Arc 3.11 Ruler of the Night

Tian Xi gasped when she returned to the void space. There was still some lingering pain in her stomach.

[Host, I left you alone because I thought you had everything under control despite all of my skepticism. Then all of a sudden I get a warning telling me that you are dying.] 001 was noticeably angry at the failure of her mission even though his voice was mechanic and monotone as always. He knew that it was impossible to successfully complete every mission, especially with how carefree she was taking everything.

[Don't even attempt to blame me for being useless because I did try to tell you that something was off about Valentine before, but you didn't want to hear it.]

Tian Xi shut her closed mouth that was just about to protest. She did recall that he tried to tell her something but she cut him off confident that Valentine's agenda with Hugh was enough to offset his danger level for her. She was under the assumption that her second world already had two other hosts in addition to herself, so her third world should have been tamer. Not to mention, Wen Ren actually ended up being so generous and passive. Apparently, her luck really was just so bad that not only did she meet another host but a particularly ambitious one at that.

[I'm finally done!] 001 suddenly yelled in her mind, making her face darken. Was he already fed up with her after one failure? Or was it because of her nonchalant attitude, because that wasn't going to change anytime soon.

'001, if you kick me out now, you also won't be able to do anything for the next 1000 ye--'

[HOST YOU HAVE TWO LUCK.]

'I kno--'

[HOST YOU HAVE TWO LUCK.]

Tian Xi glared at the empty space since 001 was in her mind.

[HOST YOU HAVE TWO LUCK.]

'SHUT UP!'

[Host--]

'I SAID TO SHUT UP OR I WILL RIP YOU OUT OF MY HEAD MYSELF AND DON'T THINK I WOULDN'T DARE--]

[SHUT UP AND LET ME EXPLAIN.]

[HOST YOU HAVE TWO LUCK.]

Tian Xi took the Sword of Oblivion from her space inventory and spanned her arm straight, promptly positioning the sharp tip of the blade so that it was pointing directly into her right ear. 'Is this what I get for giving you time to explain, because that explanation was not good enough.'

Her face was impassive as if she wasn't just about to kill herself. Having two luck had nothing to do with the system yelling in her ear the painful truth over and over again.

[HOST YOU HAVE TWO LUCK.]

[DISMISS! YELL DISMISS!]

Just as the almighty sword almost launched itself into her brain, 001 anxiously screeched out to compete with his other voice.

[HOST YOU HAVE TWO LUCK.]

'Dismiss.' Why the hell should she yell it out when she could just think it.

[HOST YOU HAVE TWO LUCK.]

The voice simply got faster and louder, making black lines appear on her already dark face, "DISMISS AH!!!!!!!!!!"

Then the voice finally shut up.

"What the hell was that, 001?!" The pain in her stomach was supposed to get better, but it only got worse and now she had a migraine, too!

[Host, I was working on an alarm system during my free time in the last world to remind you when you were feeling too arrogant that you only have two luck points. It was supposed to knock some sense into you that everything could go wrong. Unfortunately, I finished it too late and you already died. Oh well, we can just use it in the next world.] He generously explained the process and the functions--not forgetting to glorify the fabulous "snooze" option in case she felt the need to be reminded a few minutes after the first alarm.

"Just give me the rewards for the last world," she completely forgot that she didn't need to talk anymore.

[List of Completed Missions and Tasks]

[Main Mission: Become the Ruler of the Night. Reward: 5000 points - FAILURE (-10000 points)]

[Side Mission: Avenge Cecily's family. Reward: 2000 points]

[Side Mission: Kill Hugh Noir of the South. Reward: 2000 points]

[Side Task 1: Kill 100 werewolves. Total Reward: 5000 points (50 points per kill)]

[Side Task 2: Reconcile with Urian Lavande and reclaim Cecily's name and rank. Reward: 3000 points]

[Side Task 3: Depose the human king. Reward: 500 points]

[Side Task 4: Appoint a worthy king. Reward 1500 points - FAILURE]

[Side Task 5: Give Urian Lavande great-grandchildren. Reward: No limit. (1000 points per child) - FAILURE]

[Side Task 6: Save humans. Reward: 1000 points (100 points per human)]

[Total points earned: 3500. Total points deducted: 10000]

[Host Stats]

System: 001

Name: Tian Xi

Age: 25

Class: C

Cumulative Points: 110,401 (+3500)

Points: 1300 (+3500)

Skill Points: 1 (+2)

Skills: Hacking (max), Management (???), Taekwondo (max), Swordsmanship (basic)

Number of Worlds Completed: 3 (2 complete, 1 failure)

Stats:

INT - 87/100

STR - 41/100 (+2)

AGI - 32/100 (+3)

Charm (CRM) - 92/100

VIT - 40/100 (+5)

LCK 2/100

"Where did those two extra skill points pop out from?" Tian Xi was pleasantly surprised, but wanted to know if she could do the same thing to get those extra points again. Unfortunately for her, 001 had to burst her imaginations before they could even start.

[Hosts can complete certain achievements or meet certain criteria and earn rewards. They are a one-time thing. I cannot tell you the achievements you have yet to earn, but the two you have earned from the last world are: "Not an Achievement" and "Why Are You Here?"]

Why was 001 being so snarky? She didn't want to talk to him anymore but despite their ironic names, she wanted to know what she did to gain these...eh, "achievements."

Knowing that she was curious, 001 enlightened her, ["Not an Achievement" is rewarded for those who have failed for the first time. "Why Are You Here?" is rewarded for those who failed more than one mission or quest for their first time failing. Do you also want to know why the second achievement is called what it is? Even if you don't I will tell you. It's because this competition is meant for those who are meant to be the best, not failures. It's okay to fail once or twice, but as a host in this competition--]

Tian Xi cut him off before he could start nagging to her about how little she cared about whatever. She already did her best to lose as little points as possible by killing Gu Yuan, why was 001 still all over her case?

In truth, 001 was just upset that as a result of her and Gu Yuan's carelessness, they ended up both failing the mission and missing the chance to earn a lot of points. If she didn't fail that last world, she would have gotten at least 10000 points ah! It was expected of his own host to be careless, but what was Gu Yuan doing?! And his system, too! Zero was known as a god amongst the systems! But he allowed his host to fail his mission, and Gu Yuan was also revered amongst the systems for having a perfect record. Not to mention, he went through countless high-level worlds, so this level 3 world should have been nothing to him!

Knowing 001's unresolved questions, Tian Xi decided to inform him whilst pushing up her invisible glasses, "001, know that Gu Yuan is not perfect. I fooled him in a level 1 world. Maybe he never met his match in the last competition and that's why he won so easily. But now that I and that other bastard that lives with an all-or-nothing mentality are here, his road to success will be full of holes, boulders, and construction sites. Then again, he already won once and had his wish granted so what else would he want. Especially a guy like him. So, maybe he really didn't care even if the other guy was a host and would hinder him. Unfortunately, he just had to fall for me and didn't expect that the other guy would kill me like that, haha."

Even though time didn't pass in the void space, there was little to do and she had enough of talking with her system so she closed her eyes to enter the void world.

When Tian Xi opened her eyes once more, 6 hours had passed from the time before she left.

[Void Countdown: 999 years 364999 days 05:49:09]

[Leaderboard]

[Rank 1: Ah Li - 15270 points]

[Rank 2: Justin Embers - 13565 points]

[Rank 3: Kim Anderson - 13240 points]

[Rank 4: Bi Momo - 9690 points]

[Rank 5: Wen Ren - 8750 points]

[Rank 6: Liu Youran: 7490 points]

[Rank 7: Han Li - 7075 points]

.....

[Rank 17: Tian Xi - 4800 points]

[Rank 18: Gu Yuan - 3050 points]

.....

Before she could even find her name in the leaderboard and notice that the amount of contestants was less than before, Tian Xi was immediately hugged from behind. The strong and powerful arms of the person were faintly trembling, and the man's deep breaths could be felt on her left ear as he inhaled her scent as if making sure she was really there.

"You idiot. You can only die by my hands alone. There won't be a next time. Understood?" His voice was low and held a hint of warning. God only knows how worried he was about the consequences if she didn't have enough points to make up for failing the main mission! He also guessed that killing him was one of her side missions, but he wasn't sure how many points it would reward her with, so he couldn't calculate how many points she would lose as a result of not killing him so he played it safe by allowing her to kill him.

Tian Xi was speechless because the contents of his threat weren't exactly something that one would normally agree to readily. Actually, who would willingly agree to a threat in the first place?

Nevertheless, in order to calm him down somewhat, she nodded. They would probably meet in the next world too, and she didn't have any plans to die anyway so when would have to kill her? It didn't hurt to console him a bit since he helped her out in the last world when she was lost in her own thoughts that she'd rather stay away from, and he even charitably gave her some extra points by dying for her.

There was a tingling feeling in Tian Xi's heart and mind as she recalled the sight of his dying figure holding her securely in his embrace, but she ignored it. If he's really important to me, then I never would have asked for him to die.

001 was really worried about his host's EQ, but it was none of his business so he stayed quiet. Also, he was aware his host was already aware of her questionable EQ and therefore felt that he didn't have to involve himself.

"Do you know who the other guy was?" Tian Xi was curious if Gu Yuan had ever met the other host before, since he had 1000 years under his belt and even bothered to remember Wen Ren.

"Never met him before," Gu Yuan was also curious as to who the other host was because he would have remembered anyone who could hide so well from him. It wasn't as if he wasn't prying into Valentine's faction to check him out. Ever since he found out how boring the competition actually was 1000 years ago, he had forbidden Zero from helping him out in any way aside from the system store. So, he did all of the surveillance himself. Valentine acted the same as the Valentine in the original timeline. Now that he thought about it, maybe he acted too well.

Even when the two of them had changed the whole course of things, Valentine had still remained low-key and unperturbed. He only acted out when he was pushed to the edge like the original. In fact, Gu Yuan was suspicious but was confident that he and Tian Xi would be able to deal with him. In the end, fighting him was easy, but he didn't expect that the other host was the type to drag others down with him if he lost. He had met many of those types of people, but it just had to be their bad luck to have run into one so early on.

Before he could ask Tian Xi what her luck was, as if she knew what he was going to say next, Tian Xi immediately input her own insult to the host, "That snake. Trying to get rid of his competition, but too bad ah. We are too OP."

She really didn't want to have another discussion about her pathetic luck. Even more so, she did not want to hear how much luck he himself had only to eat a bunch of vinegar. She was 95% sure he had an astronomical sum compared to hers.

"En," he knew what she was trying to do but dotingly complied. If his wife didn't want to tell him, he would spare her to save her face. He would know eventually. But for him to accept her deflection for free wasn't his style, so he ate some tofu while she was still in his arms. Disregarding the fact that they were still in the C-class lounge with some bystanders that were trying their best to ignore the dog food in front of them, he was just about to slip his sneaky hands up into her shirt when frantic footsteps could be heard running towards their direction from behind.

"Hey bro--ooooooOOOOOooooH, my bad. You two ah. Do continue. I will, wait. Over there ah," Zero, whose body that he gained from Gu Yuan's first competition resembled Daniel's from Tian Xi's second world with blazing red hair and equally fiery red eyes, barged into the pink and bubbly scene and instantly regretted it as he inwardly cried tears of blood and backtracked.

He also wanted to find a partner to live it up with! Unfortunately, no human could withstand his awesomeness not to mention he had not met another system with a body yet.

The mood had already been ruined so the two lovebirds parted with much reluctance from Gu Yuan whose hands had nowhere to go.

Tian Xi was going to head to the dojo again, "Later, then."

But she suddenly stopped in her steps and turned around to look Gu Yuan in the eyes, "Thank you."

With two of her skill points, Tian Xi invested once more in the swordsmanship skill getting it to expert level. She needed three more skill points if she wanted to max it, so she just got it to the same level as the max level of her Taekwondo skill before deciding to learn marksmanship which involved guns, archery, dagger throwing, and basically anything hitting a target from afar.

Don't ask why she was investing so much into such violent skills. She was confident in her own cognitive skills that required thought, and she felt that there was no need to learn any of the skills from the void school yet like music, cooking, or painting. Those skills would make certain worlds easier to complete, but they would not be able to help her in surviving dangerous situations that could pop up anytime with her terrible luck.

After returning to the lounge three void hours later, she was surprised to find Gu Yuan still waiting around for her.

Noticing her questioning gaze as he walked towards her, Gu Yuan didn't keep her in suspense, "I wanted us to go together."

Without waiting for her reply, he smoothly took her smaller hand and departed for the next world. Feeling slightly helpless at this and knowing it will probably become a recurring thing from this point on, Tian Xi couldn't help feeling slightly moved. It didn't feel bad to have someone waiting for her.

When she left the void world, she felt that the reinforced wall had opened up the phantom wound on her stomach because she honestly didn't remember the impact being so painful the previous three times.

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