Chapter 2 Voice In My Head

Leaving the rundown building that my flat was in, my fists were clenched tightly and all that was on my mind was crushing the men that dared to mess with my mother.

There was only one group of assholes that would roam the area and force small businesses and stalls to pay them 'protection fees'.

And what were they 'protecting' them from?

They were protecting them from themselves, as, if one didn't pay the fees, they would be threatened time and time again, and eventually, their actions would get more and more extreme.

My mother would pay them whenever she could, seeking to avoid problems with such ruffians. However, recently she had been struggling with money as the stall hadn't been doing too well.

Even with my additional money from working; rent and living costs were still difficult for her to handle with how expensive everything was.

Living on the bare minimum, life was still very tough for her, which is why I took it on board to try to change that, but so far, I hadn't done much.

For the past two weeks, she had refused to pay them and things got out of hand, with them threatening to destroy her stall if she ever tried to open up shop in their territory.

And evidently, today their patience had run out.

But so had mine...

Before I came to her side, she felt as though her life was over, but her son made her feel at ease, and although she didn't want to be a burden on me, she couldn't help but place all her hopes on me.

And that was exactly what I wanted, as she had already suffered enough for me, so it was my turn to repay her.

-

Living in Brooklyn on the edge of Chinatown, it was quite rough, poor, and dangerous; crime was prevalent.

There was crime all around the city and large gangs were revered by the people, with even the police being unable to face them.

Day by day the criminal underworld grew stronger and police barely did anything to solve the problem, or so it seemed, with the NYPD barely achieving any results when it came to reducing gang crime.

Most of the time they merely made things worse, with them making everything more complicated and would usually do even more harm to the victim than good.

In the end, by the time they arrived at the crime scene, it was too late, and the damage was already done.

Time and time again, I learned the hard way that I can only rely on myself; always lowering my head and enduring, but I've had enough.

These heartless criminals and so-called 'gangsters' abusing their numbers, power, and connections, and for what?

I can understand if one has to steal to feed their families, but what's the point of being a worthless scumbag that forces the poor and weak to pay them 'protection fees'?.

And that isn't all.

Stealing, fighting, raping, you name it, these dirtbags do it.

And despite everyone seeing it happening on a daily basis, nothing was being done to deal with the problem, or at least whatever the law enforcement was doing wasn't working.

I have experienced my fair share of struggles in life, and yet I never resorted to such things, but it seemed as though avoiding it forever was impossible for me.

I guess if you can't beat them, join them.

It's not like I have a future in education or in studying anyway after the issues that I had in school, and the police haven't proven to be capable, so I might as well take matters into my own hands.

As long as it allows me to live a better life and become wealthy and powerful so that I can protect my mother and anything else I care about, I am willing to become and do almost anything within reason.

And the first thing I was going to do was beat the shit out of any asshole that was involved in what had happened to my mother.

I could look past their threats and harassment, but when they lay their hands on her, they dug their own graves.

-

Putting a ski mask on and pulling up my hood, I knew that what I was doing was dangerous, but this was just something I couldn't look past.

If my mother had any idea what I was planning on doing, she definitely wouldn't have let me go out this late, but this was something I had to do.

Overlooking things had gotten me nowhere and if I don't deal with such situations myself, I can't rely on anybody else to deal with them for me.

And despite knowing what I was about to do was a crime, I couldn't care less and would do anything to provide for and protect my mother, who was the only loved one I had.

I had no doubts in my mind, but it was inevitable that I was feeling anxious as I began making my way towards where I knew the people that harassed my mother would usually hang around.

But as I was, suddenly, a voice rang loudly in my head.

[You have awakened the Gangster System!]