The first thing Fei Chuan asked upon reaching the Prelude was, "Did [They] notice us?"
The system, back in its comet shape, had already begun its procedure of whirring, flashing, beeping. It visibly paused, hesitating on what was probably a small glitch before clearing it and proceeding. After another few minutes, the system gave its diagnosis. "No. Field is clear."
Fei Chuan did not feel confident in that pause, but decided to continue trusting the system. They already came this far. "Alright. To the next world."
"Affirmative. World 51: Insurrection of the Lich. Begin."
******
Fei Chuan woke up in a lab tank. He was submerged in a strange and viscous fluid. A preservative, it seemed, judging by the consistency and taste, but not formaldehyde, or he would not be alive. There was a steady beeping in the background, as well was what could be voices or a trick of the mind, but the liquid encasement made it sound infinitely far away.
At this moment, the sound of breaking glass shattered the monotony of the beeps, and Fei Chuan's tank exploded outward in a hiss of steam. The liquid, dense as it was, evaporated at the first hint of air, and Fei Chuan was left with only his dried body and a sagging black robe. Suddenly, the chatter of bones and gnashing teeth made its presence known, as well has the hisses and crackles from the fumbling monsters in front of him as they all tried to kneel.
"--the lord!"
"It's the lord!"
"All hail the Malich!"
Fei Chuan looked down at his hands, and unfleshed phalanges wiggled merrily back at him, pale and distinctly bony underneath the laboratory light.
At this point, Fei Chuan believed himself to be beyond the range of the run of the mill surprises. And he was. Absolutely. Beyond the range of normal surprises, so.
HOW THE FUCK DOES AN ANIMATED SKELETON EVEN WORK.
"Magic!" offered the sole human in the room cheerfully, for all that his glasses were askew. Fei Chuan glared at him, but a sudden heat brought attention to the ring on his bony finger.
A screen opened up, showing a simple status that he'd seen in the past life, moments after Fucheng was born.
[Gentle Factor: pleasing temperament.
Side Effects: increased trustworthiness in the public eye.
Target: 30m radius Level: 50 (Max)]
Then the screen flickered, and the information updated itself.
[Death Factor: absence of life
Effects: Host is not a living entity / kiss of death
Target: Host / By choice
?Level,:: --O-f-f (----------)]
And so these days the display screens looked like they'd been thrown into a blender. "What the hell is this? Did you mess up somewhere?"
"A good status." assured the ring, with the slightest flavor of acerbity. Fei Chuan felt a surge of hope for all of a second, before he realized that the system was not emoting so much as filtering the main soul's passive aggressive feedback.
Fei Chuan turned towards the sole human in the room. "You're still not complete?"
"And deprive you the pleasure of my company?" asked the human scientist cheerfully, like the two-faced snake he was. "No, of course not. If you thought it'd be that easy you're seriously overestimating yourself."
"'I'll be done in fifty,'" Fei Chuan mocked. "What, you have performance issues?"
The man dropped his bland, affable exterior and smirked dangerously. "There's only one way to find out, isn't there?"
The tension in the room was slowly building, but rather than genuine anger it was charged with something a bit more sly, a bit more curious.
"Lord is displeased?" garbled a lesser skeleton, dutifully reminding Fei Chuan that there was still an audience present. "Shall servant slit human throat?" Despite not understanding a single word of that garble, the scientist's hands flew to protect his vulnerable neck.
Fei Chuan waved it off. "No need." The skeleton somehow looked genuinely distraught at the rejection. Stealthily, Fei Chuan pulled up information from the system. "You can help me with another task. What has happened recently in the world?"
This time, a stumpy shrub demon waved its crinkling arms and chirped. "Many things! The lord has returned!"
In the next second, the skeleton from before roared in raspy rage and smashed the branches into the ground. The rest of the monsters, uncaring of the blatant homicide? phytocide? teracide??, started cheering as one.
"All hail the Lich! All hail Malice! All hail Lord Malich!"
"I hope you know," started the scientist, "that I cannot understand anything that they're saying and this is the most fascinating thing. Are we in a comedy?"
Fei Chuan would think so, but something about his past experiences and the unsettling glints in the monsters' eyes told him that it wasn't so simple.
******
The system information was simple, if sparse. In a world of magic, those who turn to the dark arts gradually lose their life force, and vile magicks will take its place. The [Protagonist] was a young witch who dreamed of deposing of the Malich of the Western Desert and freeing the Western Continent from its tyranny.
Except, for some reason, she ended up fighting another final boss, the [Villain]: a half-man half-skeleton boy who didn't know anything more than brutal cruelty.
Despite the scarcity of useful information, Fei Chuan didn't need a hint to know who the half-skeletal child in floating in the life-tank was. The glass had the effect of reflecting his own skull, and Fei Chuan absently noted the green fire burning viciously in one of his eyes. It mirrored the dim blue light floating in the empty socket of his, well, his progeny.
A test-tube baby, for fuck's sake. Fucheng, I swear I had nothing to do with this. It's the fault of the maniac next to me.
"Woah, I did this under duress!" protested Doctor Gumbai, as he preferred to be called, hands raised in the air. "Your little subjects dragged me here to resurrect you! The first, er, result just happened to end up being a child born from your magic signature."
"The intended result," Fei Chuan commented darkly, or tried to, but the rattle of wind against bone just made it sound bizarre. He recalls the strange status message. "I'm guessing I shouldn't have woken up at all, right?"
Gumbai smiled, his glasses reflecting off the light. "This wouldn't be the first world you slept through, no. But alas, the thought of a son without his father pained my heart too much. I had to do something."
Fei Chuan didn't blink, but his reflected eyes had their flames go out for all of a second. "Hm."
"No offense, but that's creepy."
"Is your mouth ever going to do anything useful?"
YOU ARE READING
A Dog Father Cannot Beget a Dragon Son
General FictionFei Chuan was bound to a system upon death and tasked with raising a [Villain] from small to big in one world, then the next, then the next. Over the hundreds of years, the brutal experiences he was forced to make the [Villain] go through gradually...
