Chapter 15: New mission

We sat for an hour, enjoying our drinks and snacks as I explained the currency system to host.

Afterwards, following hosts wishes, I gave him a tour of the city for a full two weeks. I first took him to the Headquarters building, located smack middle of the city. The closer you are to it, the higher the status. Then I brought him to all the major entertainment facilities in west of the city, residential area in the north, and the various places spread across the south and east of the HQ.

He went out a couple times by himself. He even got friendly with a couple of other hosts. Unfortunately, I can't be the only person he talks to.

Today was the last resting day.

Clink.

I place the glass of orange juice in front of host.

" Thanks." He says picking it up.

" You're welcome." I go to sit across him. " Today's the last day, have you finished doing what you wanted?"

" Kind of." He shrugs. " What's the next mission?"

" Actually, they're running late. Give me a minute." I open my interface and request a mission again. But all it says is 'Pending'.

[Message from Main System!]

" What the?" I mumbled. It's been a long time since main contacted me, she was busy for a while.

" What's wrong?" Host asks seeing me frown.

" Hold on." I open the voice message.

[ " Hon, you finally found a suitable host for you! I'm proud of you darling. Since it's like this there's no need for the trails, hehe."]

Hehe? Hehe my ass! She's doing this because we have a shortage of hosts.

" Hon? Darling?" Host quirks his eyebrow. He sounds... irritated?

" Hm?"

" So you had a girlfriend, huh?"

" What? No, that's just how main talks. She's like a sister to me." I explain flustered.

" Non of my business." He shakes his head, as if to convince himself. " Anyway, what does she mean?"

" She's promoting your status. Congratulations, you are officially a host now."

" What's changing?"

" A lot. You can officially use our currency, and the locked sections in your interface will now open. Though, from now on, the level of your missions will be randomized."

" Okay. I'll figure it out as we go along."

[ New Mission found...] A message came in at that moment.

" A new mission came in, here." I send the information to his interface.

We both start going through it.

[This world is a copy of hosts home planet, Earth.

Level D world. Level C mission.

Mission: Root out the traitor in the team.]

" Traitor?"

" In the original timeline, the fate of the person you're going to possess, was betrayed and then jailed for the rest of his life. Other than him and the traitor, the rest of the team died. The wisher spent 30 years in jail, building up resentment and hatred. His wish is to root out the traitor and protect the other teammates whom he considered family." I explain the background when host looked up to me.

We move on to check our identities in this new world.

[ System 200 identity= the muscle for the team, Oliver Black.] This shows up only on my screen, while [Host 20780 identity= the hacker, Alexander Queen.] shows up on his.

" Alex, again?"

" Rare, but it does happen." I shrug.

" Wait, it says hacker? I don't speak technology. At all." He blinks at me, lost on what to do.

" It's okay. You can buy an intermediate hacking skills packet in the system store. I can help you later if you come across anything too difficult."

He sighs in relief. He then goes through the past of his identity. He can't see the future of Alexander. But he is provided with a basic and vague outline of the future from the protagonist's point of view.

" Alright, let's go." He says finished reading.

[ Commencing transfer of system 200 and host 20780 in 3, 2, 1.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Feeling my soul settle in this new body, I open my eyes. I find myself standing in an old and rusty warehouse. Three people were standing in front of me.

I spot host right away. He looks of Latino decent this time, short black curly hair, hazel eyes, tan skin, and a tall and lean body. Handsome, like a bright and sunny college student.

I discretely shuffle towards him. He glances at me, confirms I'm his system, then goes back to observing our surroundings.

The two other people were a skinny yet athletic blonde young lady and a caucasian middle aged, blue eyed handsome man.

" Hahaha! So you all didn't get your money, and came to the same place..." The man points at us, trailing off in the end.

What's this smell? Sniff, sniff. Gunpowder? I look around. The middle aged man and the blonde chick were holding guns, but no one fired so there shouldn't be that smell yet.

And very faintly, I keep hearing something.

Tick. Tick.

Oh shit! I pick up host like a sack of potatoes.

" Run!" The middle aged man and I shout at the same time.

The middle aged man pulls along the confused young lady as we dash to the exist, a garage door. Needing to be manually opened delays us for a minute as the middle aged man and I quickly pull up the door.

We dash out a couple feet away from the building, when the bombs goes off.

BOOM! Booom!

The shock wave knocks us all down.

Barely conscious, I pull host into my chest, shielding him from the falling debris.

I black out.