I Didn't Choose the Gangsta System, the Gangsta System Chose Me

Inside the Walls of Erebus, there are multiple rooms. Mainly, the ghouls sleep there. Being undead and all, they don't really need the basic necessities when they were humans. It was their reward for working.

In one of them, there's a special room near the gate and this is where Cerberus brought Joren in.

Underneath a red light, there was a table and two chairs opposite each other. Joren knew where this is going so he sat in one of the chairs.

"Hey! That's our chair!" the second head shouted, obviously the hot-blooded one.

"Oh, sorry." Joren immediately stood up and went to the other chair.

"Hey, that's our chair too!"

"Eh?"

"Kakaka!" the second head then laughed which the first head tried to explain.

"He's making a joke, don't worry about it, you can sit anywhere."

Joren tried to process the joke.

"Oh, yes, technically, these are your seats." he nodded with a pitying smile.

"Ehem…!"

The second head harrumphed, knowing that his joke failed.

"Just stop being funny, you're not." the third head whispered which incited a whispered argument.

Meanwhile, the first head seemed to be controlling the body and asked.

"Do you want a drink?"

"Oh, I want a cola."

Joren responded after being offered. This stopped the second and the third head from their argument.

"He's a bit too calm…"

"Nobody had ever asked us of anything."

"The biggest problem is, where can we get a cola?"

Just hearing the name of Cerberus normally induces fear, more so when the Cerberus themselves are in front of them and about to interrogate them.

"O-oh, if you don't have a cola, I'll just have cocoa."

There was silence…

Cerberus was getting pressured. The first head was just asking out of formality.

"Hm, let us…- wait a moment."

The three-headed man then went out and ordered a ghoul to get either cola or cocoa. The pressure that Joren was feeling lessened by a lot.

'They're accommodating…'

He was naturally thick-skinned.

Cerberus then sat opposite to him after a while and the first head said.

"Your drink will be delayed for a while."

"No, it's fine. I'm not that thirsty anyway."

Joren waved his hand, making the Cerberus feel less pressure. For some reason, the more they talk with this man, the more they notice a strange aura from him. It's not energy or something special like that. It's just something else natural.

"Alright, let's get down to business. You just jumped off the cruise and Charon doesn't come back for anybody."

"Yeah, back in the days, he would even beat the souls of the reluctant with his oar, hehehe." the second head followed the first head.

"Who's Charon?" the first head asked but was ignored.

"And you must know that after a week, a 'guest' will become a Hades dweller." the third head said after them.

Joren just nodded. He already knows this from Garas, though, he doesn't know about the oar part.

"Then that begs the question, why would you jump off the cruise ship?"

The first head asked and at that moment, the ghoul they ordered came back with the cola.

"Oh, thanks."

Joren took the cola and drank it, hanging up on Cerberus. They have lost their fierceness after so long of being feared.

No matter what they do, others will fear them. Although not as much as the walking death, Thanatos. Thus, they have lost their ability to release a terrifying aura. Only Gods and other high-ranking beings would act like this towards them.

This developed an instinct where they have to respect those who those not respect them. It's all automatic even though they know that this person in front of them is just a mortal. Not to mention the strange feeling of fear that they feel from this man. It's definitely strange and somewhat creepy to them.

What they don't know though is Joren has already encountered the Titans, although far away, and Gyges, one of the terrifying Hetanchoires. Especially, he had seen the horror of Tartarus.

Cerberus, whom he had already envisioned to encounter was no longer a surprise to him. It's not as if this old man with three heads is hostile against him, right?

Yet, he's still not perfectly fine though even after everything he went through. He was still feeling some pressure. After all, only once did he experience Tartarus and the beings within it. It was not enough for him to get used to it.

"About the question, I jumped off the cruise by mistake."

Joren naturally lied. He was actually thinking and that's why he took his time sipping the cola.

"By mistake? Does it look that way?" the third head asked the other two heads.

"Also, you don't look like you're a person who got off Charon's cruise ship, being left behind in the UnderWorld for all eternity." the first head nodded and said.

"Oh, I don't look devastated, is that what you're saying?" Joren said and kept his calm.

The three heads nodded to which Joren replied.

"Well, it's not like Hades is such a bad place, right?"

"Hm, yes, you're right. You must be confident that you're a person who has lived a good life." the first head said which raised some questions for Joren but he tried not to ask anything as not to arouse suspicion.

"Who's Hades?" the third head asked but was ignored.

Meanwhile, Joren was walking down on a thin thread. He didn't plan anything that he says. Hell, he didn't even expect this. He just wished that Cerberus doesn't find his answers to be too convenient.

"But still, it seemed that you have a woman whom you left behind."

"It's fine, she can visit me once a week. That's already enough." Joren said before sipping a cola.

At that moment, Cerberus excused themselves and exited the room to talk to themselves.

"His answers are too convenient. Could you smell anything?"

"I think he's lying about it being a mistake."

"I smell that he's already dead yet living, like a ghoul."

"He also smells like a girl."

"Wait, how is that possible? Is he what they call trans in the surface world?"

"No, not his gender, it's just his smell. Maybe because he was just staying with a girl. He must've used her shampoo and soap."

"Is that important?" the first head asked the other two.

"Well, yes, I do think that his answers are convenient. However, he didn't have the face of a liar, albeit, he had a face of a terrorist."

"Hmph! We'll just see if he tries to escape the next time we see him since he's not being affected by our pressure."

The first head then sighed after hearing the third and the second head respectively.

"We have gone senile."

"Yes, soon, Nebarius will replace us."

"Hearing those guys' name makes me angry!"

"Who's Nebarius?"

"Let's not dwell on the future but focus on the present. We can still do our job right."

"Alright."

"Kakaka, it's not like we'll have to do any job. That guy will never escape."

"Why?"

After some talk with each other, Cerberus came into the room to find Joren waiting for them.

"I half-expected he will try to escape." the second head muttered.

"You can go now, Joren." the first head then said, surprising Joren.

"Oh, really?" Joren felt like this was too easy. At the same time, he was thinking about how they know his name. They must've heard it when Ness called out to him.

"Then, thanks." he said.

"But before you go, I have one last question." the first head said, stopping him.

'Is he finally going to ask about the time I said I'm going to return?'

"You're the owner of the sex demon, is that correct?"

"..."

Joren's jaw dropped.

"Oh, wait, you must've not known. But you're the only undead now on the surface world, although you're finally here. That new half-soul should be yours, right?"

Joren didn't know what to answer but he could feel the smiles behind the shadow under their hoods.

"Welcome to Hades, Joren Virei." the three of the heads said at the same time.

"Heh," Joren squinted his eyes as he smiled back, "Thank you for the warm welcome."

'I will leave here sooner or later.'

'He will not be able to leave since his soul is in Goddess Allecto's hands. I wonder who's he's fooling.'

The three heads thought.

Joren left and sat down on the chair at the side of the road.

"What's Cerberus' deal?" he doesn't understand the interrogation at all.

Meanwhile, back in the room, Cerberus was talking to each other.

"I just remembered that the only undead now is Joren Vierei." the first head said.

"Who's Joren Vierei?"

The second hand asked and the first head was about to answer before he scratched his head.

"Who?"

"The name, why did you forget?"

"This is getting frequent." the third head worried, "There's three of us and three of us actually got Alzheimer's?"

"What's Alzheimer's?"

"What what?"

"Hey, why is there a cola here?" the third head pointed at the cup on the table, taking the two heads' attention.

"Wait, I don't think we have cola, right?"

"No, this is getting scary."

The three heads shivered in fright before asking the nearest ghoul to which they remembered what happened.