[Yare yare daze, you're still not coming out!]
Saiki reached toward the corner, grabbed at the air, and made a pulling motion as if yanking something out.
"Ouch!"
A ball of light suddenly popped out and fell to the ground.
The light grew brighter and brighter, flashing for 30 seconds before forming a humanoid shape. Then the light ball dashed toward Saiki in one swift step, arms spread as if to hug him.
"Saiki, long time no see!"
Saiki stood motionless in place, quietly watching the light ball fly toward him.
Then
"Smack!"
A loud slap rang out as Saiki smacked the light ball to the ground with one palm.
"What are you doing!"
The light ball sat on the ground, aggrieved, rubbing the cheek that had been slapped. Finally, the glow on its body slowly faded.
It gradually took the form of a blue-haired beautiful girl, eyes red and teary, looking at Saiki with a pitiful, wronged expression.
To anyone else, this sight would be heartbreaking.
Saiki just gave it a glance and said calmly
[Cut the chatter, get to the point already.]
"Ugh~ What's with that? We haven't seen each other in so long, and the first thing you do is give me a big slap. Do you know how much damage that big slap did to my tender little heart?"
[We saw each other not long ago. If you hadn't summoned me, I wouldn't even be here.]
"What kind of attitude is that? If it weren't for me, you'd have died long ago!"
For details, please refer to chapter 161.
The blue-haired girl clenched her chubby little fists and swung them a few times in Saiki's direction as a reminder.
[How many times are you going to bring that up? Sys—tem.]
Yes, the one in front of him was the system, a system capable of taking human form. Saiki had known it for a long time already.
System illustration →
This was an infinite worlds traversal system. It constantly searched for hosts to traverse various worlds, letting them experience life, elevate their lives, become superior to others, marry rich and beautiful women, reach the peak of life, and then detach to find the next host.
"That's just how it is, I'm not wrong."
The system put her hands on her hips, righteous and confident: "It's just summoning you a few times, and you get so aggressive. What a shrimp-head guy!"
[Shrimp-head guy?]
Saiki's eyes curved in a half-smile, half-not.
[A few times? I get summoned by you basically every year, okay? That's fine, but every single time it's these super troublesome requests.
Last time what was it? Taking me to a magic world to teach a 10-year-old witch and make her the strongest witch in the world before I could come back. I'm a psychic, I don't know magic. It took me 6 years to get back!]
"That was just that one troublesome time. I even gave you a chance to be reborn, I…"
[And also helped you save 10 worlds, 6 universes, and 5 Earths.]
"But…"
[Before that you were almost destroyed, and I was the one who saved you.]
System: "Are you even a man? Being so petty about everything."
[Yare yare daze, just tell me what I have to do this time!]
Saiki grabbed the system's head and squeezed it hard.
The system swatted Saiki's hand away, then swiped her fingers to create a light screen the size of a laptop.
"Let me check."
"Oh, nothing much. This time it's pretty relaxed. This world is a parallel future timeline. There's horror invasion here. They randomly select people with extremely low probability to enter horror game worlds of anomalous intrusion, complete certain tasks, do everything possible to survive. Mm, that's basically it."
The system stepped barefoot on a rock, pointed at the sky with one finger, and said expectantly: "So, ready to start the adventure? Off to the horror world for adventure. Go for it, Saiki!"
[Oh.]
Saiki clapped expressionlessly, trying to build some atmosphere.
[Remember what you said. After clearing one stage, let me go home.]
"Got it, got it. I'm just doing a tutorial anyway."
The system waved her hand dismissively. Hearing that, Saiki felt reassured, but then thought about it.
[This doesn't really suit me!]
Saiki Kusuo, psychic, horror game.
The more Saiki thought about it, the weirder it felt.
The system agreed:
"Yeah, this time it's looking for someone to experience clearing it. They specially summoned people from other worlds to do a clear tutorial. Didn't expect it to be you, though."
[That's exactly why it doesn't suit me. Asking me to do a tutorial, do you think those so-called horror worlds have any effect on me?]
Saiki crossed his arms and kindly reminded her
[Having a psychic like me play a horror game in an anomalous intrusion world is basically like playing a cracked version or using cheats, right? Why don't you just find someone else.]
System: ...
"Be free-spirited about it. So there's a requirement: your weird psychic powers aren't allowed to be used randomly. Mm, actually, let's just ban them all."
[I'll try my best!]
(I hate horror games the most. No matter what I say, I'm still human. If I get scared, I won't sleep well at night.
But even without using psychic powers, if I can physically exorcise ghosts, they probably won't have any way to deal with me.)
"Also, control the strength of your body. When you encounter ghosts and monsters, slow your speed and power down by 100 times. No, 1000 times. No, 10,000 times."
Saiki: …
[Should I just stand still and let them eat me?]
"..."
"So you understand now!"
The system withdrew the light screen and stopped explaining the horror game rules.
[Alright then, hurry up and summon the horror game.]
Saiki nodded. He hadn't listened at all. Those rules were useless to him, optional at best. As long as he cleared it, that was fine.
Now he just had to wait quietly for the system to summon it and complete one task.
The system blinked, looking awkward as she said
"I can't summon it. That has to wait until it comes looking for you on its own!"
[What? Don't joke around. You're not telling me I have to wait for that extremely low probability, are you?]
"Yes, so behave yourself. Even outside, don't use your psychic powers, or he might not dare approach you."
[How long do I have to wait? Can't you just hack in or something!]
"I'm a system, not a hacker."
[You can't even hack a horror game, what kind of system are you!]
"I…"
The system gritted her teeth and turned her head away: "Hmph, it's not like that. Most of my power is in another world helping people there.
Right now I've only transferred a small portion here to summon and do the strategy guide. This is just a task assigned to me from above."
Saiki nodded and asked
[So this time your role is just to tell me what to do and then become useless again, right?]
"Yes!"
(Then aren't you useless!)
Saiki didn't say it out loud.
[Mm, got it. About your current appearance…]
Saiki pointed at the system's human form, unsure how to phrase it. Before, when he was summoned, the system had been a ball of light inside his body, talking to him in his mind.
In other worlds, when capable, it would give him some tutorial items, though those items were basically useless to Saiki anyway.
"This? Last time you helped me reconstruct my body, so I used power to condense this form. Don't worry, others can't see it. Only you can see and hear me speak. How is it? Cute, right?"
The system even spun around twice in front of Saiki for emphasis.
[I remember systems are supposed to be genderless?]
The system stopped spinning, placed her hands on Saiki's shoulders, and smiled as she said: "Yes, but I just think girls are cute!
Later when we enter the horror game, I won't come out. I'll merge into your body and become one with you."
[This system is pretty unserious.]