Bad End

9:30am, in front of Howell Hall.

A lean figure dressed in Armano suit and black leather shoes, his black hair combed back, with a full shaven face, filled with confidence and power. Adam Fortuna is ready to brave through another phase of his life. Meeting some important people that Howell Company must have invited to the banquet. Who's to say he won't get another opportunity here?

The front of the Hall is full of people. Ranging from the clueless passerby, employees going to their offices, the reporters and journalists with their drones, hovermobile letting off their passengers, and the guests of the banquet. The people look lively and busy, signifying that Old Keer City is relatively peaceful and thriving.

Some of the guests look like people of importance in the city, either from the city administration department, some of the high profile companies in the city, the police department, the court system, celebrities, essentially all kind of people that got invited are important and high up in the system.

Adam noticed that some people has that lapel pin on their clothes, which reminded him to put it on. He didn't put it on before coming here in fear that he might lose it along the way. While Adam is putting on his lapel pin, people with the same lapel pin are being escorted by the Hall security through another door.

"Well well well... If it isn't Adam Fortuna. Why are you here? Only people with importance can be here! Isn't that right, dear? Hahaha!"

"Right you are, Sir Johannes."

Adam froze but he slowly turned around to face the owner of that obnoxious, disguting but familiar voice.

"Eric.. I can't believe you still have the nerve to meet me after what you done to me. Same to you, Sara." Adam glared at his former best friend, Eric Johannes and his former fiancee, Sara Whitebrook. They are holding arms with each other, with Sara purposely let her big chest touch Eric's arm.

"Why wouldn't I, the victor, meet you, the loser? If I were you, I would be too ashamed to let my face be seen in Old Keer City. Such kind of record travels fast in the business world. Now I would be an idiot if I keep on harassing you on the street to why you are here. But obviously you're here because of an invitation from the Howell Company. Not any kind of people would know there's a banquet that would be held by Howell Company now."

"Glad you know. Now if you would not mind, can you kindly fuck off or do I have to walk away myself?"

"Fine, I'll go. But remember Adam. It's only business."

With a smug grin and Sara in his arms, he swaggered his way to the Howell Hall.

"Enjoy while it last, Eric. I'll get back at you."

Adam thought he had let it go, but just one look at that waste of oxygen just reignited his grudge. Gritting his teeth and taking a few deep breaths, Adam slowly walked to the Hall.

There, right after the front door of the Hall, a reception table has been set up with few security standing nearby the table, aside a few receptionists stationed there. Their work is easy, they scan the insignia from the email invitation and if it's real, they can proceed ahead to the banquet. Adam went to the table and displayed his email invitation from his holo bracelet. The receptionist then took out a specialized scanner and scanned the insignia, the result came out at the receptionist's holo glasses.

"Sir Fortuna, you may proceed through Hallway C and enter Room Moon. That is your designated room for the banquet." The receptionist pointed towards a Hallway where there's a few people walking through.

"Okay, thank you."

Adam casually followed through the receptionist's instructions while looking around the place. The place is massive, as the upper floor of the Hall is basically Howell Company headquarters, the Howell Tower. Tho the main door of Howell Tower is on the other side of the Hall, where security is tighter than dentist's grip on your teeth.

"Excuse me sir, are you going to Room Moon? May I accompany you?"

Adam look back trying to find the source of the voice. He saw a captivating figure that made his thoughts pause for a moment. Slim figure draped in a black long dress, skin as smooth as silk, wavy long black hair that reached the waist, and nearly perfect proportions of the face, and deep blue eyes. Adam stared for a while before he came to his senses. And on her chest there's the custom rose lapel pin.

"Cough... Yes, I am indeed going to Room Moon. I'd be delighted to have your company, Miss...?"

"Miho. Hikaru Miho. Thank you, Sir."

"Please, call me Adam, Miss Miho. No need to be so polite with me."

"Likewise, you can just call me Hikaru. I'm quite nervous as this is my first time at these kind of events."

"Oh really? Don't be too nervous. This kind of events is a great place to know a lot of people in lots of industry. What do you do for work, Hikaru?"

"I'm actually an amateur singer. I sing at a bar downtown called Bewitching Cup. What do you do for a living, Adam?"

"A singer? I would love to hear you sing one day. Me? You could say I'm still lingering around."

"What do you mean by tha..."

"Oh look we've arrived."

They've arrived at Room Moon. Aside from the normal looking door, there's a relief of a moon carved into the door. Just as Adam reached his hand to the door handle, the moon relief flashed for a brief second, seemed to scan the 2 figure, searching for something. That brief flash goes unnoticed and there's a very brief inaudible click on the door.

Upon opening the door, Adam saw a few figures already inside, chatting with each other or just sitting around. The room is quite big and decorated in a classic study room style, with a big screen on one side of the wall. There's a long table filled with food and there's a few server walking around handing out drinks.

"Classy, as expected of Howell Company."

"Oh, Adam, I saw an acquaintance. If you excuse me, it was nice meeting you."

"Likewise, take care Hikaru."

Hikaru trotted over towards a group of people chatting. She greeted one of the girls there and joined the conversation. Adam went towards the table and sampled some food. Since he's here anyways and it's free food, might as well enjoy it. All the while looking around the room, trying to see if he recognized some of the people here. He didn't know anyone remotely important or famous, but everyone in the room had the same lapel pin he's wearing.

Just then, the screen on the wall flickered to life, and the man of the hour, the host of the banquet, Horatio Howell, is sitting behind a desk, looking straight at the room. The man has the eyes like an eagle, white hair, aged but hardened face, and cybernetics right arm.

"Welcome everyone. It seems all the invitation I sent out for Room Moon has been received by all of you and you all decided to come. That fills me with great pleasure."

"Mr. Howell, some may come in good faith, but that subtle threat you gave me is quite unsettling!"

A man that seems like in his 30s spoke up at that moment. Some of the guests seem to nod and agree with him. Seems like all of them got the same email content as Adam.

Horatio eerily grin for a time, then nod his head to one of the servers in the room. In a calm fashion, the server reached into his vest and pulled out a gun. Taking an aim at the man that just spoke out.

"What's the meaning of this!?"

"Claude White. 36 years old. Unemployed, divorced, gambling debt of about 500,000 credits, alcoholic, and had a history or domestic violence. Among all of my guests here in the Room Moon, you are the worst. And I don't need an unruly dog."

Bang!

The server pulled the trigger and the bullet penetrated straight through the man's head. Ending his life in an instant. Time seem to froze still before all hell broke loose.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

"This is murder! You'll never get away with this!"

Now, most of the servers pulled out their guns and shot the unruly guests one by one.

"Failed. Failed. Failed. Are none of you good enough? Can't even keep calm when someone is killed in front of you.." Horatio said calmly while sipping his tea. "Oh, we do have some promising candidates."

After the shooting was done, aside from the servers, there now left 10 figures standing in the room. Stood frozen could be accurately used to describe them. They all have frightened expressions and shivering all over. Adam Fortuna and Hikaru Miho among them.

"10 people. Hm.. I only need 5. Ah yes.. You guy kill each other in the next 10 minutes, or else you all die."

"This is crazy! You won't get away with this!" In utter panic, Adam sputtered those words.

"But I already did. I own the city. This whole city is my playground. Oh, it looks like that young lady is eager to play."

Adam turned his head away from the screen towards his back, where a black barrel is aimed directly towards his head.

"Hikaru.. Where did you get that gun and what the hell are you doing!?"

Hikaru Miho shakily aim the gun towards Adam's head, while crying just a little bit. In the background, the leftover people already started killing each other.

"One of the.. Servers lent it to me.. *sniffle* I'm sorry, Adam. I don't.. want to die.."

"Well fuck you. You think I want to die!? Just remember to aim well, or else I will find you."

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry..."

Bang!