Chapter 42: The Old Betrayal

The moment Becca heard that Chris had awakened a Mythic-rank class, she immediately began making her plans. She followed him around and created all kinds of opportunities for them to meet and talk. She made sure never to ask about his achievements or money, always acting kind and caring toward him.

Her plan had been to seduce him from the very beginning.

And it had worked. He had fallen in love with a cute, simple, and caring girl who always seemed to bump into him everywhere and showed concern for him every time they met. Back then, her smile had been the most important thing in the world to him.

He had been stupid enough not to connect the dots. How could someone keep bumping into him at every corner and act so kind toward him without even knowing him beforehand?

Unfortunately, he had realized the truth much later, when it was already too late.

Returning to the present, Chris continued following Becca. She bought him new clothes, complimented his appearance, laughed at all his jokes even when they weren’t funny, and continued acting with care and concern. They exchanged phone numbers before eventually going their separate ways.

Chris began reliving the events of his past all over again, experiencing scenes from the following months in rapid succession.

For the first few months, everything went smoothly. His interviews went well, everyone treated him politely, and Becca was always there to support him and care for him.

He had no parents, but his uncle’s family was wealthy. They had always ignored him and provided only the bare minimum for his survival, but that changed when his class rank was revealed.

They suddenly became warm toward him, and back then, it made him feel wanted. He was happy to interact with his family and receive their care, but he failed to notice that they saw him as nothing more than an opportunity.

The only person who had genuinely treated him warmly was his uncle’s stepdaughter. She was the daughter of his uncle’s wife from her first marriage and had no blood relation to his uncle. She was often neglected herself because his uncle didn’t care about a child who wasn’t his own.

Chris often wondered how she was doing and whether she was still living with that uncaring family.

But everything began to change one day. The day he was called in to try taming his first beast.

When he saw the first System message informing him that the contract had failed, he didn’t think much of it. The others also reassured him that it was simply the beast’s fault, as it wasn’t destined to be contracted by someone as talented as him.

He comforted himself with the thought that it was just a fluke and spent all his free time researching beasts. He searched through every record made available to him, memorizing as many details as he could about every beast that had ever been recorded.

He was fascinated by beasts and always wanted to learn more about them. He felt that becoming a Beast Tamer was his calling, and he did his best to acquire as much knowledge as possible.

Then another contract failed, and then another.

The assistants assigned to him began to worry and consulted the higher-ups about what to do. Eventually, the higher-ups decided to test him with rarer and higher-ranked beasts.

But when those contracts failed as well, they officially and publicly declared him defective.

That was when everything took a turn for the worse.

His family stopped answering his calls, everyone mocked him, and thugs came to beat him up and take everything from his apartment.

Those who had initially offered him help came knocking to demand repayment of their investments. The people he had signed contracts with found loopholes and pursued compensation, while those who had helped him without contracts sent thugs to make his life a living hell.

Now, Chris was standing on a street with his fists clenched tightly.

He had come to meet Becca, hoping to find a little warmth in the darkness that had suddenly enveloped his life. However, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw in front of him.

Becca stood hand in hand with another man, looking at Chris with ridicule.

"Becca, what’s going on?" Chris asked, clenching his fists even tighter.

"What do you think is going on? Can’t you see? I have nothing more to do with you. I’m Mark’s girlfriend now, so please don’t seek me out anymore. I don’t want him to misunderstand." Becca replied without even looking at him.

"What do you mean!? Was everything before just a lie?" Chris asked in a hoarse voice.

"Heh, did you really think I had feelings for you? You were just a genius I approached because I wanted to take advantage of the opportunities you could offer me. Honestly, you were too easy to fool. But it seems I was wrong about you. You ended up being completely useless. I don’t want to see you ever again. I want nothing to do with a defective nobody."

Becca spoke without a hint of emotion in her voice.

Chris felt his heart shatter into pieces.

What hurt him the most wasn’t that she had chosen to be with someone else. That much was understandable. Now that he had become useless, he would only drag her down with him.

No, what hurt him was how easily she could say such cruel words without showing the slightest emotion, as if all the moments they had spent together had meant absolutely nothing to her.

Chris simply stared at her without being able to show any anger, his heart slowly breaking inside his chest.

The man standing beside Becca, Mark, approached Chris and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Chris looked at the blond-haired young man without any emotion. He still didn’t know how to process the situation.

"Chris, right? What an honor to finally meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you. They said you were the greatest genius of our generation, someone nobody could ever compete with. Honestly, it pissed me off."

Mark sneered as he spoke.

"Seeing you become useless and defective brings me nothing but joy. At first, I wanted to kill you, but then I decided that would be wrong. It’s much better to let you live in misery, knowing you’ll always be a useless nobody. Still, I need to warn you."

Mark’s expression turned cold as he patted Chris on the shoulder.

"Stay away from Becca. If I ever find out that you’ve approached her or tried to contact her again, I’ll kill you."

With that, Mark turned around and took Becca’s hand.

Becca happily accepted his hand with a smile, leaving with him without sparing Chris another glance.

Chris was overwhelmed by his emotions. Sadness, desperation, and misery consumed his heart. He had already been dealing with countless problems lately and had endured ridicule from everyone around him, but what Becca had just done was the final straw.

At that moment, he felt as if the entire world was against him. He couldn’t even muster the strength to argue or confront them.

Turning around, he slowly left the place.

He found a bench in a nearby park and sat down, contemplating what to do next. Night had already fallen, and he had no home to return to or anyone he could contact for help.

He simply sat in the darkness, staring into empty space.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when he suddenly heard footsteps behind him.

Snapping out of his miserable thoughts, he turned around and saw three men approaching. Each of them carried a baseball bat, and they were looking straight at him.

The men stopped a few meters away, and the one in the middle spoke.

"You’re Chris?"

Chris stood up and nodded.

"If Ricky or anyone else sent you, I already told them I’ll pay the money back when I have it. You’ve already taken everything I owned, and I’ve even lost my home. I have nothing left to give you."

The man in the middle sneered.

"Ricky? Money? Oh, this has nothing to do with that. We’re not after your money at all."

Chris became confused.

"Then what do you want?"

The man spun the bat in his hand while looking at Chris.

"We want your life. You offended someone you should never have offended, boy, so now it’s time for you to die."

Chris’s expression hardened, and he became more cautious.

"Who sent you?" He asked, taking a step back.

"Usually, I wouldn’t reveal the name of our employer. But this time, it’s not a problem. After all, the person who paid us specifically requested that we tell you who sent us."

The man grinned.

"It was your beloved Becca."

Chris’s expression instantly changed. An unimaginable rage began boiling inside his chest.

Humiliating him and breaking his heart hadn’t been enough? Deceiving him for months and treating him like a stepping stone hadn’t been enough? Now she wanted his life as well?

He felt that his life couldn’t possibly get any worse than this.

For a moment, he even wondered whether he should simply give up and let them kill him.

’Is there anything worth living for in a life like this?’

He asked himself. But the rage in his heart told him otherwise. It continued to grow, refusing to die out.

Should he really give up and die without making the people who had turned his life into a living hell pay for what they had done?

’No. I refuse to die like this!’

Chris clenched his fists and took a step forward. He had decided to fight back.

"Oh? You’ve got some guts, boy. I’ll give you that. Let’s get him, boys!"

With that, all three men charged at him, raising their bats to attack.

Chris charged forward as well, intending to face them head-on. He had received martial arts training in the past, and he wasn’t afraid to fight for his life.

The first man rushed toward him and swung his bat vertically.

Chris sidestepped to avoid the attack, then raised his leg and struck the man’s knee from the side.

"AGHH!"

The man’s knee twisted and broke, and he fell to the ground, clutching his leg.

"You little shit!"

The other two men swung their bats at him simultaneously.

Chris jumped backward to avoid their attacks, then rushed forward as soon as the bats passed. Clenching his fist, he struck one of the men directly in the chest.

"UGH!"

The man fell to the ground, clutching his chest.

Chris was just about to leap forward and strike him with his leg when another bat swung toward him. He had no choice but to abandon his attack and jump backward to avoid it.

"I’ll kill you!"

The remaining man charged forward and continued swinging his bat.

Chris kept dodging while analyzing the man’s attack patterns. It was clear that the man had never received any proper fighting training and was nothing more than a local thug who did dirty work for money.

For someone like Chris, who had received extensive training, dealing with such attacks wasn’t particularly difficult.

After another swing of the bat, Chris spotted an opening and rushed forward. He grabbed the man by the collar and positioned one leg behind him.

Pushing the man forward, he used his leg to trip him, sending him crashing to the ground.

Chris jumped on top of him and began throwing one punch after another at the man’s face, releasing all his pent-up frustration.

But suddenly, he felt an enormous pain in his left side.

He had never felt pain like that before, not even when the group of men had beaten him in the past.

He looked down at his left side, only to see that the man beneath him had, at some unknown point, pulled out a knife and stabbed him.

’Not good!’