The Cycle

"Damn it, the rent's gone up again!"

Charles hurried along with a briefcase tucked under his arm, dressed in a suit and tie like the very picture of a successful, fashionable man. All the while, he grumbled to himself.

Unlike the people around him, who thought he was a "respectable fellow," Charles knew better. His clothes might have looked sharp, but they couldn't hide how hard up he was.

Beneath the seemingly designer—but actually cheap—suit and shirt was an exhausted body and an empty stomach.

For a low-level salesman like him, dressing to the nines and running himself ragged out in the world was the norm. It was hard to earn much in return, and even making ends meet was a struggle.

After all, the cost of surviving in a big city was simply enormous.

Charles looked up at the sky, now completely dark, and let out a sigh. "If I hurry back now, I can still get a coffee and a beef burger at Uncle Buck's burger joint for the lowest price... Damn that stingy old man, that miser who belongs in hell. He slices the beef so thin..."

Driven by hunger, he hurried along in such a rush that he failed to notice a steam engine car coming down the road on the opposite side.

Bang!

After the heavy impact, everything went black. When Charles opened his eyes again, all he could see was a field of light.

"Where... am I? Is this a hospital? Where are the doctors and nurses?"

Charles stood up and felt over his body. Finding no serious injuries, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. For a pauper like him, who could barely afford rent, the cost of a serious illness would have been ruinous—he couldn't have paid it even if