The rain continued to patter down on the street.
Even in a breeding ground for sin like Hells Kitchen, the constant cold rain meant there were far fewer gang members wandering about than usual.
On the wet streets.
From the taverns on either side, arguments and curses could be heard from time to time, and occasionally one could catch a glimpse of some guy who had overdosed, slumped over by a trash can with a vacant, silly grin on his face.
“We’re here.” Nicole led Matthew into a park.
Looking out, the park was packed with all kinds of dense, crowded tents, with almost nowhere to step.
Matthew noticed that most of these tents were simple and dilapidated; many had long since lost their waterproofing, and some were even just tattered canvas and plastic sheets.
He could even imagine what it was like for the people living here when it rained.
It was probably that the rain seeped in everywhere, leaving those lying inside soaked to the bone, submerged directly in the icy, muddy water.
Whether in his past life or this one, in Matthew’s view, this was by no means a life for humans, especially in December, when these drafty tents were completely unable to keep out the cold.
Perhaps after a winter passed, the homeless people here would see quite a bit of “natural attrition.”
“You mean… you live here?” Matthew looked toward a yellow tent situated in a low-lying area, already ten centimeters deep in water.
Could people actually live in a place like this?
Especially someone who had a fever due to an infected wound…
Pulling open the tent, Matthew looked inside.
The moment he looked in, he didn’t see the figure inside clearly; instead, he was almost plastered in the face by the flies within.
After shooing away the large swarm of flies in the tent, Matthew continued to look inside.
The tent was already filled with rainwater.
In the water, a woman who had long since stopped breathing was soaking.
Her pale skin was soaked in the water, her clothes disheveled, and some parts of her body were bloated from the soaking; it looked like she had been dead for a while.
On the corpse’s thigh, a wound that had long since festered and oozed pus was exposed to the air.
And beside the corpse, a few used ‘balloons’ were floating.
Judging by their state, they had likely been used not long ago.
“…”
Rainwater dripped down the edge of his umbrella, and Matthew remained silent.
He was not a purely good person, but he couldn’t be called purely evil either.
As a certain game character once said, the World is not black and white, but a delicate shade of gray.
This feeling was like accidentally encountering an injured kitten, having a sudden burst of kindness and sending it for treatment, only for it to ultimately die anyway; one couldn’t help but feel a sense of regret for having personally participated yet still failing.
The moment Nicole beside him saw the corpse, her cries tore through the curtain of rain.
Ignoring Matthew’s attempt to stop her, she rushed into the tent, struggling to lift the cold body.
Watching the small figure wailing in the tent, Matthew was silent for a moment, then took the bills he had originally intended to use for alcohol out of his pocket and placed them gently on a rusty iron box inside the tent.
After doing all this, he turned to leave.
However, he hadn’t gone far when arguments came from behind him…
“Hey! Nicole! Don’t be afraid~~ It’s me, your good neighbor Roy.”
“Now, give me the money he put here. Don’t think about lying to me, I saw it all!”
“That fool had a sudden burst of kindness and shelled out five hundred dollars from his pocket for you!”
“Isn’t it a coincidence~~ This five hundred is just enough to pay back the rent your mom owed for my tent!”
“Give the money back to me! This tent was given to me by Old Carter! It’s not rented from you!” Nicole argued with a tearful voice.
“If I say it’s mine, then it’s mine… You—ahhh!!!”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!! You little bitch! You dare bite me! I’ll sell you to the red-light district!”
“*Slap*—”
A crisp sound of a slap pierced through the sound of the rain and reached Matthew’s ears.
Turning to look, he saw a gaunt, withered man who looked like he had walked out of a zombie movie set standing in the rain, struggling with Nicole over the five hundred dollars Matthew had left in the tent.
Nicole, who had been knocked to the ground, looked at the figure who used to protect her every time but was now standing motionless; she was stunned for a moment, and then, as if she had gone mad, she lunged at Roy!
Her small body was like a young beast at this moment, carrying an unusual madness and ferocity.
But reality is not a shonen manga; no matter how fierce she was, how could her frail body contend with an adult?
“*Bang!*”
Roy easily raised his foot and kicked her away!
Just as he was looking at Nicole, who was climbing up from the muddy water, and wanted to mock her—
The scene before his eyes changed abruptly…
“What’s going on… why has everything turned black?”
“I can’t… breathe!”
“So warm… is this… my internal organs?”
Under the night, Roy’s cervical spine snapped, and his head was pressed entirely into his chest cavity, looking just like a concave shape.
Everything happened too suddenly; even Roy, the person involved, hadn’t reacted, and it wasn’t until two or three seconds later that he fell to the ground with a ‘thud’ and stopped breathing. This story is hosted at novelping.com.
Pulling the bills out from between his knuckles, Matthew put the money back into his pocket.
“I’ve suddenly changed my mind.” His voice was calm, without a ripple, amidst the pattering rain.
“Living in a place like this, even if I give you money, you won’t be able to keep it.”
“So, I’ll give you two choices now.”
“First, stand up and come with me. According to my plan, I will open an Orphanage in a while, and you can live there.”
“Second, stay here and fend for yourself.”
“Choose.”
Nicole, who was already soaked through, looked at Roy’s grotesque corpse on the ground, then turned back to look at her mother’s remains in the tent.
After a moment of silence, she turned and walked back into the tent, groping through the pooled rainwater to retrieve an old, moldy photograph.
She carefully wiped away the stains on it, then walked toward Matthew without any hesitation.
However, this was Hells Kitchen; it was easy to come in, but difficult to leave.
Because inside, there were not only street-roaming gang members but also some unexpected ‘enemies.’
On the empty street, a group of figures holding firearms dashed out from the alley ahead, blocking their path.
Matthew turned back and found that the retreat behind them was also blocked by another group.
“OI! Stop! I’ve had my eyes on you since you walked in!”
“You must be Matthew Lawrence, right?” The speaker was a bald man with a robust and hulking build; he looked to be at least two meters and thirty centimeters tall.
On his face, which was full of flab, there was a scar running across both cheeks, looking exceptionally ferocious.
In his hands, he held a heavy machine gun from World War II, and the heavy ammunition belt draped over his body didn’t seem to weigh him down in the slightest.
“From now on, I ask, and you answer… If I’m not satisfied with even one question, I’ll stuff these bullets into your head!” As he spoke, he shook the ammunition belt on his body.
“First question, where is my brother Pietro? Where did you take him!?”
Looking at the dozen or so black, hollow gun barrels pointed at him simultaneously, Matthew’s lips curled into a smile for some inexplicable reason.
“Your brother? Are you talking about that scrawny, stupid Pietro?”
“Him… he’s doing fine…”
Matthew raised his hand to check his watch: “At this time, he should be locked in a room testing drugs.”
“What? Do you want to join him as a lab rat?”
“No problem, no problem~ I can pull some strings to let you cut the line.”