Keeping The Balance [Hiatus]

Chapter One - The CEO Reborn Step Brother - Task World One (1)

Hol eyes open quickly and he sits up in his bed breathing heavily sweat covering his body. Patting his stomach and feeling no pain Hol let out a sigh of relief. 'Whew... Just a dream. I didn't get stabbed. But my body feels weird...'

Rubbing his stomach with a frown on his face, Hol realized his normally flat and weak stomach felt a bit more firm. Getting out of bed Hol felt like even his height was off too. It was still dark in his room so he had to carefully walk to the bathroom. When he finally managed to reach the bathroom he closed his eyes before turning on the light.

When he opened his eyes he realized he was in front of the mirror and he froze. Slowly bringing up his hands to his face Hol blankly stared at his reflection. What he saw in the mirror wasn't him at all! He wasn't this attractive looking at all! I mean he was above average but not that attractive.

His usual tall and stocky build was now a short and stout build that gave him a distinctive feel when he looked at himself. His skin was still brown but it was lighter and he had cold-looking light green eyes that made him feel intimidated as he looked at himself. Even though his hair was still brown but lighter and it was now to his shoulder.

"O-Oh my. . . What is happening?!" Hol grabbed his hair and started to pace inside of the bathroom feeling overwhelmed about his situation. He did look really attractive but that doesn't matter right now! Before he could fully panic he heard a phone go off.

Realizing it was coming from the room he woke up in he went back to find the phone just noticing that the bathroom he was in was connected to the room. Finding the vibrating phone Hol was surprised at how expensive it was.

As soon as his hand touched the phone it is turned on and the small figure from before appeared on the screen. "Host, good morning! How are you liking the body you are in right now? You look so handsome, Host! I may just fall in love with you~" Starie holds their cheeks in their hands blushing with a smile on their face.

"It wasn't a dream! What is happening?! I am in the world for the task right now?!" Hol was gripping the phone tightly, throwing questions at Starie with a thousand thoughts going to his head right now as he tried to understand his current situation.

"We are currently in the task world! Now let's calm down for right now and I can give you the information regarding what hosts have to do in the world, okay?" Unfazed by Hol's frantic behavior Starie talked to Hol in a calm and comforting tone which caused Hol to slowly stop freaking out.

Closing his eyes and getting his breathing under control, Hol opened his eyes again fully calm even though his heartbeat was still beating a little bit faster than normal. "Okay, I am fine now. Can I get the information regarding what I need to do?" Hol realized panicking about his situation won't solve it so he decided to just adjust to it. Starie gave Hol a big smile before the phone screen went dark and a chibi version of people appeared on the screen.

"This world story is a common reborn plot. Caleb Norris is the younger stepbrother of Terrance Cox, this world protagonist, and the reason for the world destruction. Caleb was a child who was married into Terrance's family after his mother died from her illness. Caleb's life in his new family with his mother wasn't perfect but it was bad either. It got bad due to his greed and this ultimately led to his death. But that wasn't the end for him at all. He was reborn back seven years before he made all the mistakes that he did in his first one. Being reborn Caleb didn't think to change all the things he wanted in life but instead using the knowledge of his first life he decided to take all the things that his elder brother did to get success in life and make it his achievement. He also decided to take all of the hate out on the protagonist of this world and make him the most hated man in the world which ultimately ended with Terrance killing himself in the end. "A chibi version of the protagonist jumping into oncoming traffic made Hol frown especially due to how cute the character looked at the moment yet showing such a dark image of Terrance committing suicide.

"Because the older brother is the protagonist of the world once he had died everything started to get worse. When Caleb took over the family business that Terrance took over in his first life, things were good for a few years before things went bad. The business that Caleb was running was security-based and protected much important information for the government. Someone hacked into the computers of the business one night and stole all secret military information and sold it to different countries. This caused a panic which led to a war that left the world nothing but a warzone with little to no people left in the world." The phone screen showed countless dead chibi bodies and many destroyed buildings from the war and finally, the image expanded out showing the earth with crossed-out eyes that had a crack forming in the middle of it.

'T-This feels a bit extreme just because the protagonist died...' Hol felt sweat forming on his forehead when he realized how much shit went down just because the protagonist died. "S-So how can I stop this from happening?"

A new image appeared on Hol's phone that showed him the tasks he had to do. "The host's main task is to stop the reborn stepbrother from messing with the protagonist and to prevent them from getting control of the company! There is also another task that the host needs to do relating to the body you are in. Sometimes there are tasks that the former soul of the bodies the host uses that they want to be completed. If they aren't completed it will be an instant failure no matter what." An image of a chibi Hol getting his soul torture appeared on the phone screen causing him to grow pale and his hand to shake slightly.

"W-What the task regarding this body?" After asking that the phone screen went back to the tasks for Hol to see what he needed to complete and it caused his face to go blank. 'Confess their feelings to the protagonist.'

". . . What is the information regarding this body?" After a few moments of silence Hol finally spoke up and the phone screen showed a chibi version of the body he was in "The body host is in is called Karson Wallace who is from an elite family and he owns a flower shop. Karson knew the protagonist since they were children and fell in love at first sight. Not wanting to mess up their friendship he decided to keep his feelings a secret. When the protagonist's stepbrother was causing trouble for him Karson tried to use his family connections to help the protagonist out but Caleb had connections in the underworld that he used to cause 'accidents' for Karson's family members. Karson was killed by Caleb after he cut the brake in his car causing him to drive full speed into a truck." An image of a chibi dead Karson was on the phone screen and Hol felt his eyebrows twitching as his eyes narrow.

'Piece of shit is a ruthless motherfucker. Killing him in such a painful way and harming his family like that too.' Hol's face grew darker but was brought out of his dark thoughts when he heard a beep from his phone.

"Host can't get out of character in the body he is in right now or else people will be suspicious! Karson was an honest and introverted person so make sure to be just like that host! I know you can do it~" Starie appeared on the screen in a cheerleader outfit jumping up and down with a "YOU CAN DO IT" sign behind them causing a smile to appear on his face.

"Wait, where are we in the current plot?" The smile on his face disappears and a frown replaces it on his face. "Don't worry host, you are at the beginning where Caleb wakes up reborn. So make sure to give him hell host!" Starie gave Hol a thumb up causing Hol to feel some type of peace.

As Hol was trying to figure out what to do concerning Caleb his phone rang and when he saw the name his eyebrow raised in confusion for a moment before his eyes widened in surprise. 'Ahhh~ The protagonist of this world is calling me! I'm not ready! Give me a moment to get ready!!!'

Author Note - Well this chapter was hard to do. Well, it was mostly due to the fact I was slacking with editing it and changing up what seems a bit weird. Hopefully, it turned out fine. I have no school for a while due to the virus so that means I have more time to write. I mean if I remember to write. Anyway, I hope everyone is safe from the virus and takes care of themselves. Bye Bye (*●⁰ꈊ⁰●)ﾉ~