After the confrontation, I wanted to go home, to my studio, anywhere else that wasn't here. Their venomous words cut deep than I'd love to admit.
I was just about to leave the restaurant when Nova spoke.
'I know their words are hurtful host, heck I'm more mad but I'd love for you to take a seat and have something first.'
Nova rarely spoke such words and when he does, I immediately know that he has seen something ahead. I decided to listen to him and take a seat across the room.
The lights were soft and cozy...warm even. This looked ironic, considered the confrontation that just happened minutes ago.
I inhaled deeply, holding myself. Strangely, I didn't feel any fear, grief or anger. I was calm. Way too calm but Nova? He wasn't.
'Host the system has activated emotional monitoring and your emotions are unstable. Therefore, I am Initiating corrective action on your behalf.'
Corrective action is equal to revenge in Nova's language.
I blinked, clearly surprised. I didn't tell him to do anything.
"What are you doing Nova?"
'Nothing much. Just something therapeutic for you host.'
I watched the Jiang family across me devour their meal, only for my father to lift his hand for a bill midway.
Huh? Weird. He never asks for a bill midway.
Nova suddenly hummed.
'Operation Initiate confusion.'
The moment Nova murmured, I saw my father freeze, frowning at the card machine the waiter had given him.
"Excuse me miss...why is your machine asking me for my anniversary date?"
"It isn't sir," the waiter replied.
"Are you calling me a liar?? This thing is asking me very personal questions! Wait, why is it asking me for my grandma's birthday? Oh my goodness! It wants to know whether I love chicken or pork! And...Oh My God!!!"
Mr Jiang panicked loudly that the entire restaurant stopped just to look at him.
Jiang Ning put a hand over her face in shame.
"Dad! Can you not embarrass us? The whole restaurant is watching us!"
"Ningning! You don't understand! IT'S ASKING ME WHAT YOUR MOTHER'S FAVORITE...eer... POSITION IS!"
The waiter looked mortified alongside everyone else in the room. Was this man out of his mind??
'He deserves it host.' Nova's words made me cover my mouth, trying so hard to hide a laugh.
The farce continued for two minutes straight before he snapped out of it, looking so confused and embarrassed. He paid the bill and shamefully instructed Ning and my stepmother to leave.
My dearest stepmother had just lifted her purse when Nova's voice sounded in my voice again.
'System scanning...target acquired.'
Her birkin suddenly meowed, startling everyone.
"Uhm...Mrs Jiang...did your purse...just make a sound?" one of the ladies whispered nearby, her expression carrying an inquisitive look.
"Absolutely not," She replied loudly but the purse meowed even louder, switching to a hiss midway.
"You..."
The hissing then took a sharp turn, as it shrieked like a demon kitten, prompting her to yowl and throw it on the floor.
Everyone around the resturant screamed, as waiters dropped their trays, some even tripping.
My lips twitched violently as I watched everything unfold.
'Relax host. I didn't use any animals. Just some high quality realistic audio loops.'
My stepmother suddenly turned towards my direction and glared hard, as if I was the one who put a demon cat in her birkin.
"YOU! JIANG RUI! It's definitely you! You have brought bad energy into this restaurant!"
"Come on Mrs Jiang, I'm literally just existing. How can a celestial being like me have bad luck like you?" I casually spoke, digging into the food that had just been served.
She didn't bother replying, as Ning took out her phone, intending to call security on the haunted bag.
Nova hummed again, and I knew he was up to no good.
'Hehe...here goes a little lesson on humility. No charges. No need to thank me.'
Ning's phone screen suddenly flickered, and again...and again. And finally, a notification was displayed.
"Facial recognition failed. You are not the owner of this device."
" What???" Jiang Ning exclaimed as she tried again.
"Facial recognition failed. Solution: Get rid of your excess jealousy and try again."
She froze, as I choked on air.
" Nova..."
"Mom! Something is wrong with my phone!like what is this even supposed to mean?!" Typical Jiang Ning snapped at her phone like it owed her months of rent.
She angrily tapped her phone, trying again.
"Facial recognition failed. Beauty displayed is too low to match."
Silence suddenly took over as everyone wondered why her own device would tell her that. Some even wondered why she was reading it out loud.
My father thought for a moment before whispering. "Uh...honey, isn't your phone calling you ugly?"
His words enraged her even more, as she violently threw the phone, causing it to crack all over.
'Hehe host, this family is hilarious!'
At that moment, the manager came rushing, clearly panicked.
"Dear guests, is everything alright? We..."
"Nothing is okay!" My stepmother barked at him.
"My precious birkin has been possessed by a demon kitten!"
"And my phone has been telling me I'm not pretty enough!" Jiang Ning yelled right after her mother.
"The card machine asked me very intimate questions!" Father Jiang finished, completing the madness of the family.
The manager slowly blinked, looking at them as if he was about to book some slots at the rehab.
"Uhh...Are you sure you are all okay?"
"No," I said, my voice dripping with fake kindness. "But we believe they will get there. For now, baby steps."
'I agree host. I estimate three to four business days.'
The family of three ran out of the resturant in a hurry, akin to scared chickens.
I remained seated, my legs crossed, as I slowly sipped my tea.
It felt calm. The air suddenly felt serene. I now get Nova.
'The system detects that the host's emotions are stable. I had to excute a little lesson for them.'
"Nova..."
'Yes host?'
"You really...you...punished them for me."
'Affirmative host. I must destroy anyone who makes you sad or makes you cry.'
'And your stepmother's birkin was a pathetic imitation, it deserved it anyway.'
I laughed really hard for the first time today.
"You are evil Nova."
'Just tell me I'm morally flexible host. Evil is too...broad.'
While everyone welcomed the night, the Jiang's thought that their humiliation was over.
But it wasn't.
Because Nova had only been warming up earlier.
I sat on my bed, my damp hair wrapped in a towel, as I glanced at my phone.
"Nova? You are unusually quiet. What are you doing?"
'I am plotting host.'
"Plotting?What now?"
'Host, I remember how they have mocked you time and again, mocked your business, talent, and even...'
My eyes narrowed at his words.
'That is why I want you to relax host. Let me handle it. Think of this one as operation corporate chaos and pretty pain.'
I blinked slowly, trying to process his words.
"…come again?Operation WHAT Nova?"
But Nova was long gone. Oh my goodness...I couldn't help but mentally light up a candle on their behalf.
Early the next morning, Mr Jiang arrived at the Jiang fashion house, expecting a peaceful day.
Since Jiang Ning had been wrapped in scandals, her father had to take back the President position but he was about to wish he didn't.
The moment he arrived, he found employees gathered around the lobby's screen, whispering.
"Do I pay you all to just stand and whisper???What's happening?" he demanded, his voice leaking with weak authority.
One of the managers turned to him, his face pale.
"President...we think the system has been hacked."
" Hacked? What do you..."
The giant LED screen flashed again, and from it appeared messages of mockery towards him.
There was an employee mental health survey, that showed how pathetically the staff had suffered under their management.
Some of the solutions included teaching him as a father on how to educate his daughter. Her stinking affected the workers.
The solutions set also included an advice for him to take humility classes, and learning to breathe before shouting unnecessarily.
Father Jiang choked as he shouted.
"WHO ON EARTH PUT THIS HERE?!"
All the surrounding employees scattered akin to bugs seeing light, as his 'brave' assistant stepped forward.
"P... president… it's playing on every screen in the company. Some are even displaying..."
"...WHAT?!"
He sprinted upstairs, forgetting the existence of the elevator, only to find the marketing department freaking out, because their screens were displaying Jiang Ning's drunk moments and...not so pleasing videos of her flirting with fellow women.
The screens were glitching from time to time, displaying Ning's projects that lost money, or my stepmother's unnecessary charity events or even why and how the company's budget makes no sense.
He couldn't take it anymore and ordered the power to be shut down.
Meanwhile, in my head, Nova continued marking his to do list, all while humming a gentle song.
'See you later host. Time to visit 'Pretty' miss Jiang Ning.'
After last night's saga, Ning woke up feeling pretty confident, but that lasted only for a couple of seconds.
The moment she opened her front camera, a rattling scream came out of her mouth, scaring the whole house.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The reflection she was seeing was something entirerly different.
Her nose was a bit crooked, her skin looking like it was without any hydration. Her lashes looked like they were missing big chunks and her eyebrows? They looked like she had been in a fight and lost greatly.
Ning tried pinching her face but everything was normal. She sighed in relief before opening her camera again.
Huh?
Her camera view showed her as a gremlin who had barely survived a radioactive disaster.
She pinched her face in panic but it was normal.
She tried her camera again and her forehead looked like it carried cat waste. Upon pinching her face for the third time, it was normal.
"AAAAAAH!!!! WHAT IS HAPPENING?!"
"Who put this filter here?!"
"It's literally ugly mode!"
Her mother walked in, half asleep.
"Ningning, is everything....AAAAH! Why is your reflection ugly?"
" Mom! Help me! You..."
But her mother wasn't listening, she ran out screaming, all the way into an ice bath.
" It's just a hallucination. Yes. Just a hallucination. I have to be sober later." Mrs Jiang muttered to herself, trying so hard to convince herself that she was okay.
Once again, Nova hummed in satisfaction, causing me to smile silly.
'Serves her right! She kept on doubting your beauty. Now her camera is her karma. Hehe...sit tight for more host.'
I burst into silent laughter, but Nova didn't reply, an indication that he was off causing mischief again.
After the morning jump scare, Mrs Jiang was sitted in her beauty room, preparing for her awaited charity branch.
She had decided to live stream her get ready with me, all with an intention of clearing the Jiang's Fashion house reputation bit by bit.
Suddenly, her makeup artist gasped in shock.
"Mrs..madam… Uhhm...you...your eyebrows?"
"What about my eyebrows? Are they popping off more than before? Hmm...must be it."
"...no...They… they look like they have been shaped with a dying marker."
She hurriedly touched her brows but they felt normal.
Huh?
She looked at her screen and her eyes widened in shock. She even forgot she was live streaming.
Her eyebrows looked like two super angry caterpillars, giving her the aura of asymmetrical chaos.
"AAAAAAH!!!"
She shrieked.
"...it's them! The demon kitten has brought its friends and they are now haunting me!"
Meanwhile, her Livestream was popping off, with the comments being the best part.
"Oh my goodness! Grandma just blinked and it looks like she switched languages!"
" Uuuh...is the new trend having eyebrows like punctuation marks?"
"Who is the demon kitten guys?"
She ended the live stream crying, but her day was about to worsen.
The Charity group sent an email notifying her that she was officially removed from the committee.
The group claimed that her eyebrow situation was affecting their beauty reputation, as they didn't want a member walking around with 'Oh my goodness, what is it?! ' eyebrows.
She couldn't take it and passed out.
Through it all, I was just sipping my drink, scrolling through social media, bursting out laughing from time to time because...whew!!
"Nova...you are terrifying."
'Hmm...all I know is that my host deserves the best. Side note, this is actually health care because revenge burns calories.'
I buried my face in my pillow laughing. Nova was really going to be the end of me!
After the camera glitch, the eyebrow incident, and the widespread company humiliation, the three reached a collective conclusion.
They were either haunted or cursed!
My stepmother clutched her prayer beads tightly, my sister refused to touch her phone and my father could barely sleep.
So naturally, they did what any haunted person would do. They hired a taoist priest.
Perhaps they feared not getting rid of their problem, because they hired the expensive kind.
Too bad they got a fake...
The taoist priest arrived in refined robes, stepping into the mansion as if he already had the solution.
"Ohh...I see." He started dramatically, catching the attention of the family of three.
"I sense," he added in the same dramatic tone. "a malevolent spirit."
He wasn't entirely wrong. But the spirit named Nova was haunting from my brain instead.
I was busy exfoliating when Nova suddenly pinged.
'Host, the Jiang family has hired a taoist priest. Just to let you know, I will be steering his sensory perception.'
"…What on earth?"
'Don't worry host. Just take it as...digital..eer...spiritual pranking.'
"Nova! No..."
But Nova was already gone.