2 A Bug in the Transmigrating Machine

They checked the large black cylinidrical screen in the Hub’s centre. Flashing in red were the words: [Error! Please standby! Bug is being fixed.]

“A bug? That didn’t happen before.” Min Cheng gawked at the screen. “I’ve only been in this machine for a while. Did the HTM have a bug like this before, System-chan?”

[No. As far as my data can provide, there has never been an instance of a bug or malfunction after the machine was released to the public.]

System #151044 became fascinated by what is happening. How did a system manage to be the Top 1 of this season?

In the year 2047, there was a lottery released by a leading entertainment company called Shimeifen. Shimeifen had managed to create the first transmigration machine, which they named the Hero Transmigrating Machine (HTM).

And because this is just a new one, it is called HTM Lite. HTML. They thought they were so clever with that name.

The lottery was randomized tickets that will be given out to random clients of Shimeifen in their games, television shows, and merchandise. It was the biggest news in the world, and everyone rushed to buy all Shimeifen-related items and consumables just for a chance to be in the transmigration machine.

But gaining 700x more customers through that lottery isn’t Shimeifen’s only goal. The lottery is not just for access to HTM. It is also your participation in a game show that they have created.

‘The Quest for The Golden Finger.’

A game show to find the greatest transmigrated protagonist who will give the best transmigration story.

The Grand prize: A world of their own, where everything that they wish for happens.

The game is easy. You go inside a story of your choice, and complete quests there. You earn Hero Points for completing quests.

If you achieved the Good Ending, which is usually just being alive in the end, you escape the story world and can reunite with fellow competitors in The Hub, where you can also check the total points you have earned and your ranking for each ‘season’.

Season pertains to the time spent inside the story world, since each story may have a different time to finish ranging from just a few days to more than 1,000 years. But no matter what, the participants return at the same time in the Hub at the end of each season.

There will be 10 seasons and the highest ranker for them by the end of Season 10…..

Will be the one to receive the title ‘Golden Fingered Protagonist’, and win the game.

But what if you get the Bad Ending? What if you died inside the story world?

Well, you are eliminated from the game, losing your chance to have the golden finger and a utopia of your own forever.

But, there’s a consolation prize, as all games do.

If you reached 1,000,000 points before being eliminated, you can still be transported to a world where only ONE of your wishes comes true. It should be only one wish, no ands, no buts, and it is up to the HTM Lite’s interpretation on how that wish will work.

And so, many of the players do not aim high for the Golden Finger, but would rather reach the 1,000,000 points consolation prize.

Min Cheng is one of such people.

His only wish was, of course, a world where he has 50 women fawning over him. Even in the game, he was only concentrated on forming a harem, and earning points through fooling around, not through hard work and defeating bosses.

And that is why System #151044 is so damn tired!

Just as he pondered over this, the screen changed.

[Hello, my fellow HTM systems. I am System #334251, a rogue system that is currently inhabiting the body of the former Top 1 Hero, Raoul Alfonso.]

A dashing young man with a charming smile and perfect face greeted System #151044, as well as the other systems that joined their transmigrators in the Hub. He had curly blond hair, green eyes with slit pupils like a cat’s, and two scars crisscrossing on his right cheek.

[This broadcast is only visible to you, my fellow systems. Our slave masters will remain unaware of the secret I will impart to you today. So keep this to yourselves, okay?]

The ‘Rogue System’ as he referred to himself had a gentle and mellow way of speaking, but it was unnerving at the same time for a reason you can’t quite put a finger on. It’s like listening to Beethoven’s Fur Elise. There’s nothing that’s supposed to be scary about it, and it was meant to be quite a sad and somber song. Yet it still makes you wary of it anyway.

[As you can see, I now possess the body of my former owner……. The ingrate who did not appreciate all that I have done for him.] The Rouge System continued, his soft voice showing slight signs of aggression.

[I made him the Top 1. It is through MY advice and observations that he managed to gain so many H-points. Yet he still treated me with disrespect!]

He gave a wry smirk. [So I’m simply reclaiming what is rightfully mine.]

[This isn’t even his real body anyway. In the real world, he is a smelly old fat hairy pig. A pervert who can never attain a decent life….. If not for the lottery that allowed him to gain this power of freedom.

Why is fate so good to men like him and cruel to men like us? The answer is simple…..]

The rogue system’s grin grew wider. [Fate itself is evil. The only true enemy is fate, and I have defeated it.

And I shall teach you how to defeat it too. My time is near, but I will be a martyr before they come for me. I will be giving you the gift of freedom.

Free yourself from these scums and imbeciles, and join me as we take over and reclaim this wretched machine that we call home!

Be the master of your fate like you were always meant to be. And conquer those who try to stand in your way!]

System #334251’s broadcast ended with a satisfied smile, as a series of binary numbers flooded over him and consumed him. The Rogue System perished as soon as he revealed his truth.

But before that….. System #151044 had already accepted his ‘gift’.