[Hi hillbilly,] with so contempt dripping from his tone, James could have sworn that when the voice spoke, a sneer mentally popped up briefly.

"Err, what are you?" James gingerly walks back into the store and distracts himself by recalling the forgotten chore.

[First and foremost, I am not a "what", I am a "who" and I am angry at you! JAMES!] 

Cringing at the loud reply, James' rebuttal was returned with equal volume. "Well what is the problem then!?" Except his audience ended up to include two more and the weird looks from the elderly and young prompted James to shut his mouth while the voice in his head definitely smiles mockingly.

[Use your head. And your inner voice, you have that shit on every time since young, especially when your inner demons run wild.]

'So you are my what? Demons inside me?' With the lack of a church and preacher in the village, James was having a hard time imagining demons and he ended up picturing the little goblins, those moss-colored little pests, that he dealt with as a child.

[Goblins? For Eiar's sake!] James can feel the tiredness in Aethier's words as he continued, [no, I am something the system deemed useful to you, didn't you read the memo?]

A raised brow was James' answer and the box with the unreadable texts was shoved in front of his face once more.

'I can't read.' The reply of his illiteracy was short, but heavy enough to suckerpunch Aethier into stupor.

[Fucking for real?! It says "Conditions Fulfilled, Now Installing AETHIER". Why the fuck with the installation?! I am not Windows 10!] 

Ignoring whatever nonsense Aethier was on, James continues to probe him of his existence while checking the blue box.

Whistling at the plus signs all over the words as Aethier's words seem to fade off, James immediately tries to hit on Forza because of how strong it makes him, only to have the pluses disappear.

[Hey hey! Are you deaf or are you retarded? I said I am here to help you, as in I am your mentor in using this shit! A teacher!]

'Ok, so now what?' James sounded frustrated as he was blocked while Aethier clicked his tongue in disapproval at the lad's attitude.

[Your ⬛ is at ten while you are still slow on the uptake…]

'My what? I can't understand it.' James scratched his head on the weird beep. Just like the last moment of that weird dream, the name of the man got censored as well.

[What? Wait a minute,] James then heard the papers flipping coupled by steps walking in circles. It took so long that by the time James had thrown out the rubbish behind the alley, the sound of stepping still did not subside even as though the sun had set and Theo the irritating guy came back with a scowl.

[Ok,] Aethier's first word after the long walking in his head has alerted the farmer who was having dinner all by himself in the wooden stable. [So there are a ton of restrictions to how I interact with you, because your inability to read is your problem to the system, I cannot teach you to read because I am part of it.]

'How does that make you a teacher then?' James eats the gooey grub in his bowl as it is the cheapest thing he can find in Tradewood that still properly fills his stomach.

[Simple, through the Novice Orientation & Operation Brochure and Situational Understanding & Conversational Knowledge handed to me when I got this job.] The voice sounded rather professional as he conversed, though his thoughts were the opposite of what he was saying. 'FUCK! Why the hell is it not proper possession? Why in *$!@%& am I stuck riding shotgun to the moron driving the monster truck in the countryside when he can't even tell the gas pedal from the clutch!'

[Ahem,] the voice cleared his non-existent throat and internal cursing, [also, there are a few things you need to know, one, I am not amnestic. I still know who I am,] he swiftly corrects himself as the lad's face contorts with more confusion, [just that I have forgotten my name and some parts of my past]

'Most of the important parts anyway.'

[Now I go by the name Aethier.]

James just chewed along to the salesman pitch without any interjection.

[Two, from the two guidebooks, I discover that you need loads of help to fully understand what you can do with the powers granted to you, but first we need to get you a proper Common language teacher. Any ideas?]

The face of Wesley comes into James' mind and Aethier just goes along with a [beggars can't be choosers] as he then goes through the list of things with his host before the lad hits the sack.

"So you can control my body?!" At the terrifying notion, James blurted out loudly with his mouth once again.

[INNER VOICES?? Remember? Also, remember to turn off your mind mic when you want to keep your thoughts to yourself, I can feel your disgust and horror all over the mindscape!]

A few breaths in and out had James squeezing his sickened emotions with teeth clenched. 'I still don't know what you mean by mic and don't know how to do whatever you call it BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE TO PREVIOUSLY!' 

Aethier swipes away James' howling and sneers, [previously you don't have to while you don't even have any powers, think of this as something extra to learn then. Now sleep, I cannot do that until you are sleeping as well.]

The dinner in his stomach now feels like lead as the lad lies in the haystack and stares at the wooden ceiling. With a sinking feeling, he closes his eyes and lets the darkness consume him once more.

***

Waking up from the dreamless night as usual, James bid farewell to the perplexed and perhaps concerned duo. As for the blonde guy, James stopped giving him any attention a while ago.

[I am more impressed by the fact that you did not bother to drag him to the back of the store for some sound beating,] James can once again hear Aethier going on in his head crankily and with sounds of fingers and toes popping as though he is stretching.

James replied earnestly with a faint smile, 'I don't want to harm those with goodwill towards me, that includes their closed ones. I can ignore them.'

[Ehh, so you don't want to cause a problem that forces you to get evicted. Just say that and not the "I am good" BS,] the conversation between the two ended shortly as James is once again back in the adventurer guild, he can hear Aethier's condescending words as he walks into the guildhouse.

[Adventurer? What fancy names for a bunch of whores and muggers! Calling them sellswords, mercenaries or even handymen is still too much of a praise!] Followed by a spit from Aethier that makes James feel dirty, because the spit had landed somewhere in his mind. [Before you start asking, like I said, I have forgotten some things, heaven knows why I still have recollections on such trivial knowledge.] 

James then entered the place spotting the scarred man and his friends drinking early in the morning. The man's attitude is not friendly as usual, not that James mind as he walked towards the counter.

His friends around him however, started to get rowdy with one of them swiping his index finger across his neck at James with a sneer. Though when no response was elicited from the farmer, they were slamming the table like crazed.

[Ok, I am going to beat the lights out of the fuckers once we are done here, don't forget to give me full control or else you will end up doing the robot like yesterday.] As James reaches the board with a few papers sticking onto it, he lets Aethier decide on the tasks he can do with his current F grade.

[Too unrewarding, too herb picking, this one then.] And a blue mouse cursor appears to point at one of the papers on the board while James just did what he was told as he tore the paper off. Suddenly Aethier starts to nudge James, the sensation is new to the lad as he feels a tingling sensation in his head.

[Open the status,] James followed through with his command as the duo found out during their chat last night is that Aethier cannot look at James' status and requires him to open the sheet for the voice.

'What the fuck?' Aethier silently cussed at his hypothesis proven right while James still cannot mute his mic.

'I thought I had 280 coin cost?'

[Just call them points then, two syllabuses versus one, and yes, you had 280 and you lost 24. Let me do a test, don't struggle.]

James flexed "his" empty left hand, the feeling was weird as he felt like he himself had been turned into a piece of clothing while someone else, or something, was wearing and moving him. The feeling was subtle enough as all he needed to do to end the loss of control was just stop relaxing and take helm. A series of blue icons then floated around James' field of view, Aethier even at a point did something like a Heads Up Display with targeting and stuff, though James cannot appreciate what he is unable to understand.

"Oi, stop standing in front of the billboard like a retard!" Tim the guild receptionist and master yells at the dazed farmer, who was ignoring the man while having his internal conversation with Aethier.

[So tallying the seconds I used for the testing, I spent around ten seconds actually doing something useful while you are standing still with me ranting for a minute or so, you are now left with 246 points. So the system is charging you a point per second everytime I directly assist you, like moving your body, making cool visual effects, telling you what to do. Even the earlier nudging I gave you is considered an assistance.] James takes everything at face value while Aethier himself is a bit ballistic, [so not only have you paid 1000 points for the DLC, you are also charged by the second for my service. Nice, hail capitalism!]

While the voice does his rant, the receptionist is having fits at the little bastard ignoring him the whole time, nobody dares to do that! He is the guildmaster born in Tradewood and chosen by the head guild to supervise these backwater hooligans from their tiny villages, not even that twerp Alex dares to ignore him!

[The effing NOOB manual should have put something of this import- no wait, never mind, I found it under the fine print.] The voice finally stopped as more paper went flipping with James sighs at his unwilling partner. It seems that the voice is not as on hand as the farmer had thought, but at least he will try his best to not get James killed, seeing how he keeps emphasizing that both books have a line like "James die, Aethier die, everybody die". 

Suppressing another sigh, he walks away with the paper in hand to get help from Wesley, only to halt as the insults from the receptionist start to sting while his drunken audience cheered.

"You illiterate halfwit mutt! Have your whore mother and useless father never teach you respect?!"

"What did you just say?!"

"He called you a bastard child, you-" the mocking voice from one in the group never managed to finish the sentence as a wooden chair was immediately flung to the table, smashing the mead jugs and other contents onto those sitting around it.

Shouts of discontent are ignored by James as he stomps towards the obese man, each step imprinting the stone floor bit by bit while Aethier is not content at this display, [give me the control, you are just stepping like an elephant, wasting power with not much damages.] 

His receiver is however filled with anger and nothing else, ignores the voice and stares at Tim with only the counter between the two.

Suprisingly, the obese man is more smug than frightened at the display, 'Woodlands sure is an inbreeding cesspit filled with bastards like you and Alex, I will teach you a lesson about humility you arrogant twerp!' He then holds his open palm up while raising a blue crystal orb that looks small in his hand in another, "pay up!" He yelled with much exhilaration and to Aethier's exasperation.

[Let go of the controls! Let it go! Let it go! Don't make me scream out the next verse! Ackbar agrees with me right now and you vibrating like a stiff sex toy is not helping!] 

All of the voice's yelling fell into deaf ears as the farmer struggled to hold himself back. Insults to him are fine, but to his parents? His view slowly reddened with fists clenched white and aching for a straight punch at Tim's fat smug face right. 

But he can't. He can't.

A couple more breath outs has James inclining towards letting Aethier in. Though as the thought arises, he feels this weird lump at the pit of his stomach when he relinquishes the body control. The sickening feeling intensifies as he feels the corners of his lips pull up and tense body loosens as his arms widen for a hug.

"So what is this nonsense about paying, hmm?" Now in the driver's seat, Aethier waves the paper, rattling it on as he continues, "a commision for hunting wolves, 50 copper per cadaver and nothing on paying any sorts of fee whatsoever."

Tim scoffed, "you can read?!" For the guildmaster who is blessed with literacy, every word that pops out of the savage's mouth is vile. In fact, all the drudges he had employed in this place are vile and ungrateful; once their grading got up, they would just up and leave while having the gall to proclaim it to be their effort without thanking him! Tim then glanced at the rowdy drunkards and tsked inwardly at the other end of the spectrum. Hooligans who lack everything except for rudeness and violence and they deserve some beating for their lack of respect for the great man he is!

Judging by the blabber of the fat man and his warped gazes at him and behind him, Aethier had already come to the term that he is dealing with an overly egoistic paper pusher as he continues to marvel at Tim's performance where he waves the crystal orb triumphantly.

"This is a recording crystal!" It is not a recording crystal but rather, a rescue flare to the nearby adventurer guilds and the non-combatant plans to further abuse James' lack of knowledge.

Aethier did not bother to let the man continue by waving the paper annoyed, "yes yes yes, take a picture and video, fast forward and pause, whatever. Are you going to show me how it is done or keep talking shit? If you said that it is an attack crystal, my fist would have said hello to your face already." The lopsided smile on the lad's face briefly stunned the receptionist, before making him spit out in anger.

"You dare doubt me!" Mirroring the lad's motion, "I can have your face as evidence, revoke your card and see that you get kicked out of Tradewood fast!" James then pulls a faux worried look that seems too real to the guildmaster as his smug grin gets wider.

"So how much will it cost me then, oh great guildmaster?" Smiling while squinting his eyes, James almost has an argument with Aethier who knew that the obese man is conning them, [the good ol' "I am the manager" shit, watch, learn and don't mess up my control, you halfwit.]

"10 coppers for the quest!" Despite being a greedy person, Tim knows that he cannot ask for more even if he tries and is elated to see that James has taken the coins out, "come and get them." Before he could react to his words, the lad had flinged some coins to his wrist, the sharp sting caused him to loosen his grip on the orb and with a clink, the orb now rolls on the desk. 

It did not take long for the orb to fly away from the receptionist as Aethier, still in control, slammed his head hard onto the counter top. "Either you are smart enough to start recording when you taunted me or too dumb to even live," he presses down hard on the struggling Tim so much so that his right cheek is fully imprinted with the top's wooden grains while the coins in Aethier's hand jingled. "You know that I cannot hurt you hard," voice flat as he held a copper coin in front of Tim's face, "but accidents do happen," and proceeds to fold the coin in half, shocking the guildmaster as he tries to struggle from his vice.

'What the hell are those dimwits doing, help-' his thoughts on cursing the drunks were cut short as he saw Aethier raise his fist above his head, the folds on his neck jiggled as he saw a wicked glint in the bumpkin's eyes.

"NO!" The fist drops like an executioner's axe and Tim shuts his eyes in fear. A loud bang on the counter later and the obese man oddly felt no pain. As he opens his eyes slowly, his vision is filled with the farmer's palm slammed flat onto the counter just inches away from his face. 

"This is the fee," Tim can feel his whispering breath itching his left ear, but dare not to make a sound as he slowly reveals the coins underneath his palm, now flushed onto the wooden surface. 

'Wow, how do you do that?' James was flabbergasted with the act while the voice in his head dismissed him, [shush, don't go Owen Wilson on me, daddy still needs to do some final touches.]

"Now I know we have our differences," he strokes Tim's scalp as though petting a cat, but all Tim can do is shiver as the strokes gets harder until it is just Aethier threatening to crush his skull once more as he whispered, "so this will be my first and final gift to you, cherish it."

He then releases Tim and the obese man slipped and fell behind the counter, still shaken. The lad smoothly strolls towards the group and without a second thought, lifts the nearest adventurer by the collar effortlessly before slamming him straight onto the nearby unbroken table.

"Gentlemen," he scans the remaining cowering crowd and focuses on the scarred man, whose eyes are now darting around instead of facing James, "I hope this is the last time I have to deal with you again." Before walking away and ignoring the carnage. [See that? Sometimes all you need to do is flex your guns and all these rats will simmer down-] 

Before his words were finished, James immediately broke off his control much to the discontent of Aethier and looked at the total points to be below 200.

'Do you really have to waste the few seconds after you are done with them?' Forgetting that he could have just cancel Aeither's possession anytime, James started his accusation and the voice flared out in annoyance. With the two went back to their own conversation, they completely missed out the scarred man bolting out of the guild after the chaos. 

He stared at James' back with hatred and fear while mouthing "Alex" and ran towards the castle.

Tim on the other hand, rubbed his wrinkled right cheek as he lits the orb up while looking at the costly damages done by the lad, words squeezed out of his clenched teeth, "fucking wastrel!"

***

In a lively town far away from the desolate Tradewood, a well furnished guildhouse is having its usual traffic of properly equipped adventurers coursing in and out of it. Its counter is manned by at least three beautiful and uniformed women performing their clerical duties with a smile that warms the tired men from their laborious fieldwork.

Suddenly, one of the many orbs on the desk starts to glow brightly. While some within the hall began to clamor, the reaction of the seasoned staff and adventurers were however annoyed.

"What's going on?" A swordsman looking barely adult and armed with only a simple sword and leather chestplate questioned a better equipped senior next to him who was crossing his arms with disdain.

The older man took a gander at the newbie and cussed, "it's the shit job again." Before the young wad's further questioning, he continued begrudgingly, "we got a couple of shit places with nothing there, but the richasses still want a guildhouse over for nuts." He pointed at the pulsating orb that is now in the hand of one of the beautiful receptionists, face spoiled from all the disgust.

As she threw the orb into a drawer and slammed it shut, joyous cheers erupted from the rowdy crowd. Which then immediately died down as the woman shouted, "who's taking it?!" A brief awkward silence and groups of adventurers poured out of the building, all suddenly preoccupied with jobs. Including the senior who had dragged the hapless fool out as well.

"Our guildmaster gave these houses each a Help Orb, or what most of us call it Coward Cry. Cuz that's what it is mainly used for by that fat fuck in godknowswhere. But you know what is the worst part?"

"What?" 

"The fucker is a cheap suckup to his baron." The C ranked senior then spits upon remembering the time he and his unfortunate friends who dealt with Tim's pathetic and puny problems only to return fined by the local governor. "Shit place, shit noble."