Nana Toki’s voice was childish and warm, yet to the Name-Choosing-Is-Hard trio it slid past like a grave-cold draft, pelting their skin with gooseflesh.
“What even are you?”
Human?
Or an NPC?
NamesAreHard lifted his head, eyes narrow as a blade’s edge. Her cute, harmless face was a paper lantern; the chill beneath was a coiled viper.
If this weren’t a game, NamesAreHard couldn’t imagine what kind of life could grind a person into that cold-blood.
“What am I?”
Her lips tugged, and the childlike face turned uncanny, like a porcelain doll in moonlight. “Whatever you think I am. Maybe the AI you whisper about. Maybe human, like you.”
Their hearts skipped a beat, like a drum tripping in fog. What did that even mean?
Human, like them?
Impossible.
No one in reality could live inside a game for years.
How dared a little NPC call herself human?
“Honestly, I don’t care what you think.” Her tone was flat as black water under ice. “One enemy or many, it’s all wind to me. You only make me take longer. And time’s the one thing I have in excess.”
“You want to know what I’m doing here? Fine. I’m not interested in you players at all. Talking to you is just to kill the boredom of this world.”
“If I feel like it, I can kill you anytime.”
Her words were a spike driven deep, a cold nail in their chests. That chill, and the pride that came with absolute certainty, crushed their flicker of defiance like frost on a leaf.
Only when Nana Toki turned and left, her small back sinking into the Giant Lizard Forest, did the trio breathe out, relieved, like dropping a boulder. The ice-cave chill bled away with her shadow.
Just as she’d said, she didn’t care what players in this plane thought. She was here to play. Without the world of Nesting Phoenix, she couldn’t care less about outcomes.
Besides, this was a virtual MMO world. There weren’t the same shackles of ethics as in reality. Maybe there were rules—but anger her, and she’d break them like clay pots.
Because no one ever bullied her.
The update for [Hundred Ghosts Reincarnation: Gaiden] landed faster than she expected. A week hadn’t even passed since Moonlit West River’s crew handed her the tip.
She was in the Divine Demon Tower, carrying players through a dungeon, when the world broke into quiet. One by one, players burst into light and got forced offline, like candles snuffed by wind.
Even NPCs on the street got recalled by the incoming System update, vanishing like footprints in rain.
The vast game world fell silent, leaving only Nana Toki under its empty sky.
She considered finding a spot to nap through the downtime. Then the clear blue above went slate-gray, clouding over in plain sight, like a storm warning written across heaven. Sitting by a big tree outside the Divine Demon Tower, she felt pressure descend, a hand on the chest.
Rumble—
Rumble—
Rumble—
Before she could adjust, the ground under her boots bucked hard, like something huge clawing up from the underworld. The earth cracked and whispered all around.
“What’s that?”
She caught the tree trunk, steadying her body like a reed in wind. At the forest’s edge, a new shape bulged from the soil: a structure like a cave mouth carved in black stone, a yawning maw that looked bottomless.
[ding—System Prompt: Current unit has been cursed.]
A new icon bloomed on the top-left of her vision. She opened it with a flick.
[Curse of Shadow: All base attributes -50%. Bonus attributes -20%. Damage dealt -20%.]
That screamed pitfall, straight from a designer’s malice.
Base stats halved? She shrugged; her base was trash anyway. But a 20% cut to bonus stats hurt like a cold knife.
Most of her strength came from gear bonuses. Slice off twenty percent, and who wouldn’t wince?
She crept to the forest’s edge, steps soft as night rain, nearing the cave that practically waved a flag reading, I’m creepy, come explore me. This had to be the event map for [Hundred Ghosts Reincarnation: Gaiden].
She drew the white-jade dagger from her waist. As her head tilted toward the black mouth, danger pricked her neck like nettles.
Whoosh—
“Roar—!”
A bellow thundered from the dark. She snapped her arm up on instinct. A cold gleam flashed, and a katana met her dagger with a ringing bite.
Human or ghost?
Weight pressed into her blade like a mountain. She caught a glimpse of a withered half-face in the gloom and jerked back, widening the gap with a step like a falling leaf.
A dead man?
Half the cheek was rotten away, the mouth ringed with exposed bone, teeth a grin from a nightmare.
Name: Shadow Samurai
Background: An unknown swordsman exiled by the Clan of Shadow into the Hundred Ghosts Reincarnation
Race: Human, Ghost
Level: 85
HP: 34100/34100
MP: 11100/11100
Attack: 3210
Defense: 3210
Spirit: 3210
Agility: 3210
That stat sheet was half an elite boss, easy. The numbers were obscene, like a storm surge on a calm shore.
“Roar!”
He lunged the instant she slipped free, katana hacking and smashing like a caveman with a club. No love for the blade, no art, just hunger.
Bang!
A dull thud bloomed at the cave mouth. Caught off guard, he went flying from her sudden strike, a sack of rocks tossed downhill.
She exhaled, ready to take a breather, then explore. But the thing she’d flattened twitched, went still, then climbed back up like a puppet finding its strings. Her eyes widened.
Fake death?!
System: “...”
Host, this is an MMO plane. No matter how lethal you are, if they’ve got HP, they don’t die.
The System’s voice rang dryly in her head.
Host, are you not speaking human?
Nana Toki: “...”
Damn. She’d forgotten that setting.
The Shadow Samurai was getting up. She wasn’t about to stand there and wait out his revive bar like a sweetheart.
She stepped in and drove her dagger for his head.
And—
[Critical -3451]
Nana Toki: “...”
Tch.
These mobs put the Divine Demon Tower’s monsters to shame. A single basic attack couldn’t even finish him.
System: “?”
Host, be reasonable. You didn’t even apply Trip EX as a debuff, and you want a one-hit kill? You think you’re the final boss of this plane?
Don’t care. I want a one-hit kill.
She pouted like a rainy-day cat.
Reality answered.
“Roar!”
Her flurry only stoked his fury. His swings got heavier, like waves stacking before a cliff.
“...”
Fine. You asked for it.
Trip. Basic slash.
[Critical -16292]
Numbers spilled off his head in bright fonts, higher than before, a fountain of light. He froze for a heartbeat, movements stiff, like a gear catching grit.
She went full bug-abuser, hit and run, kiting him in cruel circles. Combo, retreat, wait out cooldowns, repeat, as precise as a metronome.
Three words: utterly shameless.
The poor Shadow Samurai died without ever understanding how a short loli hit so hard all of a sudden. Hacked client?
“Pfft! ■■...■■■...■■...”
“■■■...■■■...■■...”
At the end, her dagger Thorn slid into his skull with that familiar finish, and her ears filled with garbled electronic noise, like rain on broken glass.
What’s with that?
The static pricked her temples like needles. Before she could puzzle out the update, the corpse she’d felled burst into a white ring of light and sank into her chest, cool as moonlight.
Then—
[Curse of Shadow (Break Progress 25%): All base attributes -40%. Bonus attributes -15%. Damage dealt -15%.]
The debuff on her top-left shrank the moment the Shadow Samurai fell. She had a feeling. Break this curse completely, and some strange story would wake like a fox in the reeds.
