I Got My Cheat Skill by Acting My Way into a Horror Protagonist Role Chapter 1

Xiao Gui'an was a D-list actor.

He died.

But not completely.

He came back to life.

But not completely.

So now he was something neither human nor ghost.

Of course, this wasn't his own description.

It was what the system that made him become a ghost NPC said.

Sitting cross-legged in the system space, Xiao Gui'an was reviewing his life.

In this lifetime, he didn't have any grand ambitions.

No worries about food or clothing, reading novels, playing games, working eight hours a day, being an ordinary actor, occasionally stepping into the public eye—he was quite content.

Just look at his name to understand.

"Returning still a youth, safely passing through life"—this was his life motto.

But heaven wanted to destroy him, so he had no choice but to be destroyed!

Thinking he was only 27 years old, with plenty of good times ahead to enjoy, and yet his life ended just like that.

Why?

His heart twitched, he couldn't catch his breath, and then he was gone.

Heart paralysis?!

Xiao Gui'an really wanted to curse.

This wasn't scientific.

He was truly someone who lived a regular lifestyle, no joking about that.

As a contemporary laid-back, fun-seeking young man with handsome, refined looks, the reason Xiao Gui'an never became famous was precisely because he truly didn't compete or fight for opportunities, content to remain on the sidelines.

As long as he wasn working with time differences, he slept before 12 every night and got up early in the morning for some outdoor exercise.

Red dates with goji berries, hot water with brown sugar—whatever was healthful, he drank it. He was aiming to live past the male average lifespan!

But then he encountered terrible teammates while gaming, not only lost the game, but only wanted to win "just one more" game, and never got the chance.

『Please don't be overly discouraged, host, your corpse is still warm!』

Xiao Gui'an sighed slightly: System, if you don't know how to comfort people, then don't bother.

『Alright, host, now let me give you a proper self-introduction!』

The little light sphere shook and shouted what was probably its self-created slogan.

『Since you've sincerely asked—』

『I'll generously tell you~~』

『To prevent unnecessary sacrifices』

『For the peace of the horror worlds』

『The game that runs through death and suffering』

『The hardworking, dedicated NPC roles』

『Me, the strongest horror world auxiliary system』

『You, the master of patching up deficiencies』

『We are the chosen workers dedicated to filling job vacancies, following the laws of the great universe, maintaining the stability of multiple worlds!』

『Model workers, the tomorrow of labor awaits us!』

"Just like this, meow—"

After unconsciously adding the final line, Xiao Gui'an covered his face in agony upon realizing what he'd done.

He was finished, he had fallen.

The little light sphere didn't expect Xiao Gui'an to be so cooperative.

It gave him an extremely approving look.

System: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)✧

Don't ask how Xiao Gui'an could see expressions on a smooth spherical face.

This could only be understood, not explained.

『What we need to do has already been roughly stated in the slogan!』

『We need you to travel to various horror worlds to play NPCs! Fill job vacancies, compensate for missing important supporting roles, maintain stable world operation by protecting certain key nodes...』

『Of course, the most important thing is that as long as you do your job well, you won't have to die. You can also hone your acting skills, then get promoted with raises, become general manager...

Ah, no, I mean becoming a big shot in the entertainment industry is just around the corner, marrying a beautiful rich woman, reaching the peak of life—』

『We all have a bright future~』

Even Xiao Gui'an, who only wanted an ordinary little life and considered himself just a lazy person, felt his blood boiling from this speech.

Thinking back, who wasn't an ambitious young man once?

It's just that gradually worn down by life, he had no choice but to accept mediocrity.

As for the horror games, horror supernatural worlds the system mentioned, he had read some novels of related genres.

When ordinary people entered those worlds, facing those ghostly beings, they basically had no means to fight back, getting beaten until they cried for their parents.

But now he didn't have this worry.

Because his identity was as an NPC inside, on the side responsible for scaring people.

He naturally had the advantage, not only could he practice acting, but he could also increase his lifespan.

It was killing two birds with one stone.

Xiao Gui'an felt that heaven was still looking out for him.

No one would know that he was actually a double agent wearing human skin.

Hahahaha!

Surely in horror-transformed worlds, ghosts, supernatural beings and the like wouldn't need to worry about their own ghostly safety, right?

How could that be?

Wouldn't that be too pathetic?

Xiao Gui'an immediately agreed.

As the saying goes, since you're here, and since you're already dead.

This wasn't just for himself, but also to provide security for his fellow countrymen who accidentally entered ghost worlds.

Don't worry, although I've become a ghost, my heart is with the people!

『Great! Please first sign this labor contract!』

Xiao Gui'an read it carefully and found this contract extremely humane, practically taking care of his rights and feelings in every aspect.

Just as he was happily preparing to sign, he suddenly noticed a line of shrunken text among the normal font.

"The ghostly safety of NPC employees during role-playing shall be their own responsibility, the system party assumes no responsibility."

"If suffering fatal attacks, please call the funeral hotline: 54321."

Xiao Gui'an: ???

He pointed at the text in the third line from the bottom and questioned the system, "System, what does this mean?"

System: !!!

The system was greatly alarmed.

『What, I clearly shrank it, why did you still see it! You really are a cunning human!』

Xiao Gui'an: No, I don't think this is about whether I'm cunning or not.

If you hadn't shrunk that line of text, he might not have noticed it at all.

When all the text is normal and suddenly one line is shrunken, doesn't that look suspicious no matter what?!

But the system seemed quite thick-skinned.

Although there was a little hiccup during the contract signing process, it didn't affect the overall situation.

『As expected of someone I chose, sharp enough!』

After attributing the reason to his own excellent judgment, the system directly pixelated that shrunken line of text right in front of Xiao Gui'an.

『Alright, now you can sign.』

Just eliminating evidence right in front of him—or rather, eliminated but not completely eliminated.

This completely didn't treat him as human!

Xiao Gui'an said solemnly, "System, I already saw it just now, you need to give me a proper explanation, otherwise I won't sign this contract."

『...Fine』 Seeing that his flawless concealment technique actually didn't work, the system sighed and had no choice but to compromise.

『In horror worlds, even as an NPC, there are some dangers. Higher-level ghosts can also devour lower-level ghosts.』

『But you don't need to worry too much, after all, you're the cheat NPC we hired, not on the same level as those ordinary ghosts!』

『We'll provide you with a protective barrier, even if you encounter relatively high-level ghosts, you can still survive. Of course, when your abilities are insufficient, we won't assign overly powerful instances!』

『After you pass the newbie protection period, even if the protective barrier disappears, by then your strength will have improved, so naturally you can protect your own ghostly safety!』

"Then what's this funeral hotline about?"

『It's just that some ghosts inevitably get hurt, and when that happens they miss the happy times of their past burials, so they call this hotline to seek some services and such.』

"So this doesn't mean dying again, right?"

『Definitely not, you're already a ghost, how could you die again?』 the system said confidently.

Of course, being beaten to soul dispersion by those brutal chosen ones of fate was an exception.

Xiao Gui'an was mostly convinced by now; he was still a pure, good young man.

But based on his intuition, he was still somewhat uneasy, so he confirmed one last time, "You're sure you'll protect me from harm by ghosts?"

『Sure, sure, as long as you perform well and don't provoke high-level supernatural beings...』

It's just that they were powerless against those violent man-made injuries.

Those guys more terrifying than ghosts were practically inhuman.

"Alright then, I'll sign." Xiao Gui'an nodded and signed his name.

Anyway, he was already dead, and now he was given a chance to revive, so he should seize it.

Take a risk, and a bicycle might become a motorcycle.

The characters glowed faintly, as if an invisible bond connected Xiao Gui'an and the contract scroll.

Although he was an actor himself and had some experience with role-playing and such.

But what if he messed up the performance?

"System, system, if I accidentally fail at role-playing, you won't take back all my lifespan days or anything, right?"

『Hehe, fail at role-playing? What are you talking about, host?』

For some reason, Xiao Gui'an felt he detected a dangerous undertone in these friendly words.

『You don't need to worry about this at all, we're very humane, how could we treat you so cruelly? We won't deduct lifespan days, at most you just won't get any additions』

Is that so, Xiao Gui'an breathed a sigh of relief; he thought he would be threatened somehow.

So could he slack off a little then?

『Because as long as you fail once, your data will be completely reset~』

Forgiveness is God's business, the system only sends you to meet God.

Is this a threat?

This is absolutely a threat, right?!!

Xiao Gui'an's eyes immediately became determined.

And the scroll with his name written on it flew through the boundless mysterious space, finally passing through countless phantoms and merging into a grand, magnificent palace.

A vast, distant voice emerged from it, echoing in the system's backend that couldn't be detected or accessed by anyone.

【The causality you see is all real—】

【The future you imagine will eventually come true—】

【Everything you cherish will endure eternally—】

The golden thigh of the horror world's protagonist, the peak performer of ghost NPC role-playing, was born at this moment.

"Come on! System, I'm ready."

『Please host choose the horror world to enter

"Hiss—just looking at the names, they're packaged really well, making it hard to choose. System, are there any other hints?"

『Of course!』

The names of the three worlds separated, and below them appeared black character cards, with many small cards below the character cards.

『The cards contain some characteristics of important figures from different worlds. Host can flip one small card from below each, then continue judging which world to go to first!』

Xiao Gui'an randomly flipped open a card below 【Global Cthulhu Live】. The card face actually showed a blue Gatling gun shooting a human-shaped tumor into a sieve.

Xiao Gui'an: ?

Then he chose to flip open the card for 【Heavenly Master Temple Online Recruitment】, which actually showed a blood-stained soul-hooking sickle, with a freshly dropped ghost head underneath.

Xiao Gui'an: ??

This weapon, is it something a heavenly master uses? Definitely not from a proper family.

Finally, he flipped open 【Little Xu's Healing Adventure】. This time what the card showed was much more normal.

A tattered, seemingly second-hand 『Psychological Counselor Certificate』, with no ghost NPCs harmed.

Looking at all three, the second one 【Little Xu's Healing Adventure】 seemed the warmest.

Since it's a healing adventure, it probably wouldn't be too scary, right?

"Then I'll choose 【Little Xu's Healing Adventure】."

『Host, good eye!』

The system agreed readily. On the system panel that Xiao Gui'an couldn't see, the characters for 'healing' changed to 'depressing'.

『Okay, host selection of 【Little Xu's Depressing Adventure】 confirmed, information importing...』

『Warning: This world poses maximum 3S-level threat to ghost NPC physical and mental safety, please choose carefully—』

『Instant death rate: 99%』