Chapter I:

There are few people in this world of ours that can be describe as 'benevolent'. Sure you can sometimes spot the living and breathing examples of a good samaritan here and there but they are rare, and most of them doesn't really fit the word benevolent like most people believe. As bad as it may sound, most people help their fellowmen because they probably are expecting some kind of compensation to their 'goodness', even if one doesn't really think of a great or concrete reward, deep down inside their mind they want a compensation even if the said compensation is not really bad. Take for example, a pretty and sexy woman that sprained her ankle would be helped by a total stranger, now don't go telling me that what that guy was thinking was only to help the woman, of course there are other reasons, one that men find embarrassing to divulge to others but their most trusted buddies. And even if the reason for helping that girl wasn't lust but genuine affection, then one can conclude that the guy wants to help the gal to have a chance of becoming intimate to her and the gal to him. True benevolence is this planet called Earth is pretty much hard to come by. Some strive hard to hide their faults while others even relish in it.

Take my boss for example.

Terrence King was his name but his attitude is the opposite of Kingly, unless you mean a corrupted or evil king like those in storybooks for children. Pudgy, pot-bellied and fat, I know that those three words were pretty much synonyms but those are the only words that can describe his physical appearance without insulting him. If I want to insult him then the words would evolve to obese, oversized and pig, no scratch the last one, a pig is too slim compared to him, probably elephant or whale then. These thoughts came too mind as I waited for my boss to finish 'correcting' my work, I would use that word loosely, what 'correcting' means to him is to change every damn thing in every paperwork submitted to him by every employee working for him so that it would suit him when he submitted this works to his own higher-ups. Well, every employee except that newly hired woman. Oh, do I need to tell you that the woman was astonishingly beautiful?

What did I mention about benevolence and compensation again?

I let out a small sigh as the oversized man handed my folder back to me, he didn't say anything as I took my paperwork and returned to my desk without evens saying 'goodbye' or 'later' to him or something. He probably knows how most of his employees hate him, I wouldn't be so surprised if he doesn't though. The asshole only cares about himself and no one else. There is that beautiful employee though, but I don't think that what he's thinking has something to do about care.

A bored yet oddly contented look can be obviously seen on my face, it's from being used to how this office works. It's not just me though, almost all of my fellow employees has the same look, I say almost because we have a couple of new guys that were hired last week. One of them was that beautiful one that the boss seems to have perverted thoughts on. Shrugging the negative thoughts off my mind, I placed the folder back into my bag as I left the office. Our office is not exactly that big, three-stories high and too damn thin in width when compared to other corporate buildings, an irony that I first discovered when I saw the boss for the first time.

The building has no indoor garage so the employees have their car parked in a tight space in front or someplace else entirely. Mine was parked in front and I cursed silently when I saw that it was raining outside. Damn my miserable luck. First an accursed motherfucker for a boss then it's pouring raging bullets of water instead of the soft and shower like sprinkle of my idea of a rain! And add to that, as if to piss me off, the gloomy sky let off a thunder. I groaned at my terrible luck for having this kind of life as I inserted the folder inside my suit. Oh yeah, we wear freaking three-piece suits like uniforms daily, and who ordered it? Oh who else! It's not even common in the Philippines for this dress code in jobs, not considering the fact that three-piece suits cost a lot of money.

Taking a look at the darkening sky with annoyance, I could say that the weather won't get better anytime soon so waiting for it to stop is not a great option. I sprinted towards my car, the bottom part of my slacks getting really wet because of the splashes made by my quickened steps. My car was an old suzuki, so old that I forgot what the name of the car is, it was my uncle's after all and I'm not too hyped when talking about cars. The rain poured mercilessly as I fumbled with my car keys, it took a frustrating while but I finally inserted the damn key into the hole! I scrambled inside, placing the folder, which was thankfully dry, in the seat beside the driver's. My car is quite old, a gift from my uncle when I was still nineteen years of age, I'm twenty-three by the way so this car can be considered old. Well at least for me.

The city of Iligan is not as big as the city I called home but it still is quite big. Even if I've been living here for almost nine years, this city is still a place that I, to my shame, can still get lost in.

Even considering the fact that I've done more things to this city than the mayor.

As I drove towards the general direction to where my apartment is, my phone suddenly rang and sent vibrations from my right pocket to my right thigh. I took the phone out, not removing my eyes from the street as I did so, it hurts to be careless when driving. I lazily swiped the call button on the phone's touchable screen and pressed it on my ear, not even taking a look at the caller's number or name ID.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Brother!"

I grinned, it's the person that I least expected to be calling, not because the person hates me or I hate the person but because this person is more busy than me.

"Yes, little sister?"

"Oh my god! You haven't changed a bit" the person on the other line said with not a little bit of incredulity in her voice. "How's life treating you, brother?"

"Pffft, funny you'd ask" I replied, not in a rude tone but not in a kind tone either. "It's not exactly the best one, sis"

"Well, at least you're not buried in a grave of paperwork" she replied in a very displeased voice. I feel for her, probably because of the fact that she's also having problems with her job. But my sister named Shekinah Galvez is the CEO of a fairly young corporation based in the Philippines, so her problems are obviously more stressful than my problems with terrible human beings. Not that I don't count myself as one.

"Hmph, try dealing with an asshole of a boss and let's see how you fare" I said with a smirk.

"I really don't understand you-"

"Of course you don't" I said with a grin as I swerved my car to another path going to the right of my current position.

"-why do you continue to contend with a guy like that when you can easily find a job with your reputation and talents"

I nearly stopped the car in the middle of the road at what my sister said, the last words she said is in my book of 'what you don't mention or imply in a conversation". Memories of what I did for the last few years flourished into my mind, and they were more than enough to completely destroy anything positive I've been thinking for this day.

"Don't go there" I said, my voice is so low and cold that it could probably scare me if I the one on the receiving end of those words. Unfortunately it's Shekinah, which I hope would give her my desired effect.

"Fine, but remember that your certain . . . talents . . . can still be a valid source of income" she replied, probably with a sigh.

"Hmph" I said as I focused on driving back to my apartment. What my sister is talking about is the massive hacking spree that happened four years ago, the official report of the city's police mentioned of a massive breakdown in the city's wide electric circuits. The truth is far less dangerous, the truth of what happened was that there was a hacking spree that claimed dozens of information about all the inhabitants of the people living in Iligan city. Birth certificates, criminal activity, bank transactions and even daily schedules were copied and taken. To this day, none of the officials knew of the hacking, and even the city-wide blackout that was a byproduct of the wide-scale hacking.

Good thing I used my laptop on that.

Yeah, I was the one who did the hacking and I did that because I want to try how far my expertise on technology was. My original plan was to hack the digital birth records on the city hall, but I got . . . carried away and ended up hacking almost everything that is available for hacking, I say almost because I didn't hack any digital money, I still have a moral compass you know. The end result was a totally giddy nineteen year-old me with too much information dumped into my former laptop. I was so confident about my whole activity that I didn't notice that someone noticed my work, the guy turned to be another hacker like me and was surprised to find a newly minted guy like me in front of the computer. What he did next was quite surprising, he offered me a job . . . as a peddler of information to anyone who needs it. I made my presence quite known in the black market after that, selling the information I got for real money with me never showing my face and the guy acting as my visual and business liaison, my . . . representative in business transactions. The next three years was a win-win for both of us, and my nickname even got famous and can be heard among the common people, though the police and the government always there to adamantly debunk my existence as an urban legend. I stopped when I found out that my business partner was not giving me the cut that I deserve, only giving me almost a fourth of the cash while he kept the rest. I retired after that but not before I publicly placed him as the hacker that caused the blackout, I turned him into the urban legend that was actually me and exposed him for the whole world to see with all the evidence needed for the police to keep him in prison for the rest of his miserable life. And I seriously thought that he really just did what he once did for me out of the goodness of his heart, turns out that he wanted 'compensation' out of it. After that I told Shekinah the true story, finding it hard to keep my secret for myself.

A sigh on the other end of the conversation jolted me out of my thinking, and I shook my head at that.

"You'll never get over it if you'll keep blaming yourself you know" she said.

"Correction. I got over it." I replied.

"Whatever you say, bro." she said and I hear another sigh in her voice. "Oh and by the way, our reunion's nearing will you come?"

I didn't fail to notice the sudden spike of joy in her voice when she said that. I can't blame her though, I also am very eager for our reunion.

"Of course, dear sister I wouldn't mi-"

The pain was the first thing that my body received and the second was the sound of something large, heavy and firm crashing into something of the same description. I gasped and tried to suck air but my body was experiencing pain I've never felt before in my twenty-three years of existence in this planet forcing my mouth to clamp shut as I tried to endure the pain that probably cannot be endured for long. My eyes suddenly became blurry and dull as my eyelids want to close themselves even if my consciousness was still painfully awake, my mind was lively at the moment while my body is not. As such, as my eyes slowly close themselves, I could hear the faint sound of my . . . sister's voice coming from the phone in my car somewhere.

And then everything went black.