Title Page: Agent of Darkness
“How much are humans willing to pay in order to survive?”
A strange sound rang in my ear.
I can judge by this voice that the other party should be a girl, but I can’t tell how far away and in what direction it came from.
But my surroundings were dark and I couldn’t see anything.
“who is it?” I asked tentatively.
“My name is Darkness, from a planet three million light years away.”
“An alien?”
“You can think of it this way…”
I watched the surroundings carefully. It was still dark around me and I couldn’t see anything like a camera, so this might not be the prank program I saw on TV.
After all, no audience will stare at a black screen for a long time.
“So, why is the alien lady looking for me?”
“Well, the first thing to explain is that I am not a lady. I am just a collection of the consciousness of all people on our planet. In your case, I can be called Alaya, but I prefer the name of darkness, and then to make sure you are aware first, you are dead.”
“I am dead?”
After hearing this news, I tried to recall what I did today.
As usual, I got up like a puppet, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and then went to work… But this memory was interrupted on the way to work. I can’t remember what happened in the end, it seemed as if I blacked out from drinking.
“If i really died, then I don’t care anymore. I really can’t live such a boring life.”
No family, no relatives, boring work repeated like a robot every day, the only motivation to support me to live is probably because of the hunger that wakes me up every morning, and if i was not afraid of death, I guess I would have chosen to commit suicide long ago .
It seemed to be my wish, to let me die happily, of course only if the guy who calls themself Darkness speaks the truth.
“So I am a soul now?”
“According to your human understanding, this is indeed the state of the soul.”
“Can you tell me how I died?”
“You were hit by an overloaded truck over twenty meters away.”
“It sounds like it hurts.”
“Your soul will deliberately forget this painful feeling, the purpose is to make you feel better in the state of the soul.”
“There is such a function… Then Lady Darkness, what are you going to do with my soul? Is it an inhumane human experiment?”
“Please don’t call me lady! If I said I could bring you back to life, would you be very excited?”
“No… it’s too hard to be born a human, I don’t want to be resurrected as a human. If you can, please resurrect me as a panda.”
“Humans can only become humans if they are resurrected, and I don’t have the powers in your mythology here. But if I told you, you can be resurrected by me without worrying about anything humans have to have to survive, then are you a little bit more excited?”
“maybe……”
“You really don’t have any emotions at all… this will make it hard for me!”
“so what happened?”
“To tell you the truth, our darkness manages the balance of the entire universe, but in order to maintain this balance, we must invest a lot of energy, and for the balance of the universe, we will often use stars as energy sources , but you also know that many of the stars in the universe have living species dependent on them…”
“Sorry, I don’t know. Although the technology is very developed now, we humans have not colonized outside our solar system, but I don’t know very well whether there are aliens or not. I’m just a corporate slave that just died not long ago, So please explain it to me simply and clearly.”
“Well… In fact, we have discovered that human soul fragments can be used as energy, and its magnitude can reach the level of stars, so I hope you can help us collect these soul fragments.”
“…So, I am now a large firewood?”
“I’m sorry, the souls of dead people are worthless. What we need is what living people voluntarily provide us with, fragments of their souls. Of course, as much as they want, the Darkness can provide anything to satisfy their wishes!”
“Ehhhh that is to say, do you want me to act as an intermediary to sell various wishes to those humans in exchange for enough souls?”
“Yes!”
“It feels like a pain…”
“We are essentially different from that kind of creature. We never lie and we don’t hide anything. We really exist just to maintain the existence of the universe.”
(clearly seems to reference being difference from devils who grant wishes in exchange for souls, however I dont see why they made the differentiation as the comparison was not brought up beforehand)
“It feels a bit magnificent…”
“So are you interested in this job?”
“It seems to be more interesting than my previous jobs… but I don’t know what I can get from it?”
“Everything you want.”
“Does it matter if I want you?”
“No problem. For the survival of the universe, what does it matter if I sacrifice one of my consciousnesses?”
“…I’m like a bad guy when you say this.”
“Then the question just now, are you willing to be an agent of Darkness on earth?”
“Let me think a little bit about the reasons for rejection…….. there seems to be no reason to refuse you…”
“does that means you agree?”
“Almost, is there something like a contract? I don’t see one…”
As a corporate slave, I naturally know what happens when I help someone without signing a contract. Although the Darkness seems to be very powerful, so I have no way to sue even if I am owed my salary, so this contract is more like a kind of psychological comfort for me.
“well, yes, please wait a moment… what do you think of this contract?”
A piece of paper suddenly appeared in the dark, with densely detailed and cumbersome entries written in Chinese on it. I glanced through it and found nothing strange, except that is, the remuneration column, it is fuzzy.
“Remuneration is determined by Party B’s wishes…”
“Our Darkness always follows our promises, but if you don’t turn in enough souls within a month, we can unilaterally tear up the contract and cancel all your abilities, and your soul will also imprisoned by us forever in a cage.”
“…Sounds terrifying. The contract is valid for twenty years?”
“As long as you are able to turn in a sufficient amount of souls every month in this 20-year period, you will be free after 20 years, and you will still have the abilities we have given you during that time, don’t worry we will find you again.”
“What if I use these abilities to misbehave on earth?”
“That’s not under our management…” The darkness said faintly.
“So cold-hearted… but then, what if I use my abilities to force those people to turn over their souls?”
“Similar to the situation if you didn’t turn in enough souls.”
“Ehhhhhhhh… It’s so harsh, aren’t you afraid that I won’t sign this contract?”
“Then according to what you humans say, our fate is not enough.”
“Fate… that’s just metaphysics…”
I glanced at the contract again and then asked, “What about a pen? What do you mean about wanting me to sign the contract without giving me a pen?”
Immediately, a pen appeared in my hand. I signed the contract and asked, “Well, what did you say at the start?”
“It can create a mysterious atmosphere… this should be you humans’ favorite routine.”
“Routine… it’s signed then…”
As soon as my voice stopped, I felt a strong sense of suffocation. After taking a breath, I realized that it was not air but water that poured into my nose.
The moment I lifted my head out of the pool, I sat directly on the tile floor. As soon as I stopped suffocating, I felt the bitter cold of the tile on the ground at night.
Hurrying up from the ground, I saw myself in the mirror at first glance.
I should be a girl, a pretty girl with very fair skin, long silver hair, and very standard facial features, so that people can’t see any flaws. The blood-like red eyes are particularly striking.
With such hair color and such eyes, I couldn’t help thinking of the so-called vampire described in the anime I saw in high school.
I opened my mouth and checked my mouth a little, only to see white and tidy teeth that can almost be used in a toothpaste advertisement, and I did not see any long fangs.
The girl’s body is relatively flat, and the height is not very tall, just like a primary school student who has not fully developed, and it is not very in line with my own aesthetics.
The current situation seems to be that the Darkness words have really come true, and I am indeed alive, but the only problem is that I was resurrected and became a girl, a short girl with no expression and a flat chest.
.
Note: I actually just did this novel to prove to another translator that i am proficient enough at reading MTL that i could rewrite novels done with MTL, so that i could in theory do decent MTL translations. So while I may do more chapters overtime as a hobby, its not guaranteed, so if any actual translator wants to pick this up, feel free.
Also, if it’s too hard to read, let me know. i wanted a darker theme but I know it can be a little hard to read