Chapter 2: #1 – The City on a Corpse

[Tugarin POV]

I walked throughout the city, with my hands in my pockets, as the sounds of it filled my ears. A car drove past, people walked by me on the sidewalk with mindless chatter filling my ears as I couldn't make out a single thing, and there were some people even sleeping on the ground. It was truly a timeless sight, something that could never be changed or altered, an experience that repeats itself infinitely. It was a place to go when you wished to remember home, even for most God-kin who wished to change the world forever. It was truly foolish, to feel homesick for a world that treated us the way it did, a world that we aimed to replace in its entirety. I was not one of them, although I did feel the call sometimes, and my goals were separate for 'why I was here'.

Plugging in a set of earphones as I walked, I let the city become white noise and ignored everything. The brutality on the sidewalk, the degeneracy in the alleyways, the mindlessness on the roads- I let it all become background music to me as I continued to walk aimlessly through the streets. I dodged past some people who had an obvious scam, something like 'ouch, you bumped into me and now my arm's broken' like that, which I had seen several times before even before the world ended. It wasn't because I was afraid of paying them or falling for the scam, but because I'm fairly certain he'd actually break his arm on my body, and I couldn't waste any time on that. Returning to my Zen state of walking, I-

bump

"AHGGHH!"

A man appeared in front of me suddenly, and then bumped into my shoulder. And now, the man was on the ground, howling in pain. The strange thing was that this man, who had appeared in front of me... Was the same man who should've been long behind me now. His face was exactly the same, and while his clothes were slightly different his voice stuck out from the crowd in the same way it did before. He was a blonde-haired tanned-skin man with a scar over his right eye, wearing shades just small enough that you could still see the scar. In addition, he wore a generic Hawaiian shirt that you could likely find discarded in any back alley... Ah, I didn't realize it at first, but it was this guy.

"Ouch! OUCH! That seriously hurts, man! My arm's completely broken, man! How am I supposed to live like thiss~" The man rolled around on the floor pathetically, despite the fact that his arm looked completely fine. "You know how much medical people cost in this place!? I'm gonna need at least 500-"

I punched him across the face, and he rolled backwards, and kept rolling. He hit a couple people while he rolled, too. Maybe he should pay their bills, too. I put my hands in my pockets and began to walk away, only for him to suddenly appear behind me the moment I looked away, kicking me in the back of my legs ineffectively.

"Ouch, prick. You'd think you could take a joke considering how long we've known each other, but I guess not~." The man behind me now was a notorious scammer who I once worked with for some missions... Autolycus,Autolycus is said to be a teacher of Heracles in Greek Mythology and a Master Thief, the son of Hermes that could steal anything. although his real name is Barnaby. He doesn't like people knowing that, so I'm specifically putting his name in here for future generations. 

I crossed my arms while looking down at him. "I've known you long enough to know that whenever you 'joke' like that it's serious, Auto. I'm not losing any cents, yen, or coin on your annoying 'pranks'." This man, who I have had to deal with for the last few years of my life, has done nothing but rob me- drag me along on stupid heists- And just overall be a nuisance.

"Oh, come on, God-kun. I wasn't actually going to take some money this time, I just need some of your ti- WAIT!" I started to walk past him as he continued speaking but got pulled back as he put a hand on my shoulder. Looking back, I saw a sight I didn't expect: Someone with their head facing down, someone bowing before me. "I... I actually need your help right now, alright? I fucked up really badly this time and I'm pretty sure you're the only guy I can trust here."

"...Later."

"Come on, man-"

"Later. I'll think about it later, so stay alive until then, alright?"

You are reading story Diary of a God-Man: Genesis for the End of the World at novel35.com

"...Fine. Come find me later, then~"

He gave me a grim stare for a moment but turned it into a bright smile before running off with that final message. While he seemed cheery... I didn't need to say anything about it. I wasn't lying when I said I'd think about it, but I had bigger issues than whatever he might have been dealing with. In my back pocket was something worth a world to someone else, which is why I got it in the first place. I'd prefer the Pale Wastes to this place, and I'd prefer to not stay in a place like this if I didn't have to.

As I walked, I noticed I had stepped in blood a while ago, but the source of that blood had already disappeared. Most likely, someone with an 'interesting' Divine Fragment got caught and got killed. Such a sight had become especially common in recent years, as some especially ambitious soul decided to start mining into the unremarkable 'soil' of New Romana and- In their strange insanity- Sorted through countless pointless fragments to find new abilities that he believed hadn't been discovered yet. And so, he sold them, and they ended up on the streets, and so this sight has become especially common as people pursue greater heights in their limited bubble. 

Walking to a specifically designated spot, I knocked on a wall in one of the many unremarkable alleyways and opened up a door. Hidden walls, those especially common things that usually hold some ancient treasure in your average fantasy story. In this case, it was just a hiding place for a certain political figure. Walking into the room, sitting plainly ahead of me was the man who had called me to New Romana: Gelos,Gelos is said to be the Divine Personification of Laughter in Greek Mythology, and a member of Dionysus' Retinue., head of the entertainment division of the city. He didn't look human, with pitch-black skin that looked as though he had been left in an oven for too long, cracks along his body that shined a pale white, and hollow eyes that looked as though he was blind. While it might not make sense for him to have any sort of power as 'the guy who makes entertainment', it should be noted that he is the only person who has a hand in entertainment in general.

Video games, Television, etc. Every form of media is supported and governed by him, so he's got a good grasp on the populace's beliefs. Why don't the people just make their own media rather than rely on this man? Simple, same as every other injustice in the world: He possesses a Divine Fragment connected to this. Several, in fact, all governing Entertainment- Enjoyment- Happiness- Etc. Things he produces simply make people happy, even if his only hand in that thing was 'a smiley face in the corner of the screen', or in a small corner on the map of a video game that you never even see in-game. It was also due to this that he had acquired such a distorted shape, as the Divine Fragments he used decimated his body. And that is what I'm here to deal with.

Reaching into the pocket, I placed a white crystal on his desk. He picked it up slowly, leaning down and lifting it up to his face at the same time to get a closer look at it. He then, unprompted, bit down on it- Testing to see if it was real or not. The crystal held up, so it was real, prompting a wrinkly- crooked smile on his face. "Well, I'll be damned, Tugboat." His voice came out in a bizarre way, a result of one of his fragments again- One to prevent people from recording his voice except when he wanted it to be. "Didn't think you could actually get your hands on this. It might be hard for others to recognize it, but I know this bad boy from a glance." As he spoke, he raised it up and jabbed it into his chest- Stabbing straight through in an obviously painful way. That wasn't how you were supposed to acquire Divine Fragments, but this idiot just says, 'old habits die hard' and does it like this anyways.

Pale light crackled around him as it entered his body, before suddenly dying down as soon as it started. With a smile, he stood up and snapped his fingers. Slowly, his burnt black skin regressed to something softer. His eyes became less sunken, and the cracks on his skin became less prominent. "Ah, that's better. It'll take a bit until I'm back to full force, but... this is nice." His voice came out properly and normally for the first time since I'd first met him, perhaps because he wanted to hear his own voice how he'd wanted to all this time, as he looked down at me. "The fragment that governs one's optimal self, huh... Very nice. I don't even wanna imagine the stuff you went through to get this, Tugboat, so I'll just go ahead and give you what you want." His voice returned to its blocked-off state as he reached into thin air and pulled out a white suitcase, tossing it over to me without a care of what was inside of it. "Do whatever you want with it, I don't care."

Catching it mid-air, I opened it up to see if what was inside of it was what I had asked for. Surprising no one, there was nothing in the case. Sidestepping a shot that blew up the white wall behind me, I found I was surrounded by armed men with Gelos nowhere to be seen. This was something to be expected, considering how people like him worked, but... He was an idiot. I stepped forward as another man took a shot, the bullet passing by my head before ricocheting and going for the back of my head- Which was parried by the back of my hand and sent flying in the leg of one of the men. Another one took a shot at the same second but missed and didn't ricochet like the one that came less than a second before- Instead exploding what it hit and sending pieces of wall flying out in every direction. Unfortunately, none of them hit me and instead gave me a bit of cover for the other bullets that were fired at me. Using that cover, I approached in an instant and gutted one of the men with my bare hand- Causing him to fall to the floor before disappearing as if he was never there.

"Ah, Bilocation. Rude." To not even give me actual people to kill, how annoying of him. Wasting no time, I killed the other five in no time with a chop to the head for each and headed off at high speed. They had no value as kills, simply distractions that didn't even take one life from this world due to their nature, so I will not waste much time describing how they died. Exiting the alleyway in no time, I began tracking the man as fast as I could- Which was quite easy considering there weren't many people in this sector of the city and his appearance was still as obvious as a baguette among white bread. Gelos was human, and my body was several tiers above him at this moment, so I could catch up to him easily. Dashing beside the man, I realized that he had yet to notice that I had caught up to him, so I simply... stuck my foot out and tripped him.

It was somewhat humorous, watching the man trip and stumble as his mind tried to catch up with what was happening. As he rolled and tried to climb back up to his feet, I pulled out a gun taken from one of his soldiers and pointed it at his head. "I don't want to kill you, Gelos, but I will if I must. Give me what I came for or I'll put a hole in your head."

He looked at me for a moment... Before sighing and handing me a card, staying on the ground as I read it and confirmed what it was. 'Angel's Entertainment Center: For the Needs of Others'. An adoptive center for the orphans of the city, a place to care for the young who no one would actually care for. "It's a cover-up facility. She's at that spot, go check it out if you'd like and kill me if you find nothing there. Sound good?"

I nodded, slid the card in my back pocket and left Gelos to himself, walking off at a leisurely pace. Today was a good day.