Tasker

He Yuan opened his eyes to an empty room.

The walls had a metallic tint and that was all. There was nothing else in the room, not even a bed... Or a door for that matter. He rubbed his head as he stood up from the hard floor. How did he get here? He remembered falling asleep in his comfortable king sized bed last night so where was this?

A very handsome, smartly dressed man with long silver hair and silver rimmed glasses suddenly poofed out of nowhere and He Yuan barely held himself back from screaming and moving away.

The man frowned in obvious disdain at He Yuan's reaction. How unlucky. How on earth did he get bound to such a coward?

He Yuan gulped when he noticed the man did nothing but stand and stare at him in disgust. "Who... Are you?"

The man sighed and flexed his wrist. "Well others might refer to themselves as systems but I like to call myself an assistant, an indispensable helper of sorts. In summary, I'm your indispensable assistant."

He Yuan frowned. Assistant? He would have been able to remember if his company was hiring but there was no such thing so who was this man?

The man ignored He Yuan's look of confusion and went on, "Basically, certain souls are selected after death, randomly if I may add so you don't get cocky, to join the Grand Neutral Cause otherwise referred to as realm balance-"

"-Wait, wait, what? Dead?!" He Yuan asked with wide eyes. Was this guy crazy?! How could he be dead? He remembered sleeping in his bed last night and he didn't have a terminal illness or any form of sickness at all, so what was this idiot saying?

"Ah, the classic denial phase, " The man said with mock pity. "Okay let's see, give me a moment to go through your files to see how you met your obvious demise."

Pfft! The man burst out laughing when he saw He Yuan's file. "Really? How could you be so unlucky. Make sure to keep a distance of five feet and above whenever you're around me so I don't get infected with your bad luck."

"What kind of idiot installs a chandelier directly over their bed?" The man scowled when He Yuan grit his teeth at the insult. He was really doomed. This was his last chance at a host and if this guy fluked things then he was doomed for total annihilation. Sigh~

He Yuan legs gave in when he finally registered the man's words. He was dead and in such a dumb way too. He wasn't aware of the moment he left the world, he just did and yet he had f*cking caused his own death!

After a long time of silence, panic and despair, He Yuan found his voice and shakily asked, "So what next, why am I here?"

"Finally." The man groaned. "First of all I'm called 888 and I am, as I've earlier stated, your assistant. Since you were randomly selected, your job is to right certain wrongs that disturb the balance of assigned realms."

He Yuan's brows knit in confusion but 888 continued on anyways. "In these realms, or worlds if you may, a select few are unfairly advantaged causing a rip in the balance of the world."

"So your job is to tear down their advantage thereby letting the world siphon back the insane luck that naturally belongs to it and restoring balance. What heroic deed!"

He Yuan bit his lips. "What do I get in return?"

888 scoffed. "At this stage you're still asking for a reward? Is living not enough? Listen carefully, your reward is eternal life and that's it. So are you in or not?"

He Yuan stared at the hard floor. What material was it even made of? He could choose to reincarnate but he had to admit, he was scared. Reincarnating meant that he'd would lose all his memories and he didn't want that.

A reincarnated you was no longer you no matter how you looked at it. You make new memories, new decisions, grow up in a different environment that reshapes you, hence, reshaping your thoughts and your moral values. He Yuan really didn't want that.

Living forever seemed like a good deal to him. He gets to keep his thoughts and ideals. Whatever 'forever' entailed, he could figure out later. The most important thing was that he remained himself, the him that he recognized.

He Yuan stared at the panel that popped up before him and resolutely clicked on accept. Before his eyes, his body began to dim significantly until he was a tiny wisp of soul.

His eyes widened and he looked to 888 in panic.

888 waved dismissively. "It is to be expected that you would end up like this, you were a soul when you came in but you did not notice because your body was fairly solidified. For choosing eternal life, you have to pay the price. Don't worry, as long as you work hard, you could become stronger and could even form a physical flesh from your soul energy."

"It's no new knowledge that a person's soul has to be in their best state, that is full of abundant soul energy, in order to reincarnate well. Let's say you reincarnate in your current reduced state, you may very well become a dog or a goat."

He Yuan nodded with a relieved sigh. He looked at the panel once again and noticed there were new words written on it.

[Name: He Yuan]

[Age: 28]

[Level: Pre-Novice]

[Experience Points: 0]

[Soul Energy: 0]

[Intelligence: 0]

[Strength: 0]

[Luck: 0]

[Charisma: 0]

[Mental Fortitude: 0]

[Merit Points: 0]

[Belief: 0]

He Yuan frowned at 888. "Pre-novice?"

"Ah, that, " 888 picked at his nails as he answered. "Well every newcomer has to take a test of sorts I suppose. Your performance on this test would determine whether you become a fully established tasker or get kicked out by the higher ups to become a goat."

"And you only thought to inform me now?!"

888 rolled his eyes. "Would you have gone the reincarnation route if I had remembered to inform you earlier?" At He Yuan's silence, he continued. "Well I'd inform you now. This task you're about to take on would have to be done on your own, no help from me. This way, the higher ups could properly deduce your basic skill level and fill in your stats."

He Yuan nodded. "How then do I get into these 'realms' you speak of? You can clearly see my state, I can barely hold my soul together."

"It's quite simple. Since certain people have insane amounts of luck, they would of course be people with not enough luck in their lives as theirs is also snatched by these 'special ones'. Making them cannon fodder to the whims of the luck thieves."

"The higher ups reach out to these 'luckless' people to sign a form of contract offering up their some of soul energy to taskers in exchange for revenge against the luck thieves."

"Once the contract pulls through, they would have to lease out their bodies to taskers to 'live' for them. Well at least long enough to get their revenge before they return to their bodies."

"I must warn you though. You are not going to be starting their life afresh. You would need to pick them up from the bottom, wherever they are at the time of the contract signing, and get them to the top while making sure the 'special ones' fall from grace to grass."

He Yuan frowned. "What if the 'special ones' are actually good people who had no idea they were stealing luck?"

888 raised his brows. "Ah, a tasker with a moral bottom line, quite rare. Well then you'd have to think of a way to siphon their luck away without harming them. I must warn you though, this route is quite hard and most would prefer to directly crush the 'special ones'."

He Yuan shook his head. "I see no reason harming someone that has done no wrong. It's not like they chose to be insanely lucky, so why must they be punished?"

888 snorted and He Yuan's brows raised in surprise. 888 looked like a perfect gentleman, was there any need for this roguish behaviour? Anyways, He Yuan was a bit clear on the workings of this Grand Neutral Cause.

Accept tasks from selected leasers, help them out of their dire straits. Their tasks might not directly conflict with the 'special ones' but this was only a means for the tasker to get into the realm and carry out their main mission which was world balance.

In the end, the leasers go back to a happy life, the taskers get soul energy, points and generally increased stats and the world reverts back to it's balanced state. Everyone's happy.

He Yuan nodded and then paused. "Can you give me some time alone?"

888 waved and disappeared with a poof.

Faced with the empty room once again, He Yuan knelt on the hard floor. Everything felt so overwhelming. Just last night he was a CEO, he might not have been the most prominent, but at least the company was his. Now he was this, a soul so frail he feared he would fade into nothingness at the slightest movement.

A few panicked screams later, He Yuan was calm once more. If he continued to be left alone with his thoughts he might go deranged from thinking about the new reality of his life.

It was better to spend that energy on what was to come. Once 888 reappeared, He Yuan nodded at him.

"I'm ready."