a little something for me…..”

“What do you want?”

At her apparent look up and down his body, Alexei rolled his eyes.

“I’m in mourning.” As Ritta began pouting, Alexei gave her his classic warm smile that charmed so many people regardless of age, race, or gender. “So help me make a decision so I won’t be in mourning any longer.”

“Of course. Shall we go to my place? I have whiskey. Macallan 34, unopened. Got it just for you.” With a seductive smile, Ritta held out her hand, and Alexei took it and ushered her out of the space.

And several hours later…….

“I can’t believe you’re not drunk. How many bottles of wine did we go through….. It makes me want you even more, you know.” Slender arms wrapped around his neck, and as her face approached his, the scent of alcohol wafting over him, black chains began squeezing Ritta with enough force to crack concrete. Despite that, her body was fine, and she giggled drunkenly as a misty red cloud surrounded her.

“Ahhh, a little forceful, but I do like this quite a lot. Still, I can’t have you break my body just yet, you know. Either way, I’ve told you all I know, so I hope you accept the job offer so we can work together. You can come by my place anytime if you want to contact me or ever decide you’re not in mourning anymore.”

With a charming smile, Ritta blew an air kiss at Alexei’s face before disappearing into a red mist.

As she left, Alexei walked back into Cyril’s place and sat down on a bar stool, wishing he had some more whiskey so he could think properly. But Cyril had no alcohol since he had just reached his 21st birthday.

As his thoughts turned dark, Alexei shook his head to focus.

First of all, whatever that job offer was, it couldn’t be accepted.

No matter how he looked at it, it seemed sketchy and the more Ritta praised it, the sketchier it seemed. A job offer that gave people what they wanted the most as a reward? It was suspicious.

And secondly.

It had given him a good hint. He peaked at the holographic window hovering in the corner of his gaze.

‘Revival of any individual within the last 120 hours’.

120 hours was about the total time that had passed since the angel arrived.

That meant one of two things.

This meant that this job offer targeted his weak spot because he was valuable.

That could be seen by the special treatment he was given compared to someone like Ritta and the fact that she showed up in Cyril’s form. If he hadn’t known for sure that Cyril died, he would have believed it for some time.

Still, while it made sense, Alexei’s intuition didn’t put much stock in this option.

His second guess was that 120 hours was this corporation's power limit or the limit of their influence on this world. It was too specific of a number otherwise.

Faint thoughts based solely on conjecture with his intuition as the basis flowed through his mind.

He had no definitive reason to think so, but thinking about how Ritta had been sent to find him personally, her murmurs about spending coins on an item and being upset at the waste, the variety of abilities he had seen so far, and the large amount of coins he had collected by slaughtering several thousand people.

He had one thought.

I am worth more than this job offer. It wasn’t an overestimation of his abilities; it was just something that seemed natural after his experience on the island, in the dungeon, and even coming out of it. His skills seemed uniquely created to take out other humans, and he was quite good at it.

If he was being secretly observed, that would be the only thing they could have seen that would impress them. If they were ranking him by what his body count was, he would definitely be worth a lot.

And with that worth…

Whatever is being offered to me is something that I can either gain by finding somebody with the skill to bring somebody back to life or by spending coins to achieve the same goal. The only thing is that it might take some time, hence why he was being rushed to make a decision quickly and why his information was limited.

Although it was shoddy reasoning that could never hold up in a court of law, with his intuition, which rarely failed him, Alexei thought he was correct, which made his next destination obvious.

The angel had said it loudly and proudly for everyone to hear - The government knew about this situation and had been keeping it secret.

It was time to go shake down some of his old coworkers to get some answers.

The first stop was the mayor and the governor’s office.

And if that failed, well…wasn’t the president’s home close by?

If even that failed, the national military base wasn’t too far as well, and if none of those people could answer his question, well…he could always find Ritta again.