A Tour of Realm 2063

Rosa began climbing down the ladder inside the purgatory laboratory leading to hell. She then wandered the streets along with the other scientists inspecting the robots for functionality before the souls arrived for the weekend. She had been doing this same routine for the last 500 years, ever since Eve first created her.

She carried with her a tablet. Many people on earth have incorrectly assumed that humans were created in the image of god. The opposite is true however, as it is God that changes herself based on the images of man. When Eve created the first bacterial life forms, she had no idea the extent to which they would evolve. As humans changed the world, she would change the world realms of heaven as well to accompany their innovations. The escalators, for example, were only built roughly 100 years ago, a few years after their invention.

As Rosa began checking one of the gambling buildings, a notification suddenly sprouted up on her tablet.

"Meet me at the underground station of Hell 206."

Rosa raised an eyebrow. It was rare for Eve to visit the modern realms. She much preferred olden times like the Roman period with a hell consisting mostly of coliseum battles and a heaven consisting mostly of farming. As she pondered those thoughts, an image suddenly appeared on her tablet.

"What the..."

It was the image of a fluffy cat getting out of the water.

"Isn't she cute!" the text below read. "Cats are honestly the best thing I've ever created."

Rosa sighed before replying.

"You didn't create that. Your creatures evolved into cats."

"Yeah, whatever, I'm still taking credit! The other goddesses don't have anything half as cute!"

It really amazed Rosa how Eve could act and talk in such a way. Apparently even omniscient rulers were controlled by the power of fluffy cats.

"So what is it, why are you coming?" she typed.

"Straight to the point huh? Alright, guess I will be as well."

Rosa blinked twice as she read the next message.

"I'm thinking about ending humanity."

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As Xing Yue and Turen reached the end of the escalator, there they saw a bunch of small doors etched at the bottom of the heavenly gates where scientists were freely entering and leaving.

"What even is the point of this gate?" Turen asked.

"Oh, it's just aesthetics. Eve evolved each realm to roughly match what people thought heaven would look like."

"That's uh… considerate I guess?"

The two of them walked through one of the doors.

"So, what do you think?"

"This… this…"

Turen looked in every direction taking in the image of his first look into a heavenly realm.

"This is exactly the same as Earth!"

"Yeah… I told you, didn't I? The goddess made it like this for practical purposes. Give everyone a world that their used to you know? Other worlds are modeled the same. World 1045 for example, has a variety of medieval buildings"

"Can we go there instead?"

"No,"

"Dammit"

The two of them began walking down the cement sidewalk. Around them were multiple skyscrapers mixed in with smaller restaurant buildings not too different than Beijing or other major cities in the world.

"You want to get some dumplings?" Xing Yue asked.

"How does that work? Don't souls not need food?"

"Well, we don't need anything. But you retain your taste buds here. They have to give the chefs that spent their life's work on their craft some sort of job you know? And who doesn't love food? You can eat as much as you want here and not get fat. They even have robots deliver the food since no one willingly to work a service job."

"That does sound pretty good."

Xing Yue made a turn at one of the street's intersections. As they began walking by other souls, Turen noticed that they all avoided Xing Yue. Not only would they look the other way, but many of them purposely walked to the other side of the street to not cross paths. Xing Yue looked down at the ground each time they did.

"So, what exactly is a job here then?" Turen asked, "You mentioned chefs are still employed but also there's no money right?"

"Well, you don't have to do a job if you don't want to. Most people just want to because they're pursuing what made them happy on Earth."

"Do you work?"

"Yeah"

"What do you do?"

"…."

Xing Yue paused for a moment as they arrived at the dumpling restaurant.

"Xing Yue?"

She turned to him and gave a weak smile.

"How about some food first?"

After the initial conversation, Turen did not attempt to ask Xing Yue again about her job. Instead, he relaxed the rest of the day as Xing Yue took him to various spots in Realm 2063 such as a walk in the local park, crepes at a desert café, and finally, bowling at the local alley. If this had happened on earth, Turen would have been over the moon spending a day alone with a pretty girl. Unfortunately, anywhere they walked, there was a looming shadow as other souls continued to avoid Xing Yue at all costs.

"Are you afraid of me?" Xing Yue asked as she picked up the next ball for her turn in bowling. The other souls had cleared at least 2 lanes away from her.

"Huh? Do I have a reason to?"

Xing Yue began her bowling motion winding up the ball. As she released it, the ball rolled perfectly hitting the edge of the front pin producing a strike.

"A… Amazing."

It was the 5th strike Xing Yue had thrown in a row. She sat down next to Turen on the bowling bench.

"You know what the requirements are to become a devil? These aren't my natural hair and eyes you know."

"Uhhh… I don't know, die before 25 multiple times?"

She shook her head.

"You can die however many times you want before 25 and be guaranteed reincarnation. But there's another condition that has to be met to become a devil."

"What's the condition?"

Xing Yue paused for a second.

"Xing Yue?"

"You have to kill someone."

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"Ki… kill?"

Xing Yue nodded.

"It's why you see everyone avoiding me. Even if you can't die here, it doesn't excuse what I did in the past."

Turen thought for a moment.

"I'm not afraid."

"You're not?"

"Well yeah, sure. I mean you didn't give me any context on why or how you killed someone right? For all I know it could have been for a very good reason."

He got up to grab his ball to bowl. As he threw the ball, it traveled perfectly straight, too much so that it left only the two side pins on the back row up.

"You think there's ever a good reason to kill anyone?" Xing Yue asked as Turen sat down.

"Well sure, I mean it could be for self-defense or an accident. It'd be premature for me to judge without knowing the full context. Ah, but you don't want to talk about your past right now right? I respect that. Better to just assume the best out of everyone, that's what my grandfather told me.

He got up to try to convert his spare. Unfortunately, in an attempt to knock down both pins, Turen knocked down neither as his next ball slid directly between them.

"All souls please head for the exit and back to your living quarters. Night time will commence in 10 minutes," a voice from the intercom said.

"Huh, what's that?" Turen asked.

"Come on," Xing Yue said getting up to leave.

"You have nighttime here? But there's not even a sun, how's that possible?"

"You'll see soon enough."

The two of them walked through the exit and onto the street again. Other souls were still doing their best to avoid Xing Yue. They passed by a woman and man who appeared to be a couple that hadn't noticed Xing Yue at first when they bumped into her.

"Sor…Sorry," the woman said, "Are you alr…"

Before she could look up, the man immediately grabbed her wrist and dragged her away.

"Honey, what are you doing?"

"Look at who you ran into" he replied when they were a good distance away. The girl gave a dirty look when she saw Xing Yue.

Xing Yue sighed as they kept walking.

"So how far is your living quarter from here?" Turen asked.

"Should be about 5 minutes. If we hurry, we'll still make it before…"

As if heaven's light switch flicked off, the sky grew pitch black with the only colors coming from the street lights on the roads.

"Night… alright let's hurry."

Towards the end of their walk, while the other souls went down one street where nice houses aligned in a row, Xing Yue's "living quarters" was down her own street where there stood a small isolated house. There, Turen entered Xing Yue's living quarters.

"What the fuck..."

"Sorry, it's a bit messy," Xing Yue replied turning on the lights. Understatement of the millennium. An assortment of clothes, books, and other random items lay on the ground. Even Turen's disheveled apartment looked clean in comparison. The quarters were small, only about the size of a single studio apartment and felt even smaller with the lack of space. Xing Yue took off her sweatshirt throwing it onto the clothes pile on the ground revealing a white T-shirt underneath. In the middle of the room lay a single queen-sized mattress bed with a TV in front of it. Xing Yue went to it sitting down and turning on the TV with a remote. The first channel that played was a rock concert.

"Where am I supposed to sleep?" Turen asked trying his best to dodge the underwear garments on the ground.

Xing Yue turned to him raising an eyebrow.

"Where do you think?"

"On the ground?"

"No, what the fuck, even a devil like me isn't that cruel."

She patted the side of the bed. Awkwardly Turen sat down next to her.

"On the bed?"

"Where else?"

"Where will you sleep then?"

She looked at him and blinked twice.

"On the bed."

"What, but that means…"

Turen's face turned red.

"Jeez, you really are a virgin. We'll just be next to each other. I told you we can't bang here."

She leaned in close to him blinking her eyes seductively.

"Unless you want to tomorrow."

"Wha… what!?!? No no I… but… urghhhhh…"

"Bwhahahaha your face," Xing Yue laughed pulling away, "Relax, just teasing ya."

"Ri…Right."

"WHAT'S UP, EVERYONE!"

The two of them turned to the TV where a band had taken center stage inside a large concert hall.

"Are they allowed to perform at night?"

"Oh nah, this is prerecorded stuff from Earth."

"Wait my minute…"

Turen leaned in closer to the television.

"Is that…"

"I think you all might know this one!" the singer at the front of the band shouted as suddenly a guitar riff began to play.

"Oh my god, is that…"

"Oh yeah, we were talking about them earlier. Isn't that like Red Ziplines or whatever you said?"

"It's Led Zepplin and their legends!" Turen said leaning closer towards the screen. He had listened to all sorts of American Classical Rock music in college, but had a hard time understanding the meaning of the lyrics. Often, he would listen to a Chinese dubbed cover of the songs instead.

"Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run

There's still time to change the road you're on"

"Oh my god, I can understand them I can understand them!" Turen said nearly breaking into tears. "Xing Yue can you hear it, their beautiful voices, their…"

"ZZZZZ…"

"Huh…"

As Turen turned around to face the devil girl, he discovered she had been fast asleep and snoring.

"Oiii…"

"Huh, what?"

Xing Yue suddenly jolted awake to see Turen's annoyed face.

"Is it over? That song always plays and it's soooooo boring. Who even enjoys… Turen?"

Turen began praying again.

"Oh please heavenly goddess of this realm. Please forgive Xing Yue once again for her transgressions against the rock world. I will make it my duty to enlighten her on…"

"Urghh…"

Xing Yue grabbed the remote again and changed the channel.

"Wait no what are you…"

"They play that same concert every day! You can watch it some other time."

She pressed the number buttons to go to the one channel she always went to.

"And Webber now, on his 7th frame trying to convert the 7-10 splits."

"What the… bowling really? Haven't we done that enough today?"

"Nonsense, there are some things you can never have too much of."

"And he curves the ball to the right. Curving towards the 10. And wow, a perfect bounce knocking both pins down, a brilliant recovery by Webber.

"Boom," Xing Yue said imitating a bowling motion, "that's how you convert the splits."

"What the heck, did you work at a bowling alley or something in your life?"

The devil girl sat down giving a weak smile as she looked at the ground.

"For a bit yeah."

She looked over at Turen.

"You want to play a video game?"

"What?! But I thought you said you've never played before."

"Since when? I only said I haven't played computer games before."

She went to the bottom part of the drawer under the TV and took out what looked like a small electronic box and some controllers plugging it into the TV.

"This one's my favorite."

-10 minutes later-

"Strike, nice roll! 3 in a row!"

"Boom Turkey!" Xing Yue said pumping her fist.

"Of all the games… Wii bowling really?"

"Yes, is there a problem?"

The devil girl went up for another roll.

"Strike, nice roll! 4 in a row!"

"Booooom you see that? Unbeatable."

"Alright you win you win," Turen said exiting back to the home page of the console.

"Let's just try something else. What other multiple-player games do you play?"

"Hmm… I don't know. I've never played multiplayer games with someone.

"What but, that's the best part!"

"Yes, but as you can see, making friends isn't exactly possible for me."

She sighed again.

"It was the same on Earth."

"Right… sorry,"

"Anyways, what do you want to play then? They literally have every video game in the universe here."

"They have Mario Kart?"

"Which version?"

"Double Dash please."

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For the rest of the night, the two played through all the Mario Kart courses. Unlike in the mortal realm, sleep is an optional state for souls though most elect to do so for the simple pleasure of the experience. For the two souls in the devil girl's room though, no immediate plans were made to do so.

The two of them didn't want to stop. For Turen, caught in the constant grind cycle of work, writing, and drinking, it had been too long since he could enjoy the simpler times like his middle school days. Back then, the only thing he had to worry about was finishing his homework as he spent most of his time at his friends' houses throwing various turtle shells at each other.

For Xing Yue though, this was an almost euphoric experience. When she said she had a hard time making friends on Earth, it wasn't an exaggeration. What even was a friend to her? The last real ones she could remember were her coworkers at the bowling alley when she was 12. For the first time in a long time, there was a genuine smile of happiness on her face.

"Red shell Red shell, back banana quick!" Turen yelled as Xing Yue did as instructed. The two had begun grinding through Mario Kart trying to unlock new maps for 12 hours now, so much so that the daytime light was about to spawn.

"We… We did it." Turen said looking at the screen after they completed the final race to unlock the last map.

"Yeah holy shit, I thought we'd fall off like 5 times."

"You tired?"

"No, why would I be?"

"Just wondering. I feel strangely awake. Do you not need to sleep here?"

"It's optional."

As she said that last sentence, a light suddenly began shining outside Xing Yue's window.

"It's morning already? How long did we play for?"

"About 12 hours,"

"Jeez, so now what?"

"Hmmm… breakfast in hell?"

"Never thought I'd hear a sentence like that. But sure where should we…"

Xing Yue suddenly began taking off her t-shirt.

"… AHHHHHHHHHH What the fuck," Turen shouted turning away.

Xing Yue sighed again as she looked back at him.

"Jeez, what's the big deal. I'm just changing."

"It's still weird!"

Awkwardly, Turen kept his eyes buried in his hands.

"You can look now,"

"O… okay," Turen said slowly turning around.

"I have lingerie on."

"What!?"

Turen's face turned red as he opened a small hole in his hands.

"Huh?"

Upon seeing Xing Yue however, he realized the girl was lying.

"Pervert, I saw you peek." Xing Yue chuckled. She had on her grey sweatshirt but also a hat and sunglasses that disguised her green hair and eyes.

"Sorry, as you can imagine, I prefer to keep my identity hidden in hell."

She got up dragging Turen up as well.

"Come on," she said taking his hand. "If we don't hurry, the lines for the elevators get really long."