《Insignificant》


 Prologue - It Begins with my Death

    With absentee parents and unlimited wealth, it really wasn¡¯t surprising that the shrink diagnosed me with the early stages of Antisocial personality disorder. According to him, I was a rare case, manifesting a few traits belonging to both psychopaths and sociopaths but still retaining enough humanity to stop short of making the cut as a full-on nut job. He didn¡¯t say it as such, but that was the general impression I got from his dithering.


    My emotions were muted and while I maintained some trace of consciousness, I really did not care about anything nor could I empathise with anyone. Furthermore, with the platinum bank account that my CEO father and designer mother regularly refilled, a hedonistic lifestyle was more than guaranteed. After all, with Chinas one child policy, I was the apple of their eye. Or rather, the ¡°amazing talented son¡± they needed at their little get-togethers. There was just the teeniest amount of gratitude for providing the environment I needed to perfect my social mask.


    At the same time, I lacked the egoism or narcissism that came from being a psychopath or sociopath, as a result, my thinking process were unhindered with grandiose plans and feelings of entitlement. This was one part of me that made me more dangerous than any other average case, or so my shrink said. It was mostly because of my stunted emotions and lack of morals that lead to the early diagnosis, I lacked the more severe symptoms like impulsiveness and criminal acts, not that I would ever tell him, which was why my shrink didn¡¯t inform the police.


    Of course, had he done so, the recording I had of him drugging and fucking his ¡°possessed¡± eleven year old client would have mysteriously made its way to the Central Governments hands and so, discrediting him. Of course, the lawyer I had on call would then argue that my diagnosis was invalid on the grounds of inadmissibility of evidence and the Communist Party Judge whose son I hung out with would make sure it was accepted. Or something along those lines, what did I know? I wasn¡¯t the lawyer but I knew enough to say that being a paedophile and a rapist probably wouldn¡¯t do him much good. After all, even with all the Guidance of Public Opinion, in the end, the people still held quite a bit of power.


    The average person would probably be screaming at me for being such a uncaring person but honestly, it wasn¡¯t like the brat wasn¡¯t possessed anyways, it was more a case of a ¡°little empress syndrome¡± that was so common nowadays. I could care less about some spoiled brat, I had more important things to worry about right now, like the guy who just slit the throat of my bodyguard causing a spray of arterial blood and was now lunging at me with the same bloodied knife.


    I scrambled back, trying to avoid this unhinged freak. For a moment, I believed this to be dream but the pool of blood that formed under my now deceased bodyguard convinced me of the reality of this situation. The iron stench of blood wafted through the air, provoking and further angering the man attempting to kill me.


    How this come to be so? Well, I if am understanding his ramblings correctly, apparently, he was the boyfriend of some hooker I had killed back in Macau. Now that I think about it, I may have accidentally asphyxiated one or two of them but how was I supposed to keep track of who I choked? Really, what was I supposed to do, mark down the names or something? That sounded a bit callous, even to me but I guess I inherited my callous attitude from my father since that dungeon under the villa that he often visited did not scream caring to me. I was not exactly a shining beacon and exemplary example of humanity and I was one hell of a vindictive guy but I was unrepentant for it.


    At any rate, I was about to be killed and surprising, I was fine with it, it¡¯s not like this life meant anything to me. Sure, all the power that came from being a rich kid was pretty pleasurable but it all felt so fucking empty. I was getting tired of having to wear the mask of a Gaofushuai, or rich tall and handsome was they called it.


    Course, just because I was fine with dying didn¡¯t mean I was going to let bastard off. I had a dead mans switch of 175,000 USD on hold to several independent contractors to torture, maim and otherwise murder the family and friends of whatever asshole had offed me. Obviously, provisions were made for different situations, for example in the case it was an hitman or some other nasty thing, the contractors were to track the requester down and do them in instead. Why, you ask? because I had money and 175k was a cheap price to get revenge in the unlikely scenario that I was killed.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    As the knife pierced through my shirt and into my heart, I felt a grim sense of satisfaction that the guy was not going to be let off easy in any case. Hah, if I could speak, I would¡¯ve asked him if a hooker was worth his family and friends dead and impaled on a spike. Unfortunately, my world faded to black before I could do so, more so the pity.


    <hr>


    White walls of an endless expanse filed my vision as I opened my eyes. In all honesty, being an atheist meant that at the moment of my death, I fully expected to enter into non-existence. In our world of rationale and scientific processes, things like the afterlife or the soul did not exist.


    Or so I thought.


    Well then, I guess I was proven wrong after all.


    I am sure, no, I am certain that I died. One does not get a knife through the chest and survive, well maybe, after all, it wasn¡¯t like modern doctors couldn¡¯t do a heart transplant. But I digress, the utter darkness that filled my vision and the numb body that was indicative of me falling unconscious probably meant that I kicked the bucket.


    At any rate, whether I was in a coma or actually dead didn¡¯t really matter, that was then and this is the here and now. I was always an adaptable one, and it wasn¡¯t like i was getting out of this gym sized, white washed room anytime soon.


    I was currently laying down on one end of this white asylum cell lookalike. Getting up and looking around eventually led to me finding what seemed to be a door at the other end of the room.


    With nothing else to do, I walked towards it and open the door to enter what seems to be the office of a corporate boss. The room had four things, a water dispenser along with a potted plant on the left side of the office. A bookcase on the left and in front of me, a chair and a desk. Behind the desk was a office lady.


    The nameplate on the desk said ¡°Weiss Li - Jnr. Judge¡±. With her black hair and black eyes, she had the appearance of a mixed heritage of Chinese and German, as if her name couldn¡¯t make that any more obvious.


    ¡°Well, come on then, what are you doing? Stop dawdling, come in and sit.¡± she commanded.


    Somewhat taken aback by her strict tone, I did as I was bid, walking up to the chair. As I did so, my eyebrow rose ever so slightly.


    Behind her was a glass wall showing the scenery in all its glory. A rising sun shone its warm rays over the cloud creating a glorious lightshow. Looking at those glowing clouds gave me a sense of peace I have never felt before. With great effort I dragged my eyes away from the glorious sight and immediately started missing the feeling of serenity the sky invoked in me.


    Almost involuntarily, I glanced at the ground, full of bubbling lava, a pockmarked land covered with a thick disgusting miasma that drifted about. I felt stabbing pains all over my body and a wretched feeling bloated up in my gut. I immediately regretted my decision, castigating myself for my stupidity. After seeing the heaven that was the sky, what was I expecting to see on the ground? Endless grassy plains of bliss, obviously if up was heaven then down was was Hell.


    A better example of heaven and hell I have never seen.


    While I was dazed from the contrasting sight, the office lady spoke up as she noticed my raised eyebrow.


    ¡°Oh that, we just use that to intimidate the recently deceased, some are usually rather troublesome. Denial can be so irritating, if you¡¯re dead, you¡¯re dead, honestly, what¡¯s the use in bothering me about it, do they not see the junior part of my title? Ergh.¡± She muttered the last part.


    ¡°Well, get a move on then, we haven¡¯t got all day, it¡¯s almost time for lunch and if I don¡¯t haul ass, the lasagna will be snatched up.¡± She snapped.


    As I sat down, the late twenties-ish OL opened her drawer and pulled a generic file out that had my visage.


    ¡°Lets see what we got here¡­¡±