Chapter 66 65. A Girl?!

The moment Shane opened his eyes, he glanced at the dark ceiling above his head. Once again, he was unable to take control of the body as a slow whimper was heard down the body's throat, indicating it was a little female voice. Shane frowned as he tried to digest the newly found information.

He was in the body of a girl!

'Where the hell am I?' Thought the girl as she pushed herself up to her feet and looked around in a horrified manner, 'What is this place? Wasn't I just with my parents? I want to go home!'

Shane pressed his fingers against his forehead. Why did he always get such wimpy kids as hosts? Shouldn't the hosts be heroic or similar to a protagonist in nature? Even though this was a virtual world made out of fake things and even hosts, he should have gotten a good host after experiencing Noah the last time!

He sighed and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. It was no use thinking of useless things. The girl seemed to have calmed down a little after seeing that her surroundings were completely dark. She sat while curling up against the cold wall behind her back with her knees propped up to her chin. She shivered violently as she muttered incoherent words under her breath.

Shane silently opened up her information. She was Angela Thomas, died from a bomb blast while playing in a park. A sigh escaped his lips as he opened his mouth after looking through the world mission this time.

It was to destroy this horror realm by hook or by crook. This sentence raised Shane's brows as he stared at that statement. What did it mean by hook or by crook? Did they want the systems to go against one another and kill other people's hosts to destroy?

Before he could continue to think about it, he again got an option of seeing either through the stage view or from the first-person perspective. Of course, he chose the first option since he was going to feel the host's emotions, he might as well sit back inside the girl's mind and continue to watch the show as if he were viewing a TV.

After settling everything, he looked at the livestream option. Shane hesitated a bit.

This was an official examination, and Ed had warned him earlier not to use his powers during livestreams….

But this livestream was equally necessary. After thinking about it a little, Shane turned on the livestream and finally introduced himself, "Host Angela, I'm system 12254801, sent to assist you through your journey and help you find the path to your rebirth again in your own world."

"R-Reborn…..?" The girl got even more scared now as her trembling enhanced even more. She rubbed her palms up and down her arms as she stuttered, "Did I die?"

"Yes, the park was blasted because of a terrorist attack."

"Now that I think about it, I did feel hot all over. My vision was too bright and I had heard a sound louder than anything I had ever heard. And then, I felt my body burning….." the girl trembled, "I thought it was just my imagination, but it turns out…."

She cried as she covered her face with her palms.

p Shane continued to stare at the darkness through the screen and rolled his eyes. He knew he should feel sympathy for the hosts, but he couldn't. Who told the invigilator to give him a little kid in the name of a host?

Meanwhile, he also got a message from Jake: "Where are you?"

"I have no idea," Shane replied as he sighed and typed in another message, "My host is still crying her eyes out after finding out she got blasted."

"My host just crawled out of the floor and is hammering the wall, not listening to any word I say," Jake's words were laced with a lot of complaints as he wrote again, "Say, Shane, can you exchange your host with me?"

"Shut up," Shane directly typed, "Stop talking and let's see what the hosts want to do. Our mission goal is to use whatever means necessary to destroy this hell hole. Do you know what it means?"

"Oh hoho, don't tell me our goodie two shoes young boy is going to kill his classmates to win this time!" Jake's excitement seemed to be leaking through his words as he sent another text quickly, "I want to see what you're going to do!"

Indirectly, it was Jake telling him that Shane was the boss and they would do whatever the latter wanted. When he saw this, his shoulders relaxed as he leaned back in the blank space of his host's mind. He was originally worried about whether his other teammate would listen to him or not, but that guy made it easy for him.

Now Shane could do anything he wanted except for revealing his true powers. A wave of irritation climbed up his back, reaching his brain slowly. Everything would be easy if he could use his powers, but he guessed that he could still use them while they were in the dark. He took a deep breath and said, "What are you crying about? You can still return after finishing the task."

The host finally pulled down her palms and asked tentatively, "Sy-System…. You're not evil like the ones I read about in those novels, right?"

"Yes, I'm very evil."

"Ahhhhh…." The girl started crying again.

"I was kidding just now," Shane spoke clearly without any hint of shame in his heart. "I'm a good hum-er system. You don't need to worry anything about it."

Damn it, he misspelled his origin once again! He sighed as he changed the topic before his host could even figure out that small mistake, "The mission is to destroy the horror realm by hook or by crook. Do you want to read the world information?"

"Y-Yes," the girl wiped her face and said, "I want to be reborn. My parents must still be alive. If I finish the mission, I'll be able to go back, right?"

"That's right," Shane directly sent the world information that he had found a while ago to his host's menu and guided her patiently on how to operate it. After he was finished, he said, "You can continue to read it."

The world information was simple this time. There was no memory involved because this was an escape game, and other hosts were supposed to escape this place, except for Shane.

He raised his brows. Was that supposed to mean he was the villain here, trying to destroy everything and anything? Shane didn't continue to think about it anymore as he read further.

This realm was inside a giant cave that had originally appeared after the world ended. The remaining people were survivors, but somehow, they also couldn't live for long and were frightened to death by the monsters and other mechanisms of this place.

Then, the ones waking up in the bodies of these dead survivors were the hosts of different worlds, mostly the modern world. At present, there were more than two dozen hosts around this place, separated in different dark rooms individually. Once the hosts were ready, they would be sent to their respective places to compete.

Shane didn't find anything strange in this except for one sentence: "The host should be careful as she can find people she was familiar with before dying, but they might have an opposite mission, threatening the life of the host."

"What does it mean?" Angela whispered as she tilted her head in the dark, "If I find a few acquaintances, they might be my enemies?"

"That's right," Shane nodded and thought to himself, 'It's true even for himself since he couldn't trust his sister now even if he found her by chance.' Even thinking of this situation gave him a headache as he cursed Echo from the bottom of his heart multiple times.

Shane thought for a while and added, "Even if you end up finding a family member, don't trust them."

This sentence scared the girl so much that she trembled from head to toe. She sat on the ground again and whimpered, saying something like: "I don't want to live anymore."

After a few minutes, she calmed down and said, "I'm sorry. I was being a kid just now."

Shane thought to himself that his host was nearly a kid who had just entered the teenage years after being a child, but he said nothing and let the girl think whatever she wanted. A few minutes later, the girl finally got up on her feet and patted her cheeks, "I'm ready. Let's do this!"

As soon as she uttered those words, it felt as if a mechanism was set off. The entire dark room started to tremble as Shane felt through the shared senses that dust kept falling on his head one after another at this time. It almost seemed as if the space was changing all of a sudden.

The girl shivered as she backed away, "Wh-What's happening?"

"You're going to be transferred to the starting point. Don't worry. I can handle anything you can't."

The girl said nothing but continued to let out small whimpers through her throat. Out of the blue, the trembling started as the entire room shifted from a small room to a narrow tunnel inside a cave. At the end, a bright light was visible, which indicated that there was an exit, but Shane didn't trust that exit.

Apparently, his host didn't think in a similar manner. As soon as she saw the bright light, her feet lifted as a smile formed on her lips. She looked like she had found her oasis, "I can see light."

"Me too," Shane spoke coldly, "Don't go there if you trust me."

"Why?"

Shane glanced at the livestream numbers that kept increasing. He had already shut off the comments, but he could almost imagine what the other systems in the system world must be talking about. He didn't focus on that anymore as he opened his mouth, "There's nothing in this world that's free, and our mission is to destroy this hell hole by hook or by crook while trying to survive. That bright end of this tunnel clearly seems too easy for this hard level world."

"….Oh," the girl scratched her cheek and asked, "So what you mean to say is…. I might die if I go there?"

"Maybe," Shane said as he opened the radar only to find it empty. "It's better not to take any chances. I'll let you know once someone arrives," as he was watching, he could see a small trace of a dot at the other, darker side of the tunnel. There was someone walking toward them at this time, probably heading toward the brighter side of the tunnel. The most irritating thing was that the dot flashed in white light, indicating that the radar wouldn't point out the enemy this time.

It seemed only monsters were targeted as red dots.

He frowned. The last thing he wanted was to meet other hosts at this time. Looks like he couldn't avoid it anymore. Before thinking too much, he quickly messaged Jake, "Are you out yet?"

"Nope," Jake commented, "He's still yelling, crying, and cursing me. He says he'll sue me for kidnapping him like this. God, why is this host so stupid?"

Shane didn't reply as he shut off the window. Since the person walking toward him wasn't his groupmate, it could only mean that it would be a potential enemy. He opened his mouth and said, "Someone's coming. Be careful."