My Rock. My Work?

Eilan was stuck.

For hours she had been staring at the waves, racking her brain what was going on. Her thoughts constantly going in a loop.

Who was she? Why couldn't she remember anything?

This was not where she was supposed to be. She should be with her family... what family? People, there should be people. She was sure that was right but...

She couldn't remember anything.

However, something explicitly in her subconsciousness told her, that waking up on a rock in the middle of the ocean was not where she was supposed to be.

The rock was completely barren. A flat, rocky surface, barely reaching above the waves of the ocean water. It felt tough under the souls of her tiny feet and sitting on it while hugging her knees was unpleasant.

She was alone with her thoughts and all she could do was think and stare at the empty horizon. If she was lonely on this rock, then her rock was lonely in the ocean.

The damp ocean breeze kept hitting her bare skin, sapping away the little warmth she got from the sun above.

Eilan thought of escaping, but how? And why? Her thoughts kept jumping back and forth. There was nothing to build a boat or a raft. But why did she want to leave? What was a raft? something told her she couldn't stay, but she felt an inexplicable bond with this barren piece of rock.

"My Rock."

She intrinsically knew that this was her rock. Like she knew that the sky was blue and the ocean scary. This being her rock was a fundamental law in her mind.

Blankly staring out on the ocean and feeling the elements on her skin, her thoughts returned to escape. She tried to order her thoughts.

Something had happened, but she couldn't remember. There was only a semblance of things that should be and things she should do but on the other hand, she didn't feel like she needed to follow those urges.

It told her she needed to procure food and water. She felt neither hunger nor thirst. It told her she needed people. She did not feel lonely. It told her she needed to escape or she would die. This was her rock.

Hugging her knees, she didn't know how much time had passed as these thoughts kept repeating. Night and day just kept switching place as she stared out into the water. As time passed she became sure that many of the urges were wrong.

She survived without food, water, or people. Her rock was enough.

One day as she was staring out on the ocean, as she did every day, she felt something had changed. A disturbance in the force.

"Hey, you. Why are you not working?" the newcomer asked carelessly while staring into the air in front of his face.

She was not alone. It was a paradigm shift she had never encountered in her life. What was she supposed to do? She was alone. She was naked. Something told her this was bad. Strangers were bad news. Strangers were dangerous.

Despite these urges, her head slowly turned to look behind her. She lazily looked at the figure towering behind her. It was a tall and lanky man. Something in her mind said "monkey". She had a notion of what a monkey was, but she had never seen one. It puzzled her.

"Hello...monkey?"

She tilted her head when the monkey's face became all funny, distorted, and red.

"How dare you call me a monkey!" he started, but then looked at her in surprise.

"Did you just speak?" he crouched down and looked her in the eyes.

She didn't know what he wanted, but she looked him back in the eyes. They had a beautiful golden sheen. She had never seen something like this. Well, she had never seen eyes before.

"You already have a consciousness? How is that possible... I won't hurt you. Just let me take a look."

He laid his palm on her head and his thumb between her eyes. Her urges told her to shrink back and not let him touch her. but she had already learned that those urges were wrong. This was interesting and new.

She didn't want this to end so quickly. This... conversation. She attentively listened to him, as he mumbled to himself.

"Thoughts, habits, a personality. Certainly a consciousness but not a clean slate. Those idiots in postprocessing messed up big time."

"Monkey, what is work?"

He had mentioned it twice now. She had an association with the word but she couldn't imagine the monkey sitting on a desk. The monkey looked at her curiously.

"My work is to make sure you do your work."

"My work? What is my work? is it staring at the ocean and thinking? I did a good job then."

"No. You are the spirit of this seed. You are supposed to grow this land as its spirit."

She tilted her head in confusion. What was Monkey talking about? She was a spirit and she was supposed to grow land? Land didn't grow. Or did it? The something inside her strictly refused that land grew. It also denied the existence of spirits.

"I can read what you are thinking, but what I tell you is true. it seems that there was a problem with your reincarnation."

"Reincar-what?"

"Don't worry about it. I already have an idea." the monkey said with a glint in his eyes.

"You know, this matter could become quite interesting in the future, so I will help you. Originally, you should have inherently known how to cultivate your island, but postprocessing messed up and failed to install that knowledge. Give me a moment." he said and stood up.

She stared at the monkey as he turned around and started fumbling with something in front of him. When he turned again, he crouched back down and took her head in both his hands.

"I will give you something that will help you do your job. Okay?"

"...Okay?" Maybe she wouldn't be so bored if she had a job?

She felt something entering through the monkey's fingertips and then-

<Great Island Cultivation System has been installed.>

A sweet voice whispered in her ears. The great island cultivation system? The moment she thought of the name in her mind, she saw a window pop up in front of her eyes.

<

Name: Eilan

Age: 1

Great Island Sutra Level 1

Skills: Tutorial. >

It was the first time she visibly showed emotion. Her face expressed deep confusion. What was this supposed to be? How did this help her with her job?

"Since they messed up installing the information prior to your reincarnation, you have to learn it from scratch. Your job is to cultivate this island and to do that you have to raise continuously raise the level of the Great Island Sutra. The tutorial will help you in learning what to do. Isn't it simple? I'm a genius!" the monkey said triumphantly.

"Is monkey rally a genius?" she had a different picture of a genius.

"Stop calling me a monkey. I am Sun. I am your supervisor. Now hurry, do the tutorial and get to work!" he said agitatedly.

"I have to look into other places now. I will come back to see how you do later."

"Okay, bye Sun...Monkey."

She smirked when she saw him halt and ball his fist for a moment before he vanished into the void.

She had finally learned a very important life lesson. Messing with people was fun. But with Sun gone, there was no fun. With nothing else to do, Eilan took a look at this tutorial-thing.

The pressed the word "tutorial" below skill and the world turned gray. A kind elderly voice spoke to her.

"Repeat after me."

Then it started reciting a poem

She repeated it.

"Wrong. Listen and repeat again."

She repeated it again, but the voice said it was wrong. This was interesting. More interesting than staring into the ocean. She kept listening and repeating the verse. She had some fun messing around with it but at some point she got serious.

After she repeated every word, with every pause and every intonation correctly the voice finally said.

"Excellent. Now, listen to and repeat. The voice recited the verse again, but this time it added a second verse.

In this fashion, Eilan started learning the great island sutra verse by verse.