A Superior System Does Not Inflict Pain!

After a few hours of pained groans and retching screams, Du Lang finally made up his mind with great sorrow in his heart. The bed as well as its mattress, bedsheets, blankets, and even the pillows had to be thrown away as they had become permanently contaminated after the discharge of the unknown, filthy black liquid from his body.

The world's strongest commercial cleaner product had failed to scratch a dent against the hardened, crystalized black lumps, and Du Lang was completely unwilling and dreadful of the idea of possibly stuffing the bedsheets into his washing machine.

The risks were far too great; his bed was comfortable and had acquainted him with a few years of relaxation, but the washing machine still held greater monetary value to be carelessly sacrificed.

[Warning. The contaminated surfaces will bring great harm to a normal human's body at the observed concentration.]

The peaceful and serene female voice rang directly in Du Lang's mind as he sipped at a late morning coffee. As he glanced towards the direction in which several workers adorned in yellow uniforms laced with reflective strips surrounded the enormous plastic bag with expressions of mild discomfort and fear plastered on their countenances, he rolled his head.

"There's no problem. The waste management group contracted to this neighborhood directly disposes of any waste collected from the residents, and doesn't transfer items to second-hand retail stores like several other companies," Du Lang sighed with relief.

"Nobody would be affected from it… probably – that's not the right topic. Let me hear again for confirmation; who are you, why are you here, and what is your purpose?"

The final inquiries were fired at a rapid and unforgiving pace, delivered with the powerful and piercing voice that journalists often sputtered towards their targets. Du Lang, with his numerous years of experience coupled with his great talent for scraping out the smallest increment of useful information, had even developed a technique that unified subliminal gestures and mild hypnosis that could wear away at the strongest of minds.

It was greatly unfortunate that the origin of the sweet and calming female voice was not of human origin, or he would not be this desperate.

The inky black sphere hovering besides his head gently pulsated with a violet glimmer, and Du Lang heard the soothing voice once more.

[Answering the questions in sequential order. The first answer: Sibyl, the core of this world. Chronological categorization would refer as the oldest existing sentient entity, created upon the birth of life on the planet. A literary perspective would conclude as a silent observer of all sentient creatures living atop the crust.]

Silent observer? The first sentient being of the earth?

Hearing the statement for the second time in day, Du Lang felt as if the world had fallen apart before his eyes. Ingrained reason and the acquired knowledge from education commanded him to deny the veracity of any of the words tossed directly into his mind, but the inky black sphere was casually defying the laws of physics just a few centimetres from his nose…

[The second answer: The host has been selected amongst other candidates to inherit the Curse Platform. The previous host's life had just terminated, and such a stochastic categorical search was conducted for the next successor.]

[The third answer: There is no purpose with Sibyl's intervention. There are, also, no future purposes.]

Du Lang had just nodded in agreement to the second string of words whispered into his mind, when the sphere had blasted through the final declaration with great haste. Swamped with the abrupt change in intonation, he paused as he gently filtered through the information he had just gleaned.

Well, aside from possessing the talent of investigation, he didn't have any other merits that should be deserving of something possessing such an ominous and powerful title as the Curse Platform, or Sibyl. At the same time…

Previous host? Life just terminated? No future purposes?

…come again?

"How did the previous host… die? When did he die?"

Du Lang's eyebrows tugged until they intimately caressed the top of his nose, and the fingers resting on the porcelain coffee cup lightly trembled. He waited for Sibyl's answer, and felt his heart palpitate when the inky black sphere flickered with violet light.

[The previous host died of natural causes at the age of a hundred and ninety-seven years. The exact date of death was thirteen hours and seventeen minutes before this moment.]

The answer was brutal and cold, perfectly devoid of any human sentiment or respect for the dead. Nevertheless, neither was there any disrespect or disdain for the perished, just cold indifference.

"Thirteen hours and seventeen minutes? That's when I started to fall asleep last night, no?" Du Lang rubbed at his forehead in confusion, before his pupils dilated to their limits.

"He died at a hundred and ninety-seven years old!? How is that possible!?"

[The previous host had cursed himself to possess an extended lifespan, and has experienced two lives. The first legal identity was registered in Great Britain. The second legal identity was registered in Taiwan.]

Cursed himself to possess an extended life?

Du Lang sipped at his coffee whilst trapped in thought, and occasionally tossed an inquiring glance towards the indistinct sphere of light hovering above his head. He felt tempted to continue addressing the instantaneous topic, but knew that to properly convince himself, he needed to access the heart of the information. Thus, he chugged the remainder of the coffee into his system, and as he placed the cup onto the marbled table, revealed a fantastic gleam in his eyes.

"Then, to make matters clear. You are Sibyl, the world's first sentient existence, and silent observer of all existence," Du Lang began with a slow and calm voice.

"You have no purpose save for random chance in appearing before me, and there are no requirements for me to fulfill. Is this correct?"

[Correct.]

"Then what is this Curse Platform? For it to be titled as a platform, that must instantiate that it is not unique, and there are others – similar to a hierarchical sorting tree. What are the others, then?"

[The Curse Platform allows for the host to access the world and influence the spiritual connection amongst living beings. Curses serve as the primary trigger and emphasis. Parallel to the Curse Platform is the Righteous Platform. Additional information is restricted from the host's perusal at this moment.]

"Restricted?" Du Lang raised an eyebrow of suspicion.

"Did you not just state that there were no purposes or conditions that I had to fulfill?"

There was a brief pause as the sphere plummeted into an abrupt silence, losing all radiance and appearing no different from that of a lead ball. Du Lang suffered from a bemusing five minutes of confusion and suspicion before the violet glow re-emerged from within the indistinct sphere. The female voice was indifferent as usual, but he swore to his heart that it had become considerably shy.

[Sibyl lacks the necessary language framework to appropriately translate the content into a language understood by the host. Please allow Sibyl to access a reliable source of information.]

"…aren't you quite capable of conversation right now?"

[Please provide Sibyl with a reliable source of information.]

Du Lang's lips twitched at the repeated reply, but didn't arouse the snappy rebuttal he thought he would have sputtered before. Instead, he deposited the emptied coffee cup into the sink and began to wash it clean, whilst directing his voice towards the stationary sphere.

"How do I provide you such information? Do I read it out loud to you or something?"

[Sibyl only requires to be in close proximity to a reliable source of information.]

Du Lang released a cold breath of air as he quickly discerned the dissatisfied attitude within the monotone voice, and released all intentions of further sarcasm without hesitation. He returned back to the kitchen table and began to think, but couldn't conclude what exactly Sibyl had demanded from him. The key word he was concerned about was 'reliable', for it had been repeated for three times.

But… what exactly was reliable?

A dictionary or published thesaurus?

Dictionaries were good sources for documenting which words existed within a certain language and their specific cadence and tonal structure, but were vastly outdated compared to the linguistics used by modern people. It took considerable effort to update a dictionary, and by the time a new copy was released that accommodated a generation's worth of new definitions, words, and revisions, two generations of language would have occurred.

But then, he couldn't toss it at his computer and tell it to browse the Internet of its free will… a particular Western movie had incorporated that theme, and the story didn't end so well for those who attempted it – supposedly. Du Lang had never personally watched it, so he had no idea on the specifics.

"It's worth a shot…"

There really wasn't anything else he could think of, really.

Du Lang returned to the study with the black sphere trailing behind, and retrieved his computer from a nearby cabinet. After logging in and booting the now somewhat sluggish fossil of modern technology and opening up the glorious motherland of the Baidu search engine, he puckered his lips in mental preparation.

"All I have to do is to bring you to close proximity to a reliable source of information, no?" Du Lang inquired to the hovering sphere.

"What's going to happen next – oh. Oh, that's really nice and convenient."

Before he could complete his original sentence, the sphere that was a physical manifestation of Sibyl extended several threads of silver light from within its body. Their motions resembling that of crawling tentacles, the threads seeped into the computer keyboard and monitor. The pixels on the display quivered for a faint second, and the computer quickly fell into haywire.

Under the fierce but strict control of the black threads, hundreds of browser windows clapped open at breakneck speed, with thick, inky text scrawling across the search bar. As he witnessed the laptop responsible for carrying him across his journey at university gradually burn out under Sibyl's control, Du Lang didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He wanted to stop it somehow before the treasured antique crippled itself and fizzled its last breath, but he didn't know how. At the same time, he wondered whether the employees of his ISP would file a complaint against him for "unsolicited malicious internet consumption", the unpleasant fate a fellow journalist of his had once experienced due to his foes unleashing a vicious hacker onto his private network.

[Host, a source of reliable information has been acquired. It is recommended for the host to obtain a new personal computer to minimize risk.]

A bell's faint ring interrupted Du Lang's unpleasant daydreams, and he rapidly blinked to find himself staring into the vaporous core of an inky black sphere. With his vision partly covered by Sibyl's physical manifestation preventing him from witnessing the remains of his computer, a faint charred and steamy smell wafting into his nose quickly betrayed his intentions.

[Host, during the search, there have been thirty missed calls and ninety-three unread text messages. It is recommended to re-enable network usage settings on your smartphone.]

"O-oh…"

Du Lang had forgotten that in his moment of emotional stress last night, he had turned on the "airplane mode" on his Xiaomi. Now, reminded by Sibyl, he quickly disabled the service to find that true to its word, there were indeed thirty missed calls and ninety-three unread text messages sent by the same person. Only…

…how did Sibyl know?

[Host, during local investigative processes, there has been a perplexing matter of question. Sibyl has once observed human reproduction and confirmed it to adhere with the customary laws of nature. However, why is Host not engaging in acts of physical reproduction but instead observing females on the Internet?]

Cold sweat suddenly dripped from his back. Though there was nobody standing behind him, Du Lang clearly felt the urge to turn around and explain himself.

[Host, since the recorded human calendar year of 2017, the Host has engaged in this virtual reproductive act every Saturday and Sunday, observing females on websites of domains xxxxxxxxx.com, xxxxxxxxxxx.net, and x.info. Sibyl would like to know the specific details to add this information to its archive.]

Just what had he unleashed!?