CH 23

The household’s mini robot, responsible for cleaning, detected the fruit Ji Ning had dropped and automatically rolled over to clear it up.

When it lightly bumped against his foot, Ji Ning jolted from his daze. Seeing the blond monarch across the giant screen, he couldn’t help but feel a little distracted, involuntarily raising his hand to touch his arm. 

He wasn’t surprised by Ozer’s appearance as he had seen so many other protagonists from various worlds, but Ozer was different. Seeing him would always induce the phantom feeling of a whip against his skin, remnants of the times when he was beaten by Ozer.

Ozer came from the interstellar novel, ‘The Empire of Mo Ling’. It had been the hardest world for Ji Ning to conquer because although Ozer appeared easygoing on the surface, in reality, he was cold-blooded and violent. Ji Ning was the only person who saw his true colours, and he was lucky to survive it.

Ozer inherited physical defects from the royal bloodline that weakened his body and a mental affliction that caused violent seizures due to his abnormally high spiritual energy. Whenever he had an attack, he would be plunged into agony.

For an ordinary person, the combined spiritual and physical assault would drive them mad, but Ozer suffered through the torture regularly. He was strong willed and neither fell into insanity, nor committed suicide. However, he refused to endure the pain by himself. Whenever an attack began, he would call for Ji Ning and strike him with a whip, telling him to accompany him in his suffering. 

If he had a choice in the matter, Ji Ning would never have submitted to Ozer, no matter what. He would rather have found alternative methods to improve his favorability. Unfortunately, it was one of his earliest worlds and he didn’t have the authorisation to significantly change the plot. He could only grit his teeth and bear with it.

At the time, he had been in so much pain that he wanted to kill Ozer, yet he had to pretend to like him. It was a terrible thing to look back on…

Fortunately, the news report ended and he no longer had to look at Ozer’s face. He comforted himself with the knowledge that, in this situation, it would be difficult for the two of them to ever come across each other.

He lived in the Federation, while Ozer was from the Mo Ling Empire. Judging from the report just now, although the worlds merging caused the two planets to appear in the same sky, they were separated by several dozens of galaxies. Even though Ozer’s spiritual energy was unusually strong, it would be impossible for him to sense Ji Ning’s presence from such a distance. As for Ozer seeing him in a film, Ji Ning felt the possibility was slim to none.

The Federation had a population of hundreds of billions and its territory spanned three major galaxies. As a rookie movie star, although he carried some fame, it was limited to a few nearby planets. The majority of the Federation still didn’t know his name, not to mention a distant galaxy. Plus he felt it was unlikely that the imperial monarch of the Mo Ling Empire had a hobby of watching small budget movies.

Ji Ning felt like he might have just set up a flag for himself, but taking a step back, even if he really met Ozer – as the Emperor of an Empire, he couldn’t attack him, a federal citizen? Right?

…No, it was too difficult to predict. Ozer’s spiritual state wasn’t stable, he could do anything.

Ji Ning felt a headache coming on. He had just gotten rid of that lunatic Huo Wuling not too long ago, why was he immediately given Ozer… 

After two days of recuperating at the Ji’s family house, neither Huo Wuling nor Herinos showed signs of reappearing. With the wonders of interstellar construction work, Ji Ning’s villa had been rebuilt, so he said goodbye to the Ji family and returned to his home.

Alone again, Ji Ning continued chatting with Gu Chen through his terminal. Gu Chen was currently busy filming his second movie. Ji Ning hadn’t participated in it, as in the original novel, he wasn’t given a role.

It was Gu Chen’s last day of filming when their movie ‘Ghost Mansion’ was released on the optical network. The overall response was positive and it received a wave of praise. Several professional film critics had even written their analysis of the film, but Ji Ning suspected it was because the director had pulled some strings.

After discussing the final product of ‘Ghost Mansion’ Gu Chen asked Ji Ning, “After tomorrow I don’t have anything in my schedule. I’ve been very relaxed lately, can I ask when Senior will be free? I’d like to ask Senior to eat a meal with me.” 

The truth was Ji Ning had nothing to do, but to retain a cold persona, he pretended to think about possible arrangements before saying, “Friday night.”

“Okay. What does Senior like to eat? I’ll choose a restaurant.” asked Gu Chen.

“I don’t mind.” Ji Ning replied.

“That’s the trickiest answer to give.” Although he said this, there was a smile in Gu Chen’s voice, “I will do my best to satisfy Senior.” 

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The director happily shared how ‘Ghost Mansion’ was gaining attention across the optical network and praised Gu Chen and Ji Ning for their excellent performances. Then he moved on to his main purpose for contacting Ji Ning.

“I wanted to ask how busy your schedule is currently,” said the director, “I have a new film I’m preparing for and wanted to invite you and Gu Chen to play the leads. The two of you displayed a lot of chemistry on camera and this film should suit you both well.” 

Ji Ning knew which film the director was talking about as soon as he mentioned it, because it had been part of the original book.

The director sent along a plot synopsis and setting that matched Ji Ning’s expectations. The film was called ‘Carnivorous Flower’ and was the third film the original Gu Chen acted in, alongside the original young master Ji, who also participated.

The director had a talent for dark thriller movies. This film belonged to the same category and, as hinted by the name, centred around the theme of cannibalism. It was a love horror story.

In the original novel, Gu Chen played the male lead. The young master Ji took the initiative to propose he play a cameo role in the film to the director, as he had previously clashed with Gu Chen and wished to overshadow him in his own film. 

Ji Ning had been thinking about how to approach the director about this, but luckily the director had come to him.

But what role did the director want him to play? A supporting role? This was unlikely, given the director’s experience in the industry, he knew better than to bruise the ego of a young master with a request like that.

“I know that you and Gu Chen have a good relationship, so I hope you can think about it.” The director said, “I would like you both to play the lead roles of the film as a pair of lovers.”

Ji Ning, “…” 

Although it would be beneficial for his capture of Gu Chen, the director’s actions were strange. He made no such attempts in the original novel but since Ji Ning had entered this world, the director had first modified the script of ‘Ghost Mansion’ to say Gu Chen had a crush on him and now simply proposed to make the two of them lovers. What exactly had he been inspired by?

The Federation was a free place for love, and gay marriage was common, it was only when dividing film categories for awards that straight and gay romance films were separated.

Although the Federation was welcoming towards same sex marriage, some other countries outside of the Federation were radically opposed to it, and even considered it a crime.

For example, in the novel ‘The Empire of Mo Ling’, although it had an interstellar background, the Mo Ling Empire was extremely conservative and close minded. Same sex marriage was illegal and anyone who was found to be gay was imprisoned. 

When he was trying to capture Ozer, Ji Ning was always terrified he would be sent to prison. What was more terrifying was that both he and Ozer were members of the royal family in name, meaning he had to call Ozer ‘brother’ even though they shared no blood. This meant if he was discovered he would also carry the crime of tarnishing the royal family’s name and would be executed in secret to protect their reputation.

Recalling the suffocating atmosphere of that world, Ji Ning couldn’t help shaking his head. Under such an oppressive way of living, the royal family became withdrawn and twisted until they were not much better than the ancient court world where Qin Ruwang lived.

On the other end of the terminal, the director was still speaking, “The script has not been finalised but it’s likely there will be kissing scenes, would that be alright?”

There have already been kissing scenes, you just don’t remember… 

Ji Ning smirked to himself. He paused before saying, “Please give me some time to think about it.”

“No problem.” The director hadn’t expected Ji Ning to agree at once and just wanted to speak with him in advance, “After the script is finalised, I will send you the first few scenes. After you make your decision, I will contact Gu Chen.”

Ji Ning agreed, then cut off contact with the director.

The afternoon passed slowly, but when it was finally time for him to rest, Ji Ning’s terminal made a buzzing noise. The scenery around him melted away and he once again found himself inside the game, ‘Dark Kingdom of Heaven’. 

He knew it was useless to change to a new terminal. What was supposed to happen would always happen…

Ji Ning sighed to himself as he appeared inside the mage’s tower again, wearing the intricate black robe of the Necromancer. A handsome blond boy sat in front of him, smiling as he called out, “Teacher.”

When he quit the game, Ji Ning had been inside his bedroom, but now that he was online again, his position had changed. Currently, he and the boy were in the library of the Necromancer’s tower. To the left of him was a table piled with books, a few glass bottles filled with powder, and a set of elementary magic tools.

【The player has automatically skipped forward fifteen days.】 

【You have successfully accepted Lai Sengers as your disciple and washed the light element from his body, opening the door to the dark world of magic for him.】

【Lai and his companions have been missing for half a month. This matter has caused a large commotion within the Temple of Light and they have taken it extremely seriously, dispatching a large number of knights to investigate the town of Pidi and its surroundings.】

【You predicted this response and destroyed any potential clues that would lead them to you, forging evidence that demons were involved. Unless the Archbishop of Light himself personally investigates, there is no one who has the ability to trace Lai’s disappearance to you.】

【Over the past two weeks, you have given Lai several tasks such as comprehending basic texts on black magic and undead summoning, learning to mobilise the dark elements in his body, and mastering basic dark potions.】 

【You have been surprised and delighted to discover that Lai’s brilliance is not limited to his magic and that his intellect and memory are equally astonishing.】

【The schedule you had planned for the next three months, which would ordinarily take a year to complete, was finished in two weeks.】

【Today you will begin to officially teach Lai Necromancy, beginning with primary summoning.】

【This is the simplest of undead magic and you hope Lai can be successful on his first try. Therefore, you explained the method to him in explicit detail and carefully taught him how to use each of the magic tools, as well as how to mix the powders needed for the summoning circle.】 

【You request that Lai summon a simple, low level monster, such as a skeleton, a slime, or a ghost.】

“You can start.”

After a quick glance at the text that appeared in front of him, Ji Ning waved his hand.

“Yes, teacher.” 

Lai stood up with a smile, walked to the table and uncorked a bottle of powder. He removed a small amount with a silver spoon and placed it onto a balancing scale to check the mass. After confirming it was the correct mass, he poured the powder into a test tube and followed the instructions to stir exactly.

The simplest of black magics didn’t actually require any charisma when being released. They were extremely boring and resembled a science experiment more than magic. Yet Lai had such an elegant temperament and smooth movements that Ji Ning found it very pleasing to watch.

After the powder was successfully mixed, Lai picked up a long wooden tube with a hollowed inside and placed the head into the mouth of the test tube. He pointed the tip to the ground and used the powder falling from the tube’s hollow to outline an intricate magic circle on the floor.

Lai picked up a small crystal from the table and placed it in the centre of the magic circle as he chanted an incarnation in a low voice. Soon smoke billowed from the magic circle and spread into the air. 

What would he summon?

Ji Ning couldn’t remember what Lai had summoned last time and was therefore very interested in what he would do.

“Who calls for me?”

A soft and seductive female voice called from the cloud of smoke. Just listening to that voice would create a haze in people’s heads and cause them to relax their guard. 

This was-

Ji Ning stood up just as the smoke cleared, revealing a female demon that stood inside the summoning circle.

To be more precise, she was a succubus, with a gorgeous face and sultry body. With a single look she could arouse the deepest desires of a person’s heart and capture them, body and soul, making them obsessed with her to the point of madness.

When she saw the handsome blond and beautiful Necromancer, her eyes lit up and she said with a grin, “Not bad…” 

Lai didn’t seem to recognise what the succubus was, but could tell that it was a high level humanoid demon and startled. Before he could react, the succubus blew a gust of pink mist toward him.

“Uh…”

A blush rose on his face and his breathing became ragged, even as he raised his arm to cover his mouth and nose.

The succubus giggled at his reaction and was about to blow a second wave of aphrodisiac mist towards the Necromancer when she was thrown to the floor by a hand made of black mist. 

“Go back.”

The Necromancer stared into the succubus’s eyes with a cold, empty gaze. The succubus screamed in fear and disappeared into smoke, a gust of wind destroying the summoning circle on the ground.

The Necromancer rescinded his magic, but before he could check on his disciple, he felt a gentle pull to his sleeve.

The boy’s face was flushed, sweat beading down his forehead. There was a faint look of desire swirling within his striking blue eyes as, panting slightly, he murmured. 

“Teacher…”

Lai might be a creepy weirdo, but the shameless way he’s forced Ji Ning into his teacherXstudent, taboo love, slash fanfiction is actually hysterical and at the very least I respect him for that.

Ah, I really dislike Ozer, but I feel vindicated because Ningning dislikes him too…

I can’t believe we’re on six protagonists already! I’m curious who everyone’s favorites are because mine are always changing, but I have a special place in my heart for Huo Wuling and Qin Ruwang <3