Cartel Experience-Chapter 43: Welcome back, El Diablo.

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The silence that came after the System notified him earning the achievement was maybe the worst thing ever... that silence and nothing. He didn’t even hear the banging on the door, the outside world had totally collapsed for him and that wasn’t just the problem.

He didn’t hear the System either, because it didn’t activate the Heal Special Card as César was still conscious, still up, barely even knowing what had happened or what was happening.

His eyes were barely even open, and what he saw around himself was darkness with more coldness and more comfortability.

It is hard to truly describe that feeling, the moment when you are bleeding out, when your body is standing on the thin line between death and one last desperate push. Your body and your mind are working together, not to understand what is real anymore, but to fight, to cling to anything that can keep you alive.

In that moment, when everything should feel terrifying, there is something strangely good about it, something almost comforting, and that is what makes it feel so wrong. The coldness wrapping around your body. It feels like death itself is gently offering you a blanket, a soft place to rest your head, telling you that it is fine to stop, that you can finally sleep. Your eyes feel heavy, your breathing slows, and your thoughts begin to drift away just like your life.

And yet, even as death tries to pull you in, your body continues to fight for you. Your heart beats harder, forcing blood through your body. Your lungs drag in air that burns and hurts, refusing to give up and for César it was more intense.Maybe it was because of the experiences he had gone through, the torture and the death in his past lives, and because of that, maybe his body, his mind, and his very being had grown stronger without him even realizing it.

Maybe that was why he could not die so easily now. Maybe that was why his body refused to give up, forcing him to remain alive when he should have already been gone.

But that was exactly the problem.

His body kept trying to fight back on its own, which meant that the System couldn’t activate the Heal Special Card, as César was still conscious, and moreover, the System itself wasn’t upgraded. Yeah, it could be more than just some useless voice talking nonsense. It could actually work like a real companion. It could activate cards by itself, like the Heal. It could mark people and show their location like a live GPS tracker, and it could do many other things. There were a lot of powerful functions, but César had not even unlocked the Store yet, not to mention any of its upgrades.

Which was a setback, especially right now in a life-and-death situation, as the System could only activate the card if César said so, or if he lost consciousness. Plus, the biggest problem of all was that the two ladies were already halfway through the door... and how funny was that, too.

That door was the reason he was still alive, or at least stuck in this half-dead state, though that too was giving up as the two ladies were doing their best to kick and punch the shit out of it, focusing on the same spot where they had already shot it. Eventually, one of them slipped her hand through the gap, trying to open it from the inside, which meant it was now only a matter of minutes before they got in and the second she noticed him.

"He is bleeding out." The same lady’s voice came as she noticed the huge amount of blood on the hallway, the trail leading in and after seeing that, she started kicking the door even more.

[System: César, you need to shoot yourself. The pistol is next to your right hand, pointing at you, pull the trigger.]

[System: Do it! Shoot yourself!]

The System hurried him, as now one of the women was already halfway in, but it was easier said than done, especially in the state César was in.

He didn’t see anything. He didn’t know how much time had passed, or if it was even real, or if he was hallucinating, but he heard the System, and his hand was slowly moving, feeling the pistol, then the trigger and without thinking anything he pulled it.

He didn’t feel it as the bullet struck him in the lung. He only felt something warm coming from his mouth, and after that pure silence... silence that was broken by the System as its plan worked perfectly. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

César lost consciousness with the second shot, which was a huge gamble in itself. If he had hit the wrong spot, or accidentally struck his heart, it would have been over, but he hit the right spot in the lung, and his body finally gave up, shutting him down, which meant he survived.

[System: Pulse detected. Cardiac activity confirmed. One bullet impacted the liver. A second bullet struck the left side of the lung. No exit wounds detected.]

[Estimated blood loss: severe.] [Survival probability: critically low.]

[System: Emergency intervention required. Activating: Two Heal Special Cards.]

The quickness of it, that sudden feeling of coming from the darkness and from death, made you suddenly open your eyes, feeling all good, all patched up, all ready to kill.

Ah, that feeling is something else entirely, even more when you lay in your own blood, when you were a second away from dying, not just by bleeding out, but by the ladies at the door. And as he slowly stood up, César was exactly what the System had said multiple times.

A predator at the top of the chain.

Those eyes, the blood on his body, on his arms, on his face. The aura that suddenly radiated from him was exactly what the System had been waiting for.

[System: Welcome back, El Diablo.]