Helpful(?) Monkey

"Hey Sun, you were the one looking after #1L4N0-4, right?" a man in celestial robes approached the monkey who was busy lazing in the sun.

"Oh, you mean the little spirit who wasn't cultivating? Yeah, I took care of her," he affirmed.

He sat up and looked at his colleague. Did the little spirit with his system already do something interesting? It had not been that long, just a few hundred millennia.

"What about her?" the monkey asked eagerly.

"Whatever you did, for some time after you left the island absorbed even more energy than allocated. It almost became a headache, but now she fell dormant and is only passively absorbing energy, wasting a lot of it." his colleague explained.

"Going from one extreme to the other isn't good, maybe you should pay another visit?" the celestial suggested with a friendly smile.

"I will go and have a look." Sun nodded and lazily smiled back. Although they were official deities, they were all only working in the lower management. It had its perks. One did the work of a gopher but the time management was rather lax.

His thoughts went back to the little island spirit. It was quite an interesting situation. She didn't know the Great Island Sutra despite being born a spirit and took the form of a human right after birth.

At that point, it was obvious that something had gone wrong somewhere. Normally young spirits would not have a fixed form or choose something like a rock. Everything pointed to her remembering fragments of her former life.

The monkey stepped into the void and appeared in a small crystal cave where he found the spirit laying on the floor, as if asleep.

"Hey! Hello? Can you hear me?"

When she did not react he started shaking her.

...

Chasing the memory of the cool breeze and the grass below her bare feet she had fallen in deep slumber. Savoring the foreign emotion she could not understand. Eilan wanted more. She tried to remember more.

However, the more she tried to remember, the harder it became to grasp on the shred of memory she had. She was caught in a loop of trying to remember more and grasping tightly onto what she had, in fear of losing it again.

It was then, that a new sensation was introduced to her. Pain. Like lightning, it ran through her body and she couldn't help but gas when somebody slapped her on the cheek. Eilan had never felt pain before but she was immediately familiar with it.

This was not a bittersweet reunion. She could have done without ever experiencing pain. With the sudden pain surfaced baseless anxiety, fear, and rage.

Before she knew what she did, her body had already jumped off the ground and threw a kick at her attacker.

The monkey evaded her amateurish kick easily and caught the girl's leg.

"Good reflexes, bad form. Calm down, I just tried to wake you up. If I hurt you, I'm sorry." the monkey who slapped her awake apologized.

"Monkey?" she asked confused. Although it had been eons since she saw him last time, there was not that much going on, so she remembered their last meeting quite vividly.

"Oh no!!" she gasped.

She had lost her grasp on the memory. As if she had woken up from a dream, the fleeting memory and the bittersweet emotion were almost gone.

"No, no, no." she kept saying and tried to remember as tears of sorrow started flowing down her still wet cheeks.

"What is going on?" the monkey asked, pulling her attention back to him.

"it's your fault!"

She tried to attack and relieve these terrible feelings, but the monkey dealt with her like an adult with a child. Which was pretty much exactly the situation. No matter what she did, Sun easily evaded her.

When he caught both of her wrists, she finally lost her drive and sank down, crying. But a sudden pull on her wrists brought her back to her feet and the money-esque face was right in front of her nose.

This supervisor did not let her wail in her own misery.

"Explain," he said in an authoritative tone and she was compelled to tell him everything. It simply flooded out of her. The memory, the weird new emotions she couldn't explain. Her irrational fear, sorrow, and rage upon losing the connection.

Eilan didn't know how to deal with these feelings that had pent up in her but as everything fell out of her mouth, she inexplicably started feeling a lot better. As if talking about it, flushed it out of her system.

Her tears had long dried when she ended her monologue. The monkey had just silently listened, as she got everything off her soul.

Now, he still remembered the scene of the hill and the feeling it caused but she had broken out of the terrifying loop she had been caught in. Similarly, she remembered the fear of pain and the sorrow of loss but, right now, she simply felt better after simply talking about it.

The monkey just nodded after she ended her story. He pondered for while before he signaled for her to sit on the ground. He sat down opposite of her.

"Do you know of reincarnation, Eilan?" he suddenly asked.

The word rang something in her, but she couldn't quite grasp it. She shook her head. Sun sighed.

"Every living being has a soul. You and me, we have a soul. When our life ends, we don't simply vanish. Our souls enter the post-processing where our memories are sealed, so we can begin our next lives without burdens. I suspect that something went wrong for you, during this process.

"Sealed...?" Eilan mumbled.

"It's nothing tragic, it happens sometimes. They might retain some of their previous personalities or remember snippets and fragments of their previous life. It's normally not a big deal since simply living would quickly wash those away. It's just a little more complicated since you were born as a spirit"

"How can i... unseal my memories?" she interrupted him.

Eiland had not really listened. She desired to know more. What was the importance of the hill? Why was remembering it so bittersweet? No matter how hard she tried, she had not managed to find out alone.

"Fine, I will get to the point. There are two ways that will absolutely let you remember everything." the monkey lifted three fingers.

"You either die or become a true deity." he continued mysteriously.

"How do I become a true deity?" she immediately asked. her whole being shrunk back from the word death, although she was not really familiar with the concept.

"You can't. At least, you won't be able to for a very long time. However, there is a third option."

"Why didn't you say that immediately?" the island spirit asked annoyed.

"I already gave you a hint by lifting three fingers, you slowpoke," he said mischievously.

"Also, the third option can't help you remember everything. You can try to chase the memories you remember and try to unravel them from behind the faulty seal," he explained.

"How do I do that?" Eilan asked. The way the monkey spoke, this method seemed feasible.

"You were already on a good way. You recreated the hill you remembered. The problem is that it#s still too early for you and this world. Your level in the Great island Sutra is too low to sustain life, like vegetation."

"So I just need to cultivate diligently? What level do I need?" she interrupted eagerly.

"Unfortunately, it isn't that easy. It needs at least lv.4, but even if you reach it, the world is still too young to bring forth life. The oceans are still toxic and the skies are filled with fire and ashes. What you really need to do now is patiently cultivate and wait."

"Wait..." she mumbled dejectedly.

"Look, at least it's a chance. You should use this time to grow so that you are ready for when the time comes. I promise you, the moment life appears, everything will happen really fast." Sun reassured her with an amused smile.

"Maybe even too fast for you." he added in his mind.