Garbage

The garbage dump was just five minutes away from the house and soon she found herself face to face with a mountain of what could only be described as metallic scrap. The garbage being dumped on the blue star was old useless mechas that had no cores and no use.

Could anything be sold from all this junk?

"Adler, over here." She heard someone shout and she was attracted to that direction.

Adler was Scarlet's oldest brother, the first born of their family and so far, the bravest among all her siblings. He was also her son Justin's self-appointed protector. Wherever he was, it was a guarantee that Justin was not far.

Just as she started to move, before her eyes appeared a human, the first she had seen on this little walk to the garbage dump. He was looking at her in what she could only define as a creepy stare but she chose to be friendly.

When in a new place, it was always best to blend in with the locals.

"Hello." She nodded politely even though she had quite a few questions like why he looked abnormal.

The person in front of her was a semitransparent man, he looked middle aged and for some reason there was a black gas emanating from him. It reminded her of the contaminated air from earth.

"Is the air on this planet contaminated as well?" she mumbled to herself.

"You can see me." The man responded in a strained voice with a question. Scarlet looked around her because his question puzzled her. He was human; of course she could see him. Was there a special reason why he was not meant to be seen?

She could feel a rattling within her body, it was annoying.

"What is going on is my space trying to escape?" She was worried and partially panicked because if it disappeared she would have no emergency supplies.

She heard the old deity's voice in her head saying, "You have just met your first soul, the rattling of your soul trapping gourd is a warning to you. Take the gourd out, open it and the rest will take care of itself."

She felt really stupid for not having realized sooner that this was no human, of course, no human was almost transparent, not even in the interstellar.

"How do I take the soul gourd out?" she was no doubt in confusion.

"Just call for it." She said.

She held her out and said, "Soul gourd."

The brown soul gourd appeared in her hand magically and she found herself becoming excited and giddy.

She opened the lid and the soul in front of her was pulled inside forcefully by an unknown force. It was such a magical shocking sight that she laughed softly. If only she had such a power back on earth! How may zombies would she have dragged into the soul gourd?

"Seal the lid." The old deity's voice said.

She did as he instructed and then looked around to see if anybody had seen what she had just done.

"The tools of your trade are invisible to everyone but you and your fellow reapers. You could suck a soul in front of a crowd of a million people and nobody would be the wiser." The deity explained.

This brought a sense of relief to her; she could go around sucking up as many souls as she wanted without a worry.

"What do I do next? How do I deliver him to the underworld?" she asked.

"At night, when you go to sleep, your soul will travel to this realm with the souls you have captured. If any soul tries to escape capture simply pull out your soul binding rope and whip them. It will simultaneously bring unspeakable pain upon that soul while binding them at the same time. When you are in the realm, open the soul gourd and release the souls, it's that simple."

"I understand." She replied. She was grateful for the old deity taking time to explain all this to her personally.

"If you have any other questions, refer to the underworld chat and trading platform. You can see both the platform and chat by calling them out just as you do your tools.

Every time you deliver a soul, you will receive soul crystals which provide power that you can cultivate and strengthen yourself. You will not be hearing my voice again unless it's an emergency. You need to figure some of these things out and walk the grim reaper path on your own. You need to discover what kind of reaper you want to be and do it soon. Are you a guardian reaper or a warrior reaper?"

"Wait," she called out because she heard a truck load of questions now that needed answers. She got no response from him however.

No matter how many times she said con man, old man or ugly man, the old deity retained his silence.

"I guess I will figure things out on my own tonight. For now, I need to figure out how I am going to survive in this world and raise a child when I am broke."

According to the bracelet on her arm which was also her personal computer terminal with access to her star net account and bank account, she was broke.

She sighed and finally moved in the direction where Adler was. This side of the garbage pile was much different from the one where she was. A group of people who were dressed in metal suits of some kind were wading through the garbage. These metallic suits had oxygen tanks at the back and long bird beak like structure masks at the front

If she had seen someone dressed like this back on earth before the zombies came, she would have gone running and screaming 'help' at the top of her voice because the metal suit was disturbing and it gave off a scary vibe from appearance.

There was a make shift factory of sorts with smoke being emitted from its shiny roof and people were carrying metallic items that were handed down by the ones in the suits to the factory.

These metallic objects were heavy, or they appeared to be heavy. Some of the transporters were hunched over and appeared to be under incredible strain as they struggled to carry the metals.

Sadly, there was no age limit to the number of people working on this garbage dump because she could see little kids in the crowd.

Her heart clenched slightly at the thought that Justin could be any one of these children. She wondered how the great mecha king could allow his son to live on such a world and suffer such tribulations over a crime had had no hand in.

Even if he hated the mother, he could at least have made an effort to make sure that his son was well raised and taken care of properly. And the royal family too!!!! Justin was related to them. Did they have to abandon him because of his mother's unscrupulous morals?

Extremely angry in the heat of the moment, she touched her bracelet and opened Scarlet Su's star net account. 'The mecha King's bride,' it was named. Scarlet Su was really obsessed with the mecha king; nothing mattered to her but him. It was time to change this obsession, her new obsession would be her son and making money.

She scoffed and smiled a devil before changing her user name to; 'I hate the mecha king.'