historical

The price of the soul incense ranged from as little as 5 exp points to as high as 1000 merit points. There were some that cost 20,000 exp points but since he hadn't been able to gain merit points up till now, he assumed the merit points were more valuable.

He Yuan bought one stick of 5 exp incense. The description said it gave off a forest smell and that was what drew him to it. He placed the incense in the container on his office desk and lit it.

Tiny wisps of smoke spiralled from the tip and spread throughout the room. Once the smell hit He Yuan's nose, he sighed in comfort. It was truly as the description said. He felt a lot calmer just from inhaling the smoke.

If the 5 exp worth could be this pleasant, he wondered how the 1000 merit point worth of incense would feel. He bought 39 more and laid them out on his desk.

"You really need to check on your priorities. You seem to forget that you would need some things for the task realms," 888 said.

He Yuan frowned slightly. " I know that but since I've already unlocked the marketplace, I could buy whatever I need once I'm in the task realm."

888 shook his head and stood up. "That's not how it works. The system marketplace cannot be accessed in the task realm."

He Yuan's frown deepened and then it dawned on him. Of course it was impossible to access the marketplace whilst in the task realm. If the taskers were able to, then they would be able to buy all sorts of stuff that could make their tasks easier in the realms.

For example, if he was in a cultivation realm and some cultivators were after his life, he could easily pull out an AK47 gun or a nuke to blast them.

While the weapons would keep him safe, it would increase the rift in the realm because those weapons did not belong in a cultivation realm. Just like that cultivator in his last task realm did not belong in the modern realm.

"What if I buy the stuff before entering the task realm?"

888 laughed. "Before you're assigned a task realm, the higher ups would be informed on what kind of realm it is. So even if you already have a weapon, you still would be unable to use it. Your job is to balance the realms not destroy it further."

He Yuan huffed and used 300 exp points to buy some silver needles, hunger relieving pills and bottles of water. These were the only things that weren't under any restriction for all task realms. There were a few others but there were of no immediate benefit to him.

Once he was done with all his shopping, he finally looked at the message at the bottom of his profile log. He had been given attribute points. Good. He assigned all his attribute points to his mental fortitude.

It was one of his most important stat and yet it was so small. He didn't want to be triggered by the soul thread of the leasers he would encounter in the future.

Refresh.

[Name: He Yuan]

[Age: 28]

[Level: Novice]

[Experience Points: 32,000]

[Soul Energy: 270]

[Intelligence: 55]

[Strength: 20]

[Luck: 10]

[Charisma: 30]

[Mental Fortitude: 10 (+15)]

[Merit Points: 0]

[Belief: 0]

[Acquired Skills: Entry level medical practitioner.]

After cross checking his stats, He Yuan looked over to 888. "I've been meaning to ask you something."

888 quirked a brow. "What?"

"Do the leasers ever get past the trauma of their past lives? I understand that as a tasker, I right the wrongs in their lives but you can't tell me that these people who have already gone through so much in their past lives would just take over once the taskers finish counterattacking for them and start living happy lives.

-It just doesn't make any sense. The leasers remember all they went through so even if they want to be happy, trauma is not that easy to overcome. To me, it seems like they just spend the rest of their new lives, trying to get over their past lives.

-Therapy is also not full proof as you can't expect the leasers to go to a therapist explaining how they were wronged in their past lives. People would think they were crazy so how exactly do they find their happiness?"

888 ran a hand through his waist length silver hair. He Yuan always wondered how the system managed to do anything with hair that long. The man made it look so easy.

He Yuan knew for a fact that it was not, he'd tried growing out his hair once in his origin realm and it had ended up in disaster. He was a soul so he didn't need to take care of his hair or perform skin care -yet- but the systems were different.

Well at least He Yuan thought they were because 888 didn't look like a soul. He walked over to raise the sleeve of 888's shirt a bit and touch his arm. It felt solid and soft, just like flesh. And it was odd that He Yuan could feel it because whenever he touched his own body, it felt hard. Like glass.

He was a thin soul but his skin felt like glass. It was weird. So what exactly were the systems? Souls or living people with the ability to appear and reappear whenever they felt like?

"Have you gone mad?" 888 asked with a scowl as he pulled his arm out of He Yuan's grasp and wiped his skin with a handkerchief that materialized out of thin air.

He Yuan cleared his throat in embarrassment. He had been too carried away by his thoughts that he acted without thinking.

"You're in my personal space." Once He Yuan took two steps back, 888 cleared his throat. "The leasers slowly lose the memories of their past lives over a period of one week to two months depending on the level of pain they went through.

-They also lose the knowledge of ever appearing in the contract space and of the taskers occupying their bodies. They become one with the memories the taskers make in their absence and end up believing it was their own actions instead."

He Yuan tilted his head to the side. "Wow. So the taskers become unsung heroes in the lives of the leasers?"

"Technically, yes. At least that is the main idea but some taskers end up leaving unnecessary baggage that end up confusing the leasers."

"Just like going into a relationship with others?"

888 nodded. "The leasers return and suddenly realize that they were no longer in love with somebody that, according to their 'memories', they were originally in love with. It leaves things a bit messy but a lot of taskers don't care.

-To them, these task realms are just like doll houses and the inhabitants, the dolls that they could play house with."

He Yuan nodded in understanding. "How do you know so much about other taskers anyway?"

888 shrugged. "It's all over the Community. Whether you want to hear it or not, you still end up hearing about it."

"What's the Community?"

"Something you're not qualified to know about just yet." 888 waved. "Finish up with whatever you need to. I'd come get you for the next task realm once I receive the prompt." And then the system disappeared from the system space.

He Yuan was left with his mouth open. He wanted to ask more about the 'Community' but 888 disappeared before he had the chance.

With a sigh, he took out the book containing knowledge of the medicine techniques of every kind of ancient task realm in existence. For a book that cost 1 exp point, it was huge!

He Yuan lit two more incense sticks and got to work. He read and read and at some point, he took a break to sleep. Once he woke up, he lit two more incense sticks and continued reading.

There was no sense of time in the system space, he tried to use the burning incense sticks as a measure but he failed.

Sometimes the sticks burned awfully slow and other times, he just had to blink and the sticks had already turned to ash.

After burning through all 39 incense sticks, he only managed to read up to half of the book. It felt like he'd spent months reading and sleeping and even changing his clothes a few times.

He didn't need to but he'd lived as a human for a long time so it felt weird to wear the same clothes over and over again.

He did all these things and yet he only got through half of the book.

888 reappeared then. He took in He Yuan's weary state and scowled. "I was gone for a few hours and you look like you're just about ready to give up. Tsk!"

He Yuan's eyes widened. "Impossible!" How could 888 have been gone for only a few hours? What happened to all the time he'd spent sleeping, reading and swapping clothes?

888 waved at his host dismissively. "The next task is ready."

[Accept Task Yes/No]

He Yuan stood up and stretched his limbs. His soul state was calm and his head was brimming with knowledge. He was ready to get the balls rolling, so he clicked Yes.