Death

Ethan woke up at night and felt extremely hungry, so he went to the kitchen to find something to eat. He took out a pack of instant noodles from the drawer and started boiling water. He looked at his watch.

"It's 2 AM..." said Ethan. He got this watch from his father when he graduated from high school. His father always expected him to become rich and successful in life, but he ran away from home to practice martial arts.

He ended up in a hospital several times because of his obsession with martial arts. When he trained, he resembled a savage beast more than a human. He pushed his body to the extreme... There were countless bruises and scars on his body. If someone saw this he would probably be scared shitless, how can a human body look like this? The scars covered about half of his body.

When Ethan heard that the water is ready, he threw noodles into a bowl and poured some hot water. He gave the noodles a minute to absorb water and started eating. He consumed a bowl of noodles like it was a delicacy with a satisfied expression on his face.

He went to his bedroom and sat on the bed cross-legged. Ethan quickly adjusted his mental state and started cultivating... a warm sensation enveloped his whole body when he began circulating his Qi. His body was covered in sweat, and suddenly he felt a sharp pain close to his heart. He quickly snapped out from the trance and threw himself on the bed with a dissatisfied expression on his face. Ethan passed out and got up at 7 AM.

Ethan dressed up and went to work. He was teaching PE in elementary school. It wasn't a job of his dreams, but he had to earn money to pay bills and afford a small flat. When he arrived the students were already lined up and dressed in their PE clothes, so he opened the hall with a key and let everyone in. Children happily rushed inside while Ethan went to the storage room to find a soccer ball. He came back and threw the ball to them.

"Form two teams. Today we will be playing soccer, and you will be graded depending on your performance. Mark! Eddy! You are going to be the leaders. Now start choosing people to join your teams. Mark, choose one and then Eddy will be choosing. You know what to do."

"Yes, teacher!" yelled Mark at the top of his lungs.

Ethan nodded and sat on the bench. Children quickly formed out two equal teams and started playing. He took out a small notebook and began giving points to children that performed well. After they finished playing and everyone got a grade the next group of children came. The whole process repeated a few times until he finished his work for the day. He packed up and went to the local bar to eat something.

He was about to get into the bar when he heard a woman screaming. He located where the sounds were coming from and quickly rushed to an alley that was used as a shortcut by local people. He saw a group of thugs encircling a girl. One of the bandits ripped off her skirt while the other thugs laughed and looked very satisfied with what they saw.

"Stop! Leave me alone! Get your hands off me you savages! I will..." screamed the girl but she was slapped by a fat man with tattoos on his hands.

He was about to hit her again when Ethan appeared behind him and punched him so hard that everyone could hear the sound of bones breaking under tremendous force. The fatty started coughing blood, and after a second he fainted. Rest of the thugs quickly realised what is going on and took out their knives and other weapons that could help them to deal with Ethan. Their leader looked at him with fury in his eyes as he started swinging his knife trying to cut Ethan, but he dodged every slash skillfully. Rest of the thugs joined the fight and started encircling Ethan. The girl quickly ran away when she noticed that nobody is looking at her. Ethan charged out of the encirclement and gauged the situation. He was sure that he can handle six common thugs by himself even if they had weapons... but since he lived in modern times, it may be problematic if he just killed all of them, so he tried persuading them to give up.

"What do you think, can we just turn around and not fight? You will end up like your friend over there if you don't listen." Ethan pointed at the tattooed fatty lying on the ground.

"In your dreams! Joe is lying there unconscious, and you let our prey run away! Even if I can't beat you alone, together we will beat you so hard that even your mother won't recognise you. Boys! Mess him up!" yelled the leader.

Ethan didn't even give the thugs a chance to react, and as soon as he heard their leader's command, he dashed to one of them and grabbed his hand to throw him over the shoulder. The thug crashed on the ground, and Ethan crippled his hand without hesitation. He quickly dealt with thugs and only the leader was left.

"You fucking shit! You shouldn't have provoked us!" shouted the leader.

His hands were shaking, but he quickly pulled out a gun that was hidden under his jacket and shot Ethan in the knee. Ethan tripped and now was lying on the ground trying to get up, but the leader aimed at his hand and shot him again. Ethan was thinking how stupid he was, even if he is a martial arts master it's not like he can win against someone who has a gun. He tried to play a hero just to save a girl. He vowed that if he was given another chance, he would not waste his life again. The leader laughed and approached Ethan. He held Ethan by his hair with a sadistic smirk on his face. Ethan felt powerless, but he decided to struggle until the end. He gathered his strength into the hand and tried to punch the leader to free himself, but the thug didn't dare to underestimate Ethan, so he quickly shot him again. Both of Ethan's hands were crippled, and he was barely able to stand up with his knee shattered.

Ethan laughed maniacally and focused all of his Qi in the uninjured leg. He charged at the leader and managed to knock the gun from his hand. Ethan desperately started biting his throat like a mad dog to kill him since both of his hands were disabled. The leader was struggling, but after a few seconds, he died. Ethan felt like power was leaving his body, and collapsed to the ground into a pool of blood.