When Shane went into the building and walked upstairs, he faced an angry hooded girl. She glared at him.
"When did I ask you to come?" The girl pointed at her wristwatch. "Ten minutes ago. You said you'll be there in five. What happened to that?"
Shane felt awkward in his heart. He knew that he was late because c'mon, who in the world could get ready so early? At least, he wasn't one of those people who could bathe, freshen up, and eat all in five minutes. He needed fifteen minutes for that.
When he said nothing, the girl got angrier. She pointed her finger at the man.
"What the f*ck are you standing there for?! Get ready. We're going on a ride."
"Huh?" Shane tilted his head.
Since he was still in a shocked state, he couldn't come up with a clear reply. So he just hummed and gestured to her to move away so that he could enter the room.
Hope huffed and walked out of that place. Then she moved closer to the portal that was available at the center of the room.
"I know you came here before. So let's enter."
"But, why do you need my help?" Shane frowned. "You can do things on your own, aren't you?"
That was a sarcastic comment. Every time he did a job with her, she would be resting leisurely while he would end up doing all the work. What was even more annoying was that Hope never accepted her mistakes, urging him to do her duty shamelessly.
He had never seen a brazen woman like her before. She had completely changed the view of women in his mind.
When Hope saw that the man's expression turned stranger and stranger, she coughed and said, "Let's go."
The caretaker of this building was nowhere to be found. So Shane could safely assume that Hope had dealt with that person on her own. So finally, after a little argument, the two of them entered the place.
As soon as Shane opened his eyes after entering, he stood in his host's mind. He didn't even get to choose the type of world in the system space. So, did Hope do that either?
He shook his head and decided not to think about it anymore. Even though he was still shocked, he wasn't so incompetent to let someone else do his job. The next time, he would search for a world instead of depending on Hope for this. He felt awkward letting a girl do all the work.
After thinking of this, he turned to his temporary partner and found her sleeping soundly on the ground. Again.
The corners of his eyes twitched. "What the heck? Did you just invite me to be your replacement here?!"
No reply.
'',
Shane sighed and turned on the screen. It seemed the host had just gotten up.
This time, the host said nothing as he stood up and started looking around. Yes, his host was a young man with specs on the bridge of his nose. His white shirt made him look like he was going to an interview when he was forced into this world.
The young man frowned as soon as he stood up. He was somehow locked outside a villa with a bunch of people around him who had just gotten up. They were all confused.
"Wh-Where am I?"
"Wasn't I just driving home? How the f*ck did I come here?"
"Ah, is this the legendary game that all novels talked about?"
Some of them didn't come here the first time. This was probably nth world for them.
"Ah, so what kind of world is this?"
"I have a feeling it would be a gaming world since so many people are there."
"I smell a mystery."
Shane frowned. His host was the only one who remained silent. So he couldn't tell whether or not the other man was a newbie.
He would never understand why hosts would continue entering one world after another when they have time to fulfill one wish after ending their respective missions. Perhaps these people were the ones who could not fulfill their missions in their first world.
Just then, the door opened, and an old butler walked out of the room. He was partially bald with hair on the side. His hair had turned white and wrinkles appeared on his face. When he smiled and showed his teeth, he looked exactly like a blobfish that was trying its best to smile.
Even though this was the thought that most people had in their heads, none of them dared to say a word. Even the newbies trembled under the cold and dark gaze of the butler. The latter's red eyes stared at everyone in utter coldness.
It almost felt like they were being stared at by a dead zombie or something. They could even see deep red marks starting from the back of his neck like veins appearing on him.
"Welcome to the Forestford. I see everyone's arrived. Let's go in, shall we?"
No, why should we enter this fort? The entire place gave an eerie feeling as if something terrible was about to happen. Around the dark fort that looked like it was taken out from a horror movie, there was empty ground with dried-up trees.
The moon hung up at the top, brightening up the surrounding, but no one seemed to be feeling at ease because it was a full moon. Crows cawed at the top of their voices as they flew past the trees and sat at the top of the palace's roof.
The entire scene screamed that something was wrong with this place.
Shane's host narrowed his eyes. "System, why aren't you saying anything?"
',
Suddenly, Shane felt like he heard that sentence before. But before he could mull over it, his host spoke again.
"System? Did you die or something?"
"....I'm here," said Shane as he looked at the butler. "Let me send you to the world setting and storyline."
He was so busy seeing the surrounding that he even forgot about the storyline. He was getting lazy these days.
Shane quickly read the storyline and found that there was only one sentence.
Welcome to the Forestford.
That's it?
Shane blinked and scanned the page again. Nope. there wasn't anything down there to help him with. He scanned the mission and finally gained some information.
"Find the murderer and kill him."
Just as he was thinking about this information, he heard the hosts around the man in specs wailing, "No, why is there only one sentence?! Ahhh, I don't want to do this anymore."
"Why did you bring me here? I want to get out of this place!!!!"
The butler's eyes cooled down. The strange smile on his face vanished without a trace. A dark aura flooded out of his body, spreading around the place without stopping.
Everyone outside stopped complaining. They suddenly felt spine-deep coldness, making them shiver from head to toe. Shane looked at the scene and used the time when everyone was suppressed by the butler to glance at his host's information.
The body of his host was called David, and the man was actually a university student before he was captured and sent here to this place. Others were also probably like this. Unfortunately, after coming here, all of them ended up dying because of some strange reason. No one mentioned why all the students who were chosen to come here died one after another.
So after that, several hosts with systems took up the challenge to come to this place. But why? Shane knew that every time he would get a job, it was always related to the destruction of the world. This was the second time he got such a mission where he didn't have to destroy anything.
So if everything was related to karma, why in the world would there be a realm that didn't have to be destroyed? Shane could clearly see that this world was haunted, needing to be destroyed as soon as possible. So why the main mission wasn't to get rid of this horror realm?
Or could it be that these ghosts hadn't killed enough people to have enough bad karma on their shoulders to have this place destroyed?
Where exactly was this place? After reading through the storyline, Shane found out that the university students had gotten an email to enter this place and receive a prize for the competition they took part in. Shane didn't know what kind of competition it was, but he could tell it wasn't anything better.
So was this place connected to another realm just like that gaming world?
Shane's brows furrowed as he thought more about it. Since he couldn't come up with anything, he didn't think much about it and focused on the mission at present.
By this time, the students had already gotten their wits together and stood on the ground. The old butler smiled again as he opened his mouth.
"Get ready. You guys want the reward, don't you? So what are you waiting for? Let's enter!"