"What happened?" She asked from the back, confused.
The man looked at her, his eyes bloodshot. "He got a presidential pardon."
Ilona was in disbelief as all his 5 years of investigation of this fucker just went down the drain with two words. He fought so much with his bosses, so much with other agent detectives, all of them, who dared not fuck with Joseph, and it was all for nothing.
"I kill him…" She said as she pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Joseph.
"Whoa, chill out, lady." Joseph said mockingly as he stared at the barrel, but in Ilona's eyes was nothing else but the justice she wanted to serve.
"You can't!" The man turned around, shielding Joseph with his body.
Ilona tilted his head a little like he had just lost her mind. "I can't?" She smiled. "I'm the only one that fucking did something!" She screamed, switching off the safety. "I am the one who went after him in the fucking desert, who spied on him! I deserve it…" She placed her finger on the trigger.
But she couldn't do much as from behind Marcus hit her head with his gun and Ilona immediately lost consciousness and hit the floor hard.
"What a drama…" Joseph said from behind the man. "Anyway, can I go now, Mitch?"
Mitch turned around as his eyes were still red, and his whole body was shaking from anger and frustration. He grabbed Joseph once again by the collar, lifting him off the floor a little.
"The second you step out of the building, the fucking minute I will after you, everybody will after you." He said, spitting into his face. "The second you do something, there will be no arrest. We will fucking shoot you like a dog, do you understand?!"
Joseph was silent for a bit as he eyed Mitch, and he could see the bloodlust and could feel the tension that he was ready to kill him right now.
"Understood, sir."
Mitch was still holding him for a second, then let him down as he turned around. "Get the fuck out of here."
Joseph indeed got the fuck out of the building, and on the way out, everybody was eyeing him. Everybody wanted to shoot him on the spot, but nobody dared to actually do it.
I told you fucker.
[System] Indeed.
Joseph laughed as he made his way out and got back his things in a plastic bag, which was a phone and a pack of cigarettes, and before even stepping outside the building, his phone was already ringing.
"Hello—"
"Get the fuck out of the country!" A man shouted through the phone.
He was a bit surprised. "Oh, Mister new president, how are—"
"I said get the fuck out the country! I'm going to withdraw the pardon!" He shouted again.
[System] He's not lying.
Joseph stayed silent. He froze down as he heard his stress-filled voice, that he was actually going to do that.
"I'm the one that helped you get that fucking seat, do you remember?" He asked, but he could hear a lot of voices in the background. "Don't say to me you're getting bullied by the fucking—"
"I am Joseph! I'm the president, and I have responsibilities. If it came out I gave you a pardon, I'm going to get killed in a fucking hour!" He shouted again, and even the background got silent just like Joseph. "You have billions, just fly out and live a low life somewhere, but not here."
"I'm going to release all the files and comments then." He said coldly.
"Do it, Joseph, do it! My whole campaign was built on the elimination of corruption and crime. I don't give a fuck if a pic comes out that I sniffing drug form for a stripper ass!" He shouted again. "I won the election with 87 percent of the votes, do you understand what that means, the people are with me!"
[System] His telling the truth, there is no chance any file would hurt his image.
"Fuck, what country?" He asked calmly.
"Go to Injin."
Joseph busted out laughing as he heard it. "To a fucking dictator who kills everybody?"
"That's the only choice, you two are friends." His voice now got lower. "Go there and live out your life and never come back."
"My friend?" He asked back, chuckling. "He has no morality, but I still do."
There was silence on the other side, only the loud breath could be heard. "You have 3 hours, that's the maximum I can give you. After that, the manhunt starts. Good luck, Joseph, good fucking luck." He hung up the phone.
Joseph just stood there before the building as the realization started to hit him, that after many years, finally something happened… something that made him excited, something that made his body drenched with adrenaline.
"Fuck, I'm finally going to die, mama." He whispered to himself as he looked up at the sky. "Hey, System."
[System] I'm here
"The wish. I want to use my last wish."
[System] Note: You will lose all progress if you use your last wish.
"I don't give a fuck."
[System] Level 100. All progression is being consumed to make the wish possible.
– Individual elimination count: 567
Family status: [Salvatore Family]
– Total members: 7,923
– Total eliminations: 12,989
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?"
[System] Note: Next prestige requires double the quest requirements.
To reach Level 100 again, you will need 20,000 eliminations and 1,000 individual eliminations.
Are you sure you want to continue?]
"Yes. I'm sure."
[System] Final 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.
Ah, fuck you…
[System] Note: I can still hear your thoughts.
You were a nameless nobody until the age of 31. I can send you back to any point between ages 1 and 31.
"Yeah... so what is the trick, what is that you take away?"
[System] Your lifespan will be limited.
"Again?"
[System] Yes. You may live up to a maximum age of 38. 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 a new world… that's not sending me back to the past."
[System] Haha, you exposed me :D :(
"The fuck are you thinking those are? Emojis? You said you'd send me back!"
[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. However, I can generate your family and the time period you want to live in.
"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 a simulation. It's more like an alternative world.
"My inventory, will it come with me?"
[System] Everything will be deleted that can help your progression.
Inventory:
65 billion dollars in cash.
34 billion in gold bars.
7 billion in cryptocurrency.
All of it will be deleted. However, your system tokens remain.
Available system tokens: 100
"Basically I start at level 1 and need to progress up again…"
[System] Yes.
"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.
"Ohh, so I was a greatness?"
[System] Rephrasing. You were the devil, so yes, you can reach the greatness of a devil.
"So I will basically spawn into a world that I know but with different, like, players?"
[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 38. You can't change it with a wish.
"What a gift. But only thirty years..." He went silent for a moment. "Does that mean I'll have my dick back?"
[System] Yes. You could have wished for that a long time ago.
"Wishing to get my dick back? Nah, that felt too shallow." He laughed but realized this was the reality, all he built was crumbling because he fucked up and went overboard with his actions. "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 to the "past" and make yourself mute."
[System] That's two wishes.
"Then just send me the fuck back to when I was 22."
[System] Activating final wish. Sending you the fuck back to 2018.