[System Notification: You are low on Mana.]
"I guessed so…" Joseph whispered as he looked around him and there was blood everywhere around him as he teleported at an abandoned site on the outskirts of the city.
The skill he used, Gate of Blood, was basically what the name suggested. It used the blood he gathered for others and enabled him to teleport to a random point in the city, and that was the worst part of it. He could not choose the exact location where he would end up, but he always used it as an escape if he was in a sticky situation, because it was better than getting killed.
Though it didn't change the fact it was over. He left Ilona alive and knew for sure she would go after him even more fiercely now, not to mention all the agencies and the Hero Association itself. He had just killed the top hero, so they would hunt him down if he kept going, and eventually they would kill him.
And of course there was the other thing. He had left one year to live, and that one year would be the most fucked up one. He would probably die, but he did not really plan to go along with that at all.
No, he realized it a long time ago. There was nothing he could do. Ilona said it right. They had all of his concoctions, and the family would fall too, and his empire would crumble with it.
All the years he spent building it up to get his wish would now fall apart, but before doing everything, he needed to make one call.
"Mister President. I'm the one that helped you get that fucking seat, do you remember?" he asked, hearing many voices in the background. "And now you backstab me like this?"
Yeah, Joseph called him directly, the President of Alexandria, the one person who was the connection to help him get out of the hands of the feds and everybody, but Joseph realized that this fucker backstabbed him when Ilona was talking about all the connections being busted.
"So you escaped, huh? To be honest, I knew you would. But yes, I did it. I backstabbed you and I have responsibilities." His voice was rather calm about the fact that he had just confessed it. "You have billions, Joseph. Just fly out and live a low life somewhere."
"How calm you are, William. But I still have all the files on you. Don't you think that will hurt your image?" Joseph asked.
"My entire campaign was built on the elimination of corruption and crime, Joseph. You know that, because you helped me. Do you understand what that means?"
[System: There is no chance any file would damage his image. He pulled the perfect backstab on you. You helped him and he used your help to turn it against you.]
Then why the fuck was it a quest to even help him? Joseph thought and he was right. What the System had given him as a quest now seemed like it had been the seed of his downfall.
These quests were like a game like one. The System randomly gave one, and if you completed it, you received a reward. But now it made no sense, because he had done it, he had completed it, and yet he got nothing. Worse than that, it turned against him in the worst way possible.
"You have three hours. That's the maximum I can give you. After that, the manhunt starts. Good luck, Joseph, and thank you for your help."
William hung up the phone, and Joseph just stood there as the realization slowly began to hit him that after many years, it had finally happened. Just like that, it was truly all over, not just half over, not just that his connections were all busted, but that his whole being as a drug lord, the entire Santino family, was finished.
It simply blew his mind.
"So my downfall is my System. What a twist that is…" He whispered as he looked up at the sky. "The Blood Emperor can only die by himself. What a pathetic way to die."
[System: That is the truth, but you pushed it much further than I expected.]
"Huh? What do you mean by that?"
[System: Nobody else would have come this far like you. They would have gone insane in the first year, maybe even the first month. But you have been doing this for years straight, and you are still sane to some extent. The Blood Emperor did not take control over you and drag you into madness. It suited you the best, and deep down you understand why the quest was against you. It was to overcome it and win, and in the end be the one who stands in the field of blood.]
"So the Quest was about pushing WIliam to the presidential seat and then fighting with him and everybody?"
[System: Exactly.]
"Huh, well that is not going to happen." Joseph whispered, because he knew there was no chance he would do it, and it did not even have a purpose anymore."The end is finally here, Mom." He smiled a bit as he reached his hand toward the sky, as if he wanted to catch one of the stars. "System, the wish. I want to use my Divine Wish."
[System: You will lose all progress if you use your Divine Wish.]
"I don't give a fuck."
[System: Level 100. All progression is being consumed to make the wish possible.
– Personal kill count: 1201
Family status: [Santino Family]
– Total members: 7,923
– Total kill count: 12,657
Level 100 reached in three years. All progress will be sacrificed to fulfill your final wish. Are you sure you want to proceed?]
"How many times are you going to ask that?"Joseph sighed. "Yes, proceed."
[System: Next prestige requires double the quest requirements.]
[To reach Level 100 again, you will need 20,000 eliminations and 2,000 individual eliminations.]
[Are you sure you want to continue?]
"Yes. I'm sure."
[System: Wish activated. What is your wish?]
"You are a tricky motherfucker. So if I say I want to be forgotten, what will you do?"
[System: You will be sent back to the past, to the age when you were a nameless nobody.]
[You were a nameless nobody until the age of 22. I can send you back to any point between ages 1 and 22.]
"What is the trick this time, what is that you take away?"
[System: Your lifespan will be limited.]
"Again?"
[System: Yes. You may live up to a maximum age of 40. You cannot change the outcome with another wish. You will die, and there is nothing you can do about it. Do you wish to proceed?]
"Wait, if you send me back to the past, it also means everything will be how it was? My connection to all the people I know right now and the action that's going to happen?"
[System: No.]
"No? Then what the fuck are you trying to do?" Joseph asked, confused by it.
[System: The moment you go back to the past, everything is going to change. Simply put, the world you knew back then is not going to be the same. All the people you knew, all the actions that would take place, will be deleted.]
"Deleted? Wait, you're generating like an alternative world… that's not sending me back to the past."
[System: There's no such thing as time travel, but I can generate a world similar to the one you lived in. But I can't provide the same people, because it will help your progression.]
"So you're saying to me that I can choose whatever period I want to, like the 18th century?"
[System: Correct.]
"But that would be a simulation, wouldn't it?"
[System: You wouldn't notice anything about it. The emotions, everything will work like in real life. You feel pain, sadness, guilt, you can die, and everybody around you. In a second, you will forget that it is different.]
"Well fuck it then. My inventory, will it come with me?"
[System: Everything will be deleted, however, your system tokens remain.
[Available system tokens: 100]
"Basically I start at Level 1 and need to progress up again. But why would I start over? I can just die."
[System:True, but it's a chance to live again, a chance to achieve greatness.]
"Oh, so I was a greatness?"
[System: Rephrasing. You were the evil, so yes, you can reach the greatness of an evil being.]
"So I will basically respawn like in a game?"
[System: Yes, but it's not a game, it's life. You can have a family, even decide to not level up, and just live the life of an ordinary man. Until you can. Lifespan limit is 40. You can't change it with a wish.]
"What a gift...." He went silent for a moment. "Huh... so that's it. Fuck. It was a long run…" He whispered to himself, looking up at the sky one last time. "Then do it, I want to be 22, send me back."
[System: Activating Divine wish. Sending you back to 2018.]
It happened fast, like he just fainted. Everything got dark and in a second he opened his eyes and what he saw was not exactly what he expected.
The house wasn't the house he lived in or grew up in, no it was something else entirely.
It was a slum house.