When will plot have mercy?

And indeed the second Van saw the live news, he stood up, grabbed Timo and ran. Ran for the sake of his dignity and life.

"Fuck, you really came!"

Not leaving a single leaf in front of his mouth, Eric chewed it like a ruminant as he dashed across the city fearing for his life. He... he really pissed Van off big time! While Timo casually followed behind Van chasing Eric.

"You're so childish!"

"Says the childish one wanting to kill me!" Eric really left nothing intact of his angel reputation anymore. How dare this childish Van call him childish? Which mature person would get angry for being called stupid? Wasn't Van childish? Wasn't he? Yes, he was the childish one!

Deadly set on his conviction and believing he was right, Eric zoomed past all these mourning people while Van was like a tiger wanting to pounce on its prey, not letting go. Like those damn players who know they can't kill you but still chase you across the whole damn map without ever changing their targets even though a thousand other players run across just waiting to be killed off by that damn persistent guy chasing you.

Eric rarely played games, but when he did, he only ever had bad experiences plaguing him. and right now he was living it out in real life! Damn Van, don't be such a bad player! Don't let others go and try to report you a hundred times because you fucking suck!

But then while you were being chased by persistent bastards, suddenly the game devs came to life as gods in the game and showed you mercy. No, what they showed you was favouritism, in the most fucked up way you never even wanted! You would've been more content with being killed or chased by that stalker than the unnecessary favour you are shown by the game devs that had nothing to do being in the game themselves!

Yes, what the game devs, aka the gods aka heavens' will aka plot gave Eric was more pain in the butt. Literal pain in the butt about to come. Just as Eric raced through the streets, a car had to come and while Van and Timo followed Eric.... Yeah, the rest didn't even need to be explained anymore!

It was too cliche, too overused and sucked out of its will to live that it had long quit its job as a damn cringy trope being made fun of! Eric was so done. What did he do? No, what should he have done? Yes, he shouldn't have saved Van and Timo!

They were demons anyways, just a little car running into them wouldn't leave a scratch! But there Eric went, his protective instincts and his benevolence showing through his façade of scumminess, prompted Eric to act before he could think.

He turned on his heels as he realised that Van and Timo were about to be hit by this very convenient car appearing out of nowhere on the ghost street and swoosh pushed them both aside with the car barely passing them.

And then the game devs gave Eric even a skill! A highly unnecessary one! No, they coded a cheat! No, they, they, they influenced the NPCs, the players, the... whatever, why do something that had no business in here at all! Yes, just like with Nol, one single action of little goodwill from Eric managed to overrun their character settings and turn them into mindless slaves lusting for Eric.

Well, not so far yet, but Van was so touched by Eric saving him, although Van didn't need to be saved and Eric didn't do it solely out of benevolence like he hypnotised himself into thinking, that Van literally did a 180 and became a fucking coy, tsundere!

"I.. I'll forgive you for pissing me off.''

You what mate? You were the one who pissed off everyone else first by sneaking into the human world illegally! Now you wanna put all the blame on me? You pissed yourself off! Yes, it was because of you that I had to come to the human world and insult you like this! Don't play generous with me! It's my role! Don't leave me jobless!

"Thank you, teacher, I've always known we meant so much to teacher," Timo smiled innocently and Eric just wanted to cough blood.

Off you go cliché character number 234, spit your cheesy lines out and exude your 2D flat charm, no one's minding it. Pop off number 234, pop off.

In the end, with just one single action, Eric managed to turn the favours around and have Van stop being so hostile to him. Prickly became... smoothy. After all his thorns went away, he was now only a hedgehog with baby smooth naked skin.

"Let's go back," Eric massaged his head as Van clung onto him in a very non-obvious way.

Van only scoffed once and hmpfed a second time while saying, "If you say so, but it's not a like I want-"

"Stop," with a dead face and dead voice shot three times in his butt hole, Eric turned around and silenced Van forever to speak these words that should never ever be used again by anyone. Stop overusing lines and character settings! Come up with new ones! But Eric couldn't, he just couldn't bother with it anymore.

Everything around him became a story, and everyone around him became characters, Eric had to examine his whole surroundings. Was teleporting into too many stories that bad for him? Did he start to mix reality with fiction? Oh goodness, it would be horrible if Eric was really living in a story!

All around him fiction, thought out by some damn writer with no skill creating the definition of 2D, cliche and plot holes! Eric couldn't take it! Just the thought of it made him almost explode!

"If it wasn't for teacher, we might have been dead," Timo continued to be... just Timo.

Eric sighed as he opened the door to his apartment. He still had 20 hours left in the human world. He had to properly think through his next steps. The biggest hurdle was overcome. Van and Timo seemed to be obedient and stayed with Eric for now.

His biggest priority was to not let them run away but follow his every step. How convenient it was that Eric could save them and wow, they became his slaves. Cough, his tame students.

"This is your room?" Van sat on his bed and his golden eyes pierced through Eric.

Well, Eric sweated. If Van wasn't such a wannabe emo brat, Eric..., no, Eric already found Van quite attractive. Ok, it was no secret that Van was very handsome. The dark, cold handsome type. Heaven. Stop thinking about this stuff Eric!

"Wait," then a lightbulb went over Van's head, "You don't look like you, teacher. Well, not that I care, I barely look at you. Your face stings."

A thin blood trail ran down the corner of Eric's mouth. So, you saying you barely know how I actually look? You barely look at me? I'm the most handsome-

I was the most handsome person on earth! Thank you very much!

"Glad you noticed it now," Eric went to the fridge and gave them each a bottle of water. Since he was now in this owners's body he might as well live like the owner.

"Because of you coming to the human world without permission, the Demon Lord is quite angry at you."

"Then how did teacher come? Didn't your curse not allow you?"

"There are always ways."

Van smiled at this, "Yes, just like teacher said, there are always ways."

Damn this brat, Eric knew exactly that Van was twisting his words to justify his trespass into the human world!

"Why did you come here in the first place?'' Eric rubbed his temples before he looked Van directly in the eyes, "Is it because of me? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that and leave you like this."

Hearing this Van's handsome yet grim face showed a rarely surprised expression. His golden eyes went round and wide, his beautiful curved mouth opened and his whole face seemed to have softened and made him look slightly cute. Then Van went a notch higher, he showed an ultra super mega rare expression. He... he was actually embarrassed!

"Who would have thought you'd apologise... no, it's not because of that... I was just feeling... I had writer's block, ok? And wasn't feeling well, then you came and pissed me off, even though I just wanted to ask you for help..."

Now, it was Eric's turn to be surprised. So Van could be honest and talk about his feelings without problems.

Wow, open communication. Wow, nice!

Also, Van admitted to his weakness so easily. Eric would've thought Van was the type to be prideful but it seemed like it was only Eric. Timo sat next to Van and encouragingly patted his shoulder. What a great friendship, Eric almost teared up at that sight, but he was s scum, so he didn't in the end.

"I'm sorry," but Eric also knew to admit his mistakes, "I was careless, I should've taken care of you better. I was surprised and it was an accident, I really didn't mean to."

"Then what were you doing?"

"Erm... running away."

"Why?" Van's scrutinizing gaze made Eric feel very uncomfortable. How could he admit that his 'father' and his 'brothers' were literally horny bastards trying to widen his little hole?

"Because no one lets me enjoy some alone time. I just finished stories and it's very exhausting and then everyone comes, invading my privacy..." Eric couldn't continue further but he didn't need to. Van already got the gist of it.

"It must be hard for you teacher.''

Usually, when you say this, you show an expression that shows pity or empathy, but this prickly literally had a dead face, like he couldn't care less! At least try to hide it! This hurts!

"It's ok. Let's just get back to the Demon World safely."

"I still want to destroy- I mean look at some stories here and buy some to take back."

Excuse me, did I hear something about destroy?

Eric stared at Van and Van stared back, while Timo stared at them two staring.

After a good round of staring, Eric understood.

Van gave up on destroying humanity.

Good. They could proceed.

Van wanted to buy books? Eric could recommend him some good ones.

Hehe, the ones he edited, but then again haven't they read all of them? Then... even though Eric didn't want to, he could recommend some of his competitors... he was dead anyways in the human world...

But this trail of thought gave Eric another stu- brilliant idea. If this works out then... two flies with one massive nuclear bomb!