In another world...
'Millions mourn for bestselling writer's death.'
'A national treasure gone from this world.'
'The cause of China's most popular writer's death- Murder?!'
'Young Schoolgirl stabs Bestselling Author on the Street.'
He Bai read the articles listlessly. When he first saw the news he didn't believe it. Jia Hyson was an author that liked to screw with his fans both in fiction and in reality. Though faking his death was a little far it wasn't out of the realm of the impossible. Many netizens even scolded him playfully for such a bad joke.
But two weeks has passed and slowly people have finally come around to the fact one of China's shining stars in literature have left the world early.
Comedy. Fantasy. Xianxia. Wuxia. Sci-fi. Fanfiction. Jia Hyson had made his presence known in so many genres. Gathering so many hardcore fans along the way. He's written movies, television shows, plays, even a musical which was a bit shit but people still loved it anyway. He was especially famous for his wit, strong characterization, his rambling paragraphs and oh course, his world building.
He Bai was the biggest fan of his world building. And even more so, he adores Jia Hyson's works in the horror genre.
Stumble in his opinion, was a masterpiece. It was the biggest pity it was cancelled but Jia Hyson had written most of the script out by then and generously put it up online for a very cheap price of a 10 USD. This was five seasons of script that was detailed enough that it would have been easy to convert it into a novel. However it was said that Jia Hyson had not only lost inspiration due to the actor's death and cancellations, but was simply to lazy to alter the format of the script into one fit for easier reading.
Jia Hyson had garnered a lot of criticism with some of reporters for that but in retaliation He Bai bought five copies of that script and posted a lot of support for Jia Hyson on Weibo so yeah. Screw those guys. Jia Hyson had even noticed his fervent support and offered to autograph all five of his copies as thanks for his support.
He Bai chuckles at the memory, he had been just a teenager at that time and was so thrilled to personally get a thank you from his male idol. He still has the copies somewhere in his drawers. Only two though. He gave two as gifts to his friends who were equally as appreciative and the last one to his mentor last week who had teared up at the present.
Stumble had been cancelled years ago.
He Bai is now a young upcoming screenwriter slash director who had recently produced an Indie horror movie that is currently nominated for two film awards. His dream was to collaborate with Jia Hyson on literally anything. It hadn't sounded so far fetched then. But now...
Now it was impossible.
He Bai sniffles. His biggest dream gone just like that. His idol now buried in shallow grave just as he had wanted it to be because and he quotes, 'If the zombie apocalypse comes, I want to be one of the first of the horde to crawl out of the graveyard.' His favorite stories to read never completed.
Morosely, He Bai logs onto his computer. He has a file dedicated to anything related to Jia Hyson that he had always dumped things in but barely ever opened unless he was looking for a specific screenshot of a quote he had liked or an a sassy Weibo or funny tumblr post about the author.
He had to start writing something new soon but with news of Jia Hyson's death he had been completely depressed and unmotivated. Maybe now was a good time as any to go through and reminisce before pushing the grief behind him.
As He Bai goes through each file or photo, his eyes redden again. Even though he was aware that Jia Hyson had influenced his life and passions, going through this he felt it had really hit home. Finally he reaches a file called The Demon House. His mouth twitches.
The Demon House was really his black history. Something he had written when he first watched Stumble when he was sixteen and wanted to write something just as cool and dark and edgy. However he was still very nervous about his writings. Even though he adored dark fantasy like Stumble he had always been inclined to horror, a genre that was not the most popular, not the most financially successful and also not the most generally well rated of the genres.
At that time He Bai, who wanted to get more viewers faster, thought that if he made it more family friendly maybe people would be more interested in reading it online. And well. There's a reason why he no longer want to write anything below a rating of R-18 anymore.
Still for all times sake he reads it.
He Bai: '…This is so shit.'
If he could describe it in two word he would say it's 'Pure Cringe'. It was that bad. No wonder he had got so much negative reviews. He Bai can't help but laugh at it as he kept reading on. The lack of plot, the obvious extension of the story with dumb excuses, and the rather boring and unlikeable characters… Even the ghosts were barely readable and He Bai almost forgot which one was meant to be an Easter Egg for Jia Hyson's Stumble show until it was explicitly said near the end.
Finally when he reached the end of the rather excruciating story, He Bai laid back on his chair and sighs. How far he has come from there.
However before he exited the document containing the last chapter he realised there was a little more that he hadn't scrolled down to see yet. A little confused he does so, and in bright blue letters there was a some sort of note he must have put in back then.
'Dear Mr Hyson, I hope you liked this story. If you have any criticisms or suggestions please tell me. Just anything really. That you for your time and consideration. Yours truly, He Bai, your biggest fan.'
He Bai: '…I am so shit.'
Immediately he runs off to jump on his bed, suffocating himself on his pillow while screaming out his embarrassment. He sent that piece of crap to his idol?! What possessed him to do such an arrogant thing? Why didn't he remember this?! He must have blocked it from his memory. If only he could block the whole thing from existence.
As he sent himself into a downward spiral of despair and self-humiliation he decides to get up quickly and delete the story from existence. And then wait for technology to invent a mind wipe machine like in the science-fiction movies. Otherwise he might as well die alright? Die of shame!
But as he hovered over the delete button, an email notification popped up. Usually he wouldn't have given it a second glance but these days he had been particularly sensitive to the name Jia Hyson so when he saw it was the topic of the email he immediately clicked it without thinking. What was in it changed his life.
In bright blue, the email read:
'To He Bai,
As you must know by now Jia Hyson has unfortunately left the world. My name is not important but you should know I'm very close with him and this is not a hoax.
Jia Hyson was a great author but was notoriously lazy and forgetful. Currently I'm cleaning up his old laptop and transferring the data into a hard drive and I found a file that read 'Fan Stories'. At first I thought it was fanfiction of some sort but soon I realized these were stories submitted by fans as well as his ideas on how to revamp them. As you've figured out by now, you are one of them.
I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you and I hope you don't waste this opportunity given to you by him. He would want the world to be filled with great stories in his next life.
Sincerely, System X.'
....
"And how does that make you feel?"
"Like I want to die." Jia Hyson hugs a pillow tightly, "I've always known I'm a bit not right but I've never, I've never done anything to the people I love." He confesses in a wobbly tone. "They were even smiling at me as they did it. Like they were so happy to die in front of me."
Doctor Ya An nods, jotting something down in her notebook before looking gently at Jia Hyson. "Maybe before our next session try and think of at least three reasons why is that. Have you considered looking at it in their shoes?"
"Okay, but..." Jia Hyson sniffles and hesitates, "They're kind of psychos."
Doctor Ya An: '...Honey, trust me, from what I gather you were the most psycho of them all.'
They chatted a bit more this time about lighter subjects. Doctor Ya An was a more experienced host that has a Villain Rehabilitation System meaning that she goes to worlds where a character, usually the villain or a villainous supporting lead but occasionally other character roles like protagonists, go too far off the deep end and their actions are considered more damaging to the world than the damage of not following the script.
For example a villain in a story where he succeeds is fine if the aim was him to take over the world. However if it was to destroy the world obviously it was better for the world to be a bit unstable from changing the script than for it to be destroyed completely.
Or if the story was an office romance where the villain does a corporate overtaking of a bunch of large companies which results in long term economic destruction that occurs after the story finishes that is also considered a loss that outweighs the gains. Especially since Doctor Ya An has noticed that for simpler stories they can share the same world with other stories, like a domineering CEO love story can exist with an Actor love story and a Cooking romance story since they barely coincide.
This essentially means there is more than one anchor point for the world and therefore the importance of maintaining it and the impact of altering it is slightly lower.
Because of her speciality in villain rehabilitation Doctor Ya An was also offered a part-time job as a therapist for other hosts, earning her a neat little salary of p for no risk. Jia Hyson would be jealous, but like, he just came into a ton of p recently so, like, he's above that now.
Also it wasn't like he would make a very good therapist.
"You know, before you I've never even heard of a Beta system." Doctor Ya An comments mildly, "Not to mention a host so confident that they went into a Skill Upgrade world on their second trip."
Jia Hyson smiles in embarrassment. He couldn't exactly say he went in to get his mind off his depression only to come back with ten new issues. Deftly he changes the subject, "Well when did you go to your first Skill Upgrade world then?" He asks politely.
Doctor Ya An pulls a face at the memory, "It was probably my eighth or ninth world, I got cocky since I had such a good track record and I figured since most of my skills weren't violently inclined it should be fine but," Jia Hyson leaned in, interested, she shows a bitter smile at the pair of glittering eyes, "The skill meant to be upgraded was White Lotus Tears level 3 which is a skill that will make the other party's destructive emotions settle at the sight and focus on trying to appease the user. It invokes feelings of guilt and compassion but only to a certain extent, for example if they truly believe they are in the right or truly hate the person crying they may not be very affected."
Jia Hyson frowns slightly, "It's a useful skill but.. leveling it up, I really can't imagine the conditions."
Doctor Ya An chuckles, "Well it involves a lot of crying I can tell you that. I think they calculate the % of success and convert it into experience points to level it up but from the life of me I still don't know how they calculate it. Once I got a character to stop shoplifting and gained 30 points, another character I convinced to not kill his cousin and I only got 9 points. To reach level 4 I need 400 points."
Jia Hyson winces. A lot of crying indeed. Even with his crying fetish he doesn't think he could handle that much. Especially if it was only him doing the weeping. "So what sort of world did you enter then."
"That's the worst part," Doctor Ya An sighs, "I got sent into a dark fantasy world with three demon lords. Three! And they were identical triplets! And I was a stupid spoilt daughter from a noble family that was part of the entourage to the rival love interest of the main character! Just thinking about my situation made it easy for the tears to flow down my cheeks ah."
Jia Hyson: '...' In retrospect he really had it easy ba.
"Did you... succeed?" He asks carefully.
Doctor Ya An glares at him, clearly it was a sore spot, "I'll have you know most hosts have a 37% death rate and a 86% fail rate for their first Skill Upgrade world. This sort of failure is not considered shameful."
"I wouldn't dare!" Jia Hyson quickly and cleverly says. He was introverted at heart but he's trained himself for years to socialize both for the sake of his job and his sex-*ahem* social life. "It's already very impressive to me that you came out alive! I mean, I technically died in my world."
Doctor Ya An looks appeased by the flattery, "Well yes, the Skill Upgrade world is incredibly difficult and random, but it generally falls under two categories- worlds that aren't necessarily life threatening but difficult to find a breakthrough and worlds that are intimately related to danger but the breakthrough is easier to reach. My first Skill Upgrade world was the former unfortunately, because of my lack of connections and luck at the time it took a while to meet with a single demon lord so I was stuck grinding up my skills with typical second rate cannonfodder. By the time I got that demon lord to trust me enough, I was already near the end of my lifespan since I was a normal human and not a mage or half-elf." She sighs. "Barely a sixth of my task was considered complete and because I was murdered by one of the demon lord's brother apparently it was a catalyst for a demonic civil war and the world was in even more danger than before. I had a random deduction of points for one of my skills and even had to pay a 'compensation' of 80% of my current savings as a result of such a tragedy."
Doctor Ya An looked incredibly pained when she mentioned that. She must have saved up a lot then. 80% of her current savings meant if she had spent a lot beforehand on items she would have consequently lost a lot less but the doctor looked like the cautious crafty type and would have definitely been waiting to earn enough for a big item or kept a lot for emergencies so the loss must have been a huge blow. Jia Hyson tried to think of a way to console her that didn't sound too shallow considering his own highly successful run but Doctor merely shrugged after sighing with an irritated look.
"It's okay I managed to earn it back eventually, and this side gig definitely helps a lot. Besides, I'm glad at the very least I didn't go through as much shit as you did." She gives him a very unprofessional, 'Poor stupid dumbass,' look before adding "You poor stupid dumbass."
Jia Hyson: '…Give me back my sympathy.'
"Anyway," Doctor Ya An smiles like she hadn't insulted him for his poor life choices, "Keep up with your medication, I suggest arranging to see me in a week or two, think about what I said and don't, and I swear to god, don't think about going to do a mission for at least five months."
"Well," Jia Hyson says after a pause, "that's a shame because I was totally thinking of heading to a Skills Upgrade word tomorrow."
Doctor Ya An rolled her eyes and triple underlines, 'uses humour and sarcasm as a defence mechanism' in her notebook.
…
It's been three weeks since Jia Hyson came back.
Because of his incredibly bad mental state he had been given an A-grade medical Stabiliser which helped him drop his [Psychotic Break] levels down to Level 6 but consequently put him in a five day coma as a result. However when he came to, Jia Hyson felt he rather stay in the coma.
[Psychotic Break] was a double-edged sword. He was more prone to ruthless measures and cruel tactics but at the same time he had been protected from things like pain, fear and guilt. It was because of this special skill Jia Hyson could continue the mission so easily. A normal person, even with Jia Hyson's already unique mindset would not have done well after burning alive, dying, and being trapped in a very claustrophobic doll in a dark room filled with dolls. They would have broken down, maybe even gone catatonic, at the very least they would have definitely developed more mental problems than Jia Hyson had.
But now that Jia Hyson's recovered somewhat, he's washed with true guilt for the first time in decades. It's incredibly unpleasant.
Now Jia Hyson's not exactly a great example of human morality to begin with nor did he carry heavy sense of sentiment by nature. And [Psychotic Break] was still active so he didn't, and probably won't, actually feel much lost sleep over those mob victims he killed. Honestly he may not have felt too much even without the [Psychotic Break] since by originally owning such a messed up skill it implies he had the potential to do such a messed up thing in the first place. After all, he's always had a rather gory imagination, a morbid curiosity in dissection and an odd detachment to people he didn't care about, if not he wouldn't have been capable of such merciless brutality in the first place and would have ended up as some basic bitch Jason instead.
The only reason he probably didn't go completely psycho crazy bonkers in his original world was because of the law and his family and friends. And also later on because he rather enjoyed the celebrity lifestyle and was quite intent on keeping it. But like, family, friends and the law was important to him to. In that exact order.
However, as said before, the people he loves, he loves deeply. The emotional impact of killing a stranger and the emotional impact being the reason for a loved one's death was the difference between stubbing a toe and being burned alive. And he can totally say that now because he's experienced both.
That is to say one pain can feel blindingly harsh for a moment before fading relatively quickly and the other one is excruciating at the time and even more so in the aftermath. Even though his skin has returned to silky smoothness, the inside of Jia Hyson's heart was still scarred from the trauma.
He had cried and sunk into one of the worst cases of depression he probably ever had. No one he loved had ever committed suicide before, he had been lucky in that matter. Everyone had died from old age or natural illness or were still very much alive. And to know he was the sole reason for such an extreme decision made it hard to accept. Especially since both Li Guiren and Tian Shun were talented, intelligent people that could reach great heights in the future but because of him that was forever cut off.
Because Bebe was very worried and the scans indicated Jia Hyson's mental state was below the threshold of acceptable, a therapist and medication to alleviate some of the problems was presented by the system world as compensation. Of course the therapy and medication was temporarily free for two months before one had to pay but it was still pretty good stuff.
They also gave a free upgrade to Fishball the adorable bunny which had gotten even fatter and fluffier as a result. Jia Hyson was very happy about that and would constantly be seen hugging the soft and malleable Fishball around the room.
The medication was also highly effective, much better than his own world's medicine and with no side effects as well. Jia Hyson had asked once why the systems couldn't just wipe out his depression completely but was met with scorn. After all unlike systems, humans were creatures that had fundamental differences and reactions to various stimuli, mental illness was something harder to cure than any normal illness and involved matters of the brain. The effects of such a miracle wipe would be rather unreliable at best. It was already good enough they can guarantee absolutely no side effects.
Therefore the systems didn't dare to do anything too extreme in order to cure something that can be theoretically cured over time, instead it was better to safely encourage the healing process and speed it up as best they can without compromising anything. Anyway, there was a reason why they have so many hosts and it wasn't like time was a huge issue for them.
The point was, as the fourth week since he had come back approached, Jia Hyson was as good as if he had been recovering for three months. That was how impressive and intensive the medical compensation was in the system world. Maybe if he wasn't a rare Beta user he wouldn't have got such a good service but he is so he did. And it really showed. He had even begun to crack more and more jokes and his motivation and inspiration to write have begun to come back again.
Now back from his appointment with Doctor Ya An, Jia Hyson felt he was in a good enough mood to face reality for the first time since he came back. "Bebe, you can tell me how I did in the mission now," even though he said it so confidently though, Jia Hyson still made sure to grab Fishball and jump into his comfy pillow nest of a bed before listening to the answer.
Bebe gave a quiet sigh of relief before acting professional, "Host did really well. The Demon House has been revamped into Midnight Massacre Mansion and converted into a movie! For a horror film it did very well at 4.2 stars."
Jia Hyson nods, that was pretty good for a horror movie.
"Some reviews for this movie are as follows,
'This was messed so up... I like it.'
'I want a movie specifically about each ghost omg especially the ink one which I find is probably the most mysterious like what's with that guys?'
'There were a lot of beautiful people in the movie but the new actor playing Bai Li Wei at the end made me run up to the front to lick the screen! Tasted a little bloody but ahhh must keep licking!'
'It was interesting because I wasn't sure who the main character was. Zhao Xuefeng seemed to be it in the beginning but then Tian Shun the mysterious transfer student came and I figured maybe he's the true protagonist yet Li Daguo and Zeng Hai started to really shine once the horror ramped out. The point was these characters were really well done (except Ming Bo who SUCKS) even Nalan Chyou who I figured to be a typical damsel ended up growing some character by the end of it! Of course... the plot twist at the end was a real eye opener!'
'That plot twist alone! This Laozi is still thinking about it! 10/10! Damn!'
'Good characters, a lot of horror and gore, not reliant on jump scares, simple but solid story with a massive frankly mind blowing but not completely out of nowhere plot twist that makes it stand out from all the other movies this year (even the blockbusters). In short, if this doesn't get an award I'll eat shit!'
'Fuck! My Tian Shun x Zhao Xuefeng ship died in literal flames! Yet before I can cry I find myself shipping the evil hot ghost with that two faced psycho?? Have my tastes gotten heavier recently?'
'The ghosts are so interesting and varied? Am I the only one like super interested in their backstory and want to know more about the house?? They also heavily implied Tian Shun and his father are servants to the doll ghost or something and I can't believe I'm going to say this but I TOTALLY need a prequel.'
'The doll ghost was sooooo good looking? Me and my boyfriend both agreed that we can cheat on the other as long as the mistress is just as good looking as Bai Li Wei!'"
Jia Hyson chuckles as he reads the comments about Bai Li Wei's beauty. He wonders if the actor looked as good as the original. The poor writer probably stressed out the casting crew with his incredibly high standards for appearance if that's the case.
"Now for the points,"
Jia Hyson perks up at this. Before he wasn't curious nor very interested in hearing about the mission results, he had petulantly felt he was demanding the lives of Li Guiren and Tian Shun in a roundabout way somehow but now that he was better adjusted he was quite excited. His first world earth him 10 points and 1000p, excluding bonus points of course, so what would a skill upgrade world get him?
Even Bebe was very excited, actually, Bebe had always been very excited to calculate their big haul but it didn't dare to when it saw how sad it's host had been. Now that host was better it no longer had any qualms and received the information like the numbers of a winning lotto ticket. "For doing such a good job on improving the world, the overseers have decided to reward you… 20 points, a skill ticket and 15,000p!"
Jia Hyson suddenly felt he was a rich person once again. 15,000 p. Fuck! That was worth fifteen basic missions! Getting traumatised was worth it! He gets free medical compensation anyway.
Silently he considers if he should really go to another Skill Upgrade World after the recovery period.
"That's not all," Bebe continues, giddy from the shocked look on its host, "Because you met a Worldbreaker and successfully eliminated him your points are directly doubled plus an extra 2000p."
"32,000p, two skill tickets and 40 skill points?" Jia Hyson swallows his saliva greedily. He could buy so much shit with that. And while he has no idea what skill tickets do but from the name alone they sound like free skills which, like, yes please.
Once again he seriously considers if he should really go to another Skill Upgrade World after the recovery period. These rewards were really too good.
"Also, you've unlocked the new special skills [Ghost Whisperer MAX level! Dead men tell tales, you just haven't listened hard enough.], [Friends from the Other Side Level 5! Because I've got friends from the other side.] and a unique skill [Helper Summoning (Active) Level 1]." Bebe finally concludes. "The special skills are unlocked when a human is in the presence of ghosts and conversed with them for long periods of time and also when you make strong friendly relations with a number of spirits. Technically you didn't earn them since you weren't human at the time but since your human now and the friendship between you and the ghosts from the last world cannot be considered lost it is valid."
"Interesting," Jia Hyson mutters. "Well they are certainly more practical than some of the other skills I gained."
His special skillset has expanded immensely compared to his measly four skills from before (Animal Charmer Level 2, God's Scribe Level 8, Psychotic Break Level 5 and Burger Prince Level 3). Now he also has:
[Malevolent Intent Level 10]
[If Looks Could Kill (Active) Level 4]
[Voices of the Dead (Active) Level 4]
[Cruel Caress (Active) Level 8]
[Psychotic Euphoria Level 2]
[Psychic Terror (Active) level 3]
[Soul Sucker (Active) Level 4]
[Corruptor of Children Level 2]
He had also earned somewhere in between [Eternal Torment (Active) Level 1! If it's with you baby I can endure any suffering... except for this one.]
In the period this skill is activated Jia Hyson would suffer an incredible, unimaginable amount of pain and gain an incredible amount of power at the same time. Just activating [Eternal Torment] at level 1 increases his power, strength and abilities by 100%, temporarily doubling his stats. At level 2 everything will be tripled, enhanced by 200% and so on and so one. Theoretically it is a miraculous special skill... if you ignore the first part of the description anyway.
Even Jia Hyson, who had already gone through what he had thought was 'an incredible, unimaginable amount of pain' had been a little tempted to try the skill. However torture wasn't like rock-climbing where it isn't so bad the second time round. Torture is either equally or even more bad. There is no less bad, just less torture.
Jia Hyson lights a candle for all the poor ghosts in this world. Anyway, it wasn't his problem anymore. Because he was already OP when the plot started he hadn't need to use such a scary skill. Sure he could've used it on Tian Shun when he had trapped him at the end but honestly, Jia Hyson was so muddled by the betrayal he had forgotten. Even if he hadn't, he might not have necessarily used it.
Now he can also add [Ghost Whisperer MAX level] and [Friends from the Other Side Level 5] to the list.
Jia Hyson: '...' Actually, even if it seems rather impressive, at one glance won't people think I'm a really huge fucking pervert with super heavy tastes with such skills.
Bebe: '...' It's amazing how well the skillset reflects Bebe's really huge fucking pervert of a host with his heavy tastes.
"What are unique skills then?" That Helper Summoning skill mentioned before was very interesting and was not grouped with the other special skills.
"Unique skills are skills unique to the host because of the system. For example a summoner in a fantasy world can summon elemental spirits with the skill [Elemental Summon] but your [Helper Summoning] will let you summon any character from any world that you've been to with an affection rating over 70. Of course since it's only level one you can only randomly summon and one character at a time. Other typical unique skills are the Spatial Storage we already have but another for yourself, Affection Meter, Status Check, Learning Cube and Caught on Camera. You can use your skill tickets to exchange for them."
Jia Hyson whistles. It turns out the true OP skills weren't in the special skills but the unique skills. His eyes brighten. Spatial storage to keep things, Learning Cube to improve skills, Status Check to examine objects and people… If he had more of those skills couldn't he take over his spicy chicken system's job himself?
Bebe: QAQ Suddenly felt a disturbance in Bebe's future financial stability.
Quickly Bebe changes the subject, "Now, now let's look at the bonus points, overall you earn an extra… 7 skill points."
Jia Hyson frowns and opens the receipt that notes down where he gained and lost points over time. Since he improved the plot so much he should be raking it in, this wasn't like where he tweaked and improved the protagonist like the first world which gave a butterfly effect, he literally changed the plot's settings and foundation for the better! "How can that be? See, I earned 60 points for world building and 80 for character development!" He salivates over those numbers greedily, couldn't he make himself half a master of any skill he pleases with that amount alone? Not to mention the other points he earns for the plot twist and such.
"You also lost 180 points for OOC." Bebe scrolls the receipt automatically for Jia Hyson to see the loss highlighted in red. Jia Hyson stared at the highlighted 'OOC' penalty and wanted to cry. He wasn't an actor! No, even actors wouldn't be able to stay in their role for over fifty years. There was no training in the world that could help him maintain that sort of ability okay? "Bai Li Wei may be getting his own prequel in the future and there will be contradictions thanks to your.. ambiguous relationship with Li Guiren and Tian Shun and Bai Li Wei's tragic past of almost getting raped by his family members and getting kidnapped by a cult mainly consisting of men."
Jia Hyson grimaces, "Fine, I get it," It really didn't make sense for Bai Li Wei to not be homophobic or even develop a fear and hatred of men thanks to his previous history of abuse due to his attractiveness. Ironically it wouldn't have been as big a deal if the revamped story was a little less popular since the chances of sequels will be lower if the box office sales weren't great but a sequel meant details and backstory.
Bai Li Wei had great potential to be a cult favourite and that requires decent consistency. As long as if it's well explained it may be okay but movies were unpredictable, who knows if the director will change or the writer was replaced due to reasons and they decide to alter Bai Li Wei due to this small but rather important OOC choice.
After all in his original world homosexuality was still a rather uncool taboo topic, especially in China. While to him, who had lived as Bai Li Wei and sees him as a person, to others Bai Li Wei was a character than can be changed with enough money and power thrown at it. If Jia Hyson had stayed in character and been strictly platonic with the pair, the motivation and actions of Bai Li Wei would be more or less easy to explain, that he was moved by the love of the family he had created and hesitated, making him a nice complex but not too controversial character. But because Jia Hyson couldn't keep it in his ghost pants Bai Li Wei's character had a weakness that may be exploited in a way that was not necessarily for the better.
But what's done is done. The best Jia Hyson could do was try figure out a good balance in keeping the most important aspects of the character he was playing while still allowing himself to be himself to some extent in order to minimise the OOC in the future.
He never thought much about it but after experiencing two worlds and producing so many penalties for OOC, Jia Hyson realised the most unbelievable thing about Quick Transmigration stories was how well everyone can stay in character for so fucking long. All he can say is that while he's always in rather tiny character roles, he's grateful that the system at least gave him characters with personalities that were similar to his own in some particular aspect.
After contemplating some more, it was Jia Hyson's turn to change the subject. Now that all the main formalities for the mission aftermath was done, there was still one pressing question that remained.
"Bebe," Jia Hyson pauses, eyes lingering on his two new shards that were now placed neatly side by side on his desk. One a light pale color that was warm to touch and the other dark in color and cold. They were both jagged and broken pieces roughly around the length of Jia Hyson's middle finger which was a little bigger than the previous pair of shards. "Has your bosses figured out what this is?"
"Wait, let Bebe check Bebe's notifications." Bebe replies quietly, also sensing its host's nerves and was quite nervous itself. This was a very strange thing even for it. "Bebe got new but didn't want to open it until Host was ready."
Jia Hyson smiles. Even if they like to bitch about each other they still held a bond more unshakeable than lovers. He was very grateful for Bebe's support these few weeks and decides silently to forgive him about the laser cannon thing. And the mobile phone plan thing. And…
After a second Bebe made a loud sound of shock, "This, this!"
Instantly Jia Hyson got anxious. "What is it?"
"The shards belong to a Royal system." Bebe's voice was very complicated, unsure what to feel. "Royals are considered the highest tier a system could have and supposedly have the potential to become God. There are only a few hundred Royals in the whole system world."
Jia Hyson was still a little lost. He was aware of the hierarchy, the Royals were like the Princes and Princess of ancient times but at the same time they were like the presidents of modern times because for a long time now there has been no Dragon Emperor to lead them and so the logical result was the Royals become something akin to a democratic monarchy. Of course with the exception of some radical Nobles and Royals that have extreme beliefs that needed to be occasionally weeded out, there was rarely any large scale wars or inner conflicts anymore so there wasn't a huge fuss like if they were humans that were more prone to acting on their inner demons.
Still. It didn't explain why he of all people had found system shards. "I thought Systems don't have a physical body?"
"Normal systems don't," Bebe defends, "But the higher up you go in tier the more information and data and power you gain. While Bebe has never experienced it personally, Bebe knows that Overseers can condense into a semi-physical state for a period of time and Overlords a proper physical state of simple shape. Bebe supposes if its a Royal then…"
"But why would a Royal even do this?" Jia Hyson asks with a burning curiosity, mind whirring, "Could it really be the scenario of backstabbing by a fellow comrade?"
"No intelligent system would leave traces of their enemy alive if that was the case, we've been over this," Bebe impatiently rebuts before its voice goes small and nervous, "Bebe.. Bebe doesn't want to assume but the strongest possibility is… the Royal may have wanted to achieve Godhood." And failed.
If Bebe could think of it, Jia Hyson eventually could too and sighs. After all, who didn't have lofty ambitions. When one is already so high up, the only way they can satisfy their feeling of achievement is to be the highest.
"There's more." Bebe adds, "The two different coloured shards are from the same Royal."
Jia Hyson squints his eyes at the Bebe bangle confused, "Is that.. not good?"
"Generally systems have one base color that can change but usually stay one color. Bebe's is blue with iridescent silvery highlights. It reflects a system's personality and mindset to some extent. There's only one system that has two distinct colours of white and black, and it disappeared ages ago, presumedly from self destruction."
Jia Hyson closes his eyes, it turns out the system shards come from the remnants a glitched Royal, "What's his name?"
"Bebe isn't sure." Bebe mutters, "All Bebe knows from the database is that the Royal is known as the Bipolar Prince, the only system with diagnoses with a genuine mental disorder."
Jia Hyson: '…' It's worse than he thought.
"If it helps," Bebe awkwardly keeps talking through the silence, "The prince isn't actually technically bipolar, it's just he, uh, has two personalities in his data frame for some reason, and Dissociative Identity Disorder, is often misdiagnosed as Bipolar Disorder and Bipolar Prince just sounded better."
The more he listened the more Jia Hyson figured it made a lot of sense. Drake Lanzoni and Monroe Fenwick had differing personalities but still some odd similarities in tastes. Tian Shun and Li Guiren were much more obvious in symbolism, polar opposites in physical constitutions yet intricately linked by blood. Yet at the same time there were still quite a few questions that are left unanswered. And they will probably remain that way for a while.
He sighs. "It turns out my mum was right,"
Bebe: '???'
"I really am attracted to weirdos, psychos and losers." The main character turned cannon fodder, the step brother who didn't achieve anything before leaving, the yandere father and son duo… Actually thinking about that father and son Jia Hyson's expression turns a little odd as he sees the toxic relationship in a whole new light. Is this, ah, what one would call a metaphor for extreme self-hatred?
Bebe: '…' Those guys will cry if they ever heard that.
"Anyway," Bebe coughs, "The systems up top encourage you to keep the shards and do your best to collect them. Systems are very powerful and a Royal wouldn't die from a simple implosion, self-destruction or not, so the fact we're finding shards means that after so long the Prince is recovering himself and slowly piecing together his data. It will be faster if we can keep them all in one place, the shards will be sent back to host to keep in the safe space which other systems are not allowed into, not even Royals. On the off chance the destruction wasn't an act of suicide or a glitch by the prince's, ah, abnormality, then a host's safe space is one of the safest places to leave the shards."
"Sounds good," He wasn't willing to let the shards be destroyed either, no matter how low the chance. The personas in the shards were people that Jia Hyson had grown very fond of and knowing that there were, on some level, still alive in those objects made it even harder for him to let them go. Thinking about it more, the better he felt. Tian Shun and Li Guiren must have had some idea of their true identities at some stage which meant they were probably aware that Jia Hyson wasn't a native to the world.
If that's the case maybe their actions in their last moments… even though he still had gaps in his explanations and doubt and grief was still in his heart, Jia Hyson felt much lighter than he had for a while.
After a few more months of therapy and relaxing in the safe space. Jia Hyson finally decides he's ready to play again.
Also. It turns out you can order a lot of things on BeBay, but apparently sex is not one of them. And there are only so many things you can do with your hand and a back massager.
Bebe: '..Host is from now on banned from all vibrating objects unless strictly supervised.'
Jia Hyson: 'It's no use Bebe, you'll only excite me further~"
Bebe: '…' Yup. Host is definitely back.
"Because Host chose the very challenging Skill Upgrade World after a period of grief and depression, and furthermore that world was a horror world with Host's identity as a villainous ghost that feeds off negative energy, the Overseers on account for your mental well-being have decided to agree to two request worlds." Bebe informs him after Jia Hyson tells him he's ready, "Essentially you can make one request for your identity or for the story world you will enter two times. For example wanting to be the emperor or going to a celebrity-type story."
"They really treat us well ah," Jia Hyson whistles admiringly. On top of two months of free therapy and medication they even give them this? Who would rebel? Only morons would turn into Worldbreakers!
"With high risk and high demand, obviously the worker benefits must also be not bad," Bebe sounds smug, "Of course there are also restrictions. It's one request only per world. If you request to be an emperor with a huge army you may end up a zombie emperor in an apocalypse scenario- that won't happen of course. The Overseers will make sure that the world will have a low chance of negatively impacting your mental state too much so no horror or apocalyptic stories and even some bloody, realistic historical ones may be censored temporarily from your options. But still."
Jia Hyson nods, "Makes sense, so other than choosing something clearly detrimental to my health I should be able to request whatever I want? What if I want to be a mermaid-angel prince with long flowing hair the color like Hatsune M*ku's, a beautiful white holy sword and... a really high sex drive!"
Bebe: '...'
"This.." Bebe says helplessly, its host was really something else, "we can put in the request to see if they can find anything in the data but for something that specific you will have to wait a while. In fact, what you can do if they can't find what you want is make a booking for any world with such a character in it and do the first request world. If the first world is completed and there is still not a match you can make a different second request. The booking will serve as a reserve request world, meaning if your mental state decreases to a certain point in the future or you earn a special reward and by then we found a 85% match or higher to your request, then we will immediately notify you and ask if you would like to enter."
"Amazing!" Jia Hyson exclaims happily, he was not stingy with his praise, "This service is really too good! Truly VIP treatment! First-class!"
"Hahaha," Bebe laughs proudly as if it was Bebe responsible for the whole idea, "Of course, of course! We systems are far superior to those greedy small-minded systems in the stories!"
"Definitely! Definitely!" Jia Hyson agrees genuinely. Most system stories would at best give the host some time to recuperate in a strange space for however long they wished. If the main character was the cold and calculating OP type and the system was the cute, dumb pet type, then maybe the MC can bully out some benefits out of their system like getting x amount of points at the very start or cheaper goods at the shop. Some systems have ill intentions that act like evil spirits who suck the energy out of their hosts, and some systems are like internet ads with a sense of awareness, trying to sell, sell, sell their products until their hosts curse them away. None have ever talked about employee benefits or provided stress relief items like FishBall the bunny or Request Worlds set on Easy Mode... it really is too good ah. "Let's do it!"
"Okay!" Bebe cries out excitedly, caught up in the atmosphere before quickly sobering, "Do what?"
"Put the request in!"
Bebe pauses. "...Wait, host was serious?"
Jia Hyson nods furiously like a hungry chick pecking for rice, "Yes! Of course! I mean, I wasn't before but now that I have the option why not ah? I would like to see what sort of story will require a mermaid-angel prince with long flowing hair the color like Hatsune M*ku's, a beautiful white holy sword and a really high sex drive!" He pauses a bit before adding excitedly, "And increased sensitivity!"
"Fuck your increased sensitivity! Bebe hopes you end up in an extremist Christian made novel where homosexuals get burned at the stake!" Bebe curses angrily. It has to give this request to it's superiors! There will be a lot of face lost here!
Now it's Jia Hyson's turn to pause for a lengthy amount of time, "Wait. That's a real thing?"
"...Yes but you can put it on the list of stories that you can reject. If Host truly feels like there are certain worlds or people you cannot live in you can choose to reject it but must give a proper reason to it such as trauma, religious beliefs, morals etcetera. Most worlds are filtered to not cross your bottom lines though so even though many complain, they don't have the clout to demand a world change." Bebe reluctantly explains. Even if it wants to lie for the sake of annoying it's host it has great pride in the way the system world is run. "..I've typed in the request. Currently there are no matches so please give me your next request."
Jia Hyson pets Fishball thoughtfully for a moment before his heart quickly picks what it has wanted for two lifetimes, "I want to be a person who is rich! Good food is easy to get! A doting family! A sexy body! In short, a person born at the peak of life!"
That one was much easier to get. Immediately Bebe gets approval from it's overseer.
"Initializing.. prepare for transmigration in 3... 2... 1..."