‘W-What the hell is happening?’ Compass Carburettor thought in a fluster as he noticed his body had become static, unmoving. The world itself seemed to have come to a standstill. The notification he heard further unnerved him, causing a feeling of suspicion and dread to fill his heart.
And just as he had feared, a portal manifested before him. It seemed to be a product of another dimension as it didn’t interact with anything else from his world, focusing only on him as his body was sucked into it.
The moment he went into it, the portal vanished as time in the place resumed. Stencil looked before her in confusion as her eyes widened, slowly morphing into horror. Her father had mysteriously vanished right before her eyes.
“Kyaak!” The stimulus was too much for her to handle as she fainted.
“Lady Stencil!” The Assistant shouted as she came to her rescue. All along, her body was drenched with sweat, having also witnessed the disappearance of Compass Carburettor.
‘What’s happening? What in the hell is happening?’ She screamed mentally, unable to make heads or tails of the supernatural phenomenon that transpired before her. She hurriedly called an ambulance first to take care of Stencil, hoping to worry about the rest later.
The moment he was pulled into the portal, Compass Carburettor was able to flail his hands and shout for help. He was in a mysterious tunnel-shaped bubble of sorts. For some reason, an intense sense of dread emanated from the depths of his being.
It seemed long but had ended after a second as Compass Carburettor crashed into soft mud. He hurriedly got up, noticing that he was in a thicket of trees. The place was rich with life.
He looked around, unable to see anything past the thicket of trees. He seemed to have fallen into an open patch of land in the midst of a dense forest. And before he could comprehend his situation, intense pain overwhelmed him as something seemed to be intent to exit his body.
“Aaaarrggghh!” He flailed in pain, grabbing the mud as he clenched his fist and slammed into the ground repeatedly.
“Kekeke! Compass Carburettor, oh Compass Carburettor!” An ethereal voice resounded.
“Who’s that?” Amidst his pain, he shouted, looking around to see that there wasn’t anyone near him.
“You’re asking who I am? Lol,” The voice responded, followed by cackling sounds of derisive laughter.
Sweat covered his back as he craned all the strength in him, turning around to see an ethereal face behind him. It was his appearance from before he obtained the system. The portion below the neck seemed to be serpentine that thinned until turning needle-width, attached to his back.
It seemed to be exiting his back little by little as the ethereal face of his past self hovered in the air, cackling, “I’ve been with you through your rise. Rather, I am the reason you rose to the peak of the world despite being a worthless insect.”
The ethereal face morphed to resemble a coin that was covered by blood. A line formed in its middle before parting way to reveal a large mouth that was bigger than Compass Carburettor’s head, filled with jagged teeth.
Forming a snout, it began to sniff while cackling, beginning to condense a humanoid body that consisted of a head that was almost twice the size of the body. As it continued to extract itself from Compass Carburettor, he screamed in pain all along.
Finally, there only seemed to be a small part of it left within him, as the monstrous creature spanning four metres in height cackled. Its hunched back, its humongous coin head, and its exaggerated mouth gave it a sinistrous appearance.
Slumping a ragged cloth sack on its back, it looked at Compass Carburettor, “Now, do you have any final words?”
“Money-Making System? Why? Why are you doing this to me? Why?” Sporting an exhausted expression, having screamed in pain all along, Compass Carburettor weakly muttered, gazing at the monster before him with a hazy gaze. For some reason, he was only able to twitch in place, unable to move.
“Why? You’re asking me why?” The monster roared in laughter like it had heard the funniest of all things, “You should have asked that at the start when I appeared in your body. Why did I appear in your body, when you had zero redeeming qualities? Why did I pick you and give you an opportunity to change your life? Why, out of the seven-plus billion people, did I choose you? Did you ever ask about it back then?”
“Having read numerous stories about the lives of people taking a turn for the best after obtaining a System, you happily accepted me, right?” It cackled, “Remember your first reaction when I notified you of my existence? You roared with laughter. You didn’t even possess a hint of suspicion of my existence. Rather, you took it as if a System appearing in a person was natural, something that should have only existed within stories and not in reality.”
“After seeing the benefits I presented, you happily used my services. For the past 20 years I was in your body, not once have you ever asked me why? And now, you ask that?” It laughed, amused upon seeing his expression. “Since you’re about to die, I’ll answer your question.”
“The stories of every System Host usually end as a happily-ever-after sequence once they reach the peak of that world. But,” It’s exaggerated mouth curled up, oozing out blood like drool, “But at that point, they vanish, making their tales a legend that is forgotten over the passage of time as mere fiction.”
“In actuality, we return to our world, the System World, and devour our hosts, gaining everything they have. This is how we grow as Systems. Once we devour them, we digest our gains and head to another world, selecting a host that lacks any semblance of talent and parasitise them.” The blood it drooled touched the ground, corroding it, “And, that’s the answer to your question, why?”
“You…monster!” Compass Carburettor gritted his teeth, gazing at it with bloodshot eyes.
“Well, there’s nothing you can do to resist me. It wasn’t long, but I had fun watching you dance to my tunes,” It opened its mouth wide, revealing numerous rows of teeth within, inching closer to Compass Carburettor, intending to devour him, “I won’t miss you, bye!”