Universal Sign-in: Ascending to Godhood With My 10x Rewards!-Chapter 39: Damn Memories

"I.. I’m Katie."

I smiled, dropping the duffel bag on the ground right next to Katie.

"This is yours now, Katie," I said.

The girl’s eyes widened, and her mother gasped, holding her mouth.

The eyes of all the members of their group widened, a menacing flash of greed gleaming in their pupils.

"For me?" The young girl asked, tilting her head.

I stood up straight, nodding. "Mn hm. All of it."

"Whoa!" The girl beamed, face lighting up immediately as she turned to her mom. "Mommy! Food!"

"Thank..." Katie’s mother choked up. "Thank you very much..." she broke down.

"Don’t thank me." I said bluntly.

I didn’t do it for you.

Katie turned to me. "What’s your name, Mr?"

"Oh," I muttered, smiling. "I’m Nameless."

She nodded, getting off her mother’s arms.

Immediately, she hugged my legs, causing me to flinch slightly.

"Thank you, Mr. Nameless." She said with a sweet, low voice, looking up at me. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.

My gaze softened, and my smile enlarged as I patted her head. "You’re welcome."

All I saw was a younger Margie smiling at me.

Then, my smile faded as I turned to look at the group members staring at the duffel bag with burgeoning greed.

I wore an unfriendly, hostile expression.

"If any of you dares to touch that bag..." I clenched my fist, raising it high. "You’ll eat my fists."

They all flinched, some cleared their throats and adjusted themselves. The others wiped the greed away from their faces.

Damn scavengers. They remind me of me.

Without any further lingering, I exchanged goodbyes with Katie and walked back to Jericho and Marcus. Turned out, they’d already finished their food, lying down ok the ground lazily.

As I sat down, Marcus burped.

Jericho followed suit, picking his teeth as he said, "What a good guy."

"Way to go, Duz." Marcus supported.

They both laughed at me.

Fuckers.

On the ground, we sat, and we began to converse.

But my belly still rumbled.

Shit.

"Wait, so you worked as a construction worker?" Jerry chuckled.

"Uh-huh," Marcus replied.

"Deadass?"

"Deadass."

"No wonder you’re all burly and well-built, you’re used to heavy lifting," Jerry said.

"That wasn’t even the only thing I did. I worked several part-time jobs at the same time." Marcus looked down as he spoke, a faint smile on his lips.

"But why?" I asked, ignoring my rumbling belly.

"Why? Well, because I didn’t want to die a poor man." Marcus replied, "You see, my father died of a sickness that would’ve been cured if we had enough money. My dad was dirt poor. And on his deathbed, he made me promise never to end up like him. And that’s why I worked my ass off every day, in a bid to honor his wish and also uplift myself."

"And what did you think? That you’ll suddenly become rich by working five hundred part-time jobs?" Jerry cut in.

"What?" Marcus chuckled. "No. I had a plan, obviously. I just wanted to save enough to gain the capital to venture into real estate."

Some fancy dream there.

But... I respect it.

"It was a dream I was actively chasing. But now, well," He looked down, his grey eyes darkening. "Now it can no longer happen."

"Who says so?" Asked Jerry.

Marcus lifted his head, and I widened my eyes.

"I told you guys. We have an opportunity here. One that might be able to turn our lives around if we make good use of it."

"And what exactly is that opportunity?" I asked.

Jerry lifted his hand, and warm light glowed on his palm. He clenched that light, and it wrapped around his fist. "This."

Immediately, he turned the light off.

"It’s our ticket." He said.

"What plans do you even have in mind?" Marcus asked.

Asking the right questions.

"I’m thinking of the safe zones those soldiers talked about."

"I don’t know, man. Those things sound shady as hell to me." I cut in.

"Yeah, I do admit that. But we have to, to infiltrate the current ranks and rise to a position where we could hold enough influence to turn the tide. Riches and glory will no longer be a pipe dream at that point." Jerry said.

I nodded. "I get you."

Marcus leaned in. "But to do that, we’re gonna need strength."

Jerry nodded. "And that’s exactly why we need to draft a plan for our daily raid at the mall. We need to get used to our powers first of all."

"Yeah, about that..." Marcus laughed nervously. "The energy in me, I can fully control it now. It moves within my veins."

The fuck?

Is he some kind of prodigy? He can control mana now?

In just a day?

I don’t even know how to fill mine up!

"I’m still learning to control mine. To produce more light output."

"Good." I said, "So... about the plan..."

"Yeah. It’ll go like this."

Marcus leaned in. I followed suit.

We began to discuss our plans to raid the mall for an entire week before venturing out to a safe zone.

"But one thing: we don’t even know where the safe zones are! And there are five of them in this city." Marcus stated.

"That’s true." I nodded.

"Hmm..." Jerry hummed, musing.

I turned to face Marcus. "Hey, have you seen those three yet? Your original group members, I mean?"

Marcus smiled and shook his head. "Searching for them was the first thing I did when I got here. I haven’t seen them."

Sad.

Just as Jericho was about to speak, the noise in the station shot up, the voices and murmur becoming increasingly louder.

"What’s that?" Jerry asked.

"I don’t know."

I peered straight ahead, gazing at the source of the commotion.

At the gate, the ’boss,’ a few lackeys, and the guards stood, yelling at some figures.

"Help us! Open up! Please!" The men at the end of the gate screamed.

Oh, is it nighttime already?

Marcus stood up.