✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. ˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩

I was late.

Supposedly, I should’ve been done setting up the Halloween surprise a few hours ago. I had told the rest of the party I was out monster hunting, but that was a blatant lie.

A large, stuffed bag trailed behind me as I trudged through the dark and barely illuminated tunnel. Sweat dripped down my forehead, and I paused to catch my breath. It came out in quick wheezes despite my high physique level.

Was I that unfit before all this?

I let out a loud sigh, wiping my face with the blue hoodie that tried to squirm out of my grip.

“Stop it. You’re still just a hoodie.”

The hoodie deflated in defeat as it was forced to absorb my sweat.

I was completely and utterly exhausted. How long was I out for? It must have been at least ten hours by now of constant activity. To say I was delirious was an understatement.

My foot suddenly hit a stone and I tripped forward, stumbling for a moment before I completely lost my balance and smacked into the ground with a loud thump.

Observer Socrates: Jia Li you’re seriously so stupid.

I groaned on the floor, lying there for a moment before I rolled over and stared at the grimy ceiling.

“I’m sleep deprived," I mumbled sadly.

Observer Socrates: But you’re still stupid.

“...”

Observer Socrates: You better get back soon because Feiyu is stealing your spotlight.

I froze and gawked at the screen, immediately sitting up. “Is he hanging out with them again?”

Observer Socrates: When you were off drowning in a cave and blackmailing Athena, they were setting up the metro hierarchy.

“Can you not put it like that?”

Observer Socrates: Come on Jia Li chop chop.

I stood up and dusted off my clothing before grabbing onto the large bag again. There were countless candies that I had stolen from around the city—I didn’t want to buy them considering all the weird organs or limbs Chang liked mixing into his Azure Dragon Store.

Throughout the tunnels and metro stations, I had set up multiple spots for Amelia to go trick-or-treating. It had taken the entire day, since I had to kill and clean out all of the beasts that roamed these tunnels and the general vicinity.

“Zhige, I’m tired,” I whined, looking down and frowning at the sword.

The red eye stared at me blankly before squinting as if it were laughing.

Observer Socrates: You’re almost back just hurry up.

I heard a strange grumbling from before me and immediately lifted Zhige before throwing the blade forward, and the sound of gushing blood filled the hollow tunnels.

“What number is that?”

Observer Socrates: 548

I smiled, Zhige flying back into my hands. “You should give me some stars for that. Aren’t I impressive?"

Observer Socrates: Zhige is doing 99% of the work.

“What happened to you being nicer to me? Maybe I should vanish off the planet again.”

Observer Socrates: NO DON'T

I let out a slight chuckle before a different blue screen suddenly appeared before me.

SIDE STORY

TRICK OR TREAT!

Difficulty F Task Beware of tricks! Collect as many sentient candies as you can. Time 30 minutes Reward All collected candies after they return to their normal state.

“A side story? Right now?!” I swiveled around the cave, screaming up at the ceiling. “Chang! What the fuck are you up to now?!”

Immediately, countless ghosts flickered to life throughout the entire tunnel. Many held baskets and bowls, some full of candies while others were completely empty. But to my greater surprise, the candies in my bag burst with newfound energy and life. They wriggled around in the bag, tearing their way out of the top.

“Zhige, push the ghosts back!”

The sword flew out from my side as a costume suddenly appeared all over me. I was wrapped in an orange patterned cloak with white cat ears on top of my head and a traditional white cat mask.

I grabbed the costume and tried to tug it off to no avail, but in doing so, I let go of the squirming bag and countless candies jumped out.

“What the fuck!” I exclaimed angrily, reaching out for them and tossing them back in the bag as I continued to drag my way through the tunnel. This was a complete mess—so much for trying to throw a surprise for Amelia.

Zhige raced up and faced one of the ghosts before awkwardly freezing, turning back toward me and back at the creature again.

“Don’t tell me you're incompetent now, too.”

Observer Socrates: Zhige doesn’t want to kill them.

I rolled my eyes as a candy jumped up and bit my finger, causing me to shout before I flung it into the bag. “Socrates, Zhige is my sword. What I say goes.”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Zhige suddenly flew forward and smacked me on the forehead harshly before its bright red eye glared at me.

“Ow! Are you serious?”

The blade flew back to my side again as one of the ghosts approached me. Ironically, it was a ghost dressed up as a ghost. A slightly transparent cloak was wrapped around her figure with two holes cut out for her pale green eyes. They twinkled before me with a delicate and soft glow.

With a friendly movement, she raised a basket in front of me and waited expectantly.

“What the hell do you want?” I quizzed.

She blinked up at me innocently for a moment. “Trick or treat.”

I gave the ghost a stupefied look before I shoved past it, heading down the tunnel. I was almost back, and I wouldn’t let some stupid side story get in the way of my plans. Countless other ghosts lay before me, but none of them seemed outwardly aggressive.

Hindsight activated!

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as a dark, eerie energy surrounded me. I blinked for a moment, and Zhige flew into my hands.

Footsteps were growing louder and louder behind me until they froze just before me, and I could feel a faint breathing down my neck.

I slowly looked over my shoulder, holding my breath, before a wicked, ghastly face appeared just before me, letting out a loud vicious screech. Its face was wrangled and gored, and I could make out a detached jaw through the thin white cloak covering it.

I screamed in horror, scrambling back as the female ghost quickly reverted to its initially adorable appearance and scoured through my bag for a treat. Blinking rapidly at the sight, I tried to calm my beating heart by slowing my breaths.

Observer Socrates: Should’ve given her a candy, Jia Li.

“They’re only for Amelia,” I grumbled in response as a few of the candies chewed their way out of my bag and now proceeded to latch onto my legs with tiny teeth. I easily kicked them off before I patched the holes in the bag with annoyance.

This would’ve probably been a painfully annoying side story if I hadn’t already taken most of the candies in this area.

Another ghost appeared before me. This one was a small boy dressed up in a dinosaur costume, and he looked up with a cheeky expression. “Trick or treat.”

I glared at it before picking off one of the candies and dropping it on his face. It chewed on his cheek but he paid no attention as he continued to stare at my bag.

“I’m not giving you more,” I said sternly. “I have a take one policy.”

Suddenly, his nails and teeth grew in length as he roared, leaping toward me with unadulterated anger; he slashed straight through the bag of candies as hundreds lept out and quickly ran away from me.

“You bastard!” I screamed, jumping up to try and recollect the candies. “What kind of Halloween ritual is this?!”

Observer Socrates: … I’m going back to watching Feiyu.

I let out an exasperated and frustrated scream as I quickly purchased a new bag from the Azure Dragon Store. I didn’t want these candies to chew up all of my items. Hundreds of them danced around me in their brightly colored wrappers before latching onto my fingers with their little teeth.

Once I finally had them under reasonable control, I collapsed on the ground, letting the remaining few bite onto my cheek or my jeans. At this point, I was completely exhausted.

Letting out a loud sigh, I shut my eyes and contemplated passing out as the ghosts slowly walked closer to me. “Amelia… the stuff I’d do. You better not cry again in front of me.”

Admittedly, one of the reasons I was doing this was out of guilt. I knew I couldn’t atone nor was it my place to try to act like a good person, but I hated how many times Amelia had cried because of me.

I got back on my feet. The next ghost was dressed up in a large, felt banana costume with additional black shades attached to the front. It opened its mouth with a wide grin and began, “Trick or—”

“Trick or treat!” I quickly cut it off, staring at its empty basket. I had asked it first, now.

The banana ghost blinked at me awkwardly, looking down at its empty basket. “Um…”

“Trick, bitch!” I shouted, grabbing my massive bag of candies and whacking it against the side of his head before continuing to storm down the tunnel.

In utter defeat, and potentially sadness, the banana ghost lay on the ground behind me, unmoving except for a single, silent sniffle.

With each step, I stomped down the tunnel, utterly exhausted and frustrated. This side story felt like it was going on forever, and I was dreading every moment of it.

Another ghost trudged up to me with a cheery expression. “Trick or tr—”

I shoved its head back, and as soon as I saw 'Hindsight's' shifting calculations as the ghost went in for a scare, I whipped around.

“Oh my god, can you not?” I shouted, grabbing onto my orange cloak and tugging on it. “I’m literally going to go insane! I just want to get back! I swear to god, if you do anything right now, I’ll literally become a ghost and haunt you forever! I’ll drag you through hell and then pull you out just to do it all over again,” I rambled on and on, scolding it with a point of my finger.

The ghost frowned and pouted a bit, cowering away with what looked like an expression of slight shame and embarrassment.

“This is absolute insanity! When I see Chang again, I’m murdering him!” I roared, now tugging on my hair.

In a strange turn of events, the ghosts seemed to avoid me when I walked by, instead throwing some of their candy at my feet if they had any, which I quickly snagged. I finally continued my grueling trek down the tunnel.

✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. ˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩

Thank. The. Gods.

And demons, too, if they helped.

I finally made it back to the metro station with all the candies in tow. The side story had finally ended as soon as I made it back—there were no more ghosts or ghouls to harass me, and the candy had fallen still. For some reason, though, the costume remained.

I wasn't going to complain. Amelia would probably enjoy seeing me in such stupid attire.

My chest puffed up pridefully. Amelia would have no idea this was coming. I’d walk in, and she’d be there playing with whatever animal she kidnapped today. Then, her eyes would light up with sheer excitement as she realized that I remembered it was Halloween.

In utter amazement, she’d dart toward me, gasp in shock at the amount of candies I brought, and then I’d take her trick-or-treating for the rest of the night. At the end, I’d throw her up into the air, and she’d praise me for being the greatest party member ever.

Observer ‘Socrates’: Jia Li, I think you should know that th—

“Shut up.”

I sniffled at my own ingenuity, placing a hand on my hip. Ha, none of them would’ve even thought about something like this. I really was great.

I heard Amelia’s shouting voice coming from one of the metro booths, and I quickly snuck up toward the door, my heart beating out of my chest. The bag of candies was just to my side.

Finally, I swung open the door confidently.

“Happy Hallowe—!”

My entire party cut me off as countless party streamers and lights flashed before me.

“Happy Halloween!" They all exclaimed.

Amelia was front and center, her arms raised up in the air. She was already dressed in a costume with a painted arrow on her forehead. Even her dire wolf was wearing one.

In fact, all my party members were thanks to Chang’s side story—Yue was dressed in a stupid inflatable pumpkin costume, Yang was a skeleton, and Wei was… just in a different set of classical robes.

I blinked blankly at the scene before Amelia leapt off her dire wolf and into my arms, grabbing onto my neck.

“I totally got you!” She exclaimed out of sheer excitement. “You didn’t even know it was Halloween, did you? Chang even helped with the side story!”

I immediately kicked the bag of candies I gathered to the side so she wouldn’t see them.

“Amelia, how could I have forgotten it was Halloween? You set this all up by yourself?”

“Yes! I was the one who came up with everything!”

I smiled and walked inside, shutting the door behind me as Yue crossed her arms over the giant pumpkin, staring at me with a suspicious look. Yang brought cut desserts up to the table as Wei handed me a candy bowl.

“Happy Halloween, Peijin!"

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