Beginner's Apple

"Hah! Who do you think you are?!"

The gangster spoke out his mind, caring little for the consequences of his words.

The child did not care for the attitude the gangster displayed towards him.

"Oh! Sorry for the dialect, I was the instructor for another group you see, unfortunately they died their second time."

Everyone was ghastly white, the child nonchalantly spoke of death without the others getting perplexed. Their perspective of death was natural to a human with morals.

"Sorry for my manners, welcome to your trial! My name is M, your inspector as of today."

"Excuse me, what is the trial?"

He really couldn't feel much what was happening to them, it was best to get over it and work with what you were given. Everyone began calming down after the sudden out of the blue response by himself.

"The truth will come gradually, as of now, I can only tell you that you were chosen." A childish smile appeared once more, he closed his eyes in delight, clasped his hands together and tilted his head. If it wasn't for the situation in front of them, he would definitely be a cute child, but that smile was akin to that of the devil to them.

"Chosen by the being to find the missing link, you will be given tasks to complete. For each task, you are given the ability to ask me anything, though it must fit certain requirements."

"He has given you a fruit bore from your talents and your growth."

He pulled out of thin air and began ripping a hole in the space. With some effort, he began rummaging throug the tear, each mistaken movement would shake his trunk, which gave an unsettling feeling to the group, the female in particular was squeamish.

Four different colored apples were pulled out and tossed towards them, no matter the trajectory, each throw was perfect and allowed them to catch with ease.

"He has taken accounts of your wisdom, knowledge, and intent and given you guys the easiest measure of strength possible. Other world will have different but the apple will giveyou all the things you need."

The female began to silently mouth out words, the angel seemed to catch what she said.

"Yes, these apples did come from 'that' tree. You humans of Earth have many names for it. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and Yggdrasil. Of all races, humans were always the skeptics of such belief."

The female confirmed her thesis and had a stern face.

"Woah, it's just like a game!'

The blonde highlight dude spoke aloud for everyone to hear.

"You may believe whatever it is, I will now take my leave, I will come back eventually when you manage to complete your task at hand. The moment you are ready, you may leave the space and your objective will start."

The child slowly dissipated into numerous particles and was swept away by the wind.

"Woah, that was cool!"

He did not care of what they had just encountered, and even the subtle drop of their deaths was known too. When M spoke about another group he took care of, he told them they died twice. Death was most likely permanent which meant that in some form of similarity, they must have already died in the past. Including them.

A coping mechanism developed by doctors usually was to make jokes no matter the occasion, it was a form of defense against all the deaths that occur near them.

"So lets get with introductions. My name is Lu Tong, I'm a second year in S-University! Age is 19. What's yours!"

His cheerful behavior after death shared little care of the surrounding, he was fully immersed in the events.

"Bah, lets get this over with, name's Wan Lie, people call me Fist. Anyone who met with my arms were left in body bags. Anyone who asks for my age will also be in one."

He must be quite old, many people thought

"You have a nickname, thats no fair! Call me Tiger then!"

Lu Tong had no qualms about such matters, Wan Lie looked the way he was perceived, a typical gangster belonging to a gang or something to that effect. His nickname was most likely required from the way he fought.

"Sure, lets call you kitten then!"

The black hair gave a remark about his proposed nickname. Nicknames were usually given by those older and from ones achievements or incidents.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, I forgot my introductions, my name is Xiao Long. I'm the youngest of a dojo my grandfather runs."

"Oh, so you can do those kicks and stuff?"

"Our dojo focuses mainly on weapons but yeah, we do those. I particularly like the spear."

Lu Tong was very excited to hear someone with expertise over weapons in this day and age. Plus someone with experience was all the better, he might be able to give some pointers if they needed.

"M-My-My name is Yue Ying. I am from C-University and I'm 19.."

She blushed.

"Woah! C-University? That's like one of the top 3 schools in the whole world, the prized university of China!"

And yours?"

All looked expected at him.

"Me? I don't even know. I can't..remember."

Many were left in silence. Lu Tong who was always hyper about new people stopped as well. If you really think about it, they did just have an experience after death which meant one could have extreme trauma during the whole process. Maybe he had a slow and gruesome death. Everyone grew extremely sympathetic to the man in front.

He really couldn't remember much from his past life, all but general education about his country and the world was all that was left.

"Well...Let's be done with that, let's just call him..."

He was stumped, beside from making a nickname for himself, he couldn't really come up with anything.

"Just call me Ji Han for now."

Some pain was on his face, it was a much stranger occurrence that everyone except for him did not remember anything.

"Okay!"

They had quick moments talking about their lives and dreams.

Lu Tong wanted to be a football player. He had great skills in sports and got a sponsorship, though his grades were gradually falling.

Wan Lie simply spoke that the occupation he was in shouldn't be told to kids like them, though it was blatantly obvious what he was centered around, talking about his deadly fists and all.

Xiao Long was just gonna succeed the dojo afterwards, he wanted to be the number one in the entirety of China as the number one.

Yue Ying was currently in C-University, taking multiple courses throughout, she was gonna major in Biology but the classes were all occupied, so she joined multiple mythology courses made for one term. Her parents, were poor and she entered through a scholarship, they respected her wishes and with her own sweat and tears, rose to where she was at right now. Taking these courses wouldn't be very helpful at all in society, but as of now, it would most likely be important.

Ji Han? Well, it was quite obvious he didn't know his own aspirations when he was in the modern world.

Well that was all the talks were about and there was nothing stopping them from keeping their conversation. But the apple in hand was inevitable.

They both carefully looked at the apple. Each apple was quite different.

Lu Tong had a very vibrant colored apple that had streaks and faded orange on his.

Wan Lie wasn't very happy with his apple in particular since it was very plain and grey seams were all around, making it seem spoilt or bland.

Yue Ying had a perfectly green apple and the strong smell of trees was smelt. All had already chewed on their apples and were all dazed, all that was left was Ji Han.

His apple was the most common looking apples, with a red glistening and some faded colors of its ripeness. He chew into it. The taste of any ordinary apple was spreading throughout his mouth. But the moment he swallowed, a strange sign appeared in front.

[Consumed a ??? Apple]

[Gaining Earth's Database..]

[Readjusting....]

[Completed!]

[Scanning Body...]

[Scanning Soul...]

[Scanning Mind...]

[Scan Completed!]