Spoiled by Eight Uncles (Lily)
Chapter 149

"Can you imagine the fear as I fell?" said the spirit dryly. "I didn't want to die. I was so scared that I died from shock, and not from the impact. My soul watched my head pop like a watermelon. Those brain juices scattered on the asphalt. And since the local area was rich in benevolent energy, it prevented my soul from heading to the afterlife. I had to relive my last moment for what felt like an eternity, until I became a malignant spirit. I thought this was my punishment for being an infidel.”

"So... what's your point?" asked Lilly.

"Can you perhaps spare me since I have served my punishment?" The spirit blinked her innocent eyes. "I just want to stay here for a bit longer. For like another 500 years." Josh's face twitched. 500 years wasn't just "a bit longer".

Pablo jotted down something on his booklet without saying a thing. Lilly, however, thumped her chest. "I won't purify you but you'll have to come in voluntarily."

"Come in where?" The spirit was curious.

"The jar of soul." Lilly brandished the item in question. "Ms. Ugly and a guy with a sweet tooth are in there."

"Sure!" The spirit immediately flew into the jar. It was the mention of the male companion that convinced her. Pablo shook his head and amended what he just wrote.

Lilly shook the jar in her hand. "Master, is the jar full now?"

Pablo answered without lifting his head. "Far from it. It was 10% full. Now, it's 20% full."

"But we caught several spirits! That is such a small increase."

"That's because you didn't exorcise the spirits. When you exorcise a spirit, its energy will be absorbed by the jar. Now that you use it to keep the spirits, you forfeit the chance to exorcise them. But who knows? They might have a use in the future," explained Pablo.

Lilly lay on her bed and just looked at her jar, deep in her thoughts. Meanwhile, Josh whipped out a notebook and started doing maths.

V of Malignant Spirit = X, V of Woeful Ghost = Y, V of Resent Spirit = Z.

SA of the Jar = ...

To fill it up, we need 19X, 100Y, or ...

Currently: X=2 (Vanity Spirit, Fake Foreign Ghost), Y=0, Z=0.

To Be Exorcised: X=2 (Weakling Spirit, Harem Spirit), Y=1 (Ms. Ugly)

Josh sighed at the formula. He needed more X!

Inside the jar, Ms. Ugly and the weakling spirit were playing rock, paper, scissors. The loser would be slapped. The weakling spirit shuddered when the harem spirit came in. "Hi, cutie. What are you doing here?"

...

Lilly was scrolling her phone in secret before she slept. After the cyberbullying incident, the Crawfords decided to only let Lilly return to school once the dust had settled. Like all curious kids, Lilly wanted to discover many things. A video suddenly appeared on Lilly's feed and she immediately had goosebumps.

In the video, a man was kneeling on the ground with a cleaver in one hand. He kept bowing in a dramatic fashion while yelling, "Sorry, Lilly! My name is Harvard Schumacher, named so because my parents want me to study at Harvard. I wrote nasty comments about you and I regret it so much. To demonstrate my remorse, I will chop off my fingers. Here, on livestream!"

The man wasn't joking. He raised the cleaver and sliced his fingers off in one swift motion. The video wasn't censored. It only briefly turned monochrome as blood spurted out from the grisly wound. The man screamed and rolled on the ground in agony. Moments later, he picked up his severed fingers and smiled creepily at the camera.

"Guys, am I sincere enough?"

Lilly was freaked out by the unsettling video. She threw her phone away out of fear.

Bettany heard the noise. She came into the room. "Are you all right, Lilly?"

"Grandma, I'm so scared."

Lilly had seen many ghosts and spirits. Some even came without a head. But nothing scared her as much as humans.

"There, there, Lilly. I'm here." Bettany patted Lilly's back to comfort her.

Lilly spoke in a shaky voice. "Why do they do that? Their apologies are scary."

Bettany sighed. "In this world, people do all sorts of things for money. Back in my day, we worked hard to earn money. But now, you just have to go viral to become rich. And that 15 minutes of fame was addictive. It pushes people to do something extreme to get another 15 minutes of fame. The cycle continues."

"Are they still humans?" Lilly asked softly.

Bettany didn't have an answer to Lilly's simple question. For views and clicks, some worked hard and strived to produce better videos. But some took the shortcut and relied on shock values. The illusion of popularity was as addictive as drugs. It polluted and twisted their minds until they became slaves for money.

"Go to sleep now," Bettany looked at Lilly affectionately. "And no more phone for you."

Lilly surrendered her phone obediently. After Lilly fell asleep, Bettany checked the video Lilly just watched. When she saw its gory content, she was shocked and mad. How could they put this on the internet? She then reported the video. If she came across another similar video again, she would not hesitate to do the same.