1 Being a Hollow
[Ding!]
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[System connected to the host! Starting installation...]
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[System loading...%5...%23...%37...%48... %67...%77...%84...%95...]
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[%96...%97...%98...%99...]
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[Ding! System installation complete!]
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[Searching for a suitable placement for the host...]
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[Error! Error! Error!...]
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[...Error! Error! Error!]
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[No suitable placement found for host!]
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[Immediately looking for a solution to the problem...]
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[Ding! The system has listed available solutions for the host.]
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[Host needs to authorize the operation!]
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[No confirmation received! The system automatically applies the most appropriate solution...]
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[Initiating transfer of the Host's consciousness to the nearest corrupted soul...]
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[Operation successful! Host's consciousness transfer is complete. The system will go into sleep mode until the host wakes up.]
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[>Main Pov<]
'Oh, what the fuck happened to me? Last time I... Wait a minute... What was I doing last time? Even who the fuck am I? Fuck! I don't remember anything...'
It was pointless to ask myself questions I couldn't answer, so I opened my eyes and started to look around. I carefully observed my surroundings, hoping that maybe if I realized where I was, I would remember something. But what I saw shocked me.
There were trees all around, trees as far as the eye could see. But that wasn't why I was shocked. Were the trees always this short, or were I too tall? Then I looked at myself and...
"What the fuck is this?" Long, hairy, jet-black legs, barely recognizable in the darkness of the night; big feet like a horse's, and two identical hands...
On top of that, there is a huge hole in the middle of my stomach. 'What the fuck am I!?!?' Just as I was starting to freak out, I heard a voice inside my head.
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[Hello host, you've finally woken up from your beauty sleep! I am a system to help you become stronger and blah blah... If you have a question that your brain is incapable of answering, you can ask me.]
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I was surprised and annoyed to hear what the voice in my head said, but something bothered me...
'System? Wait a minute... I remember something about this.'
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[Oh, my mistake! When connecting your consciousness to the soul you are in now, there was a problem with extracting some of your memories and some of them were deleted. I was going to connect to the rest when you woke up. I'll start now!]
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[Uploading Host's memories... Upload complete!]
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[Transferring memories to Host...]
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[Try not to yell so much, it hurts like bitch.]
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'What, wait a minute?!?!? Arrgghh!!!! My head arrggghhh!!'
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[Memory transfer complete!]
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After a while the damn pain went away and now my brain was busy processing a lot of information. I was assimilating all kinds of memories about me from the past. It was a bit of an interesting experience.
I was there but not at the same time; it was like playing a video game in first person. When I got all my past memories (A/n: Remaining memories) I realized something, I must have died. So how was I alive? I already had a guess about that, but I still asked the 'rude' system.
'System, how did I survive?'
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[You didn't survive; you actually died, but your soul managed to stay together. After that, you were able to connect your soul to me (you are really lucky). So I transferred you into the corrupted soul you have now. Consider yourself lucky, you bastard.]
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'Hm, what? Wait... you connected my soul to the corrupted soul? My broken soul right now! You think that makes me lucky!!! You're the reason I'm in this shitty situation!?!?!?'
At first I didn't pay attention because I was still confused with this system and other shits, but this system was a bastard. I was dead and I was alive somehow, that was the important thing, but I really wanted to emphasize that the so-called 'corrupted soul' is a monster.
I was like something out of a horror movie and even I was scared at first. Speaking of horror movies, I urgently questioned.
'Hey you bastard, where am I and what am I?'
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[Heh, finally we're being rude. Anyway, don't ask everything one by one, listen to my explanation. Your soul fused with me when you died. Actually, I looked for a suitable placement for you but I couldn't find one. There were some, but if I had placed you there would have been a strong backlash and there might not have been much left of you. Actually, it was also because I didn't have enough energy... Anyway, that's why I had to synchronize your soul with a human with low self-awareness who had just turned into a new hollow. (A/n: demi-Hollow) For the last question, yes, as you can see from your memories, this is the universe of the anime 'Bleach' and you are a low-level hollow.]
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After hearing this, I felt a mix of happiness, excitement, anxiety, and anger, but just when it was about to drive me crazy, I calmed down abnormally. Maybe it was the system or my new body, but these were the only things going through my mind:
'Ah, now I realize that I'm in a ridiculous situation like in the novels I read...'
If I wasn't a 4-foot hollow and didn't have one of those bastard systems that I hated in my old life, I would have danced for joy that I had transmigrated but I chose not to.
My old life was monotonous. Being in an anime universe excited me a little bit and scared me a lot.
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[Dude, you really need a therapist. Your emotional state is changing so fast. Since your current mood is still unstable, I'll just give you a friendly warning and ignore it this time.]
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'Shut up!!!'
I continued my thought process after shouting at the bastard system that interrupted my internal monologue.
Bleach was an anime that I actually watched and liked. There were good and weird characters, and that's why it hooked me. But other than that, as far as I remember, being a hollow was by far a disadvantage.
I had to fuck shinigami who wanted to 'purify' me right now, and damn it, I didn't need purification! I urgently needed to get stronger, so I immediately asked the system:
"System, what are your functions?"
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[You finally asked, the functions of the system are as follows.]
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[
- [>Character<] >{ Locked }<
- [>Status<]
- [>Shop<]
- [>Inventory<] >{ Locked }<
]
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I focused on the dark blue screen in front of me and with my hoof-like hands, I started to read the explanations by pressing the question mark on the top left.
[
▪︎ Character shows the original view in 3D and allows the host to make various edits
(Condition; every evolution and race change).
▪︎ Status helps the host see their personal information. You can open it by thinking 'Status'.
▪︎ Shop contains bloodlines, abilities and items that the host can buy. To buy them, the host needs >Soul-coin<, the currency of the system.
▪︎ Inventory helps the host to store their items in a 100 m³ spatial plan
(Upgradeable)
]
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'Hm, okay, I get it. That means I can improve with the skills in the shop for now. The rest are locked, I'll have to ask the system how to unlock them.'
After looking at the blue screen in front of me a little more, I realized again that I was in the middle of a forest. I immediately called out 'Status' in my mind to find out my current power.
[>Status<]
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[Name]: ???
[Age]: Day 1
[Race]: Hollow (Low level hollow)
[Physical Strength]: 1.0 (Str x Agi x End)
(Ordinary Low Level Hollow P.S. = 1.0)
[Reiryoku]: Low level spiritual energy
(Officer class shinigami reiryoku)
[Skills]: None
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After observing the screen for a while, I understood most of it. Not much really, but it was enough for me. First of all, my age was 1 because, as the system said, this was a soul that had just turned into a hollow. Accordingly, it was reasonable for me to be a low-level hollow. My physical strength was like in an RPG game, but it gave a direct overview of it. It was a general assessment of my strength, agility and endurance. What really surprised me was my spiritual energy. I was actually disappointed that it was low level, but it was unexpected that it was the same as the officer class shinagimi.
I asked the system and the answer was simple.
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[Since the host is a hollow, the reiryoku's are given according to hollow standards. This should not be confused with the current classification of shinigamis. For example, a normal hollow's low level spiritual energy is equal to an officer class shinigami, while a menos' spiritual energy can range from a lieutenant to a captain level.]
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There wasn't much else to see and I immediately went back to looking at the other functions of the system.
At first, I clicked on 'Character' and my appearance of that horrible creature appeared in 3D and I immediately closed it back. At the moment 'Character' was only showing the physical appearance of this body; other functions would be added in the future. When I opened it again and looked at it... Yes, I was really ugly and knowing that affected me mentally, but it was nothing I couldn't get used to.
The only option was to just hope that as I progressed to Vaste Lord I would get a humanoid appearance. Maybe being an arrancar would work too...
"Hm, system. Can the race change or is it permanent? " I asked the system and it answered immediately.
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[There are races available in the shop for that. You can buy them using >Soul-coin< as you progress.]
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With that, I immediately clicked on the shop and a large screen appeared in front of me.
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[>Shop - Level 1<]
|Soul-Coin : 0|
[> Skills: { → [Reiryoku Boost 2x] = 2000-Sc
→ [Low Level Hierro]= 1500-Sc
→ [Low Level Regeneration] = 1500-Sc
→ [Little Cero] = 2000-Sc
→ [Physical Power Boost 2x] = 2000-Sc
→ [Reiatsu Concealment] = 5000-Sc
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→ [Shinigami (100%)] = 500,000-Sc
→ [Quincy (100%)] = 550,000-Sc
→ [FullBringer (100%)] = 450,000-Sc } <]
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When I saw 500k, my mouth dropped open for a moment. After all, I still didn't know how to earn >Soul-coin<'s, but even when I looked at the skills, it shouldn't have been easy to collect so many >Soul-coin<'s if they were so cheap. In the end, a race shouldn't be this much. Even now, as a simple hollow, I was stronger than a simple shinigami. I could get much stronger if I just progressed as a hollow. So why was it like this? I immediately asked the system.
"Hey system, why are these races so expensive ?"
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[The races are not expensive, host. This is the usual price for them. Normally you would have to buy the hollow race from the shop, but due to the problems the system had during placement, you were able to get it for free.]
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I didn't say anything when I heard that. I don't like the way I am, but really, in the bleach world, hollows are really strong at the beginning, but you should know that it's just for cannon fodder.
I can't do anything to a captain level shinigami or pure quincy right now. That's not the problem either. My evolution stops at vaste lorde. I can do something with the system, but there are limits. So, actually becoming an arrancar is starting to seem like a more appropriate goal. Of course, these are all plans for the future.
I pushed aside the scattered thoughts in my head and turned to the system that wasn't being a bastard for the moment, and asked the question on my mind.
'How do I unlock these locked functions and earn >Soul-coin< ?'
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[You will have to pay a certain amount to unlock locked functions. Likewise, if you want to benefit from more privileges, you will need to level up. As for earning >Soul-coin<... Isn't the answer obvious? Of course you can earn them from living souls.]
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I nodded at the first words and *sighed* about how tiring this was going to be, but the last one sent a shiver down my spine, which frankly was quite an interesting experience for a hollow.
I shuddered at the system's words because even though I was a hollow now, my mind was still human. I knew about the living souls he was talking about because I was drawn here as a soul, and nobody in the Bleach universe can say that they don't know the concept of 'soul'. In short, this system was encouraging me to kill people.
Can I really do this? I may look like a monster now, but if I do this, won't I be a real monster? I tried to collect my thoughts as much as possible and asked the system hesitantly.
'So you want me to kill people? Can't I earn >Soul-coin< otherwise?'
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[I'm not asking you for anything, you can stick to your own morality if you want. For the other problem, do you really think you can earn >Soul-coin< without killing things and capturing their souls? Why do you think the name of the system's currency is >Soul-coin< ? To explain briefly, this system uses the souls of beings as energy. Every living soul is fuel for this system. These souls are collected and turned into system currency. This way you can benefit from the benefits of the system. So... What will you choose, host ?]
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I could swear there was almost a mocking tone in the cold robotic voice of the system.
Moreover, converting the souls of these beings into currency almost made my jaw drop. I've played RPG games before, but this real-life version was the really creepy kind. I still wasn't really sure what to choose. First of all, my system didn't give me any skills by making me do ridiculous quests, which was fine, but hunting souls still made me hesitate.
But in the end, I was just a low-level hollow. What else could I do in this cruel world of powerful quincy, hollow and shinigami? I finally let out a deep *sigh*.
I had already decided what to do...
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A/n : Hey guys! How was it? Did you like it?
I want to explain a few things here. The system won't always be like this, so relax. Mc has turned into a new hollow right now, so it will get better in a few chapters. If there is something that bothers you other than that, specify in the comments.
