The crowd stood frozen, the air thick with tension, their eyes darting between the priest and Shun. Granny Zhao's sharp gaze locked onto the priest, who seemed to shrink under her scrutiny. Mei clutched his arm, her face drained of all color.
"Well?" Granny Zhao's voice sliced through the silence like a blade. "Explain this… magic the villagers speak of."
The priest straightened, trying to regain some semblance of authority. "This is a misunderstanding," he said smoothly, though the sheen of sweat on his brow betrayed his nerves. "Mei came to me for guidance, nothing more."
The villagers exchanged skeptical glances, murmurs rippling through the crowd. Granny Zhao's gaze flicked toward Shun, who lingered at the edge, his expression unreadable… but there was a flicker of mischief in his eyes.
"Zhong," Granny Zhao called, her voice firm. "Step forward."
Shun hesitated for a moment, then grinned widely, his mood flipping in an instant. He took a step forward, a spring in his step, and spread his arms out wide. "Oh, here we go! Time to expose the master of deception!" He twirled dramatically, drawing attention to himself like a performer on stage. "Ladies and gentlemen, gather 'round! I'm about to reveal the truth you've all been waiting for!"
The crowd stared in confusion, unsure whether to be worried or amused. Granny Zhao raised an eyebrow, clearly not impressed. Shun turned to her, throwing his hands up in mock surrender. "Oh, come on! Where's the drama in a little mystery? I'm just doing my part, you know?"
The priest's face hardened. "Enough of this foolishness!" he snapped. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Oh, I'm just getting started!" Shun grinned, his eyes glinting with a strange energy. He turned to the crowd and pointed at the priest. "You see, my dear priest, I've been doing some very interesting research—because I'm a man of mystery, you know? And guess what I found? Some rather curious little secrets hidden away in the dark corners of this village."
The priest faltered, but tried to maintain his composure. "I do not need to explain myself to you, Zhong Zhiqiang! You should be grateful I purified you parents dead corpse ."
Shun's grin twisted into something more sinister. "Grateful?" he asked, his voice suddenly low and chilling. "Oh, I'm so grateful that you've been fuckin my sweet wife. Really, it's the best kind of gratitude, don't you think?" He tilted his head, eyes narrowing. "You know, I thought I was the only one who could do dark things… but you? You've really outdone me, haven't you?"
The villagers shifted uneasily, unsure of how to react to this sudden shift in Shun's demeanor. Granny Zhao stepped forward, raising a hand for silence.
"Enough," she said firmly, her eyes narrowing at Shun. "If you claim the priest is guilty, then you must provide proof. Words alone will not suffice."
Shun paused, his grin slowly fading. He reached into his robe, his fingers brushing the cold, familiar touch of the mask. The voice inside his mind stirred—calm, but insistent.
"Use me. The truth lies in their hearts."
Shun took a deep breath, his mood flipping once again. He yanked the mask from his robe with dramatic flair, holding it up for all to see. The villagers recoiled, gasping, but Shun simply winked at them.
"Ta-da!" he exclaimed, as if revealing a prize-winning rabbit. "Behold the legendary mask of truth!" He held it up like a theatrical prop. "Don't worry, folks. No scary demons or curses here. Just some good ol' fashioned truth… and a little dose of spooky."
The priest's face drained of color. "You dare bring that cursed object here?" he hissed. "That is a tool of darkness!"
Shun raised a finger to his lips, adopting an exaggerated serious face. "Cursed? Oh, no no no," he said, "It's enlightening, my dear priest. You'd be surprised at how much light it can shine on a soul as dark as yours."
He turned to Granny Zhao with a dramatic bow. "With your permission, of course, Elder."
Granny Zhao's eyes narrowed, but after a moment, she gave a terse nod.
"Do it," she said coldly.
Shun grinned and approached the priest. The mask pulsed ominously in his hands, but his demeanor was the picture of calm and confidence. He could feel the villagers watching in suspense.
"Now, now, Priest," he said, stepping close enough to make the man squirm. "If you're innocent, you'll have nothing to fear, right?" His smile widened, though his eyes stayed cold. "I mean, after all, what's the worst that could happen?"
The priest attempted to retreat, but the villagers closed in behind him, trapping him. Shun slowly placed the mask over his face, and the world around him shifted, fading into a dark, swirling void.
Shun's voice shifted again—his humor replaced by something far more sinister, as his true self began to emerge. The mask revealed the truth, and what it showed shook even him to the core. The ghostly figures of the people the priest had wronged surrounded them, their accusing eyes fixed on the man.
A weeping woman, a furious man, a starving child—all accusing the priest of poisoning, theft, and betrayal.
And then, Zhong Zhiqiang himself, his ghostly figure looking at Shun with quiet rage.
"You betrayed me," Zhong's voice rang out, chilling in its steadiness. "You killed me to cover your sins. But your lies end here."
The mask continued to reveal the truth, and the villagers were still. Not a sound was made. The tense air seemed to suffocate everyone. Shun stood with the mask held high, his expression grim. But the priest, on his knees, was no longer focused on the villagers. His eyes had shifted upward, drawn to something far more terrifying.
A shadow loomed over him, stretching unnaturally across the village square. It was monstrous, incomprehensible—a being so vast that its shape seemed to devour the entire sky. The creature had no clear form, just a grotesque and twisted amalgamation of hundreds, no, thousands, of limbs. Each limb was an arm or a leg, some grotesquely elongated, others ending in twisted, gnarled fingers. But it was the eyes—the eyes that filled each hand and each foot—that made the scene unbearable.
The creature's body was composed of thousands of hands, each one reaching out towards the priest, pointing accusingly. Each hand had an eye embedded in its palm, staring with an intensity that was impossible to escape. And behind those hands, legs extended out in every direction, each leg with feet that were similarly eyes, staring at him. The entity had no face but was adorned with a mask—a terrifying collection of countless demonic faces, each more horrific than the last. These masks fused together to create a visage of unspeakable terror, eyes and mouths that twisted and contorted with rage.
As the priest looked up, a tremor ran through him. Each hand of the entity seemed to be pointing directly at him, accusing him of his sins. The air grew thick with malice, the weight of the presence pressing down on him.
It was then that the priest understood. This was no mere hallucination. This was not a trick of his mind, nor was it an illusion. This was the manifestation of his guilt, his sins laid bare in a form so terrifying that it was beyond comprehension.
He fell to his knees, unable to look away from the entity's many eyes. His heart raced. He had no choice but to confront what he had done. The world seemed to spin around him, but in his mind, a voice echoed, louder than all the others.
"You cannot escape what you've done."
Voice of same entity in Shun's dream.
The priest's voice quivered, trembling with the weight of his confession. "I…I confess," he whispered, his voice barely audible, swallowed by the immense pressure surrounding him. He could feel the weight of the countless eyes on him. "I was young once, in Qingyuan. Mei was… my heart. I loved her. But I was foolish. I left to pursue power, thinking that if I returned a man of influence, she would be mine. I thought I could claim her."
The priest closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the oppressive gaze of the entity's eyes digging into his soul. "But when I came back, the villagers told me she was already married. She had married Zhong, the woodcutter. They lived in Jìng Shuǐ. I could not bear it. I had left, thinking I would return to her, and now she was lost to me forever."
He continued, barely aware of the growing darkness in the air, but his words still spilled out, like poison from a wound.
"A year later, the priest of Jìng Shuǐ died, Gao Wu. He was the village chief's husband. And I, I saw an opportunity. I replaced him. I had the knowledge of Mei from the past. I used it to gain the villagers' trust, and Zhong's trust most of all. He thought I was his brother. He thought I understood him. But I…" He swallowed, but the words wouldn't stop. "I wasn't a brother. I was a parasite."
The massive entity's arms loomed over him, each hand pointing with such intensity that it felt as though the creature was physically restraining him. He could not escape its judgment.
"Zhong due to being poor had to stay all day at the forests cutting woods"
"I told Zhong to leave. I told him I would take care of Mei. I said, 'You do not need to worry.' And he believed me. He trusted me. But in truth, I…" The priest's voice cracked, his body trembling as he began to fully understand the weight of his actions. "I poisoned her, slowly, day by day, the child inside her dying, withering away, because I thought if she lost Zhong, she would come to me."
The priest's mind reeled, but the hands kept pointing, and the eyes kept staring. The demonic masks on the creature's body shifted, their mouths opening, as if they were speaking to him.
The priest dropped his head, his tears spilling freely now. "When she found out her child was dead, I comforted her. I told her it wasn't her fault, that Zhong's absence had caused it. I made her hate him. I twisted her grief into something dark, something I could use. I made her believe it was his fault, that his neglect caused the death of their child." His voice broke with raw sorrow. "I destroyed her happiness. I destroyed everything. And I did it all because I wanted her for myself."
The enormous entity, with its countless hands and feet, began to move, and with every movement, the ground trembled. The priest could hear the voices now, too. Whispers from the countless masks.
The priest could feel his heart breaking under the weight of his sins, crushed by the many eyes, the hands, the feet, the masks. Each one was a reminder of what he had done. He had not only destroyed a family; he had broken the very fabric of love and trust. And for what? His selfish, twisted desire to have Mei for himself.
He raised his voice, filled with despair. "I did it because I loved her. But now I see, I see that it was not love. It was obsession. It was hatred. And I… I will pay for it."
The entity's arms seemed to close in on him, the thousands of hands all reaching out, pulling him into an abyss of shadow. The masks, too, seemed to judge him, their eyes locking onto him, forcing him to confront the truth in its most horrible form.
Shun stepped forward, his eyes cold and resolute as he removed the mask. "Your sins are revealed. There is no forgiveness for you now. The debt has been paid."
Mei's reaction upon learning the truth was a whirlwind of emotions—a mixture of disbelief, devastation, guilt, and seething rage.
As the villagers stared at her, the priest's trembling voice echoing his confession, Mei's body froze. Her eyes widened, and her lips trembled, as if the ground beneath her had vanished.
"No… no, that's not true," she whispered, her voice cracking. "It can't be true… you—" She turned to the priest, her face pale as ash. "You said… you told me Zhong was to blame! You said he didn't care enough about me, about us!"
Her hands instinctively went to her stomach, the phantom ache of her unborn child resurfacing. Memories of sleepless nights, of pain and confusion, surged forward. Tears welled up in her eyes as her voice rose. "You poisoned my baby? You killed my child?"
The priest, kneeling in terror and shame, couldn't meet her gaze. "Mei… I… I did it because I loved you! I wanted to protect you from a life of poverty, to give you more than Zhong ever could—"
"Protect me?" Mei's voice erupted, a mixture of grief and fury. "You destroyed me! You stole my child! You… you turned me against my husband, the only man who truly loved me!" Her fists clenched tightly, trembling with suppressed rage.
The villagers watched in stunned silence as Mei's sorrow morphed into anger, her tears streaming down her face. "I trusted you," she said through gritted teeth. "I thought you were my friend, a brother to my husband. But you—" Her voice cracked as her shoulders shook. "You're a monster."
She stumbled back, her legs giving out as she collapsed to her knees. She buried her face in her hands, her sobs echoing through the crowd. "Zhong… oh, Zhong… what have I done? I let him die thinking I hated him. I let this… devil into our lives. My baby… my baby…"
Shun with his face distorted looking at the sky and thinking in his mind "Stop! This Shit already"
Granny Zhao stepped forward, her expression grim. She placed a hand on Mei's shoulder, her voice cold yet firm. "Child, grief blinds even the wisest among us. But now, you see clearly. What will you do with this truth?"
Mei looked up, her tear-streaked face filled with both pain and determination. She turned her gaze back to the priest, her voice low and trembling. "You will pay for what you've done," she said, her words laced with venom. "For Zhong, for my child, and for the lies you've poisoned this village with."
Shun in his mind "Look at her face I can't, I can't hold my laugh anymore" his face reddened.
"Poor thing look what happened to him. It's obvious that his face is reddened by anger"
One villager murmured to another.
After that the villagers remained motionless, the truth revealed, the priest's fate sealed.
The priest screamed, his form writhing in pain. Shun tore the mask off with a gasp, his heart racing. The world returned to the square, the villagers now looking at the priest in stunned silence. The man crumpled to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.
Granny Zhao stepped forward, her voice steady and cold. "The mask has spoken. The priest's sins are laid bare. He is no servant of the gods—he is a servant of his own greed."
Shun, despite the gravity of the situation, couldn't help himself. He turned to the crowd with a wide grin and a mocking bow. "And there you have it, folks! Justice, served cold and bloody."
The villagers seemed to snap out of their stupor, some of them shouting angrily at the priest. Mei tried to slip away, but Granny Zhao's voice halted her.
"And you, Mei," Granny Zhao said sharply. "You are not innocent. Your betrayal brought this upon us all."
Shun's smile wavered for a moment, his face suddenly vacant, as if an entirely different person was looking out from behind his eyes. His voice dropped to a low murmur. "The past can never be erased, can it?"
He tilted his head, as if remembering something painful, but then, without warning, his grin returned—wide, wild, and a little unhinged.
"Isn't it wonderful?" he asked in a bright, almost childlike tone. "Revenge, drama, and a little bit of chaos, all wrapped up in a neat little bow." He chuckled softly to himself. "Who needs peace when you have a show like this?"
As the villagers turned their anger toward Mei and the priest, Shun's mind shifted once again. His internal struggle—between humor, violence, and the darker, colder parts of himself—raged inside him. The mask whispered in the back of his mind, reminding him that there was more to uncover, more debts to collect.
"This is only the beginning," it whispered. "The debts of the past are many, and they demand to be paid."
Shun clenched his fists, a flicker of something darker passing through his eyes. And yet, despite the madness of it all, he could feel a sense of satisfaction, even peace.
"But how long would that last?"
The villagers had erupted into chaos, their cries of anger filling the air. The priest and Mei had been dragged to the center of the square, their fates seemingly sealed. But Shun stood apart, watching with a strange detachment as the world around him continued to burn.
Granny Zhao stepped beside him, her eyes narrowing as she watched the growing unrest.
"You did well," she said quietly, her voice mixed with both approval and wariness. "But the village is now divided. Not all of them will accept the truth so easily."
Shun looked at her, his expression shifting in an instant. His mood flipped again—playful, as if nothing had happened. He puffed out his chest dramatically. "Oh, please! What is a little chaos? I thought we all loved a bit of drama!" He winked at her. "Besides, the truth is always harder to swallow than a warm meal."
Granny Zhao's expression softened slightly, but she didn't let her guard down. "You still have a place here, Zhong. Whether you like it or not."
Shun's grin faded, and for a moment, something cold flickered in his eyes. "Do I?" he asked, his voice suddenly flat and emotionless. "I'm not sure anymore."
"Task required has been Completed"
" System Unlocked"
Installation in progress...
System installed...
Host Name - Ya Shun
Code - Zero
Power system - Skills, Rituals, Artifacts, Personality, Affinities, System...
Current Stats (Level 0 Shun):
- Vitality (VIT): 60
- Mental Stability (MST): unknown
- Charisma (CHA): 1
- Combat Instinct (CMB): 55
- Emotional Resonance (EMO): unknown
- Darkness Affinity (DAF): 100
Skills:
1.Who am I?
- Allows Shun to switch between personalities:
- Comedic (Boosts CHA).
- Psychopath (Boosts CMB and decreases EMO).
- Kind (Boosts EMO and decreases DAF).
- Negative/Depressed (Increases self-awareness but decreases MST).
- Locked
- Locked...
2. Echo of the Abyss
- Channels the power of the entity with countless hands, unleashing a dark wave of destruction.
- Requires: High DAF and MST.
- Effect: Damages all enemies within range while intimidating them with the entity's shadow.
4. Heart of Gold
- Activates during the Kind state.
- Effect: Boosts EMO, allowing Shun to heal allies or console them during moments of despair.
5. Goofy ahh Escape
- Activates during the Comedic state.
- Effect: Creates chaos or distraction to escape dangerous situations, using humor or tricks.
6. I am Guiltily my honor.
- Allows Shun to weaponize guilt and regret, forcing enemies to confront their darkest memories.
- Requires: High EMO and DAF.
- Effect: Causes enemies to falter, making them vulnerable to attack.
1. Balance of the Masks
- Allows Shun to harmonize his personalities, reducing the strain on his MST and gaining access to the strengths of each personality simultaneously.
2. Manifestation of the Abyss
- Allows Shun to partially summon the entity of countless hands and feet to fight alongside him.
3. Abyssal Reflection
- Grants Shun the ability to trap enemies in a mirror realm where they must confront their guilt or perish.