Shane watched as Song Song entered his office and shut the shelf. He then sat in his seat and pressed his fingers on his forehead.
"System," said Song Song, "why do I have to go against the demon king? He seems very powerful. And what exactly happened? Didn't you say the poison would work on him? Wasn't it why I kept sticking by his side all these years?!"
Shane raised his brows. He had no way to know what the system said, but he could guess. The other person inside Song Song's head must have become anxious at this point, but he or she would still try to calm his host down.
Sure enough, he saw the official's expression ease as he sighed. "Thank you. I'll keep doing this. If I fail this task... What will happen to me?"
After a moment of silence, the official's face paled a few degrees. "Why didn't you f*cking tell me before?! I don't want to go and attend the punishment realm!"
"Hope, what's with this punishment realm?" Since this was Shane's first time being a host, he didn't know a thing about it.
"You don't have to worry about it. I won't let you go there even if you fail."
"So powerful?" Shane was curious about something else. "Why did you come for me, though? I'm not really an extraordinary person, nor am I an experienced system. Then why?"
Hope went silent for a moment. It dragged on and on for a while until Shane almost felt that the silence would end up suffocating him for real. Just then, he heard the girl speaking:
"You're really curious, aren't you?" There was a hint of a smile in Hope's voice. "You will once we start the next job after this."
Shane's brows furrowed at this. Why did he feel like something was going to go wrong in the next world? He shook his head and decided to stop thinking about it.
By this time, even Song Song and his system had stopped talking. From the situation, it seemed that the host inside the officer's body had been stuck in this world for years. He could already guess the other party's mission. It was to probably either destroy the demonic king or take over the throne.
Shane knew that none of those options could happen. He wasn't a saintly person to help another system fulfill the mission. In any case, he was here to survive, not to help and become some kind of hero.
So he subconsciously decided to finish his task as soon as possible. After all, he just had to destroy the righteous faction. After thinking about it, he sat on the ground and started talking to Hope.
"Give me some food."
"I'm not your servant. Purchase it on your own." Hope wasn't in the mood to discuss nonsense.
"You're supposed to act like my system," Shane said, his face dissatisfied. "I can even complain about you in the feedback system.
The feedback system was actually a headache for the systems in their realm. If a host complained against them, the government would often take strict action. It included reformatting the memories and forcing the system to go through the procedure from the start without memories of previous years.
No one knew how many systems had already gone through this tedious process. It was said that every system had probably been reformed two to three times already in their lifetime. The highest record of someone having to be reformatted was around twenty. God knows what that poor system did to end up in such a messy situation.
Since Shane knew this, he was also aware of the fact that even he could have been reformatted in the past. So whenever someone uttered even a word about this, they were sure to poke a sore spot in every system in the realm.
But Hope surprisingly remained calm and collected as she said, "Oh? Go on. Do it right now. I also want to see if that timid System God has the capability to make me go through the reformatting procedure."
Shane sneered. "Are you a God or what?"
"What if I am?"
"I'll be your number one hater."
"Bullsh*t! You'll be my number one follower."
"Do you want to make a bet?"
"Nope. I'm good."
Shane sighed and stopped continuing their nonsensical talk. Soon enough, the other official got up and decided to retire to bed.
"Are you going to continue to follow him even in his sleep? Don't you have any desire to rest?" asked Hope.
"Nope," said Shane as he flexed his arms. "This body is really powerful. I don't need to sleep."
"Suit yourself." Hope stopped talking after that. (f)reewe(b)novel
For the next few days, Shane continued to follow the official around like a ghost. Except for the other man's bathroom needs, he would be around Song Song at all times. By the time a week had passed, he was so bored that he just wanted to abandon this mission.
Reasoning told him that he should still preserve because the punishment couldn't be better. He also couldn't keep relying on the girl for his protection. But when will this official act happen?
The man already had the poison. If Shane was someone else, he was sure that the other system would have given up already. Either that, or the host would have subconsciously lowered his guard, thinking Song Song was probably bluffing.
But Shane wasn't that kind of person. He knew that this person was probably making sure the demon king would lose all traces of doubt in his heart before acting. freewe(b)novel.com
Of course, if that king was still the original host, Shane was sure that even the demon would have lowered his guard.
Shane sighed. Only he was smart enough to handle this situation.
Hope scoffed. "You're too proud of yourself."
"Why shouldn't I? I did a good job, after all." Shane's chin was raised as he stood in the office, watching Song Song read one document after another.
Just as Hope was about to make a reply, she heard Shane's voice: "Wait, Song Song's going to do something."
Hope stopped talking and stared at her screen. Outside, the official had just gotten up when a familiar eagle entered through the window and accurately landed on the table.
Shane had heard the scream of this eagle earlier. That's why he realized that something might happen. It could be that the other party was getting more and more anxious as the days passed. So they must have sent this person a message.
Song Song took out the paper from his bird's leg and started reading:
"How long do you plan to wait? If I were the only person involved, I wouldn't have complained. But others are starting to get impatient. Hurry up!"
Song Song sighed and crushed the paper in his palms. Then he burned it before sitting on the chair. After pressing his fingers on his forehead for a while, he swiftly pulled out an empty scroll and wrote something. Shane leaned over to see what it was:
"Your Majesty, your servant wants to have a tea meeting with you. Do you have time?"
He signed at the bottom and stamped the scroll before shutting it. Then he called out to his servants.
Soon enough, a man in ragged robes walked into the room and bowed.
Song Song said, "Take this scroll to his majesty and come back with a reply."
Shane raised his brows and immediately decided that he should get back to his throne. He hadn't been there for a while.
He immediately went off toward the palace. When he was at a safe distance, he entered a dark alley and put back the invisibility cloak before fixing his robes. He started walking in the direction of the palace.
Other people seemed to have recognized their king. Some of them bowed, while others trembled in fear. Shane ignored them all and continued to walk without any expression on his face.
Soon enough, he reached the palace as the guards at the main arched gate bowed and made their way. Shane nodded and walked straight toward the throne hall.
As soon as he entered, all the servants and soldiers stationed in and outside the palace bowed as if they really respected him. But Shane knew that, because of the interference of that minister, half of them were probably spies.
Shane finally sat on the throne as he gestured for everyone to stand up. Soon, one of the ministers handed over a few scrolls.
"Your majesty, please look into the matter. There has been a murder in the eastern part of the Empire."
"Your majesty, please look into the taxes. Should we increase them more? A few villagers in the west aren't paying it up. Should we decide on their punishments?"
"The public is complaining about not having enough to eat. Should we loot the food from the righteous faction like before?"
And the cases went on and on. Shane's face was completely black as he saw the pile of scrolls that sat beside him on the throne.
"Hope, let's finish this mission today. I don't want to handle so many scrolls!"
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om