Su Heng idled in the Other Space. He had spent an unknown amount of time reading through the whole manual, but luckily, it seemed that post-death, he had no more human bodily needs so he never got tired, sleepy, hungry, or anything else. It was a little boring honestly. His mind did wander sometimes, but it got better once he got to the spatial manipulation chapter. 

 

So now Su Heng was laying in his familiar bed, wrapped in his favorite blanket with the relaxing music playing in the background from his speakers. It seemed that the Other Space could be manipulated to imitate any familiar place from Su Heng’s memories. Of course, it took a bit of finessing, but Su Heng was finally able to properly recreate his apartment from his world. 

 

Sadly, he could not feel temperature at all, so most of the ‘comfort’ and ‘coziness’ he felt came from the familiarity of it all, especially remembering how he loved to laze around under the covers on his weekends off. But sadly, that was few and far in between. Su Heng was too much of a workaholic to laze around. 

 

Which brings to question…

 

“How did I die?” Su Heng spoke out loud, but he was unsure if the disembodied voice and unknown presence was still lingering around. 

 

You died from overworking. 

 

‘Ah…’ Su Heng felt a little embarrassed. It was exactly as he had guessed. Sometimes when he overworks, he forgets to eat and tends to ignore his bodily signals of distress. It actually wasn’t all that surprising that he died in such a way. He just regretted that he never got to finish the novels downloaded on his phone. 

 

Su Heng closed his eyes on the bed. He could feel things on his skin, like the texture of his blanket, but he couldn’t feel anything at all. It was really disorienting sometimes. He also realized he lacked the need to breathe, which was really strange but also a little cool. 

 

It was unknown how long Su Heng laid like that, but after some time, something suddenly disrupted his peace and quiet. 

 

Initializing transfer of data… Connecting Host to System #3435...

 

Su Heng found himself waking up to see the room around him disintegrating, being blown away like ashes in the wind. He looked down at his own body that was also doing the same thing, except he felt no pain. It was strange, but he didn’t really feel scared at all. 

 

Su Heng’s body disappeared. The Other Space had returned to its original blank white environment. However, this time, Su Heng’s consciousness remained. It was really strange, but Su Heng felt like he had become a part of the Other Space, like an omnipresent being. The only thing Su Heng could compare the similarity to is when a person dreams and is wholly aware of everything happening and the surrounding space but also is simultaneously present in those dreams. 

 

...Host connected successfully to System #3435. 

 

From the blank space, a man suddenly manifested from thin air. He was standing upright with a straight back, eyes closed. 

 

As Su Heng observed him from the space, a stream of information suddenly flooded his consciousness. 

 

Xie Jian. Male. 24 years old. Blood type AB. 185cm… It seemed the system had scanned the ‘Host’ and was relaying the information to Su Heng. 

 

Su Heng felt his consciousness watching the man closely from the front.

 

The man’s eyes flew open, startling Su Heng at the amber eyes framed by strong brows and a sharp gaze. 

 

There was only silence between them, but Su Heng almost felt like the man was staring straight back at him, as though he knew that Su Heng was watching. 

 

“Where am I?” The man, named Xie Jian as Su Heng knew, spoke first. His voice was deep and a bit cold. 

 

“Welcome to the Other Space. You’ve died and have been chosen as a Host candidate for the ‘Regret System.’ Do you accept?” Su Heng read the prompt that appeared in his mind. His voice was calm and unhurried. Although it was a little strange playing this ‘system operator’ character, he had long accepted his fate and decided to go with the flow for once. 

 

Xie Jian furrowed his brows in thought. 

 

Su Heng had to admit that the man had an extremely handsome appearance. He looked heroic and strong, even wearing a traditional Chinese hanfu in the color black that accentuated his ink-colored hair and sword brows. 

 

“If I don’t accept?” Xie Jian asked simply. 

 

Su Heng smiled a little. It seemed that the two of them had the same thought. Xie Jian, however, seemed way more suspicious than Su Heng did when he first fell into the Other Space. 

 

“You’ll die.” Su Heng replied honestly. 

 

“I need to go back.” Xie Jian said in a cold manner. There was a hint of frustration in his voice. 

 

“You may return to your world after you complete the missions.” 

 

“Explain.” 

 

Su Heng recalled the manual, smoothly explaining the details in one go. “The ‘Host’ must enter worlds and take over the life of the one person who has extreme regrets. Upon entering the world, you will receive relevant information to complete your task. You must overturn this person’s regrets and fulfill their goals. Once you achieve everything, the world will be marked as ‘complete,’ and the Host will return to the Other Space and be awarded achievement points. The difficulty of each world is randomized, and the points will correspond accordingly. There are items that can be bought in the system store to assist the Host with achieving world completions. I, the System Operator, will be your assistant throughout your journey. Do you have any other questions?”

 

“How long before I can return home?” 

 

“According to my calculations, you should be able to return home in 5 worlds if all are completed.” 

 

Xie Jian’s eyes darkened. “How long do each world take?” 

 

“As long as it takes for the Host to overturn the regrets and fulfill the goals.” 

 

“And if I don’t?”

 

“If you fail overturning the regrets and fulfilling the goals within the person’s lifetime and/or the system deems you making an irreversible decision that will cause failure of the goals, then you will be forcibly removed from the world and lose points. It is possible to go negative in point value. After going into a negative point value, your points will not contribute to your overall point accumulation needed to return home. You may be stuck indefinitely trying to bring your point value to the positives again. However, if the Host wishes to terminate life, I can also crush your soul to end your suffering and use your soul energy to make up the rest of your points. Of course, then you shall cease to exist.” 

 

Su Heng thought that the worst case scenario wasn’t so bad. It’s better than a lifetime of torture for sure. 

 

By the look on Xie Jian’s face, he didn’t seem to agree. His overall demeanor was cold and stiff, and he seemed very impatient, as though he needed to return back to his world for some very important reason. Of course, Su Heng wasn’t privy to this. Only his Host’s basic information had come through. Anything else would take a little coaxing. 

 

“Fine. I don’t have time to waste. Bring me to the first world.” 

 

“Alright, starting the Host transfer process.” 

 

Downloading data…

 

World initializing… 

 

Transferring…

 

Complete!