"Hahaha!"
Xiao Ming turned back to the Awakened as he played with his fingers. Seriously looking at him in the eye,
"Continue doing a good job, and I'll give you a lot more money. You are the only one left on my side. Don't disappoint me."
"I will, boss! Hmph, the last one must've run away. He doesn't know what he's losing. What an idiot!"
Xiao Ming smiled from the words of the Awakened. He didn't know that if the Awakened were in the same position as the last one, he would not hesitate to run away either.
This Awakened was only sucking up to Xiao Ming. He knows that Xiao Ming loves to hear people complimenting him.
"Don't worry about him. He's blind not to see how lucky he was to work for me. Someone like him will not have a good future. He might even be dead by now."
"Yes, he's probably dead!"
'Idiot! If he were as good as you said, it wouldn't be easy for him to die. You know nothing about us at all.'
The Awakened stayed emotionless as he agreed with Xiao Ming. Xiao Ming believed that he was right about what he said, already pitying his last Awakened for not coming back.
'The last guy who attacked us before, ran away?'
'Did we scare him?'
Max didn't expect the guy to use his head and choose to run away. Now he had nowhere to find him. He could be on the other side of the world now.
'I guess he's very lucky.'
'It doesn't matter. That guy is weak anyway. But if we see each other again...'
Max won't try to find him, fully knowing that it would be almost impossible as the guy had a mask. He could be standing beside him, and he still wouldn't know.
'This guy should be stronger than the last two guys, right?'
'His face looks plain. Does he not have any emotion?'
'I wonder how long has he been familiarizing on how to use his skill properly?'
Max would never imagine that it wasn't that long. This Awakened named Xue was alone, and no one was able to teach him how to do anything.
Xue was a former thug or at least one of their people. He was very young at that time, always being picked on by his fellow members.
As he was the weakest member, he could only shut his mouth and accept all of it, beatings, hunger, and many more exhausting chores.
This continued for days, weeks, months until he became used to every single one of it. Xue was angry, furious but he can't do anything about it.
He had no one else to rely on. If he were to escape, there would be no place for him to go to. Someone once escaped but got caught in the end. He still remembers the last day he saw that guy before he disappeared.
Xue felt helpless, but inside there was this boiling anger building up. He doesn't realize that his mind was changing into something cruel and vicious.
He unconsciously kept it in, waiting for the right time but never got it when something happened that he didn't foresee.
One night their group had a territory fight with another. It was a mess. Everyone fought to kill the other, using anything they get their hands on.
Xue saw a lot of his fellow members bleeding from the hard hits that they have received. He was still young at that time, so he was very good at dodging others, but he was weak.
When they saw that they were losing, a lot of his fellow members escaped, running for their lives. It was only him that was surrounded.
He got beaten, beaten so hard that he was bleeding everywhere, and his entire body was hurting. This time, he blamed himself for even thinking that his fellow members or some of them that was nice with him would help.
But no, they used that chance to save their lives, running away, no one even looked back when they heard his shouts for help.
As he was used to beatings, as well as feeling the fury inside him, Xue forced himself to dodge and pushed his way out, while being in so much pain.
Xue didn't remember much of what was happening, only that he was running and running and running, trying to go as far as he can until he was trapped in a dead-end with nowhere to go.
Xue heard loud footsteps behind him as he experienced changes in his mind.
It was as if he could see clearer and hear louder. Not only that, the last thing he remembers was his body blending on the wall. He became a wall.
Xue was still able to think even when he wasn't able to move properly. He could also see those people chasing him, turning everything upside down to find him then soon went away when they assumed he wasn't' here.
After they went away, Xue didn't know how, but he automatically changed back, feeling a sudden wave of weakness wash over him as if he would faint at any second.
This was the first time he felt like this. It wasn't the pain; it was his body. He was slowly losing control of his body until everything went black.
When Xue woke up, it was already the next day. He can now move, except for some pains here and there.
This was when his life started to change. At first, he was surprised and somewhat scared that he became a monster.
But after some time, he started to think that it may not be as bad as it seemed. Every day, he would try to use his skill in small ways, turning parts of his body into something else.
From then on, as a kid, Xue entirely took advantage of his skill. Xue still remembers the first he stole some food from a store, the first time he was able to change his face, and the first stack of money he got from a rich person at a bar.
It continued for years. Xue was able to learn a lot of things, especially his limitations of not being able to maintain complex transformation for so long. He fainted a lot, but he was able to know more about his skills.
Xue then hit a roadblock. He can get everything he wanted, excluding the real good stuff like guarded treasures or a massive amount of money in one go.
Xue was getting more greedy by the day. That was when he took the chance to rob the largest bank in his city and failed miserably.
That was the first time Xue realized that he wasn't that special. That night, he clearly remembered others a lot stronger than him, and they weren't alone.
So he left his city to hide here. Xue never stopped his training while selling his services to rich people. He found it fun to do, freely earning money doing easy jobs.
Xue was still hopeful that one day, he would be the wealthiest person in this world. He was a greedy person and would not stop until he gets everything he wants.
For now, he would lay low and take things slower and safer.