"How many times do we need to do this, Joseph?" A man tapped his finger on the metal table as he leaned back. "I mean, I'm getting frustrated over it. I have hundreds of pages of reports written about you, and this whole dumb situation will require me to write a few hundred more."
"I mean, shit, it's not because of me but because of you." Joseph said as he pointed at the him. "Look, Marcus, I didn't do anything. I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and that's it."
Marcus let out a long breath. He was clearly stressed about the whole situation and its consequences. "So now you're saying you just happened to be in the middle of the desert, no town, no life for kilometers from there?" He leaned forward, placing his hand on the table. "With two warlords who, 365 days a year, are killing each other's factions every second, but somehow, magically, they decided to meet up… and you were just there by accident, or what?" He asked, staring at him, but Joseph was just… nonchalant, to say the least.
"Yeah."
Marcus covered his face with his hands and let out an even longer breath this time. "So you don't know about the laser-guided missile that hit them and literally evaporated everyone? You don't know about the fucking military drone that was magically circling there, the drone that waited until the exact moment you were out of range and then struck them?" He looked dead in his eyes. "You just happened to be there… that's what you're saying?"
"Well, yeah. What a coincidence, right? I was surprised too when I saw the big explosion, like pahh." He gestured with his hand, then leaned back. "It was crazy. I could feel the shockwave hitting me and all that." He said it was just a joke or he was just playing.
Marcus, on the other hand, started to get more and more irritated about the fact that Joseph was too calm, like he wasn't even understanding the situation.
"Joseph, you killed two fucking warlords. Don't try to talk yourself out of this now." He pointed with his finger. "First, let's say it wasn't you. Then what the actual fuck were you doing with them? Two warlords who've been killing each other for years and stop saying you were just there by accident."
It was the first time he actually seemed to think… at least that's what Marcus saw on his face. His expression looked like he was fabricating the lie he was about to tell.
"I was just… got stranded in the middle of the desert, and they showed up…"
Marcus burst out laughing as Joseph said it because it was the biggest bullshit he'd ever heard from him… like, there was no way he actually said something like that. Even Joseph started chuckling over the fact that he told the most obvious lie he could.
Then Marcus watch beeped.
"Oh fuck." He stopped laughing and looked at Joseph. "A woman will come and grab your balls and twist them, I'm just saying."
"What?" Joseph asked with confusion on his face.
"Yes, I'm sorry, but they sent somebody from the IIC, because… let me whisper it to you." He leaned forward. "They watched the whole thing with another drone." He smiled and leaned back. "She is going to twist your balls or cut them down. I don't know what's going to happen… maybe your time has finally come." He smiled, and in no time, the door already started opening.
Locks, heavy locks were being opened like it was the door to a golden vault. Loud clicks, and then it opened, and a woman stepped into the room with a folder in her hand.
Joseph only needed to take one look to know she was not the type of agent that would go easy on him. She had that attitude and aura that screamed she was a serious one.
"I really want to cut off your dick, but the IIC doesn't like that sort of thing."
Joseph was silent for a bit, then started laughing, shaking his head. "Too bad for you… my dick has already been cut off."
Suddenly Marcus started laughing too, but stopped as soon as the woman looked at him, then she turned again to Joseph.
"Really?"
"Yeah, a cartel really wanted some information, but shit, I gave them my dick instead." He stared at her. "I mean, of course, I just happened to be there and knew nothing… why they were doing it, and what kind of information they wanted." He added, as he looked at Marcus, who was just shaking head, still fighting the urge to not laugh.
She looked at Joseph for a little longer, maybe trying to intimidate him, then opened one of the folders, picking up a paper, then she dropped it back like she changed her mind and sat down crossing her legs and still eyeing him.
"Before I read the official thing, I just want to know one simple thing… why did you turn into a devil?"
The question stunned him a little, especially because it was coming from an agent, only those people called him a devil, who he tortured and killed… allegedly.
But the expression she had was anger and disappointment, something he had seen many times in his life too.
"Devil?" He chuckled. "I am just a man." He said it in a chilling way, and the woman could see it. She could see in his eyes the light that once was there… once, in the old days, when he was somebody who was on the right path.
"You could have saved lives and decided to rather grab them, and kill as many as you could." She said. "But why… you are the second in the world to actually reach Level 100, not once but twice… and you decided to kill more and more people, rather than just wish for something good, something that could actually save the world."
There was a silence that followed. Joseph was just looking at her, thinking about it.
"I hate you all for this. Everybody thinks the wish is some kind of miracle… it's not. It's all a big misunderstanding, something more like a bad deal."
"A bad deal?"
"Exactly… how many people are there with the System? Maybe a hundred thousand worldwide, and only two people reached Level 100, me and Albert. That's it. No other one did it or they didn't even try to reach it."
"Because you were blessed." The woman said.
"Blessed? By what? That I Level up if I kill?" Joseph laughed.
"You could have used it in a good way, to stop wars, to actually become somebody who benefits the population. But no, you turned into a fucking drug lord the merchant of death."
"Stop wars?" He laughed again. "Lady, I don't have superpowers. Nobody in the world does. The System is just a fucking curse we got. And yeah, I decided to live with it, to actually do what it requires me to do. I killed… allegedly and reached the top, and that's it. Don't say I could have done this or that, because no, I couldn't do shit, not even with a wish."
"Ahh…" She sighed. "You two motherfuckers… you and Albert how selfish you guys are, wishing for personal things… rather than, I don't know, wishing for peace—"
Suddenly Joseph started laughing even more, but this time it was a genuine laugh, something that confused the woman and Marcus too.
"You're so funny." He said, shaking his head. "For peace? You all want to dictate something you don't even give a fuck about. I already said the wish is just a fucking bad deal."
She looked at him for a moment. "Then say it. What did you wish for? What was the wish that was such a bad deal?"
"Ohh, what a personal question… why don't you ask Albert?"
She didn't answer..
"Oh because he is a billionaire, someone untouchable, someone who had the right connections in his hands… but I know his wish though."
Her eyes widened, and even Marcus got surprised by it as he straightened himself looking at Joseph.
"Say it then." She said.
"Well… his System required him to reach a 100 billion net worth, I think, and a 800 billion worth of company, and he did it, wow." He looked at them. "But what does he not have that he couldn't buy with any type of money… a family."
There was silence for a bit and then she just started laughing, while Marcus was actually thinking about it.
"A family?" She shook her head. "Do you think we're fucking dumb?"
"Yeah, but just you. You are fucking dumb. Marcus, no, I actually like you" He smiled at him. "Albert wanted to have kids. His own kid, not adopted or, I don't fucking know, using someone else's semen or dick. He wanted his own, but shit doesn't work down there… so what was his wish?"
"To be able to have a child…" Marcus whispered, his eyes widening as he puzzled it together.
"Bingo. He wished to be able to have a child. And what did the System do? Not fucking fix his dick, no, no it changed him into a… woman." He looked serious into the woman's eyes. "And y'all really started clowning him, saying he's a transformer or whatever the fuck you call them, that he spent millions turning himself into a woman… how fucking stupid are you, lady?"
Again, silence. Then she started laughing. "Stop lying, you fucker. Nobody can change into a woman fully, not even God can do that."
"Ohh really? Because recently, he… or she got pregnant. How the fuck is that even possible? Yeah, he did it, reached Level 100 and wished for it, and well, he got it. Just,the System gave him a deal where he is turned into a woman."
"You know what? Stop the bullshitting and just say what you wished for." She shook her head but she thought about it and it was true that Albert got pregnant… even the news covered it for months.
"Actually, I tried to wish for something great for humanity."
"Another joke?" She asked back.
"No. There is so much war and death and despair, so I wanted to wish for world peace. And the System, well, it didn't want to execute it how I wanted it." He smiled. "It wanted to destroy humanity. It said, 'To have peace, all humans need to be wiped off the face of the Earth.' So I said, then fix world hunger. It said the same, 'If there are no humans, there is no hunger.'... and anyway, you can only wish for yourself. For others, no you can't." Joseph explained, and Marcus and the woman just looked at him with disbelief. His mouth was literally open as he said it, because it made sense.
The end goal of the System is that you reach Level 100, and you get a wish. But it's only you who completes the quest it says to do, and the wish will affect only you or is it?
"Say your wish."
"My mother had late-stage cancer, so I wished that she could live longer… and well, I fucked up." He shook his head with a smile. "Basically, the System said 'aight bet,' and calculated that I have a life expectancy of 70 years old. So it did what it could best and made the bad deal. It removed 30 years from my life. First, it gave 10 years to my mother, and the rest was part of the deal."
They were falling into more disbelief. There was no way that actually happened.
"What, then you have—?"
"1 year left. And my mother already died in a well, she got shot… how good is it to wish, huh?"
"It doesn't make sense! You can only wish for yourself, you said it earlier!" She shouted at him as he got up.
"Lady..." He looked up at her. "I wished for my mother to live… and he died a week later. Was it a good wish? Was it a deal that made any sense? Was it a wish that actually worked…? Because no, I don't think so. If I had never wished for her health, then she could have lived three more years." He looked deep into her eyes, and she immediately felt off. She felt that a devil was looking at her… the monster that he is.
Someone that the System broke. It stripped away humanity from him, shaping him into something far worse than a criminal. It turned him into a monster. Not one that hides in the shadows, but one that thrives in them, feeding on lives, on fear, on the final gasps of people who never saw him coming.
Joseph Santino the man who brings chaos wherever he goes. It doesn't matter where he shows up, whether it's a crowded city street, a peaceful home, or a fortified government facility, disaster follows.
People die.
And it's not because he always pulls the trigger. Most of the time, he doesn't have to. Things collapse just because he's there.. There's something wrong with him.
The Merchant of Death who profits from slaughter, wars, drugs, the man who only lives to kill more and more.