Fate's Hand

"*Spits* What the hell is this!?"

A black-haired youth with spiky hair and pale skin exclaimed while spitting out fluids from his mouth seemingly exhibiting intense dissatisfaction.

"...What do you mean, I don't think I got the wrong one?"

Meanwhile, the recipient of the sudden outbreak of flying spit-like orange fluid, who was standing in front of the black-haired youth, asked a question with a confused and nervous tone without minding his face getting wet with backwash.

"It doesn't matter what you think, does it!? The thing I'm mad about is the fact that you took too long in buying this drink that it was already warm once you gave it to me. Unbelievable, even your hands when sweating can already contaminate drinks."

Hurling insult after insult, the black-haired youth kept on berating the silent student across him. Even the other students when seeing this, turned their heads away as to not look at the usual spectacle that happened mostly everyday between the two.

As no one in their right mind would willingly sacrifice their own safety and comfort to help another person. Especially if this said person was someone who was useless at everything except eating and sleeping.

This says more than enough about the person's character and status.

In the modern world, no one would help someone without expecting anything in return.

Those types of people are only found in fairy tales.

So it was only natural that not one student in this classroom offered a helping hand towards this someone that wouldn't gain them any benefits at all.

Instead, they only offer looks of pity, sympathy, and sometimes even relief seeing him.

Relief that because he was chosen to be the bullied instead of them.

With only the simple biased reason for being the lowest person in class in terms of looks, grades, wealth, and overall sociability with his peers.

As this might sound cruel, it is only natural nowadays.

Like the passing breeze, human beings are fickle-minded creatures.

They automatically stop seeing people lower than them as people.

At least, that's only the point of view of most of society.

This holds more truth in rebellious and confused adolescents, like this spiky-haired youth.

"I'm sorry Su Heng, there was a long line in the cafeteria so..."

*Kick*

"-Guhaa!"

While trying to explain himself, the round-shaped belly of the bullied student was kicked without prior warning, and the boy was knocked into the ground, landing onto his behind.

"I thought I told you I had enough of your excuses already!"

The overbearing tone of the spiky-haired youth was raised in anger while listening to the poor boy's excuses as he made a spitting gesture in the latter's direction.

'Like hell you did, you never told me those words. Besides, you were the one complaining about the juice in the first place, you arrogant bastard!'

The round-bellied teenage student screamed inwardly while directing a secretive and mocking gaze towards the one in front of him, while leaning onto the wall.

The words and grievances directed at the spiky-haired youth were obviously justified.

But these words were destined to never leave the bullied student's mouth. For when the moment that they did, all he would get in return was a large beating.

Wherein after being beat, he would have no one to complain to, as he had no friends and his family already abandoned him long ago. But the main reason was that this boy in front of his eyes had a formidable background, not wise to offend lightly.

For as long as one had common sense in society, they should have heard the name of 'Su Corporation' once or twice before. It even went on commercials nationwide.

'The Su Corporation'

One of the leading companies in technology advancement not just in China, but throughout many foreign countries. They have just about a hand in everything.

Banks, Phone Companies, Government Officials, and even the Police Force of Communist China. Some even heard rumours of their connections with the underground world.

Due to these reasons, no normal commoner would dare make trouble with people affiliated with this powerhouse of a company.

And this spiky-haired youth filled with arrogance was named 'Su Heng'.

He was the third son of the CEO of the 'Su Corporation' which pretty much explains the reason why he grew up so arrogant, having a golden spoon in his mouth for as long as he remembered, with no one daring enough to oppose his will.

One could only be so unlucky to be targeted by this person's ill will.

And one such a person was this round-shaped teenager sitting on the floor.

His name was Liu Yang, a perfectly ordinary student in Fang Lao High School.

But alas, this unfavored child of the heavens met a dark encounter on the way to school on the first day, which completely ruined his chance of living peacefully in the future.

Through a series of unfortunate circumstances and events, Liu Yang had offended the one person people did not want to offend no matter what, so long as they were not tired of living in society as a normal human being.

Because of this reason, his daily life of hell started on day one.

Being made to do tedious errands, getting kicked around, and made to hand over his homework each time, each and every day. People began to ignore him because of this, and as time passed they started treating him like air.

Naturally, this was something that made Liu Yang's heart filled with regret, anger, despair, and many other complex emotions as time passed by, but he continued to endure it, as what he had done in the past was his own choice and no one else's.

He can only grit his teeth and try to live through each day like this.

At least until he finished all three years of high school.

After which he will move far away from here, not daring to look back, and forgetting everything that happened in this place.

He hoped that in the future, he would regard this point in his life as a distant memory.

But, can this truly be called 'living'? He does not know the answer to this question.

Still, he does not need to, as he can only ignore it and press on.

Liu Yang believed in the saying that, 'Life goes on. Time heals all wounds'.

It meant that no matter what happened, as long as he continued to live, he still had the chance to one day, become someone great. He never gave up this wish.

From the time his parents had left him somewhere to rot, he knew that he was dealt a bad hand in life. Including his face and body appearance, all were no good.

If he wanted to become someone, he had to finish his education and find a high-paying job. This would give him the money, status, and the power he craved for so long.

'It might be hard for the next few years, but there is no helping it.'

He inwardly reminded himself as he tried to stand back up.

The path to success is not that easy, as it was littered with thorns.

He has continued to endure everything throughout his childhood until now, what was a little more than a few years to him? His strong ambition will never yield to ridicule nor force, as he was someone that was born with nothing, trying to grasp everything.

A fool.

The boy called Liu Yang, was undoubtedly a naive fool.

But sometimes, fate liked to give chances to even poor fools such as these.

And this, was one of those times...

*Rumble*

As Liu Yang was about to get up slowly, he staggered and fell down once again due to a strange occurrence around him. Falling down for the second time today, he felt another sharp pain concentrated on his bottom, but there was also a sharper pain in his head.

"W-what's happening!?"

Su Heng exclaimed in alarm as he felt the world in his eyes shake left and right.

"Earthquake! Everybody get under your desks!"

A girl who seemed smart wearing glasses shouted.

"What!? This feels too strong to be a normal earthquake, the third floor might collapse at this rate! We must evacuate to lower ground!"

The boy with a slight intellectual look bellowed to the others as he tried to walk to the classroom exit, slowly dodging the moving desks coming towards him.

*Rumble*

*Crack*

"Nooo, help, somebody help!"

A youth who looked skinny shouted outside the windows, but no one could hear him.

"I don't want to die. I don't want to die...."

A blonde-dyed girl wearing heavy make-up hugged herself, as she tried to reassure herself with empty words. Not noticing that her tears started flowing down like a river in despair, ruining her face with damp eyeliner marks.

"Mommy...Daddy..."

A student who crouched down under her desk in tears muttered quietly, completely giving up hope as the earthquake had only gotten stronger over the past few seconds.

"Calm down everyone, were all gonna be fine!"

One able-bodied youth who looked to be popular in the class, shouted to reassure everyone with a confident smile. But even he knew that there was a high chance this was a severely unlucky natural disaster coming to claim their lives.

This youth as well, was afraid of death, but chose to hide it, burying it deep inside.

All around the room were flipped desks and chairs, scattered all around the floor. The panicking students found in different areas, all scrambling to get to the door. While some even gave up entirely, seeing that the shaking would not stop any time soon.

Due to the endless shaking, the ceiling had already produced cracking sounds, and large broken lines could already be seen spreading throughout the entire building.

As the students who heard the sounds looked up, they fell into an even further abyss of despair seeing the large cracks on the concrete ceilings and walls. Even the boy who wanted to leave the room stopped while noticing the cracks spreading to the stairs.

It was an utterly hopeless situation.

Who would have known that just during lunch hours, a disaster would suddenly befall them. They did nothing to deserve this, and yet they were punished by the heavens severely as if they had done an unforgivable crime.

If they knew about this beforehand, they would have left to go to the cafeteria, which was in another building. At least it was located on the ground floor where they could escape.

But alas, all of this was only wishful thinking.

Thoughts meant to give them solace before they had left this world all too early.

Because somehow, everyone here knew that today they would not survive this ordeal.

Fate had played an unreasonable card against them without prior warning.

They can only curse the heavens as they found comfort in each of their friend's arms and trust that they had built with some of their peers. Some even started talking about their last wills and wishes amidst the sounds of rumbling and agonising cries of sorrow.

Of course they could not accept this, but what can they, a normal human being do?

Although humans had their ego, they in all honesty, were as weak as ants compared to the natural laws of the world and most especially random disasters such as these.

Although, there were a few exceptions...

"No, this can't be happening right now! I, your father had only begun to live like a king for only a short amount of time! I'm destined to have a great future! I can't accept this!"

The youth called Su Heng shouted to the sky in despair and unwillingness.

It showed his true indomitable pride as someone born with everything, about to lose it all.

Meanwhile, Liu Yang was still rolling around on the ground in pain as he did not even seem to notice the chaos happening around him. He was too busy with his own matters.

Sharp, unending pain was swirling throughout his head.

To him, it felt like his head being ripped open and poked with hundreds of needles at the same time. It was not something a person could take, as the pain would make any ordinary human faint in agony. The pain was too strong to even begin to imagine.

Still, the boy had continued to endure. He had an abnormal amount of endurance.

Completely unlike a normal person.

"AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!"

He admirably endured it for a full minute before involuntarily screaming his lungs out the moment he reached his limit. This shocked the whole room silent, excluding the rumbling sounds which symbolised their inevitable end.

They could not help but turn their heads toward the place where Liu Yang, the pudgy-bodied weakling had screamed in pain and fainted soon after, releasing a trail of saliva.

His face looked to be contorted in pain, but no one could notice a faint light coming from his forehead, covered with his hair sticky with sweat.

This was because no one had any time to.

*Rumble*

*Crack*

*Crash*

As countless amounts of concrete suddenly broke apart over their heads and started following the laws of gravity, directly falling towards their unprotected bodies.

They all knew that once they get crushed by the rubble, they would end up as a pile of meat paste on the floor, never to be found intact again.

Deep sorrow and unwillingness filled their eyes as they looked towards the stones and concrete like they were staring at the Death God's Sickle, harvesting their lives in the next moment. Some even looked envious towards Liu Yang the fatty, as he was not conscious during his and their final moments.

As soon as the stones were an inch away from their heads, some had already closed their eyes, seemingly accepting their end. But no one expected that a sharp screeching sound suddenly resounded in their ears, making them faint in but a moment.

All this happened while strange runic characters suddenly swirled in the atmosphere around them, and constricting their bodies and dying them with white light in a flash.

In the next second, the concrete ceiling hit the floor, and the entire building started crumbling from top to bottom. Not one room was spared inside it, as the entire structure collapsed into a large area of rubble after a few minutes had passed.

This incident would soon be known as the 'Fang Lao Disappearance Disaster'.