That morning, Kara's shack felt different. Usually, before Kara could even open his eyes, the shrill notification sound from Tem—who loved mocking his morning breath or giving him absolute nonsense missions—would welcome his beautiful morning. But weirdly enough, today his cursed system was completely silent. There was only pure silence in the room.
Kara opened his eyes. Yeah, he had just woken up. It was actually pretty strange because he had overslept this morning.
Kara stared up at the ceiling of the shack.
"Tem? Wake up, dude! At least give me a 'Good Morning' so I can feel like I actually have fans."
[........]
Silence. No snarky comeback. It was like there was no sign of life at all.
"Tem? Are you doing an OS update? Or are you on strike because I haven't paid off my debt of sins?" Kara started sitting up on his cot, feeling that something was off. Usually, Tem never stayed quiet for more than five minutes.
[....]
Only an empty, translucent dialog box appeared in front of Kara's eyes, making him furrow his brows in confusion.
"Wait, is the system broken or what?" Baskara tried to stay calm. But no matter what, he was feeling worried.
After staying quiet for a moment, Kara called out to his system again.
"Tem! I'm planning to open a 'Pocong Ride-Hailing' service again, I need a route! Give me a route!..."
[......]
"Hey Tem? Are you deaf? Tem? System!!"
Still no answer. In the corner of the shack, Cruel, who was busy reading a book, was listening to what his brother was saying. The kid stared at his older brother, who looked like a crazy person talking to the wind.
"Brother, what's wrong? Who are you looking for?" Cruel asked, his cold eyes staring at Kara suspiciously.
"It's nothing, El, just Tem... I mean, Brother just has a bad feeling. Like something is missing," Kara answered while forcing his signature narcissistic smile. "Maybe my handsomeness is still loading, that's why the universe suddenly went dead silent."
Cruel just stayed quiet, but internally, he was highly suspicious. For some reason, he felt like the aura around his brother had become a bit... dim.
"Oh, I thought it was something else, Brother," he replied, continuing to read his book. It wasn't just any regular book he was reading; it was a book filled with curse spells to summon demons of various shapes and powers. Of course, Baskara had no idea because Cruel had simply told him it was just a fairytale book.
Back to the topic, after hearing his little brother's words, Baskara just gave a slow nod, then went back to staring at the blank screen in front of him.
'I hope you're doing okay, you jerk,' Kara thought sadly.
Meanwhile, in an infinite white space, System—who was actually just a small ball of light—was visibly trembling in front of a massive silhouette that it called 'Boss'.
The silhouette wore a typical corporate suit, his face dead serious as he faced the system.
"Execute it, Unit 007. Erase the existence of Baskara's substitute soul. He has disrupted the world's balance far too much, and it seems his task of preventing Cruel from turning evil in the future is already complete—well, at least for now, because another soul will be taking over Baskara's body. Therefore, Zen's soul must be obliterated from that world," the Boss's voice boomed, cold and completely heartless.
[But Boss... he... he's my best friend. He's also genuinely tried his best to keep his little brother from turning evil. At least give him a little more time to make his brother happy,] System squeaked, not daring to look at its boss.
Its voice wasn't snarky anymore; instead, it sounded like it was holding back tears.
"A system doesn't have best friends. A system has targets. If you do not erase him within seven days, you will be the one getting reformatted!"
System stared at its boss in absolute disbelief. To think that it used to believe its boss was the kindest god out there; reality was completely opposite to its expectations.
"You know, my funds are completely drained from creating other systems. So if you still want to survive and not vanish, you must carry out my mandate. Because honestly, the operational costs for this world are incredibly expensive," the Boss continued, making System lower its head again.
After a while, the meeting finally came to an end.
System walked out of the boss's office with a long, heavy sigh. Flashes of memories of the things it had gone through with Baskara suddenly flooded its mind.
It realized that it was just a robot, and robots shouldn't have human emotions like this. But for some reason, after going through so many ridiculous things with the human it called "deadweight", it felt happy and finally understood the meaning of humanity.
Especially after finding out about Baskara's past and what actually happened to Albiru. It did have information about Baskara's older brother, but it hadn't had the heart to tell the young man yet. It also already knew what happened to Cruel before Zen's soul entered Baskara's body. There were so many secrets it kept and hadn't had the chance to uncover.
[Deadweight... I'm sorry. I won't be able to look at your face if you find out I was given a mandate to kill you. It's better if I just fade away slowly, so you can get used to not having me around.]
System could only lower its head while constantly thinking about its boss's final mandate, its thoughts drifting everywhere.
After staying quiet for a long time, it let out another long sigh.
[Alright Tem, now you have to disappear from Kara's life. You care about him, right? You don't want your best friend to die, right? You don't want Cruel to be lonely again, right? You have to distance yourself from Kara. Yeah, stay away. Starting today, I have to stay far away from the deadweight. Remember that. Let's go, Tem!! Do it for Baskara!!]
System muttered to itself, and not long after, it instantly vanished from the space.
Three days. For three whole days, the shack felt completely quiet without the system's voice that usually made Kara's ears ring. Kara was currently sitting by the riverbank. Yeah, he was at the river just to clear his mind. He was genuinely confused about where his system had gone. Before it disappeared, it had only said it was leaving for one night, so why had it been three days?
"Tem... did you actually die? At least if you die, leave some inheritance behind. Minimum a point balance to buy Cruel a year's supply of milk," Kara muttered softly. His voice wasn't as cheerful as usual. He threw a small pebble into the river.
The wind blew gently, and the sky looked pretty unfriendly today. It was as if it knew that one of its inhabitants was feeling deeply troubled.
After Kara kept throwing a few more pebbles into the river, the air in front of him suddenly froze. A blood-red dialog box appeared, completely different from Tem's usual bright blue dialog box.
"Tem, is that you?!!! You're back?!!!" Kara asked, a wide smile breaking across his face.
[Apologies, you are mistaken, human. I am not System Unit 007.]
The system replied in a flat, cold, and completely unfriendly voice, vastly different from Kara's usual snarky system.
"What do you mean? You're not him? Who are you? Then where is he right now? Is he mad at me, is that why he doesn't want to come back?"
[Notification! System Unit 007 (Tem) has been temporarily deactivated due to an emotional malfunction. I am Protocol Unit 001. I am the senior of System 007. If you are curious about my duty, I shall inform you: My task is to clear out 'Bugs' in this world.]
Kara immediately stood up, his heart pounding wildly. What did System 001 just say? Deactivated? And what did it mean by a bug?
"Unit 001? Then where is Tem?! Why was he deactivated?" Kara bombarded. He stared at the system screen suspiciously.
[Unit 007 refused to execute the termination mandate against you. According to headquarters' regulations, a 'Bug' or a dimensional error like you must be erased to balance out the timeline. You were supposed to have died from being crushed by a clothesline, Zenra. Your existence here is an anomaly. Your new body will receive a new soul, so you must be completely deleted.]
Kara went quiet. Those words felt like a harsh slap to the face. After all his struggles, he just had to give up like this?
"Deleted? You mean... I'm going to be killed again?"
[Precisely. Prepare yourself. The deletion process will commence within 48 hours.]
"Wait! I want to protest!" Kara shouted. But a second later, the young man turned his head toward the shack. He had indeed gone to the river alone after putting his little brother to sleep. And remembering his brother's peaceful sleeping face instantly made Baskara look down.
He took a deep breath. His anger suddenly vanished. He looked back at his own hands, which were trembling.
"If I disappear... will Cruel go back to being a villain?" Kara asked softly. For the past few months, Cruel's behavior had been far from dangerous, and he felt like his little brother had really started to change (though that was only in front of Kara; in reality, he was still the same).
[Analysis: Cruel has reached a stable point. His past trauma has been healed by your excessive (and ridiculous) affection. He will not become a villain in the future. Furthermore, do not worry; he will have a new guardian, a new soul who is more capable and chosen than you.]
Kara gave a bitter smile. A single tear fell, but he quickly wiped it away with his sleeve.
"Oh... so my task really is complete, huh? I've already secured a future for my little brother." Kara let out a soft chuckle, the saddest laugh any system had ever heard.
"Okay. I won't protest. But give me one condition. Bring Tem back. Let him be the one to guide me 'home'. I don't want to be guided by a grumpy system like you. At least let me hear his final insults before I completely vanish."
Baskara didn't actually ask to see Cruel one last time, because he knew that if he said goodbye to his little brother, the kid wouldn't let him go. Worse, his brother might end up destroying the entire world if he insisted on leaving. He had also set aside enough money for Cruel's expenses and hid the cash inside the wardrobe. So if he left, or if his replacement soul refused to take care of his little brother, Cruel could still use that money to survive and cover his needs for the next few months.
The system stayed quiet, as if unwilling to comply with Baskara's request.
Kara stared at the red screen in front of him with a challenging gaze, even though his chest felt incredibly tight.
"Bring Tem back, or I'll cause a mess far worse than a mere bug before I die," Kara threatened softly, making the system let out a long sigh.
[Protocol Unit 001: Evaluation complete. Unit 007 will be restored for the final termination process. Reconnecting...]
The red screen flickered. The red color slowly faded, replaced by a very weak, pale blue color. A static sound echoed in Kara's head, faint and glitchy.
Static... kkkrrrkk...
[...You absolute... deadweight... why didn't... you just... run away...]
Kara smiled widely, his tears completely breaking out now.
"You took forever, Tem. Are you ready to take me back?"
[...A-Are you... really... leaving?... W-What about... your brother...]
"It's fine, I'm sure he can take care of himself. He's stronger than me... Tem... are you ready?" Baskara smiled sincerely at the system, which was staring at him while holding back a glitchy crackle.
[.....Ready... but... Kara... there is one thing... that I haven't... told you yet... about your death... in your past life...]
Before the system could finish its sentence, right as those words appeared, the blue screen suddenly turned pitch black. The entire world around Kara seemed to freeze.
The wind stopped blowing.
And in the middle of that darkness, a bright white countdown appeared:
[ACCESS DENIED]
END OF VOLUME 1