Chapter 1: Talent is a Curse
’I thought people said this game was hard!’ I thought to myself as I stared at the game console in front of me. My gaze was tired, bored even.
After another series of constant tapping for about a minute, I dropped the game console aside and sighed. "Another game beaten," I whispered to myself and concentrated my gaze on the timer beside me. "I didn’t even take up to a day."
I grabbed my phone and took a picture of the console, which displayed that I had finished the game, as well as the timer, before going on social media and posting it with a write-up stating: ’Another record broken.’
I dropped the phone, sighed, and grabbed a piece of paper with a long list of recreational activities written boldly on top, with half of them already ticked off, and games were the next ticked off on that list.
I placed the pen in my mouth. "I wonder what I should do next. Music—or perhaps arts..." I muttered to myself.
"...Either way, I know I’ll be done with all of them in a month’s time." I sighed and lay on my bed before closing my eyes.
Talent wasn’t how people or animes or even novels described them to be. They weren’t a blessing, but rather a curse, and unfortunately, I was born with that curse.
Since I was young, I’ve always been able to grasp things in the shortest amount of time. When it came to school, I always graduated top of my class.
To be honest, I would’ve finished school in the shortest period of time ever recorded, but I found it boring finishing everything too quickly.
I tried sports, but I was able to grasp each one after seeing them only once. In most of them, I would’ve gone pro, but rejected all offers that were sent to me.
Games were just part of the many things I was able to master in a short amount of time.
And yes, I know what you’re thinking. With all the skills I have, why the hell am I still living in such conditions, a small and dirty space with just one room and another tiny room for, of course—the toilet.
Well, it’s simple. Number one, my family decided to abandon me after finding out I didn’t want to do anything with my life. They believe in investments and reaping double the rewards.
They invested in me—but I brought them nothing, so they dumped me.
Number two. Nobody seemed to believe any of my achievements and instead saw them as edits. Each post I drop always ends up receiving hateful comments and, at the end of the day, gets downplayed as simply a lie.
Honestly, I was getting tired of Earth. It felt small.
The amount of things one could do weren’t much, and I’ve already mastered most of them.
In fact, I am tired of life as a whole. It has simply become boring.
My stomach grumbled, causing my eyes to snap open.
"Ughh! I need food, I’m hungry," I muttered to myself. I got up from my bed, put on a tracksuit, and grabbed my wallet.
’Looks like I’m getting ramen again today,’ I thought to myself after sneaking a glance into my wallet.
I sighed, then stepped out of the house and went to the nearest convenience store, which I normally visited.
I was too lazy to go to other convenience stores, also their prices were low, so that was another reason for the constant visit to their store.
Once I entered the store, what greeted me was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen.
She had bright blue eyes, with black hair that fell all the way to her hips. She looked completely out of place in the shabby convenience store.
She sat on the counter, head down, lost in thought on whatever must have been going through her head.
Though, as soon as she heard the chime of the door, she looked up and released one of the brightest smiles I’d ever seen. "Leon! I see you’re back," she commented. "And way earlier than normal at that."
"Ohh, that..." I walked over to the counter and leaned in. "I just got hungry..."
She breathed in a sigh of relief. "I almost thought you had finished..."
"...And I finished the game," I ended, interrupting her. A shocked expression slowly crawled on her face, causing a small sense of pride to build up within me.
For some reason, I really derived joy anytime I shocked her like this. I patiently waited for her reply with a small smile on my face.
"Already?" she whispered. "That’s one of the hardest games created. How the hell did you finish it so fast?" she asked, bewildered.
"Honestly!" I rubbed the bridge of my nose.
"This was actually easier than all the others you gave me...the concept of the game was pretty basic and easy to understand...so it didn’t give much stress."
Her mouth hung wide open in shock before she hurriedly closed it. "You always seem to have a new surprise for me every day."
I smiled lightly.
"Anyway, you said you were hungry... What do you want to buy?"
"Oh, you know..." I brought out my card dramatically. "The usual."
"You make it sound like your usual is expensive." She laughed, causing me to go red with embarrassment. "I really thought you would do something different this time, you know...to celebrate...but ramen it is."
She swiped my card on her POS.
It showed that the transaction was successful, then I grabbed the two buckets of ramen.
"Ramen is enough celebration...you just don’t know how to prepare it for the celebration." I smiled, then waved before walking towards the door of the store.
Before I could get hold of the door, though, her sudden call halted my movements. "Wait!!!"
I turned to look at her, and her face was bright red. In fact, she kept fidgeting, as if she was too shy to speak out her next words.
"Are you...perhaps free...this weekend?" she fidgeted.
"Yeah!!... Why??"
She lowered her head slightly. "Then we should get dinner, don’t you think so??"
My eyes widened as I looked at her blankly for a few seconds.
Was I just asked out on a date? Honestly, I wasn’t even sure since her words came out as a whisper, if not lower than that, but I’m pretty sure I heard her well.
I shook off my thoughts and smiled. "Of course! That would be great," I replied.
Her head immediately shot up almost as if she was surprised I agreed. In fact, it was clearly imminent on her face that she was surprised by my answer.
Perhaps it was the long silence that dragged on when she asked me that made her think I would reject her offer, but I could tell she was genuinely happy that I agreed.
"Great!!" She smiled brightly. "See you this weekend."
I smiled as well. "I look forward to it."
With that, I said my goodbyes and walked out of the store.
Immediately I stepped out though, I began breathing hard. I couldn’t believe I was just asked out on a date.
I mean, anyone would want to be asked out by such a beauty, but instead, I felt embarrassed. How can I, as the man, be the one getting asked out?
It wasn’t as if I was a total newbie when it came to dating. I’ve had my fair share of dating experiences, and I was always the one asking the girl out. In fact, I was so good at it that my friends began to refer to me as a playboy. It was shocking being the one asked out this time.
I breathed out and began my walk home, my thoughts scattered and in disarray.
I reached a point on the road where I had to cross over. Normally, one would look left and right to check if a car was coming—but I didn’t do that. I was too distracted by my thoughts to do so.
I just stepped onto the road, and the next thing I heard was a loud car horn. I turned sharply, and a flash of light blinded me before—complete darkness.
I just died.
—-
