The Hunter mouthed four words at 888 with a enigmatic smile before disappearing with the rest of the Hunters.
The moment He Yuan turned around, he was faced with the souless look in 888's eyes. How was that even possible? He frowned. "888?"
The system remained unresponsive and He Yuan's heart lurched. "888?"
888 stood absolutely still, just staring at the space in the air where the Hunter had been with dead eyes. With no other option, He Yuan grabbed his System's hand and pulled him into the lobby.
Mimi had returned to her post by now and the minute she set eyes on 888, she flipped her purple hair back with an alarmed frown. "What happened to him?"
He Yuan barely spared her a glance before pulling 888 into the elevator and taking him back to the system space.
Inside the space, He Yuan took 888 straight to the brown sofa and sat him down. Then he waved frantically before the system's face. "888!"
Still no response.
The system's glasses had fallen off at some point and he looked lost in his own mind.
He Yuan clenched his fists in frustration. What was going on? With no other option, he sat next to his system, pulled 888 into his arms and tried to do the same thing the system had done for him when he'd been having difficulties suppressing the memories of the realms.
He had no basic idea how it worked so he just placed a hand on 888's chest and carried out the same motion was when he released qi in the Cultivation task realm.
The minute He Yuan's energy flowed into 888, a form of electric current shot through the soul essence of both system and host and they both lost consciousness.
In the quiet System space, a tiny star suddenly appeared on the foreheads of both system and host and remained there for an entire minute before slowly dissipating.
--------------------------
The next time 888 woke up, the area around him was very blurry. What was going on? He subsconsciouly felt around in search of his glasses and then froze in confusion. He could see a silhouette of whatever was beneath him and it felt very cold and plastic-ky but the shape was definitely the upper body of a person.
These proportions... He Yuan?
Why was he in He Yuan's arms? The minute he tried to detangle himself from his host, He Yuan's hands tightened around his waist.
'...'
He Yuan slowly stirred and opened his eyes then to face a severely blushing 888 in his arms. He was too worried about his System's state to register the blush. He sat up but did not let go. "888?"
888 raised a hand to his face and coughed. "En. Let go."
He Yuan finally looked down to his hands holding the system's waist and he gulped. The system's white shirt was thin so he could feel 888's mermaid line. So smooth... He quickly shook his head then and let go before asking, Are you okay?"
888 frowned. Why would he not be okay? "Where are we and where's my glasses?"
He Yuan frowned. "The system space of course, did you forget what it looked like?" He blinked. He had no idea why he suddenly lost consciousness. Could what he'd done have caused the system lose his memory?! His breath hitched. "You know who I am... right?"
888 tsked impatiently. "Why won't I? Where's my glasses?"
He Yuan finally registered the fact that 888 was looking at him but not actually looking at him. He frowned. "What happened to your eyes?"
SMACK!
888 hit his hands on the sofa in exasperation. "My glasses, He Yuan! I can't see clearly without my glasses!"
'...'
He Yuan scratched his nose. So all these while, 888 had really needed the glasses? He'd thought the silver haired man just liked to pretend to be scholarly.
He'd lost the system's glasses a while ago so he quickly entered the System marketplace in his panel for a new one. The prices of Soul medicated glasses varied from 1,000 Exp points to 5,000 Exp points. He directly bought three of the most expensive ones. One black rimmed one, one gold rimmed one and a silver rimmed one.
Once the items appeared in his storage panel, he quickly distributed his attribute points between his luck and mental fortitude in his stats panel and clicked on refresh.
[Name: He Yuan]
[Age: 28]
[Level: Intermediate]
[Experience Points: 220,000]
[Soul Energy: 1390]
[Intelligence: 475]
[Strength: 415]
[Luck: 95 (+15)]
[Charisma: 360]
[Mental Fortitude: 470 (+35)]
[Merit Points: 800]
[Belief: 2,500]
[Acquired Skills: Entry Level Medical Practitioner, Amateur At The [Strongest Martial Arts].]
[Halos: Halo Of The Undead, Halo Of The Sword Ancestor.]
He Yuan froze when he realized that his soul energy had gone from 1890 down to 1390. He eyed his system briefly. It turned out that the energy he'd used to snap 888 out of his daze was his soul energy. 500 soul energy points had gone from something that barely lasted a second.
Did that mean that 888 also used his own soul energy to aid him or something else? He Yuan really hoped it was the latter as he directly placed the silver rimmed glasses on 888.
888 adjusted the glasses with his knuckles and blinked when everything became clearer.
He Yuan was curious. He'd never met a soul with an obvious impediment. Didn't everything get cured by the Soul realm? He cleared his throat. "You've had bad eyesight right from your origin realm?"
888 froze. He didn't remember his origin realm. The earliest memory he had was opening his eyes in a vast dark void so he simply said, "No idea." And then he smoothly changed the topic, "What happened? Why are we back here?"
He Yuan raised a brow, "You don't remember?" The second the system shook his head, he quickly narrated the sequence of events, making sure to place emphasis on the being with the similarly coloured right eye as 888's.
888 frowned after hearing everything. Why had he reacted that way? Who was that Hunter and... And then he realized. "I don't have an idea what he looked like."
He Yuan frowned. "You saw him."
"Yes but..." Uneasiness creeped into 888's heart as he finished, "I can no longer remember what I saw."
Both system and host locked eyes in each other with equal degrees of seriousness.
DING!
The sound quickly broke them out of their stare down and 888 looked to the door of the System space. "It's time for your next task.
He Yuan blinked. So soon? They didn't even get the chance to see the dealer yet! His eyes lingered on 888's face for sometime before he stood up with a sigh and walked over to the office chair. "Let the leaser in."
888 walked over to stand next to his seated host before giving the leaser access.
A second later, a very beautiful woman appeared in the system space. She was about 162cm with luscious black hair, fox-like eyes, a pointed nose and red heart shaped lips. Her figure was on the fuller side which gave her a homely appearance.
"Hello." She said with a tired but polite smile.
He Yuan returned her smile and gestured at the seat opposite him.
"Thank you." The lady said softly before sitting down.
He Yuan scrutinized the leaser. He hadn't counterattacked for a woman since Cao Yuemei and honestly, he was a little apprehensive. 888 had told him that as an intermediate Tasker, he was allowed to reject one leaser during his selection. That meant that if her rejected her, he would have to accept the next leaser's task whether it was good or not.
The lady appeared very nice but it was better to get the full story first. He turned to 888, who quickly handed him the realm details.
The name of the beautiful leaser was Xu Lifen, an orphan who worked as a casheir for a small cosmetic shop. Her life had been going smoothly and simply until she met and fell deeply in love with Han Tao, the second son of the elite Han family.
The Han family was a large, three-century old one that highly valued family ties and due to the fact that the number of descendants kept decreasing with every generation, the third family head came up with a tradition that each male member was to live in the family home with their families whilst the females were free to marry out or bring their husbands in.
This was for self preservation and also to foster togetherness within the family.
By the time it got to Han Tao's father, Han Shan's, generation, there were just two males. The Hans still held onto hope for plentiful descendants but when Han Shan's brother was found to be infertile, they were filled with despair.
Luckily, Han Shan ended up having two children and they were both males so the Han family's hope was revived once more. Less than three years after the second make was born, Han Shan lost his life in an airplane crash.
Again, the Han family members were plunged into despair but at least they had heirs so they were able to cope. These two heirs were Han Tao and his younger brother, Han Jinhai. Both were policemen.
When both boys came of age, Han Jinhai had been the first to get married and the woman he married happened to be the special one of the realm, Chen Meili.