The media called it a tragic accident.

  They said my brother had been a victim of a robbery, just another that was unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I knew better.

  There was a singular, deep cut on his body. From his clavicle right down to his abdomen, whoever killed him intended to end his life in a single blow. Knowing my brother, if it really was how the media portrayed it, he would never go down without a fight. It was as if he expected this to happen; he knew he was going to die. This was no robbery by ordinary, untrained thiefs. This was an assassination, one planned and executed by professionals.

  However, the reporters didn't care about any of that. They didn't care about the truth. They cared about the narrative—the neat, easy lie that would keep any questions from being raised.

  But I was done accepting lies.

  For years, Zhao Lin had been warning me. All this time, he wasn't acting like that because he didn't care. It was because he cared too much. He had been trying to shield me. To protect me from this godforsaken twisted world that had chewed him up and spit him out.

  He knew. He knew that people who saw too much, people who knew too much…

  People like him… would be dealt with.

  The realization hit me like a punch to the gut, knocking the air out of my lungs. I stumbled, clutching my brother's lifeless body in my arms, as if that could stop the pain ripping me apart from the inside. My throat tightened, as I felt the first hot tear trail down my cheek.

  "Why?" I whispered, my voice rasping as the tears began to flow. "Why did you keep it to yourself? Why didn't you let me help you?"

  But I already knew why.

  He wanted me to stay innocent—stay safe, away from the ruthlessness of society. And now… he's gone.

  Years of confusion, anger, and grief exploded all at once. I wept for my brother. For the memories we would never make. And for the unbearable truth that no matter how much I regret, how much I prayed to understand him back then, nothing would bring him back.

  Minutes turned to hours, hours turned to days. I couldn't stop thinking. If everything I had believed to be true was nothing more than a shield my brother had built to protect me, then how much do I really know? About him, the world, about anything at all?

  ——————————————————————————————————————————

  Seven Years Later…

  Time has a way of changing people. Seven years ago, I was just a kid, believing I could be anything in the world, believing I can save those that needed help, a hero figure. In the end, I couldn't save anything. I was no different than anyone else.

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  After Zhao Lin's death, that version of me died alongside him. In his place, something else began to manifest. I stopped smiling. Stopped dreaming. Stopped interacting with friends. Instead, I only cared about revenge, and understanding the truth.

  For seven years, I chased it. It was like trying to grab hold of water. I hacked into government databases, tracked down old case files, even interrogated and threatened anyone I found in my searches to have any possible relations with the death of my brother. Slowly, piece by piece, the puzzle was coming together.

  It wasn't just Zhao Lin. As I had suspected, my brother kept me in the dark about our parents too. A car crash? Now that I think about it, how did my 12-year old self even believe that? That's way too cliche. Also, Dad hated driving. Our car was collecting dust in the garage, and one day they suddenly decided to take it out for a spin?

  No, they didn't die in a car accident. They had been eliminated, just like my brother. But why? What did they know? What did my brother know? All this time, I had been living in a world built on lies.

  ————————————————————————————————————————————

  The rain was relentless that night. It was as if God himself was punishing me, being so utterly pathetic and unable to find any answers. My mind was a swirling mess of rage and despair. Relentless, I didn't stop calling, emailing, messaging until I essentially forced my way into a meeting with the prosecutors—my last ditch attempt to get someone, anyone to listen. Just like the reporters and everyone else, they dismissed me as psychotic and crazy for even bringing up a robbery from seven years ago. They smiled politely, listened to what I had to say, nodded nicely, and then shoved me through the back door as though I was nothing but a fly buzzing in their ears.

  I clenched my fists, my nails digging into the palm of my hand until they drew blood.

  "Is this what you wanted me to see, brother? This corruption that runs so deep that those without power have no choice but to submit?"

  I tilted my head back, letting the onslaught of rain wash over my face, drenching me from head to toe.

  "I'm powerless," I whispered. "Just like that man you told me about 7 years ago. Just another nobody who can't change a damn thing."

  I stared into the sky, my vision blurring with a mixture of rain and tears.

  "If there's a god out there—if anyone is listening—please, grant me strength. Give me a chance, I promise I'll rip apart every lie, and bring this corrupt world to its knees."

  As my voice tore through the air in one last cry, I fell to the ground, as if it took all my strength to give one final wish. Slowly, my eyes began to close, the sounds of thunder, once deafening, now faded into an almost peaceful silence, as if the world itself was slipping out of reach. As the world faded away, one final thought crossed my mind.

  "Even if it was in a different lifetime, even if I was reborn. I won't let this corruption continue. I will break the chains, even if it means sacrificing everything."

  When I woke up, everything had changed.

  I wasn't Zhao Feng anymore. I wasn't powerless. I wasn't weak.

  A foreign realm unlike any I've known, a world I had only glimpsed in my wildest dreams.

  As the reality of it settled into my bones, I felt a fire ignite inside me, a fire, fueled by all the pain, the loss, the injustice I had suffered.

  For my parents, for my brother. For all those whose voices had been silenced, those that have had been trampled over.

  "Someone, or something, gave me a chance. I won't be the hero they want. Heroes are just people who weren't forced to make a real choice. No, I will be the one who destroys the system, the one who breaks the very chains that keeps us all trapped. As that is the only way for any of us to truly stand a chance."