“Please… save the world.”

She requested with a beautiful voice that could charm any man that heard those words. I too was momentarily stunned and blankly stared at her with a loosened look on my face. Looking back to this event, I was able to easily guess that I had been making a silly expression because of being surprised.

The unknown lady that appeared out of the smoke looked beseechingly at me before asking once more.

“Please save the world, hero.”

This time, I blinked once and that was when I snapped out of the strange state of awe that I Was under. Then I looked at the girl before me and wondered to myself, “Holy moly! This girl’s really beautiful!”

Not only was she beautiful, but she was cute that only got amplified by the pure white dress she was wearing. Not to mention, those seemingly realistic wings that were protruding out of her backside. To put it simply, it gave me an impression of what an angel would look like when one descended from heaven. 

“That’s some great cosplay you got there, madam,” I complimented her with a bright smile.

The girl tilted her head sideways with a confused look and asked me, “Cos…play? What’s that?”

Her look was so cute that I felt my heart melt and had a strange feeling surge up from within. I immediately wanted to pinch her cheeks. She was just too cute. 

“Um…?”

She made a hesitant sound as she was looking up at me nervously. Realising that I was probably making a silly expression, I coughed and tried my best to straighten my expression while facing her again.

“If it’s not cosplay, then… is it a movie?” I asked curiously.

It was then that the thought struck me as odd that there would be a meteor falling from the sky so suddenly and a girl appearing from there. This is reality after all. Something so fantasy like scenario would never happen, especially to the likes of me even if I wished for it with all my might.

“If so, where’s director, the producer, the crew and all? Did I accidentally wander into a movie set?”

As I was asking, I began glancing around at my surroundings to spot wherever they were. Unfortunately, the movie team appeared to simply be not there. This confused me, and I turned back to look at her only to find that she was staring back at me with a similar expression on her face.

“Movie set? Director? Producer? The crew?” She asked me questioningly. “I don’t understand, hero.”

“Eh?” I asked back, feeling that things were not adding up to my assumptions.

At that moment, there was a sudden rush of wind as several cars raced past from behind at high speed. I almost jumped off my bicycle from fright at how suddenly they appeared out of nowhere. Then I noticed that the crossing light had turned green, and I took this opportunity to check the time.

“Oh damn! It’s nearly 10:30PM!” I exclaimed worriedly. I turned back to the assumed actress and said, “I’m sorry but I’I’ve got to go! I’ll be late for work tomorrow if I don’t get enough sleep tonight!”

The girl blinked at me in amazement and asked, “Huh?”

I moved forward and asked her earnestly, “When we meet again, can you please give me a role in a movie that you’re acting in or know off? I swear I can act well and impress the audience with my performance! Will you do that for me?”

“Um…Uh... ” The girl said  uncertainty, looking very confused.

Unperturbed by how confused she was, I quickly got back on my bicycle and began pedalling hard to make it across while calling back to her.

“Alright! See you around and sorry for disturbing you!”

“Ah! Wait! Hero! Come back!” She called after me, but I was already racing away on my bicycle into the night.

The reason for my hasty rush to the place I was currently renting was to get a good night sleep. I live near the outskirts of the town, which takes about 30 minutes to reach from the heart of town. I’ve also got work the next morning where my shift starts at 9AM, but I’ve got to write my down in the register book by 8:55AM, but my boss is rather picky about timing so I aim for 8:50AM at all costs.

“After all, good performances create good impressions and that leads to good results!” I murmured while pedalling as fast as I could towards my rented place.

After about twenty minutes, I slowed down and steadily came to a stop just outside the apartment. I quietly opened the front gate and walked my bicycle to the place where the other vehicles were parked and locked it up. Then I came back to close the gate just as lightly as before, I adjusted my backpack and headed up the stairs to my room.

My rented room was located on the second floor, where the floor levelling was the ground floor, then the first floor and the second floor. There was an elevator, but I was quick on my feet, so I hurried up the stairs and reached the second floor.

It was a large apartment with five units per floor with a total of 5 floors, and mine was smackdown in the centre of the second floor.

After using an old-fashioned key to unlock the lock, I went in and switched on the lights. The suddenly lit room caused me to close my eyes momentarily before I repeatedly blinked until my eyes adjusted to the brightness.

It was a small room with one room, kitchen and an attached bathroom. As for bedroom, there wasn’t a special room allocated to it, so I slept in the living room. I’m not the only one living like this though. Most apartments would at least include a bedroom as well, but this was an old type apartment with only the minimum required and the rent  was cheap, so it’s not much of a loss in my opinion.

This apartment is full of bachelors like me working day in and out while doing their best to earn the best they can while studying or doing something else. But are there any complaints? I for one have nothing to complain about my current living style since the rent is cheap, the water supply is clean and can be drunk without a filtering system, plus having no electricity outages in this area is a blessing.

“Oh man. My arms are so sore today,” I muttered as I set down the backpack and massaged each arm by taking turns.

I took a glass out of the cupboard above the kitchen, filled it full from the kitchen sink and drank it all in one go. Then I breathed a heavy sigh and immediately filled it again to drink some more.

Meanwhile, I could hear the loud sounds of an ongoing party from the neighbour next to me. Walking towards the kitchen window, I saw a party occurring with people dancing, cheering, and music exploding. The whole place felt live with energy and joy and this was thanks to the large amount of money they must have.

Seeing this, I bunched my free hand into a fist and muttered, “One day. Just… one day.”

My determination for achieving riches was revitalized after seeing them enjoying their night party. I’m broke now, but when I get the wealth that I wanted, I will also have a party with my close associates, maybe even have a family of my own at that time to enjoy it with.

At the thought of having a family, the image of that beautiful girl from before flashed inside my mind. She was very beautiful, cute with her mannerism, and even her voice was mesmerising. Honestly, it felt like an angel had descended but too bad it must have been just a prop for a movie set.

“Well, too bad that she’s a movie star and that whole thing was for some kind of movie shooting. Although, I didn’t notice anything like a movie crew or the like anywhere near there. Also, when a shooting is going on, do they just let the people wander into the sets like that? That’s weird.”

It made no sense when I stopped and thought about it. But then again, I was tired and wanted to get to sleep as I got work tomorrow to focus on.

“Oh well,” I said and shrugged my shoulders indifferently.

I continued watching the party for a few more seconds before shoving the curtain on it to stop its light seeping into the room. I can easily fall asleep if the room is really dark though dim light shouldn’t be a bother to me.

To the side was a rolled-up mattress that I purchased from a local store for a good bargain. It wasn’t that big that you’d feel like a king sleeping in luxury, but it’s comfortable enough to sleep on. So, I walked over and grabbed it before shoving it to the side to lay it down on the floor.

“Heave-ho!” I exclaimed as I successfully managed to lay it down.

Despite it being cheap, it was rather heavy. Or maybe it’s just me lacking muscles. I am kind of thin when I look at the wall mounted mirror from the kitchen table. I’m 184cm in height and the last time I checked, I weighed about 65kg. The other tenants often call me out for being stick sized and even my manager asked me if I was eating properly.

I always lied with, “I don’t have much of an appetite,” but she’s always like, “That’s no good! You’ve got to get your strength up otherwise you’ll collapse.”

There’s no way I would collapse, not before I reached my goal of being very rich. Still, as I took out a loaf of bread from the kitchen table and tear it open, I kind of realise I don’t eat much. This loaf of bread is my dinner. Normally, I do stop by to buy other food to eat but since I was late today, the shop was closed, and I had to come home empty handed.

“I guess this is called having insurance,” I muttered with a dry smile and began eating it.

It was hard and the taste was average, but it was better than some that you could find outside. I was always appalled at how other people were able to eat such things. When I tried them once, it left a bad taste in my mouth, and I decided to never try such trash again. I don’t mean any offense to chef that made them, but the taste was awful. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m just different from the rest.

After finishing my bread, I stuffed the wrapper into the dustbin and wanted to get started on counting my finances. Every night, I sit down like this and count how much money I have remaining. This was the way to manage my budget for the month since I get my salary in cash at the end of the month. Till then, I’ve got to maintain a complete track of my expenses and stay within the budget. This is the life of a person working hard from the ground up after all.

Unfortunately, tonight since I arrived late, I couldn’t get to it. After checking the time and seeing that it was getting late, I decided to skip it for today and put it back in its hiding spot.

The reason I do this is mostly due to paranoia that my apartment might get broken into by a random burglar. As for the pocket change that I carry in my wallet, it isn’t much since it’s much too dangerous to carry a lot in your pocket in case the wallet gets stolen right from my pocket. I have no idea how others do it, but it scared me since my teenage years when I read about pickpocketing in news articles. Better to be safe than sorry after all.

Once I confirmed that it was safely hidden, I got to my feet and switched off the lights before wandering back slowly to where my mattress lay. As I lowered myself, I first sat down because my legs began to ache from the soreness as all the fatigue got released from working hard everyday. I just manage to ignore it till I come home and somehow contend with it.

“Ah…! Ow…!” I whimpered while I stretched my leg and massaged them the best I could with my hands.

I did this for a few minutes before I adjust my position and lay down on the mattress. I didn’t switch the fan on because it was winter and the room felt a little stale, I wanted to avoid needless electricity bill. Besides, with how tired I was, I knew that I would sleep almost instantly.

“Man, I wonder what… tomorrow will be like?” I sighed weakly.

For about a minute, I remained facing up at the darkness before shifting to sleep sideways. Then I closed my eyes while thinking about all that had happened that day and finally the image of the girl popped up inside my head again.

“She really was beautiful, wasn’t she?” I mumbled weakly and smiled a little before my tiredness caught up with me, and I finally slept.