Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Reborn... as a hent*i tentacle!

"Haah… Finally! The stupid penalty contract is now completed."

A ragged person draped in tattered Hunter attire sat on the corpse of a monster under the pale red moon releasing a satisfied sigh before looking at the floating screen in front of him.

----------

[Contract]

World: Bloodborne

Status: Complete

Description: A contract given by administrator of Afterlife hub to the user as penalty for violation of Hub's term of use. User must complete a mission assigned while all the user's non innate ability is restricted.

Main Quest

-Complete the hunt (1/1)

Reward: Remove restriction on user ability.

Penalty: Return to natural cycle of reincarnation (dead)

Side Quest

-Uncover the history of Yharnam and the great one (100%/100%)

Reward: Character Summon Gem (The Doll)

-Accept Gehrmen offer(0/1)

Reward: Title (I'm a pussy)

-Kill Gehrmen (1/1)

Reward: Title (Caretaker of the Dream)

-Kill Moon Presence (1/1)

Reward: Subspace (Hunter's Dream)

-Kill Hunter's Nightmare bosses (5/5)

Reward: Item Summon Gem (Holy Moonlight Sword)

-Complete the contract under 20 deaths (281/20)

Reward: Title (Bloodborne Expert)

----------

After scanning through the previous screen. I take note of the rewards that I obtain from the contract completion. I saw two of the best rewards I obtained.

The subspace which isn't very rare in the hub as they are a lot on sale in the hub market but even the cheapest one will cost more that a pair of my kidney.

Next is the Holy Moonlight Sword. As a fan of the Souls series, the weapon is called the brainchild of the game creator. The mysterious history of the sword, location of its discovery and its sentience.

Satisfied with the reward I look over my status screen only to discover something is missing.

-"Oi, cheapskate Hub system, where is my promised ascension huh! I go through such lengths to collect all four umbilical cords and according to the note, I will get my race changed to a great one." I demand answers from the system.

(...)

"Don't give me the silent treatment. Where is my promised godhood!"

(...)

(Transition to Godhood will involve metamorphosis of the user soul into said race of god then followed by creation of soul vessel. As a precaution for the transition phase the system delayed the process.)

(Proceed to transition? Yes/No)

"Yes" I agree without thinking much.

(Due to immense pain of soul modification in transition process, user is forcefully induced into coma until ascension to godhood complete)

"Huh!" I blacked out after hearing the notification.

Now with that out of the way, one might question why the mc is serving his penalty in Bloodborne world?

Ahem, lemme the great supreme venerable author explain how our retard and mentally challenged mc wonderful fucked up to end up with a penalty.

So, our retard mc who think he can become op mc like what he read from novels and fanfictions went ahead and tried many method to meet ROB through several nonsense way such as blood sacrifice (using chicken) or glitch out of reality bs.

His final method, which is T posing while making a double flip when falling to a running train, finally succeeded through multiple coincidences, making him eligible for becoming a user of the Afterlife hub.

Apparently his attempt to meet ROB was seen by a random passerby who immediately called the police. The police is called to the scene and they informed train station to stop the incoming train which coincidentally the same train a group of terrorist put timed bomb on to bomb the main train station which is the train next stop.

Mc suicide attempt save thousands of possible victim of the terrorist bombing. His final moments which are recorded by another random passerby are viral in the internet and made him hailed as a hero because of multiple theories made by the viewer and mc determined expression.

One of the theory stated that mc knew of the bombing attempt and sacrifice himself to stall the train from reaching its destination so that the bomb detonate in remote places very few people will go. He didn't report because he afraid the terrorist group insider might notice it.

Thus his great(retarded) deed garner the attention of ROB supervising this universe. Mc later given an offer by the ROB or administrator responsible for recruiting users for Afterlife Hub.

Afterlife hub is a immense subspace outside the existing omniverse and timeline created by an omnipotent sentience (basically OAA but an AI) which is also the governor or manager of the Hub. The Hub is a futuristic looking massive city also the capital of Afterlife Hub where all main facilities such as market, contract and quest hall, Akashic Record or library, lounge and many more.

Mc later arrived at the entrance of the Hub after accepting the recruitment of the administrator, went through the introduction by the Hub Governor. His introduction ended after the explanation about Record World and the contract.

So basically Record World is a copy of a world generated using data from the Akashic Record of the omniverse like for example Naruto or DxD world. The world copy is a canon timeline copy that the Hub user can go to complete a contract which usually involves taking the copy world mc place to fight the antagonist or avert great disaster.

Thus the retard mc immediately go ahead a buy a record key of Date A Live world and take place of its mc, Itsuka Shido. As a retard, romantically incapable and reclusive introvert he failed spectacularly even with mc plot armor and luck. His failure to flirt spirit Princess twice resulted in him failing to complete his contract.

Due to failure of upholding his contract the power obtained from Date A Live record world, Spirit Vessel and Spirit (Efreet) is sealed and thrown into one of the random punishment worlds to redeem himself. His sole regret is to not select a world suited to his ability and underestimate the difficulty of the Record World.

Now back to the mc.

----------

"Did someone get the car number plate? Ugh I feel like someone is pumping my head with water until it bursts."

I woke up to the sound of multiple notifications pop up from the system. About completion of race change and the ascension. I gave a quick command to open my status screen.

----------

NAME: Ray Elliot (Xuthu)

RACE: Great One (Infant)

GENDER: Genderless (Can change)

TITLE: Caretaker of the Dream

LEVEL: 100

HP: 106,400/106,400 (1.5%/1s)

MP: 416,000/416,000 (3%/1s)

EP: –/– (5000/1s)

—————

STR: 6000

VIT: -

AGI: 8000

DEX: 6000

INT: 14,000

WIS:-

LUK: 100

HP: 10,000

SKILL:

*Weapon Mastery [Bloodborne] LV MAX

*Quickening LV MAX

*God Eye [Eldritch] LV MAX (New)

*Production LV MAX

*Marksmanship LV MAX

*Exploration LV MAX

*Observation LV MAX

*Basic Language Comprehension LV -

INNATE ABILITY:

*Spirit Vessel

-Efreet (Sealed)

*Cold Blooded Killer

*Beast Hunter

*Marked by Death

*Divinity (New)

-[Eldritch]

-[Moon]

-[Hunt]

*Unchained Fate (New)

*One Beyond Stars (New)

*Moon Grace

*Hunter's Dream (New)

----------

"Damn so much new skill and ability from completing just a world."

"If I knew about this obscene way to become powerful, I would enter easier worlds to complete contact. Especially those juicy low difficulty but have powerful items to grab kind of world."

Fate world has three free noble phantasms sunk in the river of Fuyuki city if I remember correctly. Should I try my luck since I just got powered up from Bloodborne contract completion?

"System, return to Hub."

(Penalty contract completed, teleportation restriction lifted.

Teleportation initiated, destination Hub 5,4,3,2,1)

The space in front of him rumbles and shatters like glass before a dark tunnel with a small oval white light on the end appears after the countdown reaches one.

"Sweet home Alab… I mean Home sweet home." I feel glad that I finally return from the hellholelike.

The Bloodborne world is constantly stuck in a night and there is no way to measure the amount of time I spend in that world due to the time distortion.

After entering the space crack, I arrive in a futuristic looking room filled with people dressed in a variety of attire. The room I land in is the teleportation hall of the hub, a place where users end up whenever they use system teleportation.

(Large amount of useless miscellaneous item and material detected in user inventory. Sell? Yes/No)

I'm greeted by a notification from the system which surprised me. Never thought the system would have such a convenient function which would definitely be useful for extremely forgetful me.

"Sell material that I cannot use in production and the beast pellets." I think that I have no use for those beast pellets anyway.

(Affirmative. Processing… Transaction complete. Total 4,201,631 items sold, 80% of the items are scrapped in the material converter. 18,000,000 Hub Points obtained.)

Wow I expect lesser points considering 80% of those items only drop due to the system's features such as cloth rag, beast fur, metal shards and plenty more that I can't remember.

"Hehe I must be filthy rich right now then. Onward to the marketplace!" I speak out as i march toward my destination attract few nearby users.

Walking from the teleportation hall, I saw more users than the time of my first arrival doing their things with the majority of them crowding the Contract and Quest Hall.

From the murmur of the crowd, apparently an emergency quest is being posted. A user owned city is under siege from the monster flood in the Grand Labyrinth.

Grand Labyrinth is basically a massive world connected to the Hub that users can enter to level up, gather material or establish land of their own. The world is filled with mob monsters that will spawn on any unconquered land or occupied by multiple intelligent races. The current conquered land is 14 times the surface of earth, which surprisingly only accounted for 2% of the explored land.

The labyrinth has multiple layers which are not fully explored by Hub users due to it being very dangerous. There is no definite way to measure the difficulty of the land as a mythical ancient dragon may just pop up next to a user accidentally.

There is effort to conquer the land by the older and stronger users by claiming land to make residence for them.

Coincidentally, the city that is currently under siege is one of the frontier cities established by older users. The city is built in a basin on top of a steep mountain which is popular due to the massive waterfall it forms. The basin water is fed by water leaked from the upper layer of the labyrinth's freshwater lake.

I continue walking down the street until I reach the marketplace. Contrary to my expectations, the marketplace is just a slightly large building with a lot of floating screens displaying a variety of products from weapons to foods to people?

-Is that AK-12 from Girl Frontline! Holy shit they sell waifu in one of these shops. Damn.

I rush to one of the screens and start browsing the shop catalogue. I found more and more familiar faces like Shimakaze from Kancolle to the Oni twin from Re:Zero.

"Oi oi, is this even for real?" I'm really shocked that they sell fictional characters here.

The description stated that they are copies of the original self. The price for them is also no joke, especially the one that uses magic like Oni twin which sells for half a million points while non magic user ones like AK-12 or AN-94 which listed under android cost 20 thousands points for 1 unit.

"Should I buy a unit or continue browsing other stuff… Browsing it is then."

(User is suggested to get a superior version weapon or Hub's enhancement item to upgrade user's arsenal)

"Any suggestion I should pay attention to?"

(Filtering catalogue, browsing… browsing complete. Suggestions listed)

Holy Moonlight Sword

*Grade S Material Upper Gem

-1 Million Hub Points

*Grade A Enhancement Scroll [Bloodborne]

-3 Million Hub Points

*Grade B Weapon Soul Awakening Gem

-1.2 Million Hub Points

*Scroll of Greater Binding

-100 Thousands Hub Points

*Scroll of Force Obedience

-100 Thousands Hub Points

*Scroll of Superior One Way Contract

-100 Thousands Hub Points

Equipment & Accessories

*Grade S Hunter Set [Bloodborne]

-300 Thousands Hub Points

*Grade B Earrings of False Death

-100 Thousands Hub Points

*Grade C Ring of Shadow

-1000 Hub Points

*Grade C Ring False Data [Overlord]

-1000 Hub Points

*Grade A Ring of Protection

-100 Thousands Hub Points

Total = 6,002,000 Points

Buy Yes/No

"Yes, buy them and also search for companions. Preferably female and able to assist my growth or battle."

HP: 12,008,000

(Purchase completed. Searching Companion, filtering…)

While the system is doing its job I start equipping stuff I just bought and enhancing the Holy Moonlight Sword.

"Let's see, first the sword from my inventory then the foundation. Use Material Upper Gem"

(Material Upper Gem used. Unidentified material Grade C is replaced with Primordial Mithril Uru alloy Grade S. Replacement Success)

"Holup, Success? So there is a chance of the sword getting ruined when replacing weapon material."

(Yes)

...

I feel a sudden urge to beat myself up, truly old habits die hard. I wonder if this is karma biting my ass off.

"Deep breath hu… ha…x3 . Why didn't you tell me about the success rate"

(User didn't ask)

Veins popped on my forehead while I struggled to not lash out on the system although it's my fault for not reading the 'user manual'. I almost lost the Holy Moonlight Sword.

"What is the effect on the sword if the Enhancement Scroll fails?"

(Enhancement Scroll will be consumed and no damage on the sword)

I release a relieved sigh. "Umu proceed with the upgrade."

(Enhancement Scroll used, Energy pathway strengthened, increase Arcane damage modifier by 30%. Energy efficiency increases, reducing Energy consumption by 20%. Enhancement success)

(Weapon Soul Awakening Gem

used, dormant ego detected, ego creation skipped. Forming empty weapon soul, inserting dormant ego, Awakening dormant ego…. Weapon Soul Awaken success.)

"Oh that was fast. Time to greet my partner."

I held the Holy Moonlight Sword handle with the blade facing down before feeding my mana into the sword. I avoid feeding my Eldritch energy because I don't know what the effect will be.

After feeding almost my entire pool of mana, the sword turns to two handed form and starts to glow in the mesmerising ethereal green glow.

"You…"

The weapon's soul became visible and pointed its finger at me with a neutral expression.

"Are you my creator?" The weapon soul ask unsure of its situation.

"Umu, I made you into a weapon soul for my sword using the dormant ego in the sword."

Its expression turns complicated while looking at me as if it is evaluating me before telling its result to me.

"But I have yet to acknowledge you as my true owner. You do not qualify yet to become my true owner."

"Haah, Thank goodness the system prepared for a situation if the weapon spirit refused to serve me. I quickly grab the remaining three scrolls I just bought."

-Now then you can't blame me for forcing my hand now. Pikac… wait, wrong one. Scroll of Greater Binding and Scroll of Force Obedience, I choose you!

Two of the scrolls in my hand float to the air then combust in blue flame before a bunch of near translucent chains appear from a blue magic circle created by the scroll rushing toward the sword, binding it midair.

"Release me… I do not approve of this action." I feel like a certain site's protagonist forcing himself on a girl.

The sword glowed intensely as the weapon soul tried to free itself before it died down when the Scroll of Force Obedience turned into a string of letters and inscribed onto the sword.

"You are mine now, like it or not huehehehehe" the response flow smoothly from my mind as the process succeeded.

(User please be mindful of your behaviour in public Hub spaces or user might get arrested by the Hub governor.)

"Ahem" Ignoring the onlookers' scrutiny "Now for the finishing touch, Scroll of Superior One Way Contract. Eternal servitude, total obedience and no action that can negatively affect me."

The contract lifts itself into air before combust into blue flame signifying the contract established successfully.

"This nameless great one that dwells in the sword greets it's creator and master." The weapon soul that look exactly like a short Danmachi Artemis gave a short bow before vanish into the sword.

"Holup, wait a minute the weapon soul's previous ego is a great one?"

(The dormant ego is an incomplete soul of a great one sealed in the sword which turn into weapon soul due to the Soul Awakening Gem)

"So, buy one free one then. I got a Holy Moonlight Sword plus a free great one in it."

(User is correct, user just obtains a subordinate god. A lesser god or god that submits to serve another god in servitude.)

"Wonderful. With everything out of the way. Any progress on companion?"

(Several options within selected criteria is found)

*Sakuya Izayoi [Touhou]

-200k Hub Points

*Leysritt [Fate]

-3k Hub Points

*Sella [Fate]

-2k Hub Points

*Scáthach [FGO]

-200k Hub Points

*Merlin [FGO]

-200 Hub Points

*Ikaros [Soranoto]

-10 Million Hub Points

The immediate one that caught my eye is Ikaros that cost 10 Million points. How is it this expensive, it's like 50 times the price of Merlin. Also Merlin is a male character, why is he listed also.

(Ikaros is a Battle-Class type Alpha angeloid equipped with enough firepower to rival a World Destroyer class starship.)

"... I just heard something absurd that I question my ability to hear."

(Ikaros can be equipped with knowledge to serve as a maid for user. As a partial robotic life form, any information can be modified according to user need.)

"If I'm not mistaken Ikaros is very loyal to whoever she imprinted on and very versatile, able to do various tasks."

(Indeed users can rest assured that Ikaros will stay loyal forever as long as the user didn't renounce the ownership of her.)

(Users are suggested to buy Scáthach and Merlin to compensate for the user's severe lack of real combat ability and magic ability.)

"Indeed I'm lacking in both physical combat ability and magic. The skill I get from Bloodborne is only weapon mastery which isn't really an active ability."

"Can I not just buy necessary skills from the marketplace?"

(As novice hub users, it's recommended to get companions that can teach skills like Scáthach that can teach Eternal Arms Mastery, Primordial Rune and much more. Merlin is also similar but he can teach much more about mannerism, kingship and country management.)

"So getting a teacher can provide me with more skill and someone that can guide me."

(Yes)

"If so, then buy Ikaros, Scáthach and Merlin." I selected the two FGO character that famous for being teachers of famous hero.

(Purchase success, Character Summon Gem (Ikaros, Scáthach and Merlin) transferred into inventory.)

I left the marketplace to a secluded area before calling upon the messenger lamp.

The messenger lamp is the gateway to the Hunter's Dream subspace and as owner of the Dream, I can summon it anywhere I need to use it as a personal door or anchor to a world.

Due to race change to great one, my true body had changed to that of an eldritch being and as an infant great one, the true body is confined in the subspace until I reach the required stage of growth.

The subspace can nourish my true body with the accumulated faith power generated by its residents which is Bloodborne world restored after my ascension.

I basically replaced Odeon and took ownership of this Bloodborne world copy. The world is able to provide me with loyalty hunters and warriors which is a great boon as I can summon them to assist me.

A familiar feeling washed over me before I appeared back in the Hunter's Dream. The dilapidated hunter workshop, the moon hung closely on the sky and the familiar floral scent greeted me as I arrived.

"The dream always makes me feel serene and peaceful. Ha…" I feel like a old man for sighing a lot lately.

The pressure I felt finally released. I'm free now, no more hunting or whatever. I urgently need vacation right to celebrate my newfound freedom.

Sat on the wheelchair located under the tree overlooking the field of flowers where I killed Gehrmen and Moon Presence. I took the character summon gem from my inventory before breaking it with my grip to activate the gem.

"Greeting Good Hunter" Plain Doll gave the familiar bow.

I gave Doll the habitual and well practiced hunter bow before resuming sitting on the wheelchair. I start looking into the system screen looking at my information which manages to catch my attention.

----------

NAME: Ray Elliot

RANK: Copper

FACTION: None

ALIGNMENT: Neutral

QUEST: None

CONTRIBUTION: 0

----------

According to the explanation I read, this is my status for Great Labyrinth which I can effectively ignore for now but the rank is the one that catches my attention.

The rank is similar to membership ranking for the hub. Higher rank provides privilege like access to better skill in the marketplace, discount and Hub function.

The rank has five progression which is copper>iron>silver>gold>platinum where platinum is the high rank.

The Doll standing next to me looks at me strangely for making a weird gesture which actually is me interacting with the system.

"What will you do now Hunter, the hunt is no longer necessary and people of Yharnam now live peacefully free from the plague of the blood?"

I look at her beautiful doll-like face looking pristine like a freshly made doll before deciding to explain briefly about the hub and penalty contract.

"Oh, how fascinating it is. I would never have thought such a place existed."

Completely unfazed by the notion about countless other world copies out there and seemingly excited she can visit another world with me.

"Calling you Doll sounds strange, how about I gave you a name? Perhaps Maria? The name of the person who model's your appearance."

Well before anyone states their dissatisfaction, I sucks at giving names and I'm too lazy to use my brain thus I use Lady Maria name as I probably never need to meet her ever so it's fine.

"Sure Good Hunter…"

She accepted the name before looking at me in silence as if anticipating something from me which I failed to figure out.

…

…

"What is it Maria?"

I ask for her answer. She looked at me with her head slightly tilted and plastered with her expressionless face.

"May I… see your true form?"

"Uh… sure…"

A ripple from on my chest before a small half humanoid and half tentacles monstrosity exit the ripple. The upper humanoid part looks like a skinny dehydrated corpse with four pairs of tiny wing-like protrusions at the back while the lower part consists of octopus-like tentacles but instead of a suction cup, it is filled with sharp nails.

'groan… screech…'

My true form tries to speak but instead of a baby-like sound, it sounds like the whimper and wail of a dying animal.

Maria or the Doll however unphased by it and instead looked happy trying to cradle me in her arms. The atmosphere however suddenly changes, I can feel a foreign presence suddenly enter Maria's body.

"Ah finally, the ritual finally bore its fruit." The presence in Maria starts to mumble in great joy with a different voice which makes it difficult to determine her gender.

"For countless cycles I had watched and waited, a surrogate of mine finally appeared."

"Who are you!"

My true form dissipates into a silvery grey mist that looks similar to the mist of quickening then absorbed into the ripple on my hunter body.

With a quick mind command, I ordered the Holy Moonlight Sword to appear in my hand in one handed form. Dark purple black veins appear on my right hand as I pour eldritch energy into the sword.

"Hm… can you not feel the blood, it sings to me… calling for me."

The presence in Maria's body becomes stronger and I start to feel the blood in my hunter's body as if worshipping it, trying to move closer as if attracted by strong magnetic force.

"Fear not child... I bear no ill will, I am Odeon the Formless One or simply called as Odeon by Pthumerian people who worship me long ago."

"I return after feeling the birth of an infant of my kind which led me here."

With its introduction, I feel greatly relieved as it bears no ill will however I still keep my guard up just in case as I mentally ask for system analysis.

(Presence detected is a psychic fragment of a greater being. Threat on uses is none, the fragment only able to convey word through the willing medium.)

"Sigh… So, what do you require from me Odeon?"

"... I have no other motive other than seeing you, my child. Please return to your true form again. I wish to cradle you, oh surrogate child of mine. Only you can soothe my longing for a child of my own."

The presence speaks in great sorrow extending 'her' arm asking for my true form which I comply without thinking much after seeing it's genuine sorrow.

My true body reforms on 'her' grasp from the mist exit from the ripple on my chest. It quickly and gently cradles me which makes me feel weird as a mentally 20+ years old me.

The feel of joy radiates from its presence which can be felt from my blood as it becomes excited and alive making me feel invigorated.

As it cradles me, Odeon said something that intrigues me. Odeon approached by the sentience that govern the Afterlife Hub with a deal.

The deal is the Hub provides candidates for the ritual of ascension while Odeon allows the hub to use its universe to make world copy for its personal use.

From the information I conclude that the world copy is simply an alternate timeline that the hub access with permission of the one who is in power or owns the world.

This might change my future action and goal because now I know that if I fuck up a world, even if I complete the contract, I will probably have powerful being put bounty on my head and I doubt hub can stop them from pursuing me for my actions.

After a very long awkward time of technically 'family' bonding. It releases me as I detect his presence become fleeting.

"The agreed time is nearing the end. Unwilling I am, I have to leave for now my child. For now you are still weak among our kind who thrive in land beyond the stars."

A milky white glow melted from the psychic fragment slowly then infused into my true body. Several notifications pop up which I temporarily ignore to focus on Odeon words.

"I bid you farewell now, my psychic tether unable to exist for long due to the attribute of true void that the Hub exists in. I also left you with some gift to—"

It's talk is interrupted when it's presence abruptly completely before the real 'Maria' returned looking at me unsure of what just transpired as she felt that she just woken up from a deep sleep.

Ignoring her confusion, I transferred my consciousness into my other body before I sat in the wheelchair. With a deep sigh my body melted on the seat then opened the status screen to look at any changes.

----------

NAME: Ray Elliot (Xuthu)

RACE: Great One (Infant)

GENDER: Male (Can change)

TITLE: Caretaker of the Dream

LEVEL: 100

HP: 106,400/106,400 (1.5%/1s)

MP: 416,000/416,000 (3%/1s)

EP: –/– (10,000/1s)

—————

STR: 6000

VIT: -

AGI: 8000

DEX: 6000

INT: 14,000

WIS:-

LUK: 100

HP: 1,608,000

SKILL:

*Weapon Mastery [Bloodborne] LV MAX

*Quickening LV MAX

*God Eye [Eldritch] LV MAX

*Production LV MAX

*Marksmanship LV MAX

*Exploration LV MAX

*Observation LV MAX

*Basic Language Comprehension LV–

*Eldritch Energy Manipulation LV– (New)

INNATE ABILITY:

*Spirit Vessel

-Efreet (Sealed)

*Cold Blooded Killer

*Beast Hunter

*Marked by Death

*Divinity (New)

-[Eldritch]

-[Blood]

-[Moon]

-[Hunt]

*Unchained Fate

*One Beyond Stars

*Moon Grace

*Hunter's Dream

*Odeon Beloved Child (New)

----------

The gift from Odeon is a skill and innate ability which honestly is very welcome by me, especially the innate ability.

*Odeon Beloved Child

Odeon the great one who is worshipped as god by Pthumerian people is equivalent to a god king of a pantheon. As it's beloved child, you are blessed with high rank divinity and dominion over blood.

*Eldritch Energy Manipulation LV–

Crucial skill needed to absorb the energy from void to fuel the usage of eldritch power. This skill dictates the rate of absorption of the energy.

These two skills are a great boon for me, especially Eldritch Energy Manipulation skill. Due to the infant great one lacking the ability to self produce and store eldritch power like mana core that produce and store mana, they rely on leeching the void constantly if they want to use eldritch power.

With the skill, I officially double my max output of eldritch energy. Although it barely raises my offensive power due to me lacking skill that uses eldritch power.

Call of Beyond is the only spell I obtain from Bloodborne that I can use now which can channel eldritch energy.

The energy will add effects like void attributes that have an incredible piercing effect on steroids, corruption that degrade both mental and physical of the enemy depending on their resistance and damage to the soul of the target dealing true damage.

Closing the status screen with a left handed swipe, I look at Maria standing a few steps away holding my true body in her hand while looking intently at it.

"Maria, do you know how you arrived here?"

I ask her to verify my suspicion since she probably isn't the original 'Plain Doll' which I meet in Bloodborne rather a companion I summon with the character summon gem.

She tilted her head slightly before answering…

"Ah Good Hunter, I still remember you since your arrival in the Hunter's Dream."

"After your fight with Moon Presence, something whispered to me asking if I wanted to accompany you on your journey, which I accepted and then I appeared immediately before you again."

So, she is the original 'Plain Doll' that inhabited the dream. I was worried for nothing then. I'm glad she will continue to accompany me even after the contract ends.

If Ludwig's guiding light is his sword then Plain Doll or Maria is my guiding light, without her I probably would have long succumbed to the madness in the Bloodborne world with my record of deaths.

At the beginning of the hunt I look down on the effect that the world can have on me since I see all the world has to offer from the screen.

However seeing from screen and experience it hand on was like comparing masturbating with having real sex.

Boy oh boy, it is way different especially when I first fight with a beast. My entire body just shut down under its stare. Probably also pissed my pants before I got sent back to hunter's dream.

I died a dozen more times before I managed to reach the first boss and by that time I was already numbed by death. Several times I almost gave up but she was always there to encourage me and provide comfort to my broken self.

"Truly a great waifu material." I speak out unconsciously while reminiscing my memory of her.

"Wai… fu?" Maria imitated my words. "Do you mean wife?" She asks for my confirmation which I absentmindedly nod.

As I sat on the wheelchair relaxed, I wondered what my next agenda was. Now I am free of restriction after finishing my penalty contract.

I realized that I don't have an urgent need to get powerful as I am strong enough to fend myself although when compared to slightly better users in the hub, my power isn't even worth 1/100th of their power.

(Users are advised to get stronger or an unfortunate accident will happen when the user ventures into Grand Labyrinth.)

'Grand Labyrinth? Why would I enter a labyrinth when I can just be a shut-in and sleep in my subspace as long as I want and I technically require no sustenance to survive.'

(As copper rank users, user need to contribute to the hub or user will undergo another penalty contract.)

'Wait what!' I shout internally from the system explanation. 'I never knew about that.'

(It is the user's fault for not paying attention during the introduction by the Hub governor.)

'Please continue to explain.' I massage my brow seeing my dream to live a slow life in my second life like a manga isekai protagonist sprinting away like Usain Bolt making a new world record.

(Users need to pay a set amount of contribution point or CP depending on the rank and followed by a percentage of CP which is also depending on rank.)

––––––

CP Tax Rate (Annually)

-Rank Copper-

•100 CP or 10% total CP

-Rank Iron-

•1000 CP or 8% total CP

-Rank Silver-

•10,000 CP or 6% total CP

-Rank Gold-

•100,000 CP or 4% total CP

-Rank Platinum-

•1,000,000 CP or 2% total CP

-User will pay set amount of CP or total CP, whichever that is higher

-Failure to pay CP will undergo penalty contract

-Repeating offence will result in termination of term of service.

-Newbie users are given a grace period of 1 year of tax exemption.

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(User can rank up to obtain privilege for hub services that range from basic one revival upon death to special one like access to special secret shop that sell very valuable item)

(User currently have copper rank privilege of revive upon death that enable the user to return to hub upon death when doing contract or exploring Great Labyrinth except penalty world copy.)

'Do that mean if I died when fighting Gehrmen or Moon Presence. I die a true death?'

(User is correct)

'How much time left until I need to pay tax?'

(User still have 363 days left. Only time spent in the hub is counted.)

"The only way to escape tax is to delve into world copy huh." Ignoring Maria's questioning gaze I went over the conversation of mine with the system about tax.

"Oh, the irony. To procrastinate I need to work around the clock away from the hub." With a slight giggle I stand up to exit the subspace to get a new contract from the hub.

Maria, who is still holding on to my true body, looks at me as if she saw a madman as I leave for the Hub.