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“You think you are winning?” Regect remembered his creator, boss, Daemon said, his tone as arrogant and condescending as if he hadn't labelled Regect with those exact ugly traits just now.
Regect wasn't really listening to what came after those particular sentences, his mind at the time keeps replaying the fact that Micha… his dearest friend is gone. And he just knew that Daemon had something to do with it.
Even though the others had always said that he could be particularly naive, he's not dumb. He knows when someone is a part of a certain thing.
The Eyes had done something to Micha. He knows it.
But then Daemon revealed that the fight they had for 5 years—one that Regect was sure he's winning—was just a trick for The Eyes to wait for another victim. And he had found one.
That made Regect even more pissed.
“FUCK YOU!” He remembered shouting at his former boss. He would say more vulgar words, but fears he had of The Eyes since the day he was born won't just disappear with overwhelming rage Regect is trying to contain inside him.
A familiar glitching sound echoed through the dark void as the human-looking eyes dematerialize from Regect's sight.
“But don't worry, I already have a replacement for you.” Even though Daemon is no longer visible after that glitch, his voice is still as strong as it echoed through the void.
Regect remembered asking what he had meant by that, “Replacement? What replacement—” a new voice could be heard from behind him, Regect had immediately turned around to look at who it was. He saw a red QR looking entity. It didn't take long for to realize that the guy in front of him was going to be his replacement.
Before Regect could punch the guy in the face, something heavy and suffocating suddenly snatched his half invisible neck, almost immediately bringing him down to the floor as the black entity gasped out of shock and pain.
“As entertaining as the ‘fight’ we had for the past 5 years, I couldn't just let you go around freely with those powers of yours. I might not be able to take back what I had given to you when you were first born, but I could always make sure you couldn't use it.”
Regect.. wasn't sure if that was what Daemon had exactly said to him. All he remembered of that moment was this new strangling feeling, he felt something was locked away in him—and at the time, he wasn't sure what.
“What—WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?” Regect had shouted again, his body thrashing on the ground as he tried to pull against whatever the new golden jougs on his neck are attached to. He had tried to lunge at the red QR guy, only for the chains to pull him back on the stone floor, the impact had echoed through the whole void from how hard he hit the ground.
Before he knew it, four more golden chains appeared from the pitch black surroundings, the first two wrapping around both of his wrist to form a bangle designed almost identical to the jougs on Regect’s neck, but smaller—and another two wrapping around his ankles, all four of them pulling from different direction to make sure he stop shaking around.
“I hope this will be your lesson, ‘Regect’.” The Eyes voice once again echoed through the void, sounding really amused and satisfied by Regect’s current predicament.
The entity felt vulnerable—even more than he usually is. He felt weaker than he probably should as an injured entity. He felt… almost vestigial—
“May this be a good motivator to not be so soft, my ‘son’.”
Yeah, Regect probably shouldn't be pissing Ze off when it was more than just obvious that he's not in the mood for their usual banter.
That's how he ended up on the guy’s couch with his leg all bandaged up. He might not necessarily be able to be killed by humans, but they could still hurt him—especially after Daemon bound him with… whatever these chains are.
Well, he can still die in the game like any Minecraft player would, but the player specifically can't literally kill him.
It didn't take long for Regect to understand what Daemon had done to him. That creepy looking asshole legit just tied his codes together with this laptop he's in while also locking away his powers, reducing him to what he is now. He still has a tiny bit of his ability such as flying, teleportation and invincibility—against humans at the least—etc.
Though as everyone can see, his ‘invincibility’ only protects him from critical injuries while absolutely ignoring smaller ones—biggest example would be how he always leave every fight with Ze looking as horrible as the player was despite his so called ‘invincibility’—he can't really fly, the more perfect word would be gliding and his teleportation is basically useless since he could only move like what, a few metres from where he was originally standing?
He might as well have walked to his destination in that case.
Speaking of Ze, here he is.
The player walked through the door of his home with some potions in his hold, his eyes looking at Regect as he walked closer.
“...Soo, are you okay?” He questioned, placing the potions on the floor as he inspected the wound of Regect's visible leg.
He won't admit it, but Ze feels a little bit guilty at blowing up and accidentally shot Regect in the leg. Since Regect had proved many times that he could leave most accidents unscarred and he is a supposedly strong entity, Ze thought that a mere bullet won't be enough to actually penetrate Regect's skin.
As you can see, he was wrong.
“Oh I'm totally fine. Thank you for worrying—you should be. You just shot me.” the entity replied sarcastically with his usual annoying tone. Ze had almost regretted not aiming for the heads instead.
“Gosh, you're so ungrateful.” Ze grumbled under his breath as he picked up the potion from the floor and tossed it to Regect. “Potion of Healing. I fought tooth and nail for that btw. You're welcome.”
Regect looked at Ze with wide eyes as his view slowly dropped at the glowing potion bottle in his grasp. He hasn't been counting on how long he had been with Ze in this world—he stopped keeping track of the time after Micha—but he knows damn well that it's not long enough for the player to find himself to care enough to go through the struggle to find a Healing Potion for Regect.
He gripped the bottle harshly as he plucked out its cork, downing it in just one go. He slammed the bottle harshly on his lap once he's done with it, breathing heavily as he could already feel the soft healing energy of the potion going through his system.
He opened his eyes—damn, when did he even close them—to see Ze looking at him with a really odd expression. Regect doesn't even know what to call it, it's a little bit freaky—not in that way—for sure.
Regect cleared his throat, his half invisible neck suddenly feels itchy for no reason. “Um.. thanks. For the potion.” he mumbled under his breath, his eyes locked on his bandaged leg. For some reason, it looks so interesting to look at.
And oh, does he hate or does he hate the reaction Ze has at his gratitude.
“.. I'm sorry, can you repeat that? I don't hear it.” the player grinned, his face now ridiculously smug as he leaned a bit closer, already expecting Regect to repeat what he had just said.
“I know damn well you heard me. No.”
“Seriously, I'm being for real. What did you just say?”
“Ze, I am not going to repeat what I just said—”
“Oh come on—”
This little interaction lasted for like, 15 minutes.
To say that Regect was not enjoying it is an understatement. While he has been actively terrorizing Ze, he's pretty much doing it from a place of care.
Ze's appointed entity might've not made their first move just yet, but that's exactly why Regect should drive Ze out of this Minecraft world quickly. He kinda thought that if he managed to pissed Ze off enough, he might just rage quit the world. He seems to be irritable enough for that to happen.
But of course, Regect just have to get attached.
Ze had stopped trying to get him to repeat what he had just said by now, settling on cleaning up the mess he had inside his storage room instead.
Leaving Regect all by himself on his couch, alone with his thoughts and.. woes, he supposed.
At least he could hear some faint cussing that obviously came from Z from the living room.
...This is not good, he thought. The only reason why he's not finding a way to get the collars and the bangles off him right now is because he had prioritized trying to prevent Ze from suffering the exact fate Micha had. He might not be able to save Em, but he could at least try with Ze.
But he just got to get comfortable living in the same world with Ze. Is he really that needy and desperate for companionship that he immediately got all mushy at the basic polite interaction he received?
That's probably true, aside from Micha—Regect’s past ‘victims’ does not act like a victim at all. They had bullied, joked, and overall just did not care about him. Regect must've been far from looking scary for them to be like that. That’s pretty much why he's been such an asshole to Ze, gotta establish dominance y'know?
One of them had even managed to yank his tail so hard that it ripped off from his tailbone. He was really young at the time and was still new to his role. Daemon had ‘dealt’ with the guy, but of course with some harsh scoldings towards Regect to stop his sobbing.
So what if Ze also freaked out by his presence during their first time meeting? He had tolerated Regect enough that he still let him around even though Regect always blew up his house, verbal fights are almost a daily thing, physical fights are also an almost daily thing—and Regect could list more and more things that makes Ze a bit more tolerable than his past protagonists.
…..
Gosh.. he really is pathetic.
To make himself feel even more horrible, he could feel tears starting to form at the edge of his visible eyes. It sure does help to remind him how much of a cry baby he was back when he was younger.
No wonder why nobody really likes him.
He harshly rubbed his eyes to stop the tears, he doesn't really want Ze to accidentally catch him sobbing—his ego is way too high for that.
Instead, he brings his legs closer and hugs them close to his chest, muffling his face onto his knees as he tries to keep himself together.
.. is it just him or one of his legs feels lighter?
Once he was sure that he won't let out any embarrassing whimpering sound, Regect lifted up his head, eyes curiously lingered through his long legs—
And find that one of his leg shackles are gone.
On the floor, Regect could see the golden shackle that used to be cuffed around Regect’s visible leg is now cracked and broken on the cold floor.
…
HOLY SHIT—
“OH MY GO—” Regect had almost started screaming out of shock, excitement, anxiety at the sight of the broken shackle on the floor before he covered his transparent mouth from getting any louder.
He leaned down to pick it up, inspecting the broken shackle closely. The cracks don't seem that clean.. almost as if it was hit by a blunt force.
Which is weird for many reasons like firstly, Regect would know if something had hit his shackle hard enough for it to basically break and secondly, the golden collar and the bangles/shackles he had might not look at heavy—but he can assure you that it's actually hefty and ridiculously resilient as hell. It's so heavy that Regect could already see a little change of physique from having the chains on for a month now.
Wait, now that one of the 5 chains that's bounding Regect to this laptop is gone, he can now do stuff!
Well, he should be. 5 different chains must've locked different parts of his abilities and code.. he just got to figure out what the shackle that used to be around his visible leg does.
Man—this is probably going to take awhile. He wasn't bluffing when he said that he could do everything Daemon can do and unfortunately, that floating pair of eyes could do a lot of things.
Okay so, apparently it only took Regect like, half an hour to learn what he can do again.
For example, he can now properly teleport to wherever he wanted to and fly instead of glide! He also feels a bit stronger—not as great as he used to, but it's an improvement nonetheless.
Let's see, his creative inventory finally updated, he could finally use the newer blocks Minecraft had added, he could feel some part of his ‘entity superpowers’ are working—though just barely— and oh! He's finally strong enough to break bedrocks again!
Don't ask him how he found that out.
This is good.. no, this is great! Regect thought as he could feel the familiar warmth he usually would feel when he's feeling positive return to fill his almost nonexistent internals.
He might not be able to do much and is still pretty much tied to the laptop, but he could finally do enough to continue with his plan to get rid of Ze before the guy Daemon had sent out—Regect really needs to learn that guy's name—for Ze could get to him!
Ohoho, Regect is so going to scare Ze shitless that he'll finally get him to get rid of this laptop. Sure that might never work in the past—but Regect is sure now that he's a little bit older now, he could finally think of something that would be terrifying even!