As soon as He Yuan arrived at the system space, he looked around eagerly. [888?]
After a few minutes of silence. [Eh? Coming.]
The system sounded okay so He Yuan let out a breath of relief. Normally, he would take a rest first but he was very curious about the evaluation of his performance. He looked down at his arms and was pleasantly surprised. Immediately, he clicked on his stats panel.
[Test Result: Performed fairly satisfactorily. Promoted To Intermediate Tasker.]
[Name: He Yuan]
[Age: 28]
[Level: Intermediate]
[Experience Points: 100,000 (+75,000)]
[Soul Energy: 690]
[Intelligence: 205]
[Strength: 315]
[Luck: 45]
[Charisma: 115]
[Mental Fortitude: 265]
[Merit Points: 100 (+500)]
[Belief: 100 (+200)]
[Acquired Skills: Entry Level Medical Practitioner, Amateur At The [Strongest Martial Arts].]
[Halos: Halo Of The Undead, Halo Of The Sword Ancestor.]
[Test Task Hence No Attribute Points Allocated.]
He Yuan's reevaluated stats made him giddy with excitement. Seeing as he'd crossed the lower limit for his soul energy, his soul wasn't so thin and transparent anymore. Before, one could easily see through his soul but now, he was a little translucent. Good!
He also noticed that one of his skills had levelled up from Beginner to Amateur. His merit and belief points also made him sigh in bliss. His intermediate test task was really a blessing in disguise.
888 had once told him that for every realm he gained merit and belief points, he was going to subsequently gain 50 points after each task. Meaning if he performed well enough to earn merit points from three different tasks, subsequently, he was going to earn 150 merit points after each future task.
This number would increase the more merit points he earned from each task. It was the same for belief points.
He Yuan clicked on the System Marketplace next. With his promotion, more sections would be available to view and he couldn't wait to see what he could get from those sections.
However, before the static was cleared, a prompt appeared before him.
[Promotion To Intermediate Tasker Successful, Additional System Space Area Unlocked.]
He Yuan frowned in confusion. What did that mean? He ignored the prompt. 888 was on his way here so he'd let the system explain that to-
DING!
He turned around, brows raised and was surprised to find an extra door in his system space. "Oh!" He Yuan slapped a palm against his forehead as he finally remembered. 888 had told him after his first official task that 'the higher his level, the more space he would be allocated.'
So this was what the silver haired man meant.
He Yuan walked over and pushed the door open. The new room had a metallic tint, just like his first room had been when he newly became a tasker.
This wouldn't do. He needed to redecorate.
Unlike the other room, He Yuan discarded the white and green wall design and also the green flooring with forest design. Settling instead for white walls with turquoise coloured cloud designs and cyan flooring.
He discarded the queen sized bed and bought a king sized bed this time. He didn't need to worry about space anymore so he felt the need to be lavish. He used silver beddings and cyan drapes this time.
He also bought a pure white fluffy rug as a centre piece and several colourful throw pillows to form a heap in the middle. Next he placed a bigger wardrobe, a couple of wall designs and incense holders stuck to the wall. For finishing, he bought a fluffy sofa and a little glass table and placed it at one end of the room, against the wall.
At the end of his little decoration, He Yuan sighed in satisfaction. The metallic room had been transformed into a safe space in varying shades of greenish-blue hues. A colour he was beginning to love. A colour he would never admit he liked because of 888's eyes.
He always wanted to ask how come 888 ended up with silver hair and cerulean blue eyes. These features weren't common but knowing the system, the man would just roll his eyes and ignore him so He Yuan didn't bother to ask.
Next, He Yuan walked to the outer room and transfered all the current decorations to his system panel. After that, he bought a pure white wall design and white tiling as the base design for the room.
Since he planned on receiving his clients here, he needed to give it a professional outlook. He needed these leasers to take him seriously when negotiating soul energy prices. He placed two brown sofas with a white marble center table on a brown rug and a book shelf by the side.
His earlier office table and chair remained. From the new section of the System Marketplace, a bar option was listed so be dedicated one part of the room to a mini bar, he would need to go out later to get drinks for the bar as those were surprisingly unavailable on the S.M.
He also placed several incense holders on strategic spots on the wall. At the end of his little exercise, He Yuan realized he'd spent 25,000 exp points. He flinched a bit but did not pay too much attention to the loss. He would just earn more later.
Walking to his inner room, He Yuan spent an extra 5,000 exp points on new clothes and settled on a semi formal look this time. White dress shirt with the top two buttons open tucked in fitted black formal pants, black loafers, an obsidian watch and, of course, his black choker.
Looking in the mirror, He Yuan sleeked his hair back, showing a clean spotless forehead. His large eyes were in full view and his heart shaped lips blood red. He was satisfied. Very satisfied.
888 finally arrived in front of the system space after wandering about for a bit in order to make it look like he wasn't too eager to see his host. Why he suddenly felt conscious of such a fact, he had no idea but he blamed it all on the absurd conversation he had with Toby.
He suddenly thought back to Toby's comment about the possibility of not being He Yuan's type and he scoffed. What a joke. He was this amazing, how could he not be anybody's type?
888 pushed the door open and walked in but then he frowned. Where did He Yuan go? At that moment, He Yuan walked out of a door that 888 had failed to notice at first glance and 888's breath hitched in his throat as his eyes widened.
He Yuan's eyebrows raised in surprise when he caught sight of the system and he walked closer with a bright smile. "Hi." When 888 just stood and stared, his heart began to beat faster. Nothing bad had happened in his absence right? The system hadn't been punished again right? A look of distress filled his eyes.
888 just stared at He Yuan before his brain registered his host's word and he took a step back, fiddling with his glasses to hide his embarrassment as he answered, "Hello."
He Yuan let out a breath of relief before cocking a brow with the impish smile plastered on his face once more. "Look at you, being exceptionally polite. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were a clone." When 888 sent him his usual glare, He Yuan burst into laughter.
After laughing to his heart's content, He Yuan spread out his arms, giving 888 a good view of himself. "So~ What do you think?"
888 froze once more. Why was He Yuan suddenly asking him to appraise his look? He put up a nonchalant front and gave He Yuan a proper once over. And then he gulped. He Yuan's hair was mostly styled in a way that covered his eyes as the man was usual sensitive to eyes that he claimed were defects.
With his hair sleeked back, 888 could see the full view of He Yuan's face and he had to admit, he was a little awed -scratch that, he was amazed. He could swear He Yuan never looked this good. His clothes were a perfect fit and the open buttons on his chest revealed his well muscled chest. The choker was wrapped around He Yuan's neck, constantly brushing against the man's Adam's apple as it bobbled softly.
888 gulped slightly and looked away, fiddling with his glasses once more to hide his blush at the embarrassment from paying too much attention to his host. What was He Yuan's type?... Toby! 888 finally conceded and gave He Yuan a nonchalant look and an eye roll. "Yeah, yeah, you look stunning no need to brag."
He Yuan eyes widened. What? Slowly, his smile increased. "Awww, that was the first proper compliment from you and I feel really honoured..." His smile turned into a smirk, "...But as much as I love the compliment, I was actually referring to my soul state and not my looks."
888's eyes widened in shock and his face flushed blood red in embarrassment. He wanted to die. This was the most embarrassing event that had happened in all of his existence. How could he have made such a dumb mistake?!
He pushed He Yuan away and walked over to the office chair. He noted all of the changes He Yuan had put up in the room and decided to place all his attention on them instead.
He Yuan was slightly dumbfounded by 888's odd behaviour and followed after. "Wow. I didn't know you wanted to talk about my looks that much. You didn't even answer the question once you realized I was referring to my soul state."
888 wanted to die all over. This bastard! He was very glad his back was to He Yuan so his host couldn't see his embarrassed expression. Again, how could he have made such a dumb mistake?! He took a couple of breaths before turning around and giving He Yuan's soul state a proper look.
His brows raised in surprise. He Yuan's soul form had solidified a lot more -it was a huge leap. To the extent that he almost had the same density as Kylie who had moved past her intermediate test task for a while now.
He Yuan finally noticed 888 giving him a proper look so he excitedly explained how he'd merged Mo Sheng's cultivation method, the Duoluo sect martial arts cultivation techniques and the [Strongest Martial Arts]. Seeing the look of surprise in 888's eyes, he began to walk around with his chest raised. He was really happy about his little achievement.
888 looked as He Yuan walked about with amusement in his eyes and then he narrowed his eyes. "You're asking for praise aren't you?"
He Yuan's eyes widened and he gasped dramatically as he placed a palm on his chest. "I would never~ It's not as if I managed to merge three different cultivation methods and in so doing unlocked a-"
"Oh shut up," 888 cut him off with an eye roll. "Although I have to admit, merging different cultivation methods is hardly ever successful and I think it was quite brilliant of you."
"And the surprise continues. Two honest compliments in the span of a few minutes. My heart can't stand it," He Yuan said with his face split in the biggest shit eating grin in the universe.
888's face morphed into a horrified glare and both men began chuckling.
Inwardly, 888 kept smacking himself repeatedly for letting Toby's words get to him and He Yuan was blissful finally knowing that 888 was alright and his stupid mistake hadn't led to detrimental consequences in the system's life.
Seconds later both men realized they'd been looking at each other with soft smiles and 888 looked away awkwardly, face slightly flushed.
He Yuan suddenly thought of the aphrodisiac hallucination in his last task realm and he burst out laughing.
888 frowned. "What?"
He Yuan shook his head as his laughter increased. "Believe me, you do not want to know."