Am I funny, Alan?

"Beth, why did you try to burn Alan's soul? As a manager, you shouldn't have been so hard on a new recruit." Aqua walked forward to Beth and gave an annoyed look.

Usually Beth would have been furious at Aqua, blaming her so blatantly, especially in Death's presence, but this time she held in her anger. She felt like it was her own fault because of her expectations and anger for Alan, She escalated the situation way past what it should have been and because of her pride, she wouldn't stop harming Alan when he tried to fight back. Instead of suppressing him, she continued to harm him to the point of near perishment, which is far worse than death.

Now her own boss, the God of Death, dealt with the matter personally and she couldn't help but feel utterly ashamed of the behaviour he had to witness from her. She quickly glanced at Death, who was already standing as he looked at Alan, wondering if he was angry at her.

*Sigh*

Death sighed and reached out his hand. With it, a light ball of glowing green formed on his palm, shocking Beth and Aqua again.

"Sir! Are you going to impart a skill to him?" Aqua was the first to speak between the two in shock.

"Yes." Death replied, uncaring at the other two's disapproval.

"But...Gods may not impart a skill to their workers without justifiable reason!" Aqua once again spoke in obvious disapproval.

"Abuse of authority from Beth is justifiable enough. How will he work today? If I do nothing, he will be out for a few days." Death answered in a monotone voice.

"Sir, we can get a healer for him." Aqua interjected with her rebuke.

Death ignored her and the green orb traveled to Alan and his body absorbed the orb, making his whole body glow green.

Next moment, Alan released a beam of green energy upwards causing Beth's and Aqua to unknowingly open their mouths wide open.

'No way…' both thought in unison.

Alan's body, which was cracked and charred black all over, started to rapidly regenerate, and in no less than two seconds, his body was restored completely.

It was a miracle. His body looked brand new, like it didn't crack or be burned a few moments ago.

[Absolute Restoration Activated]

A system prompt rang inside Alan's head as he fully regained his consciousness, hearing the annoying system voice in his head for a while made Alan hold his head "Urgh...what happened?" He asked as he noticed Death, Beth and someone he didn't recognise.

Soon, though, the events against Beth flashed through his mind as he quickly stood up and stepped a few steps away from her.

Beth folded her arms in displeasure at Alan's blatant caution at her.

"Hello, Alan." Death said with a deadpan face.

"Oh...hey boss." Alan awkwardly answered, as he was still wary of Beth.

Noticing it, Death cracked a small smile " Don't worry about Beth, I'm sure she won't do anything rash again. You...just set her heart on fire the first time!" He once again raised his voice at the end.

"..."

The cemetery was dead silent.

Beth gave a small blush at Death's remark and wanted to burn everything but restrained herself as she felt cringed at Death's words.

Aqua wanted to facepalm and drag Death back to his river and let him do whatever he was doing there. 'Why does he keep doing this…'

'Another faile-' Seeing no reaction, Death was about to feel disappointed again, but then he heard something.

"Ha...ha...ha…" Alan was cringing inside from Death's pun and everyone being silent just made the whole thing awkward so he thought to give a pained and awkward laugh to ease the atmosphere.

What he didn't expect, though, was that Death just appeared in front of his face with wide eyes of shock "Did you just laugh? That was a laugh, yes?"

Alan was lost for words as he looked at Death and felt like he could see a sparkle in his dead abyss like eyes. He just didn't have the heart to tell Death he laughed out of pity, "Yes...it was a laugh." He simply answered.

Beth and Aqua were speechless 'A laugh? You found it funny? LIAR!' They both wanted to scream as clearly they did not believe Alan.

Though they didn't, it was a different story for Death as he gave a small smirk but then returned to his normal expression as he coldly asked, "So, am I funny, Alan?"

Alan felt a shiver down his spine, this cold hard glare was the same one Death had before he died. He felt his undead life in danger and all because Death wanted to hear his answer of whether or not he was funny.

'If I answer wrong, will I die? You have got to be kidding me!' Alan thought as he wondered how to answer Death.

'Should I say yes?' Alan was in a dilemma. Death was not funny with his jokes or puns, and Alan didn't exactly want to lie to him.

However, Alan felt that if he answered no, Death might actually destroy him and he was just healed a few moments ago. 'What to do…'

Beth and Aqua also wanted to hear Alan's answer as they knew that he couldn't blatantly say no and if he said yes, he would have to look very believable or Death might destroy him for lying.

The look Death was giving Alan revealed to them he was very alert and in full concentration. It meant that Death would pick up the slightest change in Alan's speech.

'Why is he so serious about this...if only he could show this much attention to his other work…' Aqua lamented with some frustration.

"Um...you still need to work on your punchlines and timing, also you have to give some emotion to your voice or the jokes sound dry. I believe you have great potential to be funny, boss." Finally, Alan came up with an answer that he felt was quite reasonable and a method he used back as a doctor, when his colleagues would ask him for his opinions. He didn't flat out reject his passion in this case but also wouldn't lie to him, so he gave some feedback for Death to improve his humour, to suggest he can be funny.

Death stopped his frosty glare and nodded with a smirk 'I made the right choice. Glad the skill I gave can be justified now'

Death walked away, with Aqua following him into a dark shadow portal that opened up, but before he stepped in, he turned around and said, "Alan, head back and finish your tasks. Waste no more time here." After that, he entered the portal.

'So it was pointless to come here…' Alan thought in disappointment as he understood Death's meaning.

Alan gave a nod and bid farewell to Beth as well, who just sat back down grumpily, but she didn't fight Alan this time and let him go.

[Teleporting User back to the living world]