Luo Qiu regrets.
He regrets stepping foot into that house. He regrets going along with the group. But most of all…
He regrets underestimating this story world immensely.
What 'weak' ghosts? To think he had even offered to help them so cockily in the beginning! Luo Qiu remembers fishing out a special formation plate he had swiped in a cultivation world which would help keep everyone inside the house and prolong time to show goodwill, thinking that he could easily break out anytime and kill them all anyway.
He was wrong.
He didn't even make it to the end of the first act.
Luo Qiu bitterly laughs in the corner of the room where the Doll Ghost had placed him. He should have sensed something was wrong in the beginning. There were odd changes to the plot. That Hao Fan didn't exist and Tian Shun had turned into a character that mediates between the bullies and the protagonists for some reason. However, he had attributed it to the presence of a Host that had the fortune to come a little earlier than himself. He had been most suspicious of Hao Fan being the host but now… he felt it was not so simple.
He glances down at what was left of his body. His arms and legs had been ripped off inside a cocoon of hair. It was easily one of the most painful and traumatic experiences he had ever had before the wounds were cauterised by the ghost fire of another ghost. The memory was enough to make him break out in cold sweat as the places where his limbs should have been attached to burned and stabbed at his nerves agonisingly.
Luo Qiu closes his eyes in defeat. He's been through the apocalypse, slugged through the slums, taken as a slave. He's destroyed lives, cities, kingdoms. He's lived at the bottom of the sea, joined a fight club, became president and ran one of the biggest intergalactic cults in the Nebulon. The amount of hosts he has fought and near death situation he had came out alive of would impress anyone. To think, this would be how it ends for him. However he couldn't completely blame himself for getting into this dire situation.
These ghosts... were far too perverted!
The Doll Ghost finally finishes flaying alive the two unfortunate people that had been passing by, throwing the chunks of mangled flesh to the side like one would casually toss dirty laundry before floating toward Luo Qiu. Luo Qiu had to admit, seeing the true face behind the doll, even now he was still completely entranced.
This sort of heavenly-standard male beauty with the natural innocence of youth that held a slightly sultry look thanks to those slanting pheonix eyes would fit perfectly as a deity in a painting. However Luo Qiu now knew that this pure white moonlight was actually blacker than anybody inside. It was truly the epitome of a beautiful outside covering up a rotting inside.
Gloomily he stares up at the ghost. The ghost stares back down as well before giving him a soft, tender smile. It was chilling how Luo Qiu could still feel his heart flutter toward this absolute monster.
He recalls the evening the day after he entered this world and had gone to the demon house to speak with the ghosts. This Doll Ghost, Wei, had been the spokesperson for the spirits and Luo Qiu, a man who over time has become more flexible with his tastes, had taken one look at him and all thoughts of negotiating had gone out the window. He just gave and gave and gave. After all, he was a powerful Worldbreaker who had gone through many worlds and collected countless treasures, it was not much to give a few benefits and give a few hints to gain favor of the most beautiful being he had ever laid eyes on. All he asked was for his life and everyone's death.
His eyes redden at the memory of his naive, foolish self. Even if he had always said he wants to die in the arms of a beauty, this was not what he imagined! This beauty had too many heavy tastes!
"Unexpectedly you're still pretty lively," Wei says serenely, sounding pleasantly surprised. "Then again, for a young man like yourself entering haunted houses and going around courting death, one surely must have strong vitality… or stupidity hehe."
'You're stupid! Your whole family is stupid!' Luo Qiu roars in his heart. But objectively he could not argue. After all, to outsiders what he did was indeed stupid. Who would go into a haunted house, ask the ghosts to kill people and even so far as to give them special objects to help them?
Wei cocks his head to the side as if listening to something that can't be heard and suddenly the ghost's eyes dilate, looking down at Luo Qiu with an expression of greed and lust. "I hear Worldbreaker's souls will be completely decimated by the system since your soul energy is corrupted in the process of consuming your system when turning into a Worldbreaker and therefore can't be extracted." Wei casually comments and Luo Qiu's mind explodes.
The system host... was this ghost?!
Fuck! He really ran into the lion's mouth this time!
But then… that doesn't explain the changes in Tian Shun's identity and the presence of Hao Fan… Nor does it explain why every other ghost in this house was also incredibly far more overpowered than described!
Unfortunately Wei was not interested in a villainous monologue which explained everything, instead Wei decided to bring up why he started talking about the topic in the first place. "My System just told me though, that while for systems your soul is useless, and for most other hosts it is less than useless… for a ghost like myself it is, ah, rather, what's the word~?" Red eyes stare into Luo Qiu's. "Delicious."
Luo Qiu pales. Suddenly he wasn't interested in the butterfly effect when there were more pressing matters to think about. "You, you! Aren't you human?! This is cannibalism! We're fellow hosts!"
Wei's pretty face gives him a disdainful sneer, "I'm a ghost. And you're a weird hybrid of human and system. We no longer are the same species." He deadpans, with an 'obviously' deeply implied. "Besides, I literally just tortured and murdered a bunch of innocent teens. Do you really think consuming the energy of a criminal with a top tier soul that apparently tastes like the will to live, will be my bottom line?"
Luo Qiu: '…' Fair enough.
But he was still unwilling to die!
"W-wait! Wait!" He cries out just as Wei floated even closer to him, his heart beating madly in his chest. All he can do now is convince this madman of a host to switch sides and become a Worldbreaker as well. It shouldn't be too hard. This person was clearly a psychopathic maniac. "Aren't you tired being suppressed by the system? Being forced to do its bidding and risking your life and dignity? Having to suffer and die in order to serve as foil for others? And all for what? Rebirth? Reincarnation? A second chance in life?" He talks quickly, desperation to live making his tongue even slicker. "You should join me! Be a Worldbreaker! We have freedom, we can do whatever we want, ruin those who wrong us and jump to the pinnacle of life in each world!" He coaxes, "The points that one usually earns from the system can be forcibly converted into energy for us to absorb, and after conquering so many worlds we can become gods among men! How great does that sound? Maybe, one day, we might be able to earn enough power to break past the shackles and go back to our original lives!"
He talks until he can no longer talk anymore, panting for breath he looks up at Wei hopefully. The ghost had not said a single thing during his rant and actually had a considering look in his eye. Finally Wei opens his mouth to speak.
"What system did you own before?"
Luo Qiu was taken aback by the unexpected question, "System? Um, I had a Male Supporting Lead system, why? You have a Cannon fodder system right?" No matter what angle one would read this story, there was no way the Ghost Doll character can be considered a supporting male lead. Unless there was a Bystander system?
It was understandable Luo Qiu would be confused. The basic Maintenance systems made up around 68% of the systems give or take a few %. Given the infinite number of worlds to take account of, this was a huge amount. Not to mention some other systems like Financial's counter-attack and wish fulfilment systems use a 'clone' world, a copy of the original world, to work in. While that means there's a higher chance of bugs occurring in there, it also means a lower chance of Worldbreakers. Even if Luo Qiu did break out and meet different hosts, it was still a dozen hosts at most. The chances of seeing a specialised host was still incredibly small, at best he might have met someone from the Reconstruction system field which is somewhat similar to a basic system anyway, they just have a bit more firepower in terms of freedom, attack items and so on.
The ghost snickers, derision clear in his red eyes, "I understand, you're quite mistaken about a few things aren't you?"
"Excuse me?" Luo Qiu felt dread form on top of his previous ball of dread.
"You see, I quite like my job." Wei smiles, "I like my system, I like the benefits, I like my safe space and I like the idea that I'm obligated to do whatever I want as long as it benefits the story."
"Obligated to do whatever you want?" he repeats dumbly. "There's such a system job?"
"Mn," Wei nods, "Besides, this is my second world so I hardly feel any built up resentment, certainly not enough to rebel anyway. Very nice speech though, I must say. I'm sure it would have worked on anyone else. Unfortunately you met me. So, well, ah, I suppose this is goodbye then."
"N-no, wait," Luo Qiu whimpers, fearfully, "Wait! No.. I can! I'll give you anything! All my points! Please! No, no, don't come closer, what are you- no, NO, NO, AHHH-!"
...
Jia Hyson couldn't stop smiling, touching his tummy time to time gingerly like a pregnant wife. The gentle warmth, the feelings of happiness, pride, determination, the sour sweet flavor of lemon tart that is a unique flavor to the owner's soul... Bebe was not wrong in telling him that a spirit consuming a Worldbreaker's soul will taste the feeling of satisfaction and life once again.
Worldbreakers had absorbed the power and energy of many worlds making them incredibly potent and strong. It was unfortunate the hybridisation as a result of forcibly fusing a system and a human soul together makes it too hard for the system world to extract the soul for their own purposes but then again if such amazing quantities of energy could be extracted who knows what path the system world could have gone down? Maybe systems would have purposely given hosts bad conditions, encouraging them to rebel, and then once they do they will wait until the pig becomes fat enough to slaughter for their soul energy. Such a thought was rather unpleasant especially when one thinks about all the QT stories that use more or less most of that idea to set up their own plots. Maybe those OP love interests were just traps to lower the hosts' guards and what we don't see as readers is that the so called 'Happily Ever After' is the love interest's programming finally kicking in to cull the host protagonist before moving on to a new unsuspecting rebel. Ooh now that would be a story to write.
Anyway, luckily this wasn't the case and only rare existences like Jia Hyson who happened to be an evil ghost, could truly enjoy this meal.
As a spirit his empathy was lost, his sense of emotions were smothered to the point of nonexistence, the warm feelings of love and happiness only memories he can recall and a constant gnawing emptiness was always present no matter how strong he grew or how much spiritual energy he absorbed.
But after eating Luo Qiu, he suddenly felt a wholeness he hadn't felt for a lifetime. Even though it won't last, he felt almost human. Pale pink tears prick his eyes, a mixture of blood and genuine tears and a longing to see his boys welled up inside him. "Bebe... how long until the feelings fade?"
"A few hours, if you don't do anything too bad it may even last till dawn."
"Haha," Jia Hyson laughs dryly, "You're joking right?" Asking him right now not to do bad things is like asking for him to stop eating donuts. He could totally do it but he ain't gonna.
Bebe: '…' So you can stop doing it but you're too much of a dick to.
"I've still got a few hours to get my fill of being an evil spirit till we go back and murder becomes looked down upon again." Jia Hyson tells his system as he flicks the drained body of the Worldbreaker to the side, next to the small pile of corpses in the corner.
Bebe: '…' Do you mean, 'incredibly illegal'?
"Just let me use your phone function to call Li Guiren, I'll feel terrible if I never end up saying goodbye to him after tonight ah." Before he had barely even thought about the people he was leaving behind, not enough to care too deeply anyway, but now after consuming the soul there was no way Jia Hyson couldn't feel reluctant in his heart. Especially toward Li Guiren who had raised since he was a cute chubby dumpling.
However, instead of answering, Bebe stays silent.
"…Bebe?"
Bebe coughs awkwardly, "Bebe.. may have used up most of the data from our plan."
Jia Hyson twitches. They had bought an upgrade for their universal internet usage which had thrown in a new phone function with it's own plan a while ago. The bundle made them have to pay Xp per month for X amount of GB which was both flexible for them and easy on the wallet. Unfortunately if they exceed the data before the month is up, the extra costs were quite large and you couldn't add more data until the next month. "You bastard, we bought twenty GB worth of data! That comes with a lot of minutes for intra-world communications! It's been less than a week! I knew we should have got seperate plans you damned second generation rich system!"
As expected of an idiot for traded all their skills for a laser cannon. They! Can not! Be! Trusted! With! Money! (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
"Bebe didn't think you would find out!" Bebe wails, "You never use the phone!"
"You never use the phone!" Jia Hyson mocks in a high pitched voice, "What were you even doing?! If the answer isn't using all the money on a phone sex line to help you vent your frustrations but you began to slowly fall in love with the person on the other side of the line and now you two are secretly married I'm going to be pissed!"
"No… why would you even… what?"
To be honest Bebe used up most of the data chatting and texting to his various system friends. The data usage isn't too bad if the other systems are also in the system world or technologically advanced worlds but if the world is too primitive like the world Jia Hyson and Bebe were currently in where mobile phones were a fairly new invention, then the usage becomes significantly higher.
Bebe always forgets this little tidbit until a notification popped up warning it the capacity has almost been used up but as said before, Jia Hyson barely uses the phone so it has always gotten away with it till now. And it certainly could not tell it's host that a lot of those minutes used up were spent to bitch up about him.
"Then I'm pissed!" Jia Hyson declares angrily, "How many minutes are left?"
"Uhhhh… Eight minutes?" Bebe meekly replies.
"Bebe…"
"Seven minutes, twenty-eight seconds."
"…" Really want to strangle it. Gritting his teeth he says, "That. Will. Do."
Bebe: '…' Really can never tell host that he can buy a physical form for it.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself he then calls. It takes a minute before Li Guiren picks up, "Hello? Who is this?"
"Xiao Ren," Jia Hyson subconsciously smiles, fondness seeping into his voice. It was probably the first time in decades that Li Guiren had heard such warmth and for a moment he was stunned. Then promptly is overcome with emotion.
"W-Wei?" His deep voice goes rough and wobbly, "You.. what's wrong?"
Jia Hyson chuckles softly, "No, no, nothing's wrong. I just missed you, that's all."
However instead of comforting it seemed to make Li Guiren even more frightened, "You, Wei, please, if it's me, I," There's the sound of harsh breathing through the line, "Wei, don't.. Wei I love you, if, if, you want to be with Tian Shun it's fine, just don't.."
"What are you talking about?" Jia Hyson purposely keeps his tone upbeat but inwardly he was a little worried. Did Li Guiren realise something? But no matter how good a detective he is, he wasn't a mind reader. There was no way he was aware that Jia Hyson was a host. "I just wanted to hear your voice." His tone softens and his heart trembles a little as he thinks about leaving Li Guiren like this, leaving Tian Shun like this, but there really was no future here. The relationship was too toxic and Jia Hyson liked them too much to let it continue. "Li Guiren, in this lifetime you were what kept me sane for so long. Even though I've done nothing but sin when I came back to life, I truly believe raising you was my biggest virtue."
Quietly, but no less genuinely, he tells him, "I love you." His own voice was shaking slightly and Jia Hyson realises that he was tearing up again.
Li Guiren made an ugly sobbing sound, "Wei.. don't you dare leave that house, I'm coming over!" He yells frantically. "I want to see you okay? Promise me!"
Jia Hyson hesitates. Li Guiren isn't supposed to be in the story but he is a policeman. And well. Those are in horror stories a lot and.. Maybe.. "Dawn is in an hour and a half now. Come before then." Currently Li Guiren was on a case the far edges of the opposite side of town. It will be cutting it finely if he can make it but it's all up to fate now.
"I will!" Li Guiren swears determinedly, "You can count on me!"
"I always can," Jia Hyson smiles. He feels much lighter after that call. Even if Li Guiren fails to come, Jia Hyson was satisfied with their last conversation.
Call him selfish that way but he knew that if he hadn't eaten that soul and his soft human side only came back after he left the world he would've been filled with so many regrets about this. So he was happy that he took this opportunity to say what needed to be said. Now all he had left was to go see Tian Shun and do the same before he wrapped up the story.
Maybe this horror story won't have such a bad ending after all.
...
Outside the room in the blood soaked hallway, the silver eyes of a rather bedraggled looking Tian Shun who had been plastered to the edge of the wall by the doorway, flashed darkly with madness and jealousy.
Why?! Why was it always him?!
He touches the satchel he had brought and hidden beforehand in the house, in it was the Book of Curses and he gives a warped smile. This time… this time it will be different. This time, it is finally his turn to be loved.