Soulless Players

Outside the game world.

Loud and thundering cheers echoed in the hall as a man dressed in a black suit and black top hat appeared. While holding a black cane adorned with a golden egg-shaped handle, he turned around majestically and addressed the audience,

"Hello Everyone! Welcome to another episode of Soulless TV, where we bring you updates inside the simulated world!" Osuda said, his lips curled up high. His excitement was palpable as he scanned the crowd.

"Two weeks since the soulless players had reached their eighth birthday and we now will vote for who is...."

In a surprise twist, a holographic wheel materialized right by Osuda's side. With the crowd cheering him on, he gave it a spin and waited for it to stop.

When the wheel slowed down and gradually halted, he raised his cane and pointed to the wheel.

"For the eighth year of the 100th Soulless Game, we will vote for the top 3 most unfortunate players! The players who have greatly suffered since the beginning of their childhood until now!"

Osuda then faced the audience and declared, "Voting will commence in 3! 2! 1!"

A loud classical orchestra music reverberated throughout the hall as the audience quickly took the rectangular instruments that appeared once Osuda's countdown hit one. Then after a minute, they disappeared, the music ceased, and a gigantic screen emerged behind Osuda.

"I finally have the result here!" Osuda said, turning around to face the screen. When he saw the result, he chuckled as he fixed his top hat, "Hmmm... I see what you did there, my dear viewers!"

The crowd laughed as Osuda announced,

"We have a three-way tie for the third place, and interestingly enough, all of the players were not human. Well, I can see that among the players, those who are born as creatures and monsters are truly living their worst life out in the simulated world! It's not surprising to see them ranking high on the survey board!"

"Starting with!" Osuda paused for the effect, "Here we have, Player No. 31, a.k.a Haruki Whirlson from the book 'Old Virgin Reincarnated into a Virgin Slime!"

When Osuda read the title, the crowd burst into laughter as the large screen displayed a summary of Haruki's life.

Haruki was an earthling who had died heroically while saving a child from the incoming truck and wished to be reborn as a man with a big package that could obliterate... no, satisfy any woman.

However, out of all the Gods, the one who heard his prayers was the Goddess of Purity. Since she wasn't pleased with Haruki's perverted last wish, she punished him by reincarnating him as a creature incapable of reproducing and... climaxing.

Angered by this, Haruki set out to explore the world and become the strongest in order to seek revenge against the goddess. The book then concluded with Haruki successfully capturing the goddess and bringing her to S.A. However, the pervert author chose to leave the ending open to interpretation, allowing readers to imagine their own conclusion.

Osuda chuckled and remarked, "Since the book has an open ending, Haruki never got to experience intimacy. So he still ended up as a virgin."

"And as for his new life..." Osuda halted and looked at the audience, "Well, since the simulated world has no slimes, Haruki was reincarnated as a spit of Ancient God and was held captive by Magicians who conducted experiments on him every day. Even in its eighth year, Haruki remained imprisoned in their lab, and the magicians were still unaware of the spit's sentience."

The audience reacted with a mix of laughter and sadness. They felt sorry for the tragic life Haruki was forced to live and hoped that he could somehow escape his cruel fate.

Osuda then stomped his cane on the ground as he yelled,

"Next! We have Player 19, the mighty Lord of the dragons from the book, My Dragon Inheritance System, Falkor Dagahra!"

As is typical in System Novels, Falkor, a low-species dragon, stumbled upon a Goldfinger while wandering in the forest. After finding the inheritance system, he then starts his journey to become the ruler of all dragons.

Osuda asked, "So why did Falkor, who is revered as God in his previous world, become voted as one of the most miserable players in the soulless game?"

Osuda laughed and revealed, "It was because Falkor was reborn into a small house lizard!"

Falkor has obtained a uniqueness of Dragon Evolution Bloodline that allows him to become stronger with what he eats. At level one, his uniqueness is limited to three evolutions.

"In most stories featuring this ability, the main character is usually overpowered. However, for a common house gecko Falkor, his power is greatly discounted due to his size." Osuda remarked.

For the first evolution, he had eaten a fly and gained wings and numerous eyes, becoming fast and greatly enhancing his sense of sight, but remaining tiny in size.

For the second evolution, when he attempted to eat a larger canine animal, he was seen and captured by a mad scientist. Recognizing the special trait of the winged gecko, the scientist experimented on him by forcing him to feed on his own excrement and other... unsanitary things.

As a result, Falkor was forced to use the feces as a basis for his second evolution to break free from the scientist's grasp. And just as he wanted, not only did he escape but also killed the scientist.

"Yes, he succeeded in the end but at what price?" Osuda smirked as he let the audience continue, "His smell!"

Therefore from an almighty Lord of the Dragons in the past, he became the Lord of the Poop instead.

"As for now, Falkor is still consuming the scientist's decaying body for his third evolution. It is unknown when he will finish." Osuda halted and willed the screen to show a handsome ant.

"Next is Anton Smith, Player 27 from the book 'Ant Colony."

In the book, Anton is reincarnated as a monster ant and evolves by consuming monster cores. However, just like Haruki, there are no unique ant species like him in the simulated world, and instead reincarnated as a normal working red ant.

Despite this setback, Anton possessed a uniqueness that allowed him to convert food into power and enabled him to produce evolved offspring from it.

However, he is limited in his ability to use his uniqueness due to his status as a working ant, and cannot produce an army on his own. Additionally, he can only eat part of the food he finds as he isn't the queen.

As a result, he plans to form a revolution to overthrow the current queen and become the new leader. However, since Anton has the intellect of a human and is vastly different from loyalist ants, this leads him to experience racism and isolation.

Forget about forming a revolution as he was immediately imprisoned by the queen and ultimately eaten before he died, making him the first soulless player to die in the game.

Silence enveloped the hall. Although all the audience gathered to watch and enjoy the game, they were still a group of entities that possessed humanity. Most of them had read these main characters' stories and were previously a fan. It was difficult for them to feel nothing about their demise.

"If only Anton left the society of ants, he would have a great chance of tracking his own food and creating an army of ants. However, the biological influence of his ant genes makes him believe that ants should always stay with other ants."

"Moreover, he had lived as an ant for a long time in his previous book life. It is not a surprise for his cognitive processes and overall thought patterns to be greatly influenced by the ant's way of living."

Osuda casually remarked, "This is a negative aspect of society. Those who are different often suffer from the cruelty of others. Those who want to lead a change will always have to face the malicious words of their neighbors. Only those who are born in power and have control over society can influence it with their uniqueness...."

Sensing the crowd getting more depressed, Osuda stopped and stomped his cane on the ground and a loud classical music reverberated around the hall once again.

"Hahaha! Okay, let us move to the second unfortunate player in our ranking!" Osuda interrupted and said,

"Let me introduce to you the life of our mighty vampire, Vlad Bartholomew!"