“What exactly did you do to me?”
This was the third time Ghost had asked that question.
After Yue Shi had activated Feedback and confirmed it had taken effect, he brought Ghost and the teddy bear back to his residence.
Ghost had been chattering incessantly the entire way, becoming incredibly talkative and clingy.
He floated around Yue Shi, his illusory body brushing against him from time to time. He displayed absolute trust and wouldn't stop talking:
“It’s strange. It feels like a lot of new code has been implanted into my base logic. This code is quite aggressive; it can’t be deleted or modified, and it has the highest priority. But... I don't seem to mind them at all?”
He floated in front of Yue Shi, his tone filled with filial affection. “Since I lost my body, it’s been a very, very long time since I felt such intense, surging emotions! Now, when I look at you, it’s like looking at my own mother. This feeling is truly wonderful—it’s addictive.”
Yue Shi listened expressionlessly before finally speaking calmly. “No need to be polite. Just call me father. Also, you mentioned losing your body. What happened?”
Ghost immediately answered obediently, “I used to be able to switch freely between human and ghost forms. But in Lab 0, my body suffered too much irreversible damage. After I escaped, I was constantly hiding and running, with no chance to rest or recover. In the end, I had to completely abandon that tattered flesh and blood and undergo permanent ghostification.”
At this point, he scanned Yue Shi from head to toe and asked, “Every experimental subject who escaped has a severely damaged body; everyone has issues of some sort. But your body looks healthy and strong, without a single trace of damage. How did you do it?”
Seeing that Yue Shi had no intention of answering, Ghost was very understanding. “It’s fine if you don't want to say~”
Yue Shi felt a slight stir in his heart. The effect of Feedback was even better than he had anticipated.
Originally, he had tracked Ghost down to eliminate him. However, not only was Ghost difficult to kill, but his abilities were also incredibly useful. With such powerful information-gathering and network-invasion capabilities, killing him would be a waste; it was better to make him his own.
The only issue was that he hadn't trusted Ghost's loyalty at all.
Fortunately, he hadn't forgotten about his mysterious Feedback ability. Its effects certainly lived up to its long cooldown period.
Ghost now treated him like his closest and most trusted father.
“By the way,” Yue Shi recalled something and asked, “what is your real name? I can't keep calling you Ghost forever.”
“I am Ghost,” Ghost replied instantly.
Fearing Yue Shi might misunderstand, he hurried to explain, “My past memories were too painful. I actively deleted many of them, and some data was corrupted, so I was forced to separate and discard it. Now, Ghost is my name, and it is also the form of my existence.”
“Data was corrupted? What does that mean?” Yue Shi asked.
Ghost explained patiently, “One of my primary abilities is possession. I can possess living organisms or inanimate objects. However, if I possess specific transcendents or supernatural creatures, my own information structure will be contaminated.”
“Additionally, when I digitalize to invade networks, I can also be contaminated by the massive amount of trash information, malicious code, or specific information toxins that saturate the web. But as long as too much trash information isn't injected all at once, it's usually not a big problem. I can purify myself.”
Yue Shi nodded. “I see.”
Ghost seemed to have opened up completely, continuing to volunteer information. “I only remember now that I was once a transcendent too. I gained these abilities to ignore physical attacks, possess others, and invade networks. I was young and reckless back then, thinking I was invincible. I loved running wild on the internet, tampering with data and peeking at everyone's secrets. I was lawless.”
His tone carried a hint of regret. “Unfortunately, I was still too young and was quickly noticed. Once, while I was roaming the network, I was targeted in a large-scale data corruption ambush. I was eventually captured and sent to the lab.”
“Once I am severely contaminated while digitalized, my body undergoes terrifying mutations when I switch back to human form. Those bastards in Lab 0 performed plenty of specific contamination experiments on me using that.”
“When I escaped the lab, I had to give up a lot of things to protect myself and ensure a smooth escape. My body, my name, most of my human memories... many, many things were lost forever.”
“In my base logic, only one core directive remained: ‘revenge.’ But it’s fine now. The new code you implanted for me has the highest priority.” His tone became lighthearted again.
Yue Shi was somewhat speechless. He hadn't even started questioning yet, and this guy was already spilling the beans and confessing everything on his own.
He interrupted Ghost’s recounting of past hardships to ask a more practical question. “Can you possess transcendents?”
Ghost answered, “I can, but it’s much harder than possessing ordinary people. The stronger the target’s willpower and mental strength, the higher the difficulty of the possession.”
“For high-rank transcendents, possession is almost impossible to succeed. Even if I get lucky, I’ll be rejected quickly. So usually, I only possess objects or enter the network via digitalization.”
He paused and added, “If I really could possess everyone indiscriminately, I would have chosen a top-tier powerhouse long ago and controlled them to tear Lab 0 out by the roots. Why would I bother hiding?”
Hearing this, Yue Shi dismissed the idea of having Ghost possess transcendents to do his dirty work. It was more reliable to use him as a top-tier information collector.
Yue Shi changed the subject. “By the way, how did you cause the chaos in Amber City tonight? I noticed you don't seem to have any direct combat abilities.”
“Oh, that? I did it using some supernatural objects.” Ghost’s voice carried a hint of pride.
As he spoke, he re-possessed the teddy bear and wobbled to his feet. He used a paw to tear open the stitching on his belly and then, like reaching into a magic pouch, he pulled out item after item, piling them on the floor with a clatter.
Yue Shi’s eyes lit up. He was hitting the jackpot!
Tonight was truly a bountiful harvest!
He examined the strangely shaped items one by one, asking casually, “Speaking of which, how exactly did you find out I was an experimental subject? And in such detail?”
The teddy bear stopped mid-motion. “My ID on the Supernatural Forum is Legal Vanguard. Back then, I was the one who anonymously tipped you off about the Lab 0 researcher at the Qingshan Sanatorium.”
Yue Shi was truly surprised. “You can invade the Supernatural Forum?”
The teddy bear shook its head. “No, I can’t. I just possessed an ordinary person, registered an account, released the information, and then hid near the Qingshan Sanatorium to wait for the bait to be taken.”
Yue Shi froze as a chill ran down his spine. “You’ve known my identity since then? And you’ve been watching me in secret?”
It was a terrifying thought!!
The teddy bear nodded its large head vigorously, cotton squeezing out of a crack in its neck. “Mhm. I’ve been following you since then. I even quietly erased some vulnerabilities in your identity records to make your forged files look more flawless.”
“However, your concealment abilities are just too strong. Sometimes you go out without any electronic devices, so I wasn't always sure of your movements.”
“When the Lab 0 pawns cornered the Emotion Manipulator last time and drove him insane, I tried to save him secretly. But Lab 0 knew too much about my methods and was prepared. Not only did I fail to save him, but I also exposed my own location.”
“Fortunately, those few people were eventually roasted by you. That was truly satisfying~”
Yue Shi caught a key piece of information. “So, the reason you were so desperate for me to destroy that corpse’s brain was because you really thought you were exposed and were afraid of having your memories read?”
The teddy bear sounded a bit frustrated and fearful. “I panicked. Looking back now, that was likely a trap from start to finish.”
“Even if I hadn't contacted you, the Glory Association would have found a way to make the matter known to the whole city—letting everyone know they had a transcendent who could read the memories of corpses. They used that body to lure the target into their net.”
“Their primary target this time should have been you. Luckily, you were strong enough to step into the net and tear it to shreds.”
While the teddy bear spoke, it finished emptying its stomach. Yue Shi looked at the pile of supernatural objects with unknown uses on the floor, then at the chattering little Ghost. A golden vertical mark faintly appeared between his brows.
Rate on N.U.
