132 Familiarity 2 The Sinners's Queen

No one knows about the origins of the system.

Or its goals and reason for coming into being.

It just suddenly came into existence, corrupting people it could, striving to blacken this already dark world.

Actually, it's suspected to have already existed for several hundred or even thousands of years. For so long, it has been creating immoral hosts, driving them to spread evil to the whole of humanity. This hypothesis was made due to the many terrible cases and events in history which included, but not limited to, genocide, mass-brainwashing of a whole race to discriminate upon all others, all types of wars, rampant incest in a dynasty, witch purge, human life offerings in black cults, human-animal cross experimentations, cloning, chain bombings which destroyed so many lives and properties, slavery, spreading of pandemic... and the list goes on.

There was a small population of rational hosts from the current generation who banded together and made studies of history, concluding that there were many notable figures in the past thousands of years who might be former immoral hosts before. One such example was a woman from the old H-Empire from five hundred years ago who bathed regularly in virgin blood just to maintain her beauty and youth. The other was a relatively unknown hitman hiding under the guise of a pacifist royalist member who killed a Duke from Country A which later on sparked the first world war. There was also the famous President of Country F from several decades ago who brought so much advancement to the country but reigned with an iron fist, his army killing so many who bent even the slightest of his rules.

Reasons for being included to the list of possible immoral hosts of old differed. However, all of them exhibited out of this world ideas or abilities to create chaos and destroy lives and possessions. But the scarier part was how this group of people seemed to appear every five century or so, the oldest being a notorious general known for massacring a million people by himself from the biggest empire of the east 2,000 years ago...

This was how it was theorized that the system had been existing for so long.

The great and mysterious entity was called 'Immoral System' — officially. It was like a devil from dark fantasy stories, feeding on its hosts' evilness while letting them fulfill the desires of their heart. Its AIs always attached themselves to people that were only one inch away from breaking due to despair, hopelessness, fear, sadness, or anger. Then once these people did the wrong choice of accepting the system in their lives, it would lead them to a path of no return, accelerating the death of their morality and reason.... Until only insanity and a deep desire to destroy their lives and others' lives remain...

In the end, even these desires would turn into pure madness that craves the ending of humanity or this world...

Thankfully, none of the madmen's attempts before had yet to truly tear this beautiful planet into mere specks of dust in space.

Each time this immoral system makes an appearance, there would always be a thousand AIs slowly entering the world, scattering into the different nations, propagating sins and corruption. These AIs will attach themselves to people who would be then called Official Hosts. And then after forcing or manipulating these people to complete missions which will gradually blacken their hearts, they'd make them create Secondary Hosts.

These beings had almost the same authorities and powers as their Originals, except there were things they were not allowed to have or do. However, they were ultimately people created to rake in points in the name of immorality... They were very devoted to their Originals to the point that to appear useful and of value, they'd stoop to their lowest in order to complete missions and earn points for them...

As this sort of information flooded his brain out of nowhere, Gio stopped in his tracks and started to massage his temple which just began to hurt like hell.

More and more visions and pictures began to swim in his head about the system until they became centered around him and Sofony. Like a computer that was about to crash, the veins in his forehead throbbed and the headache became sharper and more terrible. If the person experiencing this was not Gio but someone else weaker, he would have surely collapsed on the ground by now, groaning and screaming in extreme pain.

Time passed that he was only frowning while massaging his forehead as he stood at the end of the short corridor. In front, there were two people arguing. In fact, the shorter one was showing so much cold anger in her face like any given second, her palm would fly on the other's cheeks. The other appeared to be purposely annoying the first, and if the pain was not only bothering his brain so much, Gio would have probably crossed the remaining distance and shoulder-threw him down the floor.

Initially, he found it odd that this particular scene triggered a great wave of memories inside his brain...

But now he knew why, and why he kept on getting deja vus in the past two months...

'If these set of memories are correct, it's then telling me that my Baby is an... immoral host?'

The frown was still on his face when he asked himself too,

'Why am I suddenly having this set of memories?'

He gritted his teeth. The pain was now so immense that it was like two strong hands were trying to force his skull apart. It was indescribable. He had to wait for ten more seconds that felt more like years before the unwelcomed pain came to a stop. To his disappointment, as he tried to scour the knowledge that suddenly poured in without warning, there was no clue whatsoever to answer the question bothering him.

After shaking his head, he decided to focus on what was currently happening before him than the dubious memories he suddenly received. He donned a grim expression as he strode towards the two people ahead.

As he drew nearer to them, he could hear bits of their talk,

"Hey, girl. Why are you in this place instead of school? Aren't you still a high-schooler?"

"...."

"You should take your studies seriously, especially now that you've been identified as your family corporation's heiress!"

"...Mr. Goldwin, I thank you for your unwanted concern but what I do, say, or think are out of your business. If I may say, even this place is supposed to be out of your scope unless you're someone who's female at heart!"

"I'm a shareholder so I'm allowed to go wherever here. Also, this is already outside the ladies' room. If I also may say, it's you who are just being biased. Why do you seem to hate me so much? Is it because of that dog? If I recall correctly, it's you who killed it!"

"It's me who released it from the torture... And you can never really go wherever, unless there's a reason for it. So what business do you have again in this place?"

"Haha. Can't you see that I'm stopping you? It means you're my business!"

"Mr. Goldwin. I don't have much time to spare on your nonsense. Can't you just directly go to the point. Gio is waiting for me!"

The two talked for a bit longer and the more Gio heard, the more murderous aura rose from within him. He was not blind to not see what the other man was trying to do as he blocked Sofony from leaving using his bigger body frame. Remembering that it was the scene of them being closed to each other which caused him to be flooded with distant and unfamiliar pictures and bits of memories, something dark just took over his mind and heart. His steps quickened and all he wanted to do was come to her rescue and hide her from this man's hawk-like gaze.

"Miss Silver, just hear me out, okay? I'm just saying maybe you and Gio are not meant for each. You know. The two of you barely know each other. When I checked, it's only three months. You should not let yourself be tied to someone this early. Especially since you're still so young! Leave chances for others too! Maybe someone else who suited you more? Someone like me. What do you say?"

Something had seemingly snapped within Gio's brain when he heard Marc Goldwin's stupid questions asked in a joking manner. It was not just his thin thread of patience. A scene played out in his mind for three seconds, but in that short amount of time, he seemed to have realized what he had to do - not ever let this man get near her again!

Before long, he was already standing in front of Sofony, giving Marc deadly glares.

The man gave him a knowing grin then threw another glance at the girl.

The other did not look surprised at his appearance because he probably saw him approaching. Aside from this, Marc was also someone who had received elite military training so it would be an utter shame for him if he couldn't sense an approaching danger who was not even bothering to mask his killing intent.

To the newcomer's bloodthirsty aura, Marc merely smiled,

"Gio Albarez, hello! I was just having a pleasant talk with Miss Silver, just saying in case you are curious about what happened between us."

Gio only glared at him for ten seconds, his eyes sending warning towards the other. He knew what kind of person this Goldwin heir was, always competing with him for things he didn't even pay much attention. If his guess was not wrong, this moron was planning to stage another competition with Sofony as the bet. And he was already starting without asking for his opinion or permission!

Of course, he wouldn't consent to it! In fact, it was already a miracle that he didn't throw a punch at his face. His rational brain was reining him in, together with the thought that he didn't have any equipment with him right now which could help to catch the person off-guard and kill him within seconds.

But if this man was thinking that he would gladly play along, it was probably time for him to know that he never once did.

He picked up his phone from his pocket and swiftly dialed a number. He didn't wait long for it to be answered. As for him, the moment it connected, he put on loudspeaker mode.

"Hello?"

Gio ignored the immediate darkening of Marc's expression when that soft feminine voice echoed to their ears.

He unemotionally said, "Female restroom. 68th floor. He's hitting on my girl. Rein him in, otherwise, I'll kill this moronic fiance of yours the next time that this happens."