QT: Grace To Grass Counterattack System

As soon as He Yuan stepped out of the door, he appeared in a long corridor. He gave 888 a questioning look.

888 rolled his eyes. "Go on. We don\'t have forever."

He Yuan walked down to the end of the corridor noticing other doors, just like his, on the way. Must belong to other taskers, he thought.

DING!

At that sound, the wall at the end of the corridor split open and He Yuan realized it was some sort of elevator.

The tasker and system got into the elevator and 888 clicked the button going down. He Yuan\'s brow raised at this.

They soon arrived and the door opened again, revealing a huge hall. They were souls entering and leaving the hall and He Yuan was amazed. This was his first time seeing so many souls in one place.

They were some really thin souls like him and they were others with denser soul bodies. He also noticed that they were others who looked completely solid, like they had physical bodies.

Just like 888 looked. He Yuan wasn\'t sure if they were taskers with high soul energy or systems just like 888.

He Yuan walked out of the elevator. A few souls spared him a glance before walking past him and continuing on their way. A newbie tasker was nothing special to them.

888 led him to the front desk. Behind the desk was a lady with purple hair and purple eyes. Looking into her eyes gave He Yuan a headache but he had to admit she looked absolutely beautiful and maybe a little cold.

When she lifted her head and saw 888, her eyes shone and her cold aura automatically diminished. She inadvertently leaned forwards on her desk. He Yuan could not see her lower half, as she was seated, but her boobs were big enough to squash a grown man\'s head to bits.

"Hey!" She said to 888 whilst her eyes roamed the system from head to toe. He Yuan was amused. "Haven\'t seen you in a while, where have you been?"

"Work." 888 said with a shrug.

The lady giggled softly. "Well now that you\'re free, we could hang out. I acquired a good soul wine, you know my apartment\'s door is always open."

888 rolled his eyes. "That was a one time thing Mimi."

He Yuan\'s eyes bulged. They had sex?! He had always thought 888 was someone who practised asceticism seeing as the one time he touched the system\'s arm, the man went as far as to wipe his skin with a handkerchief.

He Yuan suddenly burst out laughing. When they both looked his way, he immediately straightened and walked over to the side to wait.

After a while, 888 walked up to He Yuan with a black card. "Your identification." He Yuan accepted it but kept giving the system strange looks. "What?"

He Yuan smiled. "You\'re not a virgin?"

888 looked at his host as if he was crazy. "Why on earth would you think that I am?"

He Yuan shrugged as they walked out of the building. 888 was actually drop dead gorgeous -although you\'d have to kill him to admit that out loud- so it would have been a shame if the guy was saving himself for whatever reason.

There were souls everywhere, walking about the streets. He Yuan was a little overwhelmed. Seeing so many like him just made him self conscious for no reason. Everything also seemed a little metallic. He looked back at the building they just stepped out of.

It was huge! He Yuan couldn\'t even see the top.

"Tasker\'s dorm," 888 said. "This is the starting point for all taskers."

He Yuan frowned slightly. "Starting point?"

"Hm. As long as you have enough exp points you could move out to one of the residential zones. This place, on the other hand, is the neutral zone. All kinds of newbie taskers from different origin realms live here.

-The residential zones are built to resemble different origin realms. Modern, ancient, interstellar, cultivation, you name it. So it\'s left for a tasker to choose a residential zone that feels more like home to them."

Wow, He Yuan thought. The Community functioned like a top notch organization. If not for the fact that a system\'s life was dependent on their tasker, he would\'ve given it full stars.

He Yuan wanted to know more about the systems but 888 was always so tight lipped about it so he swallowed down his questions.

They soon arrived at a bar. 888 took out a card and scanned it and then they received clearance to go in.

The place looked classy and there was soft music playing. It made He Yuan feel a little woozy, he was sure it was some sort of soul music. They weren\'t a lot of souls here so it could be that they were either completing tasks or back at the dorm.

His legs carried him to the bar and he sat down with a sigh.

"Just returned from a tough task?" A voice asked and He Yuan looked up. It was the bartender. "What can I get you?"

He Yuan shrugged. He wasn\'t much of a drinker when he was alive. Being an organ baby, his body was configured to metabolize alcohol faster so he was an extreme lightweight. Did that affect his soul?

Even if it did, He Yuan wanted to try it anyways. As a soul, his five senses were practically null and void. His own skin was like cold glass and he had no taste in his mouth. The only thing he reacted to was the items provided by the system marketplace that were specifically made to cater to souls.

A green coloured drink was pushed in front of him. He Yuan was skeptical. It looked like acid.

The bartender laughed at He Yuan\'s expression. "It wouldn\'t harm you. You look like a newbie tasker so I had to get you the lightest drink we got, you know, to ease you into it."

He Yuan nodded and grabbed the glass, tipping the drink back and drinking it all in one gulp. He felt a slight burn as the liquid travelled down his throat. It made him feel warm and alive. It was good stuff.

The bartender laughed. "Don\'t worry, the denser you get, the more of your senses activate." And then he refilled his glass and walked away to attend to other souls.

He Yuan was sipping slowly on his second serving when two girls walked up to him. The one on the right was about the same height as 888, 176cm. She had red hair, green eyes and a dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks. She also had a swimmers body.

She was dressed in black leather jeans and a red fitted vest with black boots and black knuckle gloves.

The other girl had bright green hair, held in two pigtails and black eyes. She was about 162cm and was a little on the thicker side. With fairly large bust and thighs to die for.

She was dressed in a short green gown with a flair that accentuated her figure nicely and white sneakers.

Both girls were very beautiful, almost unrealistically so. Too bad He Yuan didn\'t swing for their team.

"You have really beautiful eyes." The one dressed like an anime character said.

He Yuan\'s eyes widened. This was the first time anyone had said something nice about his eyes. That was because his irises were larger than average and resembled liquid pools of pure darkness. Unlike other people with black eyes whose collagen fibres you could see if you looked close enough, his own eyes were different.

No matter how hard you looked, you could never see past it\'s large, glossy exterior. The most you could see was your own reflection. He used to be made fun of for having eyes that resembled those of a lifeless doll. He was called creepy for it.

He used to feel very conscious about his eyes, he assumed it was one of the many defects that had prompted his parents to abandon him in a ditch. That was until he decided to stop letting it get to him after he ran away from the lab.

He offered the ladies a sweet smile.

"I\'m Akari," The anime girl said and hopped on the bar stool next to him.

"I\'m Kylie," The one dressed like a biker said.

"He Yuan," He Yuan said and took another sip of his drink. "Thanks by the way," He said to Akari. His eyes scanned the bar, looking for 888\'s figure. He soon found the system at a table with two other people.

A really tall girl. She was seated but He Yuan could tell. She had blue cropped hair and looked like she just stepped out of a goth magazine with a few amazing tattoos.

The other guy had clear caramel skin with black hair that was made into two long braids down his back. The tips were gold. He was muscular but not bulky and his honey brown eyes turned gold whenever they struck the light spilling from the window he was seated next to.

"He\'s hot," He Yuan said and when the girls looked at him questionably, he nudged his chin the the guy\'s direction.

Kylie blushed and winked at He Yuan. "That\'s Toby. He\'s my system."

Akari drank the contents of her glass in one gulp. "The girl\'s Kaede."

He Yuan raised a brow. "She\'s your system?"

"No silly." Akari giggled. "I\'m the system."

He Yuan\'s eyes widened. He never would\'ve thought. The systems were always so gloomy and serious so he had pegged the Kaede girl to be the system.

Akari hopped down from the bar stool before walking over to their table and sitting on Kaede\'s lap. Next she was practically shoving her tongue down the goth girl\'s throat.

He Yuan\'s eyes widened further and he looked around. No one reacted. Weren\'t the both of them system and host? Was this even allowed? Was it legal?!

Kylie chuckled at He Yuan\'s bewildered expression. "So, are you a tasker or a system?"

"Tasker," He Yuan said with a hand on his face. He was blushing furiously. He had no idea why he was so embarrassed.

"Where\'s your system?" Kylie asked again.

He pointed a finger in 888\'s direction.

Now it was Kylie\'s turn to be bewildered. "Ren\'s your system?"

"Ren?" He Yuan asked barely containing his laughter. He was only just realizing that the other systems used real names instead of their serial numbers.

Kylie shrugged. "He wouldn\'t tell us his name, so we all decided to give him one."

"And you guys decided to choose a name that has close meaning with benevolence and kindness?" With 888\'s character? He Yuan finally burst out laughing.

Kylie joined him in laughing. "It was meant to be ironic."

He Yuan paid 2k exp points for his shots and the both of them walked over to the table to join the others. Akari was now sitting at Kaede\'s side and Kylie sat next to Toby. He Yuan took the only available chair next to 888.

Kaede nodded at He Yuan and Toby sent him a wolfish grin before winking at 888. "Your host\'s really handsome Ren."

He Yuan\'s mind flashed to Akari kissing Kaede and he looked down with a slight blush coating his cheeks whilst 888 just rolled his eyes.

"Get your mind out of the gutter Toby. Our relationship is purely professional. Besides, I\'m attracted to women."

After spending some time with them, He Yuan returned to his space, leaving 888 behind. He really enjoyed hanging out with all of them as it actually put him at ease but he had to prepare for his next task realm.

He used 200 exp points to buy soul incense, used another 500 to buy a first aid kit and 300 to buy more hunger relieving pills and water. They helped a lot in his last task realm.

Next, he lit the incense and focused on finishing the other half of the ancient medicine book. He spent a few months but by now, he was aware that the time flow was different in his space.

He Yuan stretched his body. His head was full and he felt tired. As a soul, he wasn\'t supposed to feel tired but he used that word for lack of a better word. His entire being usually felt heavy at times like this.

He walked over to the bed and entered under the quilts. Sleeping always solved the problem. Again, it wasn\'t really sleeping but going into a state of nonexistence and existence at the same time so he used \'sleeping\' for lack of a better word.

Sometimes he wondered if he would sleep and never wake up. The thought always made him shudder.

When he woke up, he assigned his attribute points to mental fortitude and strength. He felt those two were the most important for now. He was also aware that he had received some merit points.

The achievement made him giddy. Since he had no idea what he\'d done to receive it, he just attributed it to the goodwill accumulated for treating the soldiers at the Northern frontier in his last task realm.

Refresh.

[Name: He Yuan]

[Age: 28]

[Level: Novice]

[Experience Points: 61,000]

[Soul Energy: 275]

[Intelligence: 70]

[Strength: 75 (+5)]

[Luck: 10]

[Charisma: 40]

[Mental Fortitude: 45 (+15)]

[Merit Points: 50]

[Belief: 0]

[Acquired Skills: Entry Level Medical Practitioner, Beginner At The [Strongest Martial Arts].]

As soon as He Yuan finished, 888 materialized in the space. He cocked his head to the side and asked, "How long have you known them?"

888 shrugged, he immediately knew what He Yuan was referring to. "I\'ve known Toby the longest, before he got assigned to Kylie. As for Kaede and Akari, I met them through Kylie. They became friends when Kylie and Toby encountered them in a task realm."

He Yuan\'s eyes widened. "That\'s possible?"

888 eyed his host with a deadpan expression. "Of course. The task realms are so big, you didn\'t actually think that just the luck drain from one inhabitant could cause a rift in the realm did you?

-Sometimes many different people on different continents or even the same continent in a realm siphon the luck from the realm together so multiple taskers are usually sent into a realm at the same time.

-It could be in the same city with different targets or in different continents entirely."

"Wow." He Yuan was intrigued. The task of realm fixing was even more complex than he thought. He also noticed that Kylie\'s soul was not that dense, just a bit better than his soul. "Is Kylie also a newbie?"

888 shook his head. "She just became an intermediate tasker. Kaede is also an intermediate tasker but she has been one for a while now so her soul is a lot denser that yours and kylie\'s."

He Yuan nodded. That means they were eligible to live in the residential zone. He wondered what their places looked like.

"If you have any questions, you could go to their floors in the dorm and ask them."

He Yuan raised a brow. "Aren\'t they living in the residential zone?"

888 tied his hair up with a band as he spoke, "Kylie just became an intermediate tasker, she doesn\'t have enough exp points. Kaede has enough points but she\'s very practical and isn\'t picky about where she lives."

He Yuan nodded.

"The next task is here"

[Accept Task Yes/No]

He Yuan clicked Yes. He was pumped up on all the information he learnt this time and wanted to level up quicker so he could see more of The Community and know more of the soul realm in general.