Before Elios and his siblings signed the contract…
Natasha’s POV
I watched those two young males who were aggressively staring at each other. Since I’m an overpowered monster, I thought deeply while the time seemed to slow down.
Those idiots are fighting over me.
I should’ve cut off their balls when they first saw me.
The blue transparent gaming screen cut off my thoughts when it popped up in front of my face.
System: NO!
System: Don’t cut their precious things!
System: If you do that, they won’t love you anymore and you will never unlock the next stage for [PORNEIA] (LUST) Title!
System: And their loyalty will decrease to negative infinite! So please, don’t do it!
Reading the system’s message made me feel sick even I don’t have internal organs.
So you’re telling me to keep them fall in love with someone like me who never gives a fuck with their unwanted affection?
System: YES!
System: I mean… NO! Just… Come on!
System: As a system, I give the G.O.D’s champion (player/user) full assistance in order for YOU to progress as fast and badass as ever you imagined! Until your God’s desires will meet the result! So be a good girl and catch those guys while they’re still falling!
The time stopped or should I say, I became so fast after reading this scumbag’s message. It infuriates me which made my Demi-God Mode activated and let the Zero Emotions immediately suppressed my emotions.
You know what? Since I’m a player and a cheater, I can do whatever I want. So don’t force me to love them back. They’re just dogs in a mating season.
System: Dogs? Well, you’re right. They’re part humans after all so they can act like animals.
System: But…
System: I know you knew the rules of Romance Genre. So, get them all!
The rule of the Romance Genre in this game is simple. If the people who’re obviously into you, then collect them all, put them in your harem collection and do the romantic stuff like sex, wedding, and kids which is so troublesome. I guess Polyandry is fine in this world if the system allows me to have more than one husband. Unfortunately, I hate romance even the system told me some benefits of that kind of strategy.
Reasons why I hate romance:
1. Never received true love – Even I was born with mysterious and unwanted charm, I never feel to be loved. Yes, many men are crazy in love with me but I felt that their sudden affection for me was forced or faked so I decided to eliminate them in many ways. No men or women made me feel attracted to them but I only saw them as my tools to survive.
No one truly loves me even my son turned his back on me.
Or maybe someone perfectly suppressed their true affection for me even I learned a lot about human psychology.
And now, these two young males are not showing their love thanks to my Shadow Senses so I can identify their true emotions. What they experienced today is lust.
2. Love is a weakness – I love my son since he was born.
In the eyes of my enemies, they see him as my weakness and they were never wrong. My son might be obedient but he’s a human. He needs to walk in his own path but as a parent, I made a better path for him. He’ll be the next leader of our country but he refused it.
He wants to live alone away from our nation. He died in his solo expedition which should be a group expedition and I assumed he used that opportunity to run away but he died in the end.
Someone murdered him from 54.3 km away from the murderer’s target which was far enough that no human would achieve because the sniper’s weapon is the most powerful plasma rifle and only elite to higher-ranked shadow walkers can use it. This murderer threw 3 corrupted adamantine shoulder pads up to the sky in the perfect position and shoot one of them. The plasma projectiles will ricochet and damage enemies even out of your field of vision.
I became depressed and died in the hands of the traitor because Emmanuel wasn’t beside me at that time.
If I fall in love with someone in this game, I’ll become stupidly weak and pathetically unprepared for the enemy’s ambush.
3. Never experience the pleasure – If men are horny, women are horny too but there’s something wrong with me. First of all, I never feel attracted to anyone. Secondly, even I watched the porn stars performing their sex education in front of me won’t make me feel aroused. Third, masturbation is not my thing and it’s a waste of time. Lastly, I’m a non-drug user, non-alcoholic and non-smoker person which means I’m healthy enough to have a lot of relationships with physical intimacy but my body or mind failed as if I’m broken.
In short, my previous self is a human without sexual lust.
So I decided to stay virgin and single for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, I suddenly became pregnant even no one fucked me and I was like:
“Am I an atheist version of a Virgin Mary?”
It even confirmed that I’m still a virgin after my doctor checked my hymen. I wanted her to abort it but Emmanuel highly disagreed with my idea and he convinced me to do the right thing.
The question is, who made me pregnant? Even if I tried to recall everything and checked the surveillance cameras, no one would dare to inject the filthy sperm inside of me.
Anyways, I can’t trust my security cameras because they’re programmable. I assumed someone who did this to me is extremely talented on hacking and that suspect is not alone to complete the impossible mission.
I even suspected Emmanuel for teaming up with the unknown suspect because he’s always guarding my room if I’m sleeping but in the end, he’s innocent. He proved that I’m alone with him and no one dared to barge in my room like the good old days.
In short, I’m a single mother without knowing who the father of my child is.
4. I can’t give them pleasure – If there’s no other way to destroy the romance genre, I can’t give them what they truly want because a shadow’s body was like a destructive type of mannequin.
I don’t have holes for them to enter with pleasure such as my non-existent reproductive organ. My mouth is not normal because if they go deeper, they might be sucked by a black hole hidden in my throat. My breasts are immovable and hard. In short this body is not meant for pleasure, it was meant for war.
System: Please, remove your hatred of this game genre.
I can feel my eyes are glowing intensely and replied telepathically.
We already talked about this, System. I will destroy that game genre.
System: …
System: There’s no way you can win in the future without this game genre. So please play along.
What can I get if I marry them?
System: You have a 1% chance to make them infinitely loyal to you.
That’s bullshit!
System: I’m not bullshitting you! Lying to the user is against the law.
If you’re not lying, a 1% chance is not enough for me even my luck is not guaranteed to get lucky. I’ll find a way to get their infinite loyalty without marrying them.
System: I hope there’s a way. If you fail, don’t blame me.
Trust me. There should be a loophole in this world. Could you please make yourself invisible?
System: The system is now in invisible mode. Elios is now unable to see your system screen.
I looked at the boys and mentally activated my new skill coming from Orion before Crack reset him. To be honest, not all of his skills can be copied because some of them require Divine Aura which is impossible for me to steal that passive skill.
˹Body Control˼
This skill doesn’t require mana but it only needs the user’s mind power. Mind Power is coming from the Intelligence stat. The bigger number of INT stats, the stronger my psychic abilities are. Since my targets have low intelligence, they can’t resist my mental attack and successfully controlled their bodies.
Stop.
I mentally commanded without using telepathy which made those two stared at each other in astonishment as they stopped releasing their auras and stood there motionlessly.
“Boys, look at me.” I ordered them and they immediately obeyed as they faced me but they looked at me with guilt. If I compare them to the dogs, that would fit them but dogs are man’s best friend and they unconditionally love their owners. Well they love me unconditionally?
“I am grateful to your concern but this mission can only be done by myself. So I refuse your offer.” I said, mentally activating my ˹Shadow Shield Bubble˼ skill which I can summon a transparent purple bubble with a radius of 1 ft., putting the baby inside of it then it floats beside me and canceled the ˹Body Control˼ skill.
My Current Missions
Parenting 101 Part 1
A madwoman stole someone’s child and raise him as her own son but she better introduce him to her people first. Make sure they accept him.
Rewards: ???
Time Limit: 02:23:45:23 Days
Deduction if you failed: -100 Levels and -100,000 Loyalty
Parenting 101 Part 2
Raise the child alone until he turns 7 years old.
Rewards: ???
Time Limit: 006:011:364:023:045:023 Years
Deduction if you failed: -200 Levels
Punish the naughty child (Optional)
It’s normal to punish your naughty child.
Total of Punishments: 0/100
Rewards: ???
Time Limit: 006:011:364:023:045:23 Years
“Uhm… Ms. Dark Messiah, where are we?” Cassy asked who stood behind Elios.
“You are in my territory and our kind is safe here. Since you three are descendants of Avarice, you have to sign a contract for allegiance.” I replied, pulling out the black papers and ballpen to write the contracts.
A long time ago, I don’t know why the system taught me how to write contracts by using the Ancient Gods’ format. Today, the system wants me to use that format for an unknown reason but in the end, I followed its instructions.
Since those three young ones are greedy, I have to be a bit generous. At least they’ll probably become so loyal to me once they receive my riches beyond their wildest dreams.
When they read the contracts, my expectations never fail me. They couldn’t believe what I just wrote and they asked some good questions just to satisfy their curiosity but I didn’t answer them because I want them to sign the contracts first.
“We’ll sign it.” Elios said as he snatched the pens from my hand. Then after signing the contract, they gave it to me.
Since Elios is concerned about their life spans, the easy solution for that is the ˹Awakening˼ skill and they’ll become shadows if I cast it to them. Suddenly, the blue gaming screen appeared with multiple messages coming from the system so I read it fast.
System: Natasha.
System: I know you don’t like romance but if you are so worried about the sex thing, turning them into shadows will lose their sexual desires and if their loyalty is high enough for them to follow you until the end, your relationship with them can be non-physical.
The non-physical relationship is rare from my previous world because some humans are blindly in love with the shadow walkers. If destroying the romance genre is impossible, then building a relationship with these boys will be my last option.
“You’re my students from now on. Your life span is not a problem after two weeks of vacation in your respective planets.” I said, putting the contracts inside my inventory.
♦ ♦ ♦
We are inside of my Pocket Dimension and I showed them the stars while explaining our hard work before entering my ship, Adriana X.
“It’s nice to see you, General Natasha. You have lovely guests today.” Adriana X, the A.I. of my ship greeted me in Avarian Language.
Elios and his siblings were startled of Adriana’s voice while they turned their heads left and right but they couldn’t find her.
“Welcome to my ship. Her name is Adriana X. Good thing that she recently learned Avarian Language.”
“I never saw a huge floating ship and it can even talk.” Carl commented.
When we’re still in the Avarice Empire while Crack let me copy some skills coming from the humans within 50 kilometers in radius, my Shadow Senses was disabled because I’m still holding his dreadlock which means there’s a downside while we’re in Shadow Walk with his Hacking Mode. That empire is massive, big enough that could possibly hold the estimated population of 1.3 quintillion people. With my limited place and time to copy the skills from humans, I didn’t spot any gifted people like Orion.
They may have worked with a little bit of science but I don’t underestimate those guys because I’m sure not all of them are relying on magic. I spotted some humans were not gifted with magic even they have high intelligence stat as if they’re the defective products. Those types of humans have a high probability to become very competent scientists and invent advanced weapons or anything that would help humanity to become unstoppable in the future. If Crack gave me an order to steal the records from their database, there’s no need for me to send some skilled spies in there because I have information about that empire.
Unfortunately, Crack doesn’t allow me to steal the information because we already stole a lot of things such as the prince, the 3 shadow walkers and the skills. I don’t understand why he won’t let me do it. I have to become very greedy as much as possible so I can unlock my Greed Title.
I waved my hand and a purple rectangular holographic screen with a 3 meters height and 6 meters width appeared in front of me, “I don’t underestimate my enemies. From what I observed so far is… They’re a bit advance but a ship like this one is possible for them to create in this generation. My ship is the biggest so far with almost had a size of planet Jupiter and I guess my enemies created bigger than this. Well, who knows? Maybe they’re hiding them underground or they’re guarding the moons and turn them into research facilities.”
Then the screen showed the list of the existing artificial galaxies. Well, there are only 5 of them and I still didn’t get the new achievement from our hard work. The system should’ve told me how to acquire the specific achievements just to unlock my locked titles but it chose to shut the fuck up and let me figure it out.
But I chose the fourth galaxy and Adriana said, “Artificial Galaxy of Treasures… Which planet would you like to visit, Natasha?”
“Show me the top 10 best Rockie’s creations.” I answered her question and the screen showed the list with their different images.
1. World of Platinum
2. World of Gold
3. World of Silver
4. World of Bronze
5. World of Precious Metals
6. World of Diamond
7. World of Ruby
8. World of Emerald
9. World of Crystal
10. World of Gems
“These are the planets that I can offer to you and rejection is not an option.” I said, hoping these things would help me gain their infinite loyalty.
Elios’ siblings seemed to be so excited to visit those worlds and I asked, “Cassy, Carl, which world do you want to visit first?”
Then they simultaneously pointed the World of Gold and I nodded, “Okay then, it’s decided. X, guard the baby.”
I ordered Adriana to guard the baby because I don’t want to bring him there.
The ship responded to my words, “As you wish. Teleportation in 3… 2… 1…”
Then the blue gaming screen popped up when we arrived at our destination.
System: Welcome to the World of Gold!
Those three greedy shadow walkers’ eyes staring at their surroundings while the blue gaming screen still gave me the progress of their increasing numbers of loyalty. Yes, everything here is made of gold except the things that produce gold. They’re magical golden living beings that live in the Empire of Greed. Speaking of the empire, Rockie’s masterpieces are quite dangerous for her especially she built and copied almost everything from the Avarice Empire. Crack warned me not to ask my people about their past or else they’ll be going back to zero just like what happened to Orion but this high-level Howler risked her progress by doing this act.
How did she avoided Crack’s Reset skill (I don’t know the exact name of that dangerous skill.)? Did Crack lie to me all this time?
System: First of all… He’s not lying to you.
System: Secondly… She didn’t defy his order. So she’s completely fine.
Let’s talk about this later because the kids need a little bit of a tour.
“How are those things move even they’re all made of gold?” Carl curiously asked me.
“These are robots with simple A.I.s inside of them. If you are not familiar with robots, let’s just say, they are the lesser types of Machines.” I answered as simple as possible.
They were amazed by those golden robots around here while I secretly typed a message for Rockie by using my advanced messaging device. To be honest, I feel guilty for not telling her about Elios and his siblings owning her properties in advance.
Me: LTG Rockie Eve. I command you to enter the Gate of the Abyss with Gen. Avarice’s Memo and wait for his arrival.
LTG Rockie Eve: Yes, General!
Me: And I’m sorry for not telling you about Gen. Avarice claimed your best masterpieces.
LTG Rockie Eve: I’m completely fine with that as long as the thieves are you and Gen. Avarice.
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I lied to her and blamed Elios for my mistake but I’m just lucky. I hope she’s not lying too. Rockie’s masterpieces are one of the important things she treasured for hundreds of thousands of years and now we just stole it.
Anyways, I don’t want to meet her yet. I decided to let these kids get inside the golden empire and meet her in there.
System: LTG Rockie has arrived.
“Follow me, I have something to show you.” I whispered to them before running straight to the nearest mountain while leaving some tracks.
When they arrived, those three never expecting to see this.
“No way…” Cassy’s words escaped from her mouth while her eyes fixated at the golden empire.
“She called this masterpiece as the Empire of Greed. Maybe she’s trying to tell me about the history of the Avarice Empire but I didn’t pay attention to its details. I just let her and other world builders keeping themselves busy by doing their art to satisfy their emotional support.” I explained as I received Rockie’s message.
LTG Rockie Eve: I can see you guys from here. XD
Me: Have you bring the memo?
LTG Rockie Eve: Yes!
Me: Good.
“You three can go inside there without me because I have to talk with System alone. You’ll meet the artist of this world and she’ll give you the memo. Now… Go! Don’t make me repeat it.” I commanded them as my index finger pointed at the empire then they immediately run towards that place.
System: So… Do you want to chat with me?
I pulled out a chair and a glass of lemonade from my inventory. Sitting on top of the mountain while looking at the nice view is relaxing. Unfortunately, I have a lot of things in my to-do-list but first, Rockie’s masterpieces such as the Empire of Greed is a dangerous art. She might get reset by Crack if he finds out that I got a piece of information coming from her.
System: I told you, she’s not defying your God’s rules. So she is safe.
I shook my head and drink my lemonade, “System, did you see those kids’ reactions? The story behind of Rockie’s art is literally a historical subject. How the hell is she safe with that?”
System: (._. )
System: How many times do I have to tell you that she’s not defying your God’s rules?
“If she’s not defying Crack’s rules, what are the rules he made so they never give me the information of their past?”
System: He already told you a long time ago.
“Ah? He only told me not to ask them about their past and my ˹Reminiscence˼ is useless. If I ask them about it, they’ll never answer my question.”
System: Yes! Those are the rules, Natasha.
I blinked my eyes in disbelief, “Crack’s rules have a loophole.”
System: Yeees! Wait what?
“Letting those shadows create something that tells me a story about their past is not part of his rules.”
System: I understand. Your God should’ve put another strict rule before they had a chance but he’s too late.
I laughed in triumph because Crack is indeed had a flaw or maybe he did it on purpose. With this loophole, using their possible historical stories will be part of my references. The sky suddenly turned dark and I almost forgot that the rotation in this artificial planet is a bit faster than Earth’s. Elios must’ve received the memo by now and I’m sure he doesn’t need my help to teleport him to different planets. And now, I have to check the child first.
♦ ♦ ♦
Elios’ POV
The blue holographic screen appeared before my eyes as I read the system’s message.
System: This is your memo and every shadow possessed this item but the accessibility is different depending on the users’ military rank.
But what about my siblings?
I mentally asked the system because my siblings are jealous of me.
System: They’ll receive their own memos after graduation.
I sighed in relief and gave my siblings a reassuring smile, telling them that they can get this nice stuff someday.
System: The password is Gen.Elios_Avarice69.
I entered the password of my memo and there are some icons to choose from while the system explained them to me. The only things that caught my attention are the 1st and the 8th icons:
1. Artificial Galaxies – An app that has the list of all artificial galaxies. There are only 5 existing galaxies:
1. ???? ?????? (Inaccessible)
2. ??????? ?????? (Inaccessible)
3. ???? ??????????? ?????? (Inaccessible)
4. Galaxy of Treasures – Also known as Raw Material Galaxy. A galaxy where the world builders’ arts were displayed and the B.O.R.M.P.’s home.
5. ??? ?????? (Inaccessible)
For now, only the fourth artificial galaxy is accessible. The user can teleport to other planets coming from the chosen galaxy by tapping the name of the chosen planet. If the user has companions, the user must ask his/her companions to stay closer.
2. Camera – An app used to capture photographs and record videos.
Extra Features:
-Camera filter
-Night vision
-Thermal vision
3. Contacts – An app used to record, edit and call the numbers of the user’s contacts.
Extra Feature:
Call Recorder
For now, the user has 2 contacts:
General Natasha Shadowwalker - xxx-xxxx-xxxx
Lieutenant General Rockie Eve – xxx-xxxx-xxxx
4. Extra Tools – An app that has the list of tools for the memo.
Just Weather – This is a weather app in Natasha’s Pocket Dimension.
Great features:
- The weather channel: Temperature, wind, air sunshine, humidity, dew point, precipitation, visibility, atmosphere pressure, water, sunrise sunset, storm, storm shield, rain alert in one wetter app
- Hourly or daily weather prediction
- Animated weather conditions with live background images
- World weather report: The A.I. provides worldwide weather forecast which depends on the planet’s orbital drones.
- Weather alerts: Provide local weather alerts 3 times a day.
- If there’s no Global Positioning System (GPS), this app can detect network location.
- Storm warning & notification: Storm radar, storm tracker, tornado warning and rain alarm (rain radar)
- Reporting: The weather news can show up every day if the user enables it.
- Sunrise time, sunset time & water time
- Temperature converter: Temperature free switching between Celsius and Fahrenheit, auto-detect your country should use Celsius or Fahrenheit for default settings.
- Wind speed and wind direction in different units
- Wind tool: Wind forecast by wind speed meter and wind finder
- Weather widget (weather on the home screen) and ongoing notification with forecast bar, multiple places on widgets.
- Auto reload data for notification even app is in underground
- Weather notification bar: Keeps weather running underground for real-time, you can see the temperature on the memo’s system bar without opening the app
- Lock screen with info: Temps, rain, clouds & clock widget weather
- Track the weather in multiple locations
- Chance of rain, moon/s phrase, and moon/s cycle
- Great weather radar with animated maps
Scientific Calculator – The calculator has up to 100 digits of significand and 9 digits of exponent. It detects repeating decimals and numbers can be also entered as fractions or converted to fractions.
The users can naturally write expressions and watch the calculations. The result is displayed as a number, simplified expression, etc.
The calculator has several layouts suitable for various screen sizes:
- "pocket" for small devices
- "compact" for smartphones (in portrait and landscape orientation)
- "expanded" for tablets
A multiline display can be turned on in tablets to show the complete history of calculations and to provide access to the previous results.
Users can choose from several high-quality themes.
The calculator has many functions, such as:
- Basic arithmetic operations including percentage, modulo and negation;
- Fractions (in the expression mode any expression including nested fractions can be entered as a numerator and a denominator);
- Mixed numbers;
- Periodic numbers and their conversion to fractions;
- Unlimited number of braces;
- Operator priority;
- Repeated operations;
- Variables and symbolic computation;
- Derivatives and integrals;
- Graphs of functions and integral area, 3D graphs;
- Calculation details - extended information about a calculation like all complex roots, unit circle, etc.;
- Complex numbers
- Conversion between rectangular and polar coordinates
- Advanced number operations such as random numbers, combinations, permutations, common greatest divisor, etc.;
- Trigonometric and hyperbolic functions;
- Powers, roots, logarithms, etc.;
- Degrees, minutes and seconds conversion;
- fixed point, scientific and engineering display format;
- Display exponent as SI units prefix;
- Memory operations with 10 extended memories;
- Clipboard operations with various clipboard formats;
- Result history;
- Binary, octal and hexadecimal numeral systems;
- Logical operations;
- Bitwise shifts and rotations;
- Haptic feedback;
- More than 90 physical constants;
- Conversion among 250 units;
- Reverse Polish notation.
The calculator has many settings to manage the full-screen mode, decimal and thousand separators, etc.
All features are described with built-in help.
Voice Recorder – This application can record and edit most of the user’s sound and voice.
Features:
* Record voice with high quality
* Voice Synthesizer: It allows the user to change voice or imitate different voices.
* Play, pause, stop audio files.
* Send/Share your recording.
* Delete your recording right from the app.
* Save the recording file.
* Live audio spectrum analyzer
* Recording in background (even when the display is off)
* Microphone gain calibration tool
* Save/pause/resume/cancel recording process control
* Send/share a recording via email, etc.
Radio – Radio communications, Radio Broadcasting and Radio Waves Detector.
Ectoplasm Detector – An app used to detect and communicate with the souls.
Stopwatch - An app used to measure the amount of time that elapses between its activation and deactivation. It has also a Timer used for measuring specific time intervals.
Clock - Set alarms and keep track of time around the world or other planets (which depends on the orbital drones) using the World Clock.
Gallery – An app that contains all the images and videos that were captured or recorded by the camera.
Features:
- Create photo albums.
- Create Albums and choose the best photos of the users’ secret folder.
- Edit photos and videos.
- Set as Wallpaper.
- Show photo details.
6. Games – An app full of downloaded games.
7. Message – A simple and normal messaging app.
8. My Legion – (Inaccessible)
9. Settings – (I know you are getting impatient so explore this memo by yourself)
10. Social Media – (Inaccessible)
I frowned at the system because he won’t allow me to have access to the 8th icon which was the My Legion. Maybe it’s not my time to handle my own legion because of my current level. Meeting Rockie is already a proof that I’m weaker than her.
System: Natasha Shadowwalker has left the planet.
I widened my eyes and anxiously asked the system, “What?! Why did she left us here?”
My siblings were startled of my sudden reaction and they’re now worried as well.
System: Your General wants you to enjoy travelling around this galaxy by using the power of your memo. Please tap the Artificial Galaxies icon, choose the 4th option and choose the name of the planet.
I followed the system’s instructions and never expected to see a lot of names of the worlds in this so-called galaxy. I’m confused about which world should we visit first so I tapped the Random button and it randomly chose the name. The image of the world is blue with a spherical shape.
World of the Forgotten Souls #696,969,696
Description: The 696,696,696th world of the graveyard for the fallen shadow army.
Carl and Cassy peeked at my memo’s screen and she asked, “Is this considered as a world of riches?”
System: ( ._.)
System: Her question will be answered once you guys teleport on that planet.
I remained silent, shrugging my shoulders and pushed the teleport button. Then the glowing purple transparent cylinder materialized which was the same as Rockie’s teleporter and we are inside of it. In just a split second, the surrounding is not made of gold but we are now in a different world.
The yellow sun displayed at the blue sky with a few white clouds and the tip of the mountains was painted with white snow which was the same as Octavia. The strange things we saw made us stared at them in owe. We stood on top of the mountain and we saw several massive black octahedrons are floating on the horizon. It looks ominous with its glowing purple edges like the rest of the octahedrons. The purple-eyed blackbirds flew around each of those massive things.
[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/586c4f09-ae2c-4abd-aba5-7c833f8c1bad/de2cdh9-7fdcf328-5db7-4fea-bd2c-b11b666289bc.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3sicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvNTg2YzRmMDktYWUyYy00YWJkLWFiYTUtN2M4MzNmOGMxYmFkXC9kZTJjZGg5LTdmZGNmMzI4LTVkYjctNGZlYS1iZDJjLWIxMWI2NjYyODliYy5wbmcifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6ZmlsZS5kb3dubG9hZCJdfQ.uJjyTi98sgi079RxNufRUmfIrDyQgGwVR-qTjtHjR2I]
The last time I saw something like those things are strange but now, I felt their sad emotions. I don’t know why those birds are grieving.
“Hello, General Avarice.” The voice of the young man can be heard behind us and we were startled by it because our Shadow Senses failed to detect his presence but the weather suddenly changed in just a few seconds. The gray clouds covered the sky and the wind is quite strong but the birds aren’t affected by it.
We simultaneously looked behind then we saw the man and the other several men behind him stood calmly. Some of them have dark or tan skin. If they’re Shadow Walkers, we will cautiously look at them in suspicion because Shadow Walkers have pale skin. Fortunately, they’re the ancient shadows in human form.
Their black suits looks familiar to me. The design is almost the same as the male humans that carrying coffins during the burials. The way they wear is different because their black blazers were only hanged on their shoulders as if those are their capes and let them flapped violently because of the strong wind. Their black neckties followed the flow of the wind and they seemed a lot cooler than us as their white long sleeves were exposed.
Some of those men with Mohawk hairstyles have black teardrop tattoos under their right eyes. However, Rockie has a teardrop tattoo under her left eye. So those men are Howlers. Well, it’s just my guess.
Their pair of purple eyes stared at us calmly and waited for us to respond. We are just too shocked to see them while there are black coffins reinforced with purple crystals floated behind them. The question is, why are they having a funeral if those coffins are empty? I narrowed my eyes to check it again and my Shadow Senses confirmed that those coffins are indeed empty.
[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/586c4f09-ae2c-4abd-aba5-7c833f8c1bad/de2cdn9-b2dbf0ed-a113-4976-9baf-556a765e5e80.png/v1/fill/w_1040,h_768,q_70,strp/shadow_coffins_by_lorddagz_de2cdn9-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3siaGVpZ2h0IjoiPD0zMDc1IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvNTg2YzRmMDktYWUyYy00YWJkLWFiYTUtN2M4MzNmOGMxYmFkXC9kZTJjZG45LWIyZGJmMGVkLWExMTMtNDk3Ni05YmFmLTU1NmE3NjVlNWU4MC5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9NDE2MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.-tBJaV2VuoV8cugnj4SQ5elI-LyzfZt4qhG-vnwtSmc]
Suddenly, the man looked behind us as if he made sure that those funeral men like himself already went inside of the black octahedron and then he smiled at us, “General, you looked surprised to our weird-ass activity. Well… My name is Lieutenant General Jabari Jawara. A Swifter type shadow.”
The swifter type shadows are known as the great imitators of other races’ martial arts and this guy who’s a few inches shorter than me seemed to be mastered all of them.
Jabari pointed at the direction where the blackbirds circling the black octahedrons, “And those feathered dudes are Crow type shadows.”
“Shadows?” I and my siblings exclaimed simultaneously in disbelief.
Crows shouldn’t be looked like normal flying birds. They should be humanoids with a pair of wings.
“It’s normal for you guys to react like that because you never met our kind since we got dumped in hell. Anyways… General, why are you and your familiars doing in this cemetery world? Have you come here to rob the graves of our fallen brothers and sisters?” Jabari asked us in suspicion as he put his left hand on his hip.
My siblings scratched the back of their heads and I replied, “We are not here to rob, Lieutenant General Jawara. We came here to visit the grave of the forgotten souls because our General wants us to enjoy the trip.”
“And don’t call my siblings familiars.” I added, giving him a cold look on my face because this is the second time hearing that despicable word.
Jabari raised his hands as if he surrendered and looked at me guiltily, “I’m sorry, man. I think my Shadow Senses is messed up.”
He seemed to be telling the truth just like Rockie. I don’t know why they called them familiars if they’re my biological siblings. My head is suddenly aching if I think more about it so I changed the subject.
“Why are you guys doing this? I don’t see any corpses inside of those coffins.”
Jabari’s smile faded as he heaved a sigh, “150 thousand years ago, I proposed this project to remember our fallen brothers and sisters. Fortunately, our General approved it even they’re nameless dead soldiers. She still wants them to put their imaginary corpses in a proper burial.”
I gave him a questioning look and asked, “150 thousand years ago? Rockie mentioned that number too. I thought you guys disappeared 6 thousand years ago.”
Jabari frowned as the sky is getting darker and I glanced at the screen of my memo which shows the time of this world. It said that it’s already night. This world’s one day is 5 hours in Octavia.
“The hell I mentioned earlier is an entrance to the other dimension called Chamber of Punishment, created by the 7 ancient Gods of Octavia. I think our General showed you the giant floating door in the middle of this continent. Anyways, they put us all in there including our God and he’s unconscious. That dimension is so boring and uninhabitable for the living beings. 1,000 years in that dimension is 1 year in Octavia and we spent our boring life for 5 million years.”
We looked at him in disbelief because they suffered so much in that terrible dimension. Even our God is unconscious. No wonder why Natasha is so angry while she mentioned the gate in the middle of Shadow Continent.
Jabari continued as he clenched his fists, “After 1 million years in that dimension… Even we don’t have the power of the System… We can feel our levels and stats slowly decreasing until we became Level 0. We wasted our precious time and power for being idle while waiting for our God’s awakening. Fortunately, before those Gods dumped us in that hellhole… Our God promised us… He’ll give birth a strong shadow that leads us to victory and you know who that is.”
“Natasha.” I said in a low voice and Jabari nodded.
“How does our God looked like? I’m just curious.” Cassy asked and Jabari waved his hand, summoning 4 luxurious chairs coming from his spatial ring.
He let us sit and answered with pride, “He looks like a white light in the abyss. 1 million years ago, he woke up in the form of a ray of light. A massive white beacon to be precise. Before he disappeared, General was born while sitting elegantly in the throne we made.”
Listening to his summarized story about their hard work in the Chamber of Punishment, I and my siblings couldn’t help but made us looked at him in owe. They suffered in there for so long but because of Natasha’s existence, leadership and our God’s blessings, they slowly and painfully overcome the obstacles before they escaped safely. He even mentioned the existence of the Machines somewhere in Natasha’s Pocket Dimension and we can’t wait to meet one of them.
“Since you guys are still young, general will be so harsh during the training. General is a sadistic teacher and she’ll never stop if she’s not satisfied. Keep that in your mind because that’s how she treated us in the training grounds.”
His warning made us sweat profusely and Jabari chuckled.
“Can you tell us about your war experience?” Carl asked and Jabari answered, “Of course… You should learn something from me or any 3 starred generals before you face our General’s Military Simulation as an entrance exam. At least you guys can possibly get a high score unlike us, we only got a passing score and some of us failed. None of us perfected the entrance exam because our war experience is just retarded for her.”
I shook my head and asked, “What mistake made you guys got a passing score or failing score?”
“There are many types of missions and they can be done by solo or squad team. You must finish them one by one according to the missions’ instructions before the time limit ends and don’t die because you gonna play as a human without magic or any physical enhancement and only relies on modern weapons or else, you automatically get an F score. If you finished the simulation, the score only depends on your confirm kills, combat, strategies and styles.”
The rules are extremely strict and made me nervous while thinking about how many missions we should finish flawlessly before the time limit ends. If I fail, Natasha will never like me and I’m a disgrace of my ancestor. Scratching the back of my head even I don’t have head lice, there are some things I don’t understand from Jabari’s words.
“Playing as a human without magic? But you guys are shadows with powerful magic! And those guys who died in the simulation… Did they die in the real world? And what the hell is a modern weapon?”
“Don’t worry, they didn’t die in the real world. Modern weapons are just some kind of primitive types of weapons. I think you already familiar with gunpowder, lasers and nukes.”
I nodded knowingly because those weapons are already written in the history books from Avarice Empire. Good thing I’m interested in reading those types of books or else, I look stupid in Jabari’s eyes.
Jabari continued, “The reason why our General created that kind of simulation as an entrance exam is she always thought that the human race is the rival of our kind but she’s correct even she didn’t meet any of those motherfuckers and –”
Carl coughed twice which made Jabari stopped talking and looked at him, “Thanks for the advice but I want to know why the shadows didn’t exterminate the other races before the ancient heroes were summoned.”
Even my Shadow Senses is not working against him, there’s a flash of sadness in his eyes, “On the 1st day of the war, our God gave us an order. He said, ‘The whole world is our enemy! Let the 1st Legion eliminate half of our enemies’ population by using my blessing, Disaster Mode. Underage or unborn children is not an exception! I want my siblings and father to see how weak their creations’ faith is without facing the calamity! There’s no hope keeping those things alive!’ Those are the words that are still lingering in the recesses of my mind and…” Jabari paused for a moment and continued as his eyes showed some guilt, “I’m part of the 1st Legion.”
I can imagine how they murdered their enemies. Disaster Mode is so dangerous because it can erase almost everything. If you are a creature without the One True God’s Divine Aura, one-touch from the shadow who activated its Disaster Mode and you’re dead. There’s nothing left from your existence except to those who remember you in their memories.
Jabari shrugged, “Well, what can I do? Order is an order. We can’t defy his orders because we believe in him. At least we finished it in one day.”
“Then what happened after the arrival of the ancient heroes?” Cassy asked this time and we smell Jabari’s anger especially his face became ugly.
I thought he’s going to beat Cassy to death but he answered right away as he cracked his knuckles as if he’s looking something to vent his anger, “Those 1 white human nigga, 1 black human nigga, 5 human alien niggas and 7 monster niggas with Divine Aura shredded our population in just one day as if they imitated our battle style in the first day of war! But they were like a one-man army holding big guns with unlimited ammo. One shot, 500 thousand kills! Is that sounds fair?! Of course not! Those motherfuckers ain’t playing fair as if they’re using cheats in the war online game! They have guts to invade our continent while they’re still Level 1 and my fallen brothers and sisters were like a bunch of EXP!”
Jabari picked up a stone and ate it or smashed it into his forehead as if that’s his only way to calm him down. He should’ve used ˹Meditation˼ to stop those negative emotions immediately.
When his anger dissipated, he sighed and said, “Those coffins are not empty. They contained the memories we shared before they passed away. Those motherfuckers out there, they’re lucky if they die when we didn’t use our Disaster Mode because they left their corpses on the ground, mummified or burned them to ashes, put them in the coffins or jars and their souls can be put inside the soul stones. Unlike our kind, if your HP reached 0, you left nothing and you can be called lucky if someone remembered your existence.”
His eyes are now focusing on the octahedrons and the blackbirds are still grieving in there. Jabari stood up and said, “Those memories are considered as our treasure. You can steal it if you want, General Avarice. You’ve got my permission.”
We shook our heads because we don’t want to see someone’s privacy. Jabari signaled us to stand before the chairs disappeared.
Jabari pulled out his own memo and showed me his number, “Before I go back to the burial ceremony service… Here’s my number, call me if you want to learn more about the entrance exam.”
I copied and saved his number but before Jabari left, he said, “You boys better impress our General and maybe you will become her lovers.”
Then he ran away while he leans forward with his back straight, he keeps his head up to see where he was going and holds both of his arms straight out behind his back. Maybe he forgot how to use his Shadow Walk. I can’t believe someone like him thought that we have a chance to get married with Natasha but I’m not a generous man and I hate sharing her with Carl. If Natasha likes me and Carl equally, then there’s no need for me to eliminate him.
♦ ♦ ♦
Inside Adriana X Mothership…
Natasha’s POV
I stared at the unconscious baby for 5 hours while I mentally prepared his needs and how to introduce him to my people. Suddenly, my nose became itchy and I sneezed which was strong enough to make a massive damage in my ship.
Adriana X: Warning!
Adriana X: The mothership received 20% critical damage from 10 km southeast of the power core.
Adriana X: General, please evacuate immediately.
My sneeze even penetrated the barrier for the power core. Good thing the bubble didn’t pop and remained still beside me. I prioritized the baby and let my ship explode without any regrets because I can still build another one. However, this is my first time sneezing this strong and I know the reason why this silly thing happened to me just now.
Someone talking behind my back.
The End of Chapter 2
[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/586c4f09-ae2c-4abd-aba5-7c833f8c1bad/ddzo9xl-6b232489-aa68-4732-a9fe-d988128db909.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3sicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvNTg2YzRmMDktYWUyYy00YWJkLWFiYTUtN2M4MzNmOGMxYmFkXC9kZHpvOXhsLTZiMjMyNDg5LWFhNjgtNDczMi1hOWZlLWQ5ODgxMjhkYjkwOS5wbmcifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6ZmlsZS5kb3dubG9hZCJdfQ.zekMyYYKUvqMKRcNvu6wNRdg4Fa4wNbdmekGj_LD8y0]