After taking a few steps in the direction of the door, He Yuan realized his System wasn't following and looked back, only to find the silver haired man in question standing still and staring at him strangely. His brows furrowed in confusion. "Are you coming?"
888 blinked twice before adjusting his glasses with a thin smile. "How about you meet up with Toby and Kylie alone? I have something I need to take care of."
He Yuan's frown deepened but a second later, he slowly nodded his head and watched his system leave before walking away himself.
.
.
.
The Soul realm was really bright and the streets were filled with souls. Some appeared listless and gloomy, others appeared happy and sunny whilst a lot more were expressionless.
888 paid no mind to any of this as he made his way through the Community. His destination was the Residential zones for Intermediate Taskers and above.
After walking for a good while, he finally arrived at a small stall right at the end of a street that stood between the Ancient Residential zone and the Modern Residential zone.
The outside of the store appeared bleak and desolate whilst the open door showed nothing but pure darkness. 888 clasped his hands behind his back and walked in with no hesitation.
The inside of the stall was almost bare save for desk, a chair and a cabinet holding all sorts of trinkets and collections.
On the the smooth desk was a Soul that appeared to be a teenager dressed in all black, seating on the table and focused on a book with one knee up whilst his other leg dangled freely above the ground.
888 pushed up his glasses with a knuckle. "He Xin."
He Xin raised his head then. He had bangs that covered his eyes so he shook his head to take it out of the way before smiling politely at 888. "Ren?"
888 nodded. He'd known He Xin since the young Soul became a Tasker but he didn't actually know much about him. No one did. Just like most souls in the Soul realm, the young man kept his business private.
Which was a good thing.
The special thing about He Xin was that he was the only Tasker 888 knew who was on the verge of becoming an Ultra Tasker but that wasn't why he was here now.
He Xin hopped down from the desk and walked around to sit on the other side. The second 888 was fully seated, he folded his arms across his chest and asked, "What do you need to know?"
888 drummed his fingers on the table. This was the reason he was here. Aside from being a Tasker, He Xin dealt on information. Both buying and selling and if there was something a Soul needed to know on the Soul realm, He Xin was your best shot at getting an answer.
He pushed up his glasses. "What's a First generation System?"
He Xin raised a brow in surprise. He'd heard of them once in a Task realm and he wondered why Ren was suddenly interested in knowing about them but that wasn't his business.
He gently covered his book and set it down before nodding at the System opposite of him. "You know the price."
888 shrugged. "Take as much as you want."
--------------------
He Yuan walked in through the doors of their usual club and spotted Kylie immediately because the woman was waving at him excitedly.
Seated next to his host, Toby shook his head with a helpless smile before turning to nod at He Yuan.
He Yuan returned the nod and made his way through the souls littered around the club get to them. As soon as he was comfortably seated, he gave a small smile. "Hello Kylie, how's tasking been for you?"
"Great!" Kylie said with an even brighter smile. "I'm three tasks away from becoming an Advanced Tasker now." Her smile dampened a notch at that.
He Yuan was about to ask her why she didn't seem too happy about advancing when he noticed the both of them looking worriedly at something behind him. He turned around and raised a brow because, apparently, Akari was the cause of their worries and he could see why.
She looked very different from her normally chirpy self. Even the way she was dressed was different. None of her bright colours were to be seen. Instead, she wore a plain black outfit and covered her hair with a black cap.
With a tired bearing, she didn't bother to look around the club but went straight to the bar and began gulping down shots after shots of soul alcohol without stopping.
He Yuan knew how much those shots burned so with each glass she gulped down, the deeper his brows furrowed.
Toby sighed, gently squeezed Kylie's right shoulder before standing up from his seat to join Akari at the bar.
He Yuan gave Kylie a pointed stare.
The woman understood his question immediately. With a concerned glance at Akari, she explained, "Kaede is undertaking her Test task to become an Advanced Tasker and Akari thinks something has gone wrong because she feels she's been getting weaker lately."
He Yuan froze. If anything happened to Kaede in her Test task, did that not mean... He glanced briefly at Akari as he asked, "How difficult is the Test task to become an Advanced Tasker?"
Kylie did not move her eyes from Akari as she answered, "It differs for Taskers. Some get a difficult Test task and come out of it stronger and with an incredibly high mental fortitude. Others though...
-Also get a difficult task but if the Guardians are dissatisfied with the execution, they get another test of mental fortitude when they return."
He Yuan frowned. "That doesn't make much sense."
Kylie looked at him with a shrug and a strained smile. "Not a lot of things do in the Soul realm."
At this point, it felt as though the Upper echelons in the Realm of Realms were just playing a game of roulette with the lives of every soul on the Soul realm..
Soon enough, Akari walked over with Toby and said an absentminded goodbye to everyone before leaving the club listlessly.
Toby watched her go before turning his attention to He Yuan. "Where's Ren?"
He Yuan folded his arms across his chest, his eyes on the door Akati left through. "He had something to take care of." As soon as those words left his mouth, a thought crossed his mind and he locked eyes with Toby. "What do you know about First generation systems?"
Toby's golden brown eyes swirled as a frown settled upon his face. He exchanged looks with the equally confused yet curious Kylie before facing He Yuan once more. "What's that?"
He Yuan's raised a hand to pinch his forehead. "It's something I'd like to know too." In fact, he hadn't been expecting much from Toby. Since 888 didn't know what it was, it meant that it wasn't general knowledge. Besides, Toby and 888 were quite close so it was highly unlikely that Toby would know crucial info that 888 didn't.
Subconsciously, He Yuan began to tap his feet. He was very curious. The Reaper and their system had left after seeing 888 and 888 had suddenly asked about First generation systems when they were alone. There was a connection there and he really wanted to know what it was.
Toby cleared his throat then. When he had He Yuan's attention, he began, "Ren told me about your need for a mental fortitude manual and I know someone but, unfortunately, she received a task in the middle of my conversation with her.
When He Yuan sighed in exasperation, he smiled and continued, "There's someone I've heard of though. He night have a solution and even if he doesn't, there's a possibility that he might know one or two things about this First generation System you asked of."
He Yuan's eyes flashed. "That's good then."
.
.
.
After 888 left, He Xin went back to reading in his little stall. As an Advanced Tasker, his break in between task realms were much longer so he mostly used that time to deal on information. He was just about to leave when a golden eyed, caramel skinned man walked in. He raised a brow.
Toby stared at the young man in front of him in surprise. He'd heard of the Advanced Tasker who dealt on information once or twice from 888 and a few others but he had no idea the Soul had the appearance of a sixteen year old!
This appearance meant the man before him had died so young but then, had managed to make it this far as a Soul. That was kinda admirable.
As the two people in the stall had a stare down, Kylie suddenly nudged Toby from behind. "Move!"
Toby moved to the side with a soft laughter to let Kylie and He Yuan in.
The second He Xin laid eyes on He Yuan, his body trembled and his eyes turned red. A second later,
WHOOSH!
He Xin manifested a soul spear and shot it straight at He Yuan's heart.
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