Conflux System: I Can Merge Anything-Chapter 47: Mockery Of Hope

When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate.

Zane might or might not know about the consciousness of the inner situation but he declared anyway that he would change the fate of the Gutterborns in front of the Gutterborns.

He still held Fork’s hand, his right fist still in the air, his eyes had no doubt about his words and as he finished, silence ensued in Cinder row.

The wind howled carrying the stench along with a page of newspaper that landed right on a muddied puddle.

Just as that happened, the crowd lost it.

"Bfftt..."

"Hahaha!"

"Look at his face! Haha!"

"He lies so clean!"

"Swear on my ass, boy!"

"Change the fate? Change your underwear first. KhakhaKha!"

Zane was met with utter ridicule and laughter as no one took his words seriously at all.

The men and women laughed alike and Fork jerked his hand, making Zane leave him.

Zane turned his head to him and Fork let out a tired sigh.

"This is no place to sell dreams. We stopped sleeping long ago."

Fork patted Zane’s shoulder and turned around once more.

But once more he stopped.

Not by his will.

Zane held his hand again.

Fork’s brows twitched.

"What are you doing?"

Zane peered at him. "What did the slab give you when you touched it?"

Fork frowned. "An Ember tier skill. Hyper Sensitivity to Pain."

"What did you do after that?"

Fork thought for a while and answered: "Well, the Priest then told me that if I agree I would still be able to be of their help in the Citadel even if I awakened the weakest tier skill. I refused the offer because I was afraid of the Halocrats so I came back here and worked in a tobacco factory."

Zane nodded and his eyes went to Mickey.

"You stabbed his eye because you wanted him to earn more money from begging, yes?"

Fork rolled his eyes. "We literally went over this a few seconds ago."

Zane clenched Fork’s hand. "Answer what I asked."

Fork flinched, jumped at his spot for a few seconds, and the pain made him obey.

"Yes. My father did the same with me. So I also used that method. Now stop hurting me!"

Zane softened his grip.

"You wanted more money from the kid because you wanted to drink. Do you not earn enough? Do you not have a job of your own? Why did you depend on your kid’s earnings when you can drink that cheap alcohol with your own money? Is this your idea to increase your savings?"

Fork scoffed.

Zane tightened his grip.

Fork jumped as Zane mushed his fingers.

"Why did you hurt your child?"

Fork cried five times in one second and when the pain reached the peak...

"You think I wanted to do that?!" He shouted.

Zane stopped applying pressure.

Fork calmed down and looked at Zane.

"If not for his begging, we both would starve."

"But you also have a jo—"

"They laid me off!"

Zane went silent.

"Some kind of machinery shit replaced me in the factory. It does my work now."

"When did it happen?"

"Three days ago."

"And you blinded Mickey today."

"Because I was hoping I would get a job but I didn’t. I used all the few Lumens I have in sex and booze. That was the last resort. I don’t want to live in the Ashen Slums. I am constantly looking for a job and till then I had to make use of the kid for money. That’s all there is."

Zane paused.

He waited two days for a job and only when he didn’t get it, he took that step. Does it mean he didn’t want to do that?

Zane had asked all this to Fork in the middle of the situation as he wanted to clear his final doubts and reach the crux of the situation.

He already knew the situation as he also lived like them but now he confirmed it.

The crowd was still present and that only made Zane convinced of his thoughts. They would have gone away after laughing if they weren’t waiting for something.

And Zane knew exactly what they were waiting for.

He took in all the gazes on him and with the same vigor, he spoke:

"The man beside me and many others of the same kind, all of them had thought about one thing when they were young."

Zane paused, and looked at the woman wearing his tunic.

"Their lives would change after touching the slab."

As the words left Zane’s mouth, for the first time, the crowd went silent.

All of them related to those words.

They remembered their younger days before turning eighteen, wishing to awaken a skill that would elevate their status and make their lives easier.

But...

"Gutterborns came and went but not once did they awaken something that could match their hope. Living here is not the only reason you loathe dreams and hope. There is one more reason. The final nail that turns your life like right now."

Zane gazed inside each eye as he revealed the second reason was nothing but...

"Getting rejected by the slab."

All brows shot up and Zane carried on.

"When you awakened something useless, your whole life crumbled. Your hope of change, your hope of happiness and comfort, it all turned to dust when the slab granted you weakness. From that moment, a voice formed inside your head and constantly repeated the same thing to you. Nothing would happen. I am a gutterborn. I should have known. Of course this happened.

And from then on, you never expected or as much as believed that things would change for you. And good god, you are all so afraid of even considering something better than living around garbage that my words feel ridiculous, a dream, an unattainable dream to all of you. What I am about to say, I hope it offends you all."

Zane raised his finger and while looking deep inside the eyes of the man who commented about changing underwear.

"To sewer rats who have only known the gutter, a palace looks like a trap, hope looks like a beast’s den and a savior..."

Zane pointed his finger at himself.

"Looks like a fool."