3 Can't trust anyone

A few hours ago,

"Father I have never seen this type of soul before. Can you able to recognize it ?" Eva asked her father curiously.

A/N: From now on, unless exclusively mentioned it's level 1 (Surface) underworld.

Her father, current chief of the eastern underworld Arthur, was undergoing various turmoil in his heart. Greed, surprise, excitement, sorrow, and various emotions seemed to have entangled in a complex mix. He was very well aware of the high potential soul but he was not sure how to differentiate between different high-level souls.

One can't blame him because it was extremely rare to even encounter an above-average soul let alone a very high potential soul with a limitless future. A very defining feature of the high potential soul was its purple color instead of red color but the one in front of him was dark purple with a symbol on it. He couldn't figure out what the symbol denoted no matter how much he thought. If a 21st-century man from Earth saw that symbol, he could instantly recognize its shape.

It was a truck …

Yes, a truck, not an ancient dragon or a powerful phoenix or a matchless sword. It was a normal day-to-day truck. Even an immortal would be speechless looking at that. But the reality was reality. Arthur had no choice but to give up as trucks were still absent in the underworld. Moreover in his mind, it was some almighty existence that surpassed his understanding and how can he connect it to a mortal world toy?

Even if he was beaten to death he would refuse to believe that it was from a mortal world where it's mostly used for trash transporting purposes. Even Eva who had read countless books from her childhood believed that it was something extraordinary. One of her reason was the phenomenon that happened as the soul descended to the underworld.

According to the guard who witnessed it, he heard of a massive roar as if some kind of beast had woken up from its slumber. Also, he saw a peculiar metal monster that had no eyes and no feet. He was so frightened at that moment that he forgot to record the whole thing.

If Eva had seen a truck and heard its engine roar, she wouldn't be too surprised. But the place she was in clouded her judgment. If one had lived so many years in the underworld, he or she would naturally search for answers by going through the already existing knowledge, not new knowledge. After all, everyone was cognitive misers.

Arthur finally snapped out of his shock and slowly came to a decision. He said in a solemn voice. "We can't let anyone know about this at any cost. If word gets out, who knows maybe those monsters from deeper level could slaughter their way here just to get hold of this soul."

Eva suddenly sobered up from her excitement and nodded seriously " I will take care of that guard and all those people who came in contact with this soul."

Arthur never bothered about insignificant lives so he agreed readily. "Now first we need to decide what we are going to do with this soul. If we sell this in the market we would be able to get an astronomical sum of crystals but it will also expose our location."

Eva nodded " Yes, although resources are paramount to us considering our situation, it might bring more harm than benefit if we hastily try to get rid of this hot potato. In my view, we should nurture this soul properly and use it in the next battle. It will finally end our losing streak in the competition and finally, we could take some revenge for my late Mother."

Arthur sighed and his eyes became misty as he remembered his late wife's sacrifice. If not for his daughter's future he would have long slaughtered his way through his enemy's area. He was not very interested in a power struggle as he knew everything was temporary. Anyone could snatch anything in the underworld with sufficient power. It was just a matter of time before his demise anyway, but he wanted to create a solid future for his daughter before that happens.

"It's not as easy as you said. It will be very hard to reach the levels of those geniuses of other areas in a short period. Moreover, we still have to spend a massive amount of resources to nurture this soul. Time is one thing we don't have at the moment. There is a high chance that we would not even win a single match this time. If that happens our fate won't be in our hands anymore ."

How could Eva not know this? Every day she was looking hard at various research data and analyses of previous competitions to come up with a strategy to win this time. But till now nothing concrete had materialized. If things progressed at this rate she knew everything was over before the new soul could even mature.

"We don't know anything about the nature of this soul. So let's understand its potential before we can make any decision." Eva said after thinking about a while.

Arthur agreed "Since we need to induct the soul anyway. Let's use a high-grade body that's befitting to this soul potential. Since we are already at our wit's end, let's not be stingy at this point."

Eva sighed and nodded reluctantly. She was in charge of the financial management of the family and thanks to her effort somehow they could float above the water. She was aware of one of the reasons for their situation which was the extravagant lifestyle of the family but nothing mattered anymore.

"Alright, let's get started. Hopefully, this hot potato is somewhat useful."

****

Leo was dumbstruck. He was expecting some sort of different world like Blue polar Earth or twin moon Earth which were similar to Earth. 'Seems like I can't trust those novels completely.'

"Wait! What do you mean by underworld? Is it another name for hell? Am I dead? But where is Yama ? or big boiling pot that can torture humans alive?"

Listening to Leo's series of questions, it was the father and daughter pair's turn to be dumbfounded.

" What Yama? What boiling pot ?" Arthur looked confused and asked Eva.

Eva seemed to have remembered something and said with a smile. "It's natural to have some preconceived notion about the underworld. The hell you are talking about doesn't exist. But living conditions in this underworld are very harsh and it can be regarded as hellish. Also, those mythical Yama doesn't exist in the underworld."

After a lot of questions and answers, Leo got some idea about the underworld. Suddenly he remembered something.

"So I am a soul from the mortal world that has no relation whatsoever to this underworld?"

Eva and Arthur nodded as a matter of fact. Leo was ecstatic for the first time in his heart.

'At least I am not related to this hot girl. There is always a silver lining.'

Eva felt something wrong with Leo's gaze but couldn't point out exactly what was wrong. Leaving that matter aside, she asked "Leo, I will give you a few books and crystals. Read the instructions carefully and start to cultivate. Once you start your cultivation, you can easily sense changes in your soul. The moment you sense any change, you have to inform me. Is that alright?"

Leo could sense the anticipation and excitement in her voice. He nodded with a smile. After they left with a few more instructions his mood suddenly became solemn. He couldn't possibly trust anyone easily in the underworld if what the pair said was correct. He was aware of the universal principle that there was no such thing as free lunch.

'They are being too kind. It's very fishy. I need to first understand my situation before taking any countermeasure .'

Leo started his research with the help of books left behind by Eva.

Just as he was getting a hang of the underworld.

[System initializing, countdown 5

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4

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3

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2

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1

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[Congratulations host. Creation system successfully installed. Please open the system space for further information]

Leo was stunned. He was thrilled beyond words. 'It seems like the time spent on those novels was not wasted. The existence of the System is real and I am the living example after all. Let's quickly look at the functions of the system.'

[Creation system: Everything is possible at an equivalent price. All the infinite possibilities are just a matter of imagination. But if the price doesn't match with the creation there is a high possibility that host life would be taken as compensation]

Leo was taken aback by the immense power of the system. He became slightly scared all of a sudden as he realized if someone other than him came to know about this he would be ruthlessly made into a grinding machine to create all sorts of things.

'My fate is not at my hands currently as it is a dog-eat-dog world here in the underworld. I better first think of a way to preserve my pitiful life otherwise even if I am sitting on a mountain of gold I would be nothing but a corpse dog .'