Chapter 2: 0.2 [An Abyss of Fear]

Someone was hugging her, pressing her face into their chest, as they let out small whimpers. They were bigger than her small body, annoying her slightly as they weighted down her head with theirs. Their shaking sandy-brown hair covered the both of them like a curtain, in a comforting sort of way, blocking out whatever was out there.

 

“Why are you crying?”

 

“I’m scared… And I don’t know why…”

 

She wrapped her hands around the scared person, patting their back in an attempt to comfort them. The crying soon stopped, and the person hugged them tighter. She thinks she’s tried to pull her head away, to look up at the person, but everything felt too fuzzy to concentrate. A warm feeling filled her body with the prolonged hugging. 

 

Until her body couldn’t hold anymore.

 

She sat up jerkily, turning her head to see the ball of light having three panels surrounding its small body. Its movements were frantic as worry emanated from it in waves. How does it do that if it’s just a ball of light?

 

“Hey, how do you talk when you have no mouth?” She asked subconsciously, startling herself with how raspy she sounded. She coughed in an attempt to get rid of the rasp. How does that work if she’s-

 

[You’re awake, Esteemed Host!╰( ◕ ᗜ ◕ )╯]

 

The relieved voice of the ball pulled her out of her thoughts. Again, how does it do that when its voice is so dull...?

 

[Oh! And I use a text-to-speech procedure of sorts since I have no physical form, thus no vocal cords. (⌒_⌒;)]

 

“...” She blinked slowly, feeling a strong urge to shake a certain ball. If it has no physical form, why did it use its body to swipe at the panel, much less type?! “But I can talk...? When I also have no vocal cords since I’m..." She trailed off, the word on the tip of her tongue. She attempted to speak again, but the ball spoke up.

 

[Well, I’m a level 0 system that was created recently, while you had a physical body before.]

 

“...I see.” No, she did not, that vague statement only confused her more. “So how does this save the main characters' deal thing work?” She was curious, watching as the ball absorbed the three panels around itself. It then pulled out a panel as tall as her, some words already written on it. 

 

It was all of the stuff the little ball had said before, with little cute emoticons added at the end of most of its sentences. Why weren’t those read out? Sure, it would have been weird to hear, but at least she could’ve had a face of sorts to attach to the robotic-sounding voice. New words appeared on the panel, and the ball’s dull voice rang in her ears.

 

[So which thing would you like to learn first, Esteemed Host? How you’ll earn points, missions, or how we’ll traverse worlds?]

 

“First off, what’s with the ‘Esteemed Host’ stuff? You’ve called me that like ten times now.” She questioned, getting up from her sitting position to get a better look at the panel. It unnerved her, the unrelenting awe and giddiness she felt from the little system when it called her that title.

 

[It’s because you have [Classified] information, Esteemed Host. It means that only the System Administrator has access to it. ୧( ˵ ° ω ° ˵ )୨]

 

What was with the happy emoticon? “Doesn’t that sound suspicious? Why assign a level 0 system to someone with a classified name and potentially dangerous title?” She asked, thoughts whirling around in her head. “Having to get a system to level 6 to ‘ask’ this administrator person for the right to use stuff from a title is the most suspicious thing to have written on my profile. If my name is [Classified], why is there no information on how to get it unlocked, too?” She clenched and unclenched her hands, it meant she had a body. That she wasn’t-

 

[If the [Classified] information meant you were dangerous, then I wouldn’t have been assigned to you all. I’m more worried over the [Story Eater] title that you have, Esteemed Host… (^◇^；)]

 

“Why?” She raised an eyebrow; the title’s description didn’t sound that bad. Gaining luck for the next world, sounded overpowered to her. Especially so with the “Deus Ex Machina” name the system had.

 

[Consuming a world means consuming it down to its very essence, meaning once it’s consumed… It is lost forever, and no system will have access to that world again.]

 

“That sounds like a great idea, like what they did to us…” A voice? echoed from the depths of her mind, “Consume their precious worlds, so that scum can never touch them again...!”

 

What? What was that? She felt chills crawl up her back, the anger in the voice–voices–felt abysmal. Yet familiar, her breath hitched as she realized why.

 

The mind-consuming fury she felt before fainting earlier.

 

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The little ball looked back to its host from its mental typing, only to shiver at the blank look in her eyes. 

 

[Esteemed Host? Is something wrong...?]

 

The voices continued to talk, about someone they considered scum, about getting vengeance. Vengeance for what? The voices ignored her in lieu for more murmurs of anger. What the cause of the anger was, she did not know. She breathed a sigh of relief as the voices faded away quickly as they came.

 

[Are you alright, Esteemed Host...?]

 

The ball flitted around her body, stopping by her face once it deemed that she seemed fine. She nodded, her head throbbing from the cacophony of voices a moment ago. “So, voices in my head want to eat some world(s?) for revenge…” She grimaced at the thought, “How fun…”

 

[Did you remember something, Esteemed Host?]

 

“Hm.?”

 

[You had this blank look in your eyes, then frowned just now. Did you remember something unpleasant?]

 

She shook her head, “No, just… thinking about the title.”

 

[But…]

 

The words appeared on the panel, before disappearing. The ball flitted in circles as if it was looking for something to say, but coming up empty-handed.

 

She wanted to laugh for some reason, at the system’s unfiltered emotions, but she had to deal with another issue she wanted to bring up earlier. “So, what do I call? I’ve just been calling you a ball in my head for a while now.” The ball paused in its spinning as it hovered in thought.

 

[What do you mean, Esteemed Host...? I have no name, so you can call me whatever.]

 

She shifted her weight to her right as she thought up a suitable name–nickname?

 

“Noel.” 

 

[Noel.]

 

The ball emitted a wave of confusion on why the speech system pronunciation was different from its host’s. So, it decided to type the name in again as if it could fix that.

 

[Noel]

 

And again.

 

[noel]

 

“I pronounce it like the female version, but it’s written like the male one. I wanted to keep it neutral just in case.” She spoke up before it could spam the name in her ears more.

 

[So, Noelle?]

 

The ball—no, Noel now–glowed brighter in excitement at its new name.

 

“Because your unnatural cheeriness reminds me of a kid during Christmas.” Noel deflated at the back-handed compliment. She stifled a giggle, before moving onto the reason why she brought up names. “Now give me a name, Noel.”