Soulless Players

In a dilapidated building, five people were standing around the lifeless body of a man on the floor. His clothes were dyed red and his hand held a gun.

The five people cried silently, their tears were filled with regrets. But there was a particular person who howled out loud in the corner. She kneeled while her slender arms pounded the floor repeatedly in anger.

"Why?! Why?!"

Sarah cried. She couldn't believe the person she was with earlier committed suicide. She had only left for a moment, Why did the person she loved the most die?

She had a lot of regrets. Why didn't she notice that he was suffering all this time alone? Is she too blind to see his brother suffering?

However, no matter how much she regretted it, she couldn't make her brother rise from death.

One of the men standing nearby came towards her. He was shaking and trying to control his mouth from letting out a sob.

"Condolence Sarah,' He said. "If only we knew, we could have prevented this from happening."

"But he was too good at acting and hiding his emotions." Another man cried in frustration. He was wearing an army service uniform, and numerous medals were pinned on his chest coat.

"How can we figure out the mind of the greatest undercover agent of Britannia?"

The person who lay breathless on the floor was no other than Philip Mckenzie, the hero who made their country victorious from the onslaught of the nearby country.

"But I'm also an agent! Why did I not notice?!" Sarah screamed. Her relationship with Philip wasn't of a brother but more of a friend. A friend that after years of struggling together formed a bond stronger than blood-related brothers.

The surroundings became silent at Sarah's notion. They knew their differences and couldn't comment on them. Philip's acting and undercover were top-notch incomparable to Sarah's mediocre espionage skills.

"Stop it," Another woman said, "At least let's make his body not rot in this place."

They moved Philip slowly outside. All of them were careful as though he was a national treasure.

While they went outside, Sarah was left on the floor, her eyes were round in shock, as a bell rang inside her mind.

Ting!

[Congratulations on passing the SSS+ Life Survival Mission. You will now remember your memories.]

[Congratulations on receiving a reward: Soul Total Consciousness. You may now retain your memories in past lives and move on to the higher realm.]

[Congratulations! You may now end this life and move to the consciousness space. Please press 'yes' to proceed…]

"No! No!" Sarah screamed. Her mind blanked out at this sudden information.

While the voice in her mind was telling a series of Congratulations, she could not celebrate and be happy about this.

How could she? Her partner not only failed the mission but also committed suicide!

Sarah and Philip were old souls who had lived for millions of lives. When they reached a certain level of soul wisdom and power, they were able to recall the lives they lived in the past.

However, while they had become conscious, they still couldn't attain total memory retention as every time they lived a new life, all the memories they had would be forgotten, making them no different from other unconscious souls.

So to achieve total soul consciousness, they had to participate in a program where their souls would be forcibly made stronger by living lives filled with hardships. Only when they managed to survive through countless difficult lives would they achieve what they wanted and move to the higher realm.

However, the catch was, that they only had to die through normal means. Thus, suicide means failure and soul death to them.

Meaning, the time when Philip surrendered his life was the time for his soul to cease to exist.

This was also the reason behind Sarah's cry. She wouldn't be able to see Philip for the rest of her life.

Sarah cried and cried until there were no tears left in her eyes. When the sun started to hide behind the horizon and the moon began to rise, Sarah stood up, her eyes were red but filled with conviction.

She wouldn't let Philip be forgotten. She will write about his heroic deeds so that everyone on this planet will remember him.

Thus, with her strong conviction, a history book was created and printed throughout the whole country. And in the future, Philip's story will be made into movies and a subject in school.

However, the history book that Sarah wrote wasn't the whole truth. Instead of making Philip die through self-murder, she made it as if the country betrayed him.

This was her last struggle in denying her friend's death. She fabricated his ending so that even in her book, Philip had a chance to complete the mission like her.

The book was a huge success that even the unconscious souls managed to recall this story after death. And when they live a new life in a new world, they would have the urge to write this book and spread it through the whole universe.

This was all due to Sarah's creative and emotional writing. The impact of rewriting history, with her as the narrator, was so huge that it affected normal people living their ordinary and uneventful lives.

Time flew and Sarah had slightly recovered from her loss. She died from old age and moved to the higher realm where all conscious souls gathered.

She continued living her lonely life without her closest friend. Afterward, she met the senior souls she partnered with in the past to participate in a mission.

It was also this time when she became aware of Soulless Games where book characters will gain a soul and live in reality.

'With this, I can make Philip alive again!' Sarah thought obsessively. She wrote the book based on the real Philip. If she could make the book Philip gain consciousness, it would be the same as resurrecting her old friend!

Sarah transmigrated into the lower and mid realms intending to spread the book she wrote.

Her obsession became even stronger and more aggressive to the point where she forcibly manipulated the world's timeline and created a war where a Philip was needed.

This was made for her book to have a substance in the world, making her story not easily forgettable and be buried by time.

She did this repeatedly through hundreds of lives until the universe couldn't help but notice her existence.

Because of the great chaos she created, the universe decided to punish her and thus erased her memories of Philip.

Peace was once again returned to lower realms as Sarah stopped with ongoing rebirths and lived in the higher realm.

This continued until the 100th Soulless Games, especially when she noticed Philip participating in the game.

At first, with her memories erased, she was only intrigued by this character. It was as if her heart clenched every time she saw him.

Sarah felt numerous emotions upon seeing Philip live through his life, especially when he chose not to directly participate in the game.

She was glad that he lived happily even with the past life he lived in. And while she was working in Soulless TV, internally, she was supporting him.

Until another player noticed Philip's existence and ended the peaceful life he created.

Sarah's mind was in chaos. She didn't know why but she felt that she wanted Philip to continue living his life as if there were no game.

But alas, even though that was what she wished for, Philip couldn't do so as he was trapped inside the simulated world, fighting for his life.

Sarah wanted to intervene but had no power as outsiders weren't allowed to interfere with the battle of the characters.

Moreover, Soulless TV was only a platform for televising the game. It had no power and control over what happened inside the game.

Soulless TV had the right to film the game in exchange for making sure that the surviving characters lived a normal and peaceful life once they stepped outside of the simulated world. This was the contract they made with whoever created the game world.

With no other choice, Sarah could only keep her tears from falling.

However, this was stopped when an anonymous letter arrived to her saying that she was an author.

Intrigued, Sarah immediately read its contents. It was then she finally recalled the obsessive emotions she had in the past.

Even though Sarah still had no complete memories of it, she still knew that the contents were true.

Her heart reacted and felt guilty. She didn't know why but she felt that if she did nothing, she would regret it.

It was then she unconsciously and instinctively interfered with the game world and saved the suffering Philip.

Although outsiders couldn't meddle in the game world, the authors could. After all, they had the authority over their creation. Meaning, the characters who participated in the game were their ownership.

Even though the game world creator doesn't want someone to twist the fate of each player, it had no choice as his power was limited only inside the game world. Moreover, the authority of the author over their characters preceded the game world creator.

It was then a strong storm fell into the simulated world saving Philip from the tragedy.

Sarah smiled as she watched Philip survive, not bothered by her body becoming transparent.

Ting!

[An author's interference destroys the game's balance and fairness!]

Ting!

[Punishment for the author and her character!]

Ting!

[Author will lose her soul and live in the simulated world without her memories.]

[Character's karma became -100.]

Ting!

[Author decided to take the character's punishment. Author's karma in the real world became -100]

[Warning! Death is coming to someone with -100 Karma!]

[Warning!....]

...

With a smile on her face, she closed her eyes. Her memories were sucked dry until only her obsessive instincts remained.

"I miss you, Philip…" She whispered lastly. Her body vanished, leaving the dumbfounded Osuda, the host of Soulless TV, staring at the area where she was standing earlier.