1.2 Disgustingly Perfect

[Creator, your presence is requested in the observatory.]

[Creator, your presence is requested in the observatory.]

The mechanical voice echoed in the hallway, bouncing off the white walls, as hollow and impressionless as Thanh Van's mood as he strode down the stretch of pure nothingness with the butler fast behind him, steps so silent the NPC might as well be gliding.

Thanh Van had asked the program to build the base as lifeless as possible - no belongings, mirrors, or a damn picture frame could be seen anywhere. Those were all sentimental things. Thanh Van had stopped collecting those back in - well, too long back that he already forgot about it.

He had forgotten a lot of things. The white walls and long corridors of nothing made him feel at peace. At least here, he was not reminded of how fragile and forgetful a human mind was.

He merely existed.

A new pair of white cotton pants and a matching t-shirt hugged his body comfortably. There was only one shade of white in this place, and if one didn't look closely, Thanh Van looked like a floating head with detached arms holding a cup of coffee coming down the hallway at full speed. He rather enjoyed the idea of scaring the shit out of everyone. But here, in the little pocket dimension, there was only him and the program.

The door at the end of the corridor slid back with a soft 'swish', revealing a dimly lit circular room with walls covered in monitors from ceiling to floor. Machines whirred at full speed, the heat they emitted comforting against Thanh Van's bare arms.

Merrily, he watched as new faces flashed across the many screens, one more irritated than the other, their background information rolling through the screens in quick succession. Thanh Van smiled at a rugged face that flashed on the monitor, filled to the brim with annoyance and with a little spark of killing intent. Thanh Van could almost feel their confusion and hostility pulsate from the monitor screens.

Renewed hope made his steps light as he walked around the room, studying the selection of new players the program had handpicked from the multiverse - just for him.

He took a sip from his cup. The black tar-like liquid tasted of concentrated coffee. His skin crawled as the overdose of caffeine attacked his system, kicking his heart into a frantic drum - refreshing.

"What did you say this is again?" Thanh Van waved around the cup with the bold 'World's best Dad' plastered on the side. It was a gag gift from the program, but Thanh Van rather liked it.

He would ask for a 'Daddy creator' shirt next.

"Dainam coffee, sir."

"I like it." The drumming of his heart resembled the first sign of a stroke. He almost felt like dying. "Stock up on this."

"Certainly, sir."

[Creator, the first scenario will start in… 3 hours.]

Thanh Van choked on his coffee, spluttering it over the front of his shirt.

3 hours?! His accusing eyes shot to the butler. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?!"

The butler's lips twitched. "Sir, I stabbed you for an hour before you stirred."

"Should have stabbed harder." Thanh Van chucked the rest of the coffee down his throat, haphazardly wiping the coffee trickling down his chin with his shirt. Without looking he sat down on the chair the butler had pulled out of nowhere.

The floor before him split open, and a control system rose to view. Rows of buttons and switches appeared before his fingertips, and Thanh Van got to work. With a few clicks, the screens before him merged into one unit, showing him a large selection of players listed out like playing cards on a table. There were at least a thousand faces to go through, but this didn't worry Thanh Van. He merely wanted to see if any of them stood out or held an abnormal amount of killing intent.

To his dismay, at least for now, he couldn't sense shit. No abnormalities.

Mildly disappointing.

"Have you briefed them on the situation?" Thanh Van pressed a button, and a live feed filled the screen, showing hundreds of people bustling about in the main auditorium like trapped ants.

"No, sir. We are still waiting for the last player to arrive on the scene."

Thanh Van's smile twitched. Whose fault was it he woke up so late?!

The butler ignored his glare. "The contestants have been left to mingle and panic together. Some have been trying to trash the dorms, but once they realised everything not alive had been bolted in place, they gave up fairly quickly."

"They seem… calm." Thanh Van had expected them to be shoving and screaming at the top of their lungs. But these rugged faces were the epitome of… coolness? Where was the panic? Not even a drop of blood shed so far?

"All have also been holding in their guts, as they have not been fed or granted access to the bathroom for the last 48 hours. It is guaranteed that they are all confused, pissed beyond belief, and their urine pouches near the brink of explosion, sir."

"So evil, I love it." Thanh Van cackled as he drummed the controls, wiping the live feed out of view. The screen slowly filled with pictures of young men, one more beautiful than the other, so blindingly dazzling that there was no way these men could exist in real life.

They didn't.

Thanh Van hummed a tune as old as time as he scrolled through his pinned pictures of the main characters of the many boys' love novels he had read to kill his boredom over the years. A twisted smile played on his lips. It was time to choose his skin, and he already had a perfect one on his mind.

"How about an albino? Long white hair, red ruby eyes, crimson petals for lips. Tall and willowy."

"Sir, you have already used this cover in the previous scenarios."

"Oh? I'm sure only in one-"

[Albino NPC skin used in scenarios: 1, 14, 23 …. 870, 906, 1102, 1150, 1450, 1641-]

"Ok, ok, I see it is overused…" Thanh Van let out a pained sigh. He loved that NPC skin. Albinos seemed to send males wild. "Fine! Give me something that makes big, beefy men's hearts go 'ba-dump'. Something that screams: must protect but also molest."

The system fell silent. Suddenly, the pictures on the screen swivelled across the monitor at such speed Thanh Van almost got whiplash.

As abruptly, the screen screeched to a halt.

[New NPC skin found. Creator, please prepare for the briefing in the main auditorium.]

The screen only showed one picture now.

Thanh Van's smile twitched, unable to decide whether he wanted to laugh his head off or cringe himself straight to Hell. Sadly, he couldn't kill himself even if he wanted to, otherwise, this just might be the last nail in his coffin.

This NPC skin — was disgusting… ly perfect for these guys!