Chapter 1: Rise From Sorrow
East City, residential area
In this area is where people live and all models of houses are the same in the residential area, made of wood with same shapes, in every house there are numbers, maybe this is what makes people know the house where they live.
In-house number 2112, in one of the bedrooms there is a man on the bed hugging his knee. This man is Randy Christian, he is depressed, sad, full of regret, and all the negative emotions are mixed in his heart.
Randy is 21 years old, 1.78 meters tall with well build body, black hair, black-eyed, pointy nose, can be said Randy is a pretty handsome, but his appearance now quite scary, his eyes turned red because he did not sleep for 5 days, his body became haggard due to not eating, chapped lips, as if he would collapse at any time.
In the living room, his parents could only stare at the door of his room. This was Randy's fifth day locked up in the room. His mother, Almira is very anxious to see the state of his son like this, she only has one child during her marriage for 23 years.
"Hey Wisen, do something! It's already the fifth day he locked himself in a room without eating, what if something happens to Randy !?" Almira shouted to her husband. Due to his anxiety with Randy, Almira called her husband by his name, usually, Almira calls his husband honey or dear.
"Randy! Randy! Stop blaming yourself, please come out and eat something, you've been locked yourself up for five days, what if something happens to you !?" Almira shouted at Randy's door with anxiety.
Hearing no response from Randy, Almira keeps shouting: "Randy, please come out, Mom cannot bear it if something happens to you" and then Almira crying while shouting in front of Randy's room. One week since the start of the Battle of Ascension, Almira has heard a lot of sad news from his neighbors, they lost their children who died while hunting out of town, Almira cannot imagine if anything happens to his son because Randy is the only child she has, so Almira crying.
Hearing his mother's cries, Randy's body trembled.
Seeing Almira crying while shouting, Wisen sighed and then he stood up and walked towards Almira hugged her to calm her and pulled Almira to sit. After that Wisen walked to the door of Randy's room and tried to open it which was locked. Wisen stepped back two steps and then kicked Randy's door.
Boom!
The door immediately collapsed after Wisen kicked. Wisen has reached level 4 since the start of Battle of Ascension and he added all his stats point to his strength every level up, so you can say that Wisen's power is now the same with four normal people even though there is no normal people has in this world since the Battle of Ascension started.
Wisen enters Randy's room and walks toward Randy, he stopped for a moment after seeing Randy condition before continuing to walk toward who Randy sitting on his bed, hugging his knee.
Wisen stopped right in front of Randy, suddenly Wisen raised his hand and slapped Randy's cheek.
Piak
"You idiot, useless, coward!" Wisen shouted.
The slap from Wisen was strong enough to make Randy bounce, Randy's cheeks were red and bruised, there was a little blood on his lips, but Randy was just lying on his bed, not making any reaction, his eyes still lifeless staring forward, as if not him who gets slapped.
When she heard the sound of slap and Wisen shouted, Almira, shocked, then she immediately stood up and ran to Randy's room to stop Wisen. Seeing the state of Randy, Almira who had stopped crying began to cry again and ran towards Randy hugged him.
"What are you doing !? Are you crazy !?" Almira shouted to Wisen and glared at him with a look of anger. instead of comforting his depressed child, he instead hit him, what was on his mind.
Randy was their only child, Wisen and Almira have always spoiled Randy since childhood, what he wants is always granted. This is the first time Randy has been slapped and scolded.
Seeing this, Wisen mouth twitches: "You have to get out, this is a talk between men, women should not get involved" Then Wisen pulls his wife out. Almira resisted but it's a futile effort, she is just level 0 with normal stats while Wisen has reached level 4 by raising his strength every level up, so Wisen easily pull Almira out.
"You go out first, I will talk to him, I promise tomorrow he will return to normal or maybe he will be more high-spirited than usual" Wisen whispered to Almira as he pulled out Almira.
Then Almira looked at Wisen with a doubt look: "Are you sure? you are not lying to me, are you?" Just now he slapped and scolded her son, how could Randy get back to normal, of course, Almira was suspicious of Wisen.
Seeing Almira's face full of doubt to him, he was helpless.
"Trust me, tomorrow Randy will be back to normal" Wisen replied confidently.
Hearing Wisen confident answer, Almira believed it
"But you can not slap or hit him again if you hit him you will sleep outside for a month" Almira warned to Wisen for fear he would hit Randy again.
Of course this threat is very effective to Wisen, in their marriage for 23 years Wisen never cheated, Wisen love to Almira very deep, even before the start of the Battle of Ascension when he was still a CEO there is a famous model in his country offer his body to get endorsement of his company, but the model was rejected outright by Wisen because of his love for Almira, so the threat Almira gave to Wisen was very effective, besides he also did not plan to hit his son again.
After pulling his wife out and reassuring her, Wisen came into Randy's room again, when he wanted to close the room so that his wife would not hear what he would say to Randy he remembered that the door was broken when he wanted to enter the room.
Wisen comes out again and pulls his wife into their room. Almira followed her husband obediently because she also did not want to hear Wisen scolding Randy.
Then Wisen reentered Randy's room awkwardly, as he entered the room he saw Randy already sitting on the side of the bed with a blank look. Wisen sits next to Randy.
Wisen understood the events that Randy experienced, his two best friends died when they were hunting monsters, they died to protect him and he blamed himself for the deaths of his two best friends.
The momentum he made when slapping Randy was broken by Almira so Wisen had no intention of scolding Randy again, so he just said softly.
"Sigh, you should not be like this when your two best friends sacrifice themselves to save you, because if you act like this then their sacrifice will be in vain. Your life is not only yours but three, you, Michael and Widi, their responsibilities also fall upon you. What about the family of Michael and Widi after they died? leave aside the Widi family because he still has his father who can feed his family, what about Michael? his father has long died, in his family, there are only her mother and her sister how can the Michael family survive in this present world with only two helpless women? "
Hearing his father's words, Randy's body trembled.
Seeing Randy's body tremble, Wisen knew Randy was listening to his words, so he continued:
"You must wake up from your grief, because Michael and Widi responsibilities fall on you right now, especially for Michael family, they will be hard to survive without Michael and you have to bear the responsibility he left behind. Wake up from your grief because your current life is not only yours but Michael and Widi as well, their responsibility is now your responsibility, you have to survive and be strong, replace Michael and Widi protect their family, do you understand? do not make the sacrifice of Michael and Widi in vain because of your stupidity! "Wisen said in a stern voice.
Tears fell from Randy's eyes, then he nodded his head.
"That's good if you understand." then Wisen stood up and left the room leaving Randy alone in his room.
'Hope he would get back to normal after what I said' Wisen said in his heart after stepping out of the room because if he did not wake up from his grief he did not know what else to do to get Randy out of his grief.
Then he went into his room and saw his wife walking back and forth anxiously beside the bed.
When Almira heard someone open the door he knows it is her husband so she immediately walks to Wisen and asks: "how is it?"
Seeing his very worried wife Wisen could only reassure her: "do not worry, he will be fine."
When she heard the answer from her husband she was relieved, then Almira wanted to go out to make sure Randy condition.
Wisen blocked Almira from going to Randy's room and said: "do not go there, leave him alone in order to calm down."
........
Randy's room
After hearing the words of his father Randy awoke from his grief.
My father is right, my life is not just mine anymore but belongs to Michael and Widi as well, their responsibility is also my responsibility. I must be strong and protect their families.
Randy's lifeless eyes turned into sharp eyes, the lost confidence now back again.
Upon waking from his grief, the fatigue he had not felt for five days because he did not sleep and eat finally came and Randy fell asleep.