Encounter

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***

His mind became all white. This was the summoning procedure, but first, he had to wait till his body was reborn anew.

His soul was pulled into a vortex and soon enough, a new body was formed. He didn't know how he looked like, nor could he choose his appearance, which was kind of disappointing but he knew he had no right to complain when he was the chosen one to reincarnate.

It was still better than being reincarnated as a baby or a child and while he was clueless about his appearance, the one thing he could see with his newly formed yellow eyes was the color of his skin, which he was glad for because it stayed the same as in his past life.

His late mother was South African and his late father was Japanese. At the time of their relationship, interracial couples were illegal under the apartheid law of South Africa, and a boy that was more white than his peers was considered to be an albino, even though he didn't look remotely similar to one.

Due to this very law, his parents were forced to separate, and both he and his father were chased away. Since then, Yomite was living in Japan with his father. He only ever saw his mother from photos, and unfortunately, just a year before he turned eighteen, the interracial restriction was lifted, but soon enough, he learned his mother has passed away shortly before that, due to an illness.

His father had passed away a few years prior as well, so it's not like he has anyone left. Luckily, there was no one waiting for him.

As he thought about his past, his body was finally reconstructed and he was ready to go. The last thing he noticed before closing his eyes and losing consciousness was a black dragon tattoo on his left arm stretching all the way up to his chest.

'Ah...The catalyst...'

***

Several thousand years ago, many godlike archons roamed Teyvat, each with control over particular aspects of an element.

However, when seven divine thrones in Celestia opened up, promising the victors absolute dominion over their element, bitter power struggles now collectively known as the Archon Gods War erupted throughout the land.

Two thousand years ago, the last divine seat was claimed, and the archons who emerged victorious became known as The Seven Gods.

Together, they established the continent of Teyvat, its seven nations, and the seven elements as they are known today. Each of The Seven possesses a Gnosis, a higher nexus of power that allows them to resonate directly with Celestia and grants them the divine ability to defend their respective nations.

However, during the great Archon War, hundreds of thousands of gods have perished or disappeared, nowhere to be found.

Now, thousands of years have passed, and everything is lost in history.

However, how will the world change, when a new existence invades their homeworld?

***

The World of Teyvat, Windwail Highland, Wolvendom.

In the center part of the Teyvat, laid a dangerous forest that was filled with terrifying magical creatures and humanoid monsters called Hilichurls.

This place was a paradise for many adventurers because they could hunt high-level monsters and suddenly become rich overnight, no longer needing to worry about eating and drinking in their lifetime. But countless adventurers had forever slept in this very forest because of their low strength.

In the periphery of this Monster Forest, was a small stream, at whose side a youth wearing fancy martial arts clothing laid down. This youth looked to be 18 years of age, but he didn't have any trace of childishness on his face, and those two dashing eyebrows and slightly chocolate skin of his, only increased his handsomeness and exotic appearance even further.

At this time, the tattoed hand of this youth slowly moved a few times, as he gently opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was clouds, slowly moving across the blue sky.

With his ears, he picked up the sound of birds chirping in the distance.

He looked around him with a puzzled expression.

"What the..."

He slowly stood up, looking around his surrounding environment. Only a water stream and trees appeared in his vision. He was completely puzzled looking at these huge towering trees. Where was he?

"Ah...."

He held his head and unceasingly rolled on the ground as one scene after another flashed through his mind. After a few moments, he stopped whining and forced a bitter smile on his face.

"...Now I remember what happened...So this is the new world, huh. Not bad, not bad!"

Yomite was studying this information in his brain, after which he made a wry smile in his heart. He had never thought that one day he would lose his life in an elevator only to get reincarnated to another world just like those protagonists with cheats.

It was an amazing feeling. His life was boring, yet he found his salvation in books. But the more he read the more he realized the wasted potential of the authors and their characters.

So he decided to become a reviewer to lead the authors to the right path and help develop their stories in the best way possible.

But now, his life was no longer going to be boring. After all, he became one of them. One of the protagonists he always dreamed of and read about in the books.

Looking back at his life, he had no anchors weighing him down. His parents have passed away years ago, he never had a sibling, and he could care less about his Ex-girlfriends or wannabe friends.

"...The first thing I should do is..."

He felt extremely thirsty and having seen the stream in front of him, his desire to survive flared up.

He struggled to get up but after a few tries, he managed to do it. After that, supporting his weak body, he started to walk towards it.

He didn't know why he felt like shit, but he assumed it was only a side effect of the soul assimilation with his freshly created body.

When he looked at the water, a darker-skinned male with dark brown hair and a pair of yellow eyes appeared in the reflection.

"...That's completely different from what my appearance was prior to the death...But I am definitely much more handsome than I was before, which I don't dislike at all."

For whatever reason, the back ends of his dark brown hair were red, making his appearance even more exotic.

"Well... it's hard to tell what's exotic in this new world, but I sure am satisfied with what I got."

He pulled up his shirt and observed his chiseled chest. His new body was very fit and his muscles were basically exploding with power.

While he was pretty fit in his old world, he never would have reached this level in that life.

"Well, she did say it's going to be dangerous around these parts...So I guess she made my body with that in mind? But still, this body is boosted as hell...I feel like I could fight a bear with my bare fists."

He reached his hand towards the water stream to take a quick sip as his thirst was still not satisfied, but then he realized, that he shouldn't drink that, and should instead find a different source of water.

Water streams support entire ecosystems of living things. Bacteria are likely to thrive in such an environment. Drinking stream water would definitely expose him to these bacterias. It's especially dangerous when he had no idea what kind of bacterias there were in this new world.

"...I don't have any good filtering device or anything I could use to filter out the water...I should definitely go with the safe route and scout out the area first. It seems there are just trees all around me. I need to look for a place where the water flows the fastest. If it is a good distance away from the source, it means there are fewer chances of me drinking unsafe water."

He looked on and noticed the stream was basically endless. It would take him forever to find that specific location.

"Damn, it's only chapter one, and yet things are getting complicated already. I love it. But ey, it's still better than drinking water filled with animal piss and bacteria of all kind."

He was about to head out when he heard someone singing a kid's song in the distance.

"♪Silly-churl, billy-churl, silly-billy hilichurl. Frilly-churl, willy-churl, frilly-willy hilichurl♪ Ah! Oya? Oya Oya Oya!? Hey there! You look like you've died recently, do you need help? Te-he."

When people say, "Time stood still," they must surely be talking about times like this.

There was a girl casually walking through the forest towards him, with a polearm in her hands. With one smooth motion, she stabbed her hand, shedding blood on the said polearm, and spreading the blood all around the blade. The blade that was bathed within the blood slowly heated up and a small streak of fire ignited around it.

"Time to be purified, evil spirit, hehe!"

Yomite brought his hands in front of him in an attempt to stop her from attacking.

"Wait! I am not an evil spirit! I am a human!"

The blade stopped a few centimeters away from his head.

He could feel his sweat pouring down from his forehead.

He just reincarnated, he definitely didn't want to die this quickly! The swing wasn't that fast so he could have definitely dodged it but he was still a bit disoriented from the soul transmission. Moreover, she was the first person he met since he arrived here, it would be wiser to ask her about the world.

She glanced at him with an indifferent face and pulled her polearm back.

"Is that so~? Then why can I sense the deathly aura around you~? You smell like you've died recently~"

Her voice was playful, but from her actions, Yomite considered her a dangerous individual. Was his difficulty set to Hell?

'Still, she looks like she is hesitating, that's good. I wouldn't wanna die in a tutorial. How embarrassing would that be? I need to think of a perfect way to play this...Hmm...What should I say...'

He cleared his throat with a cough and was about to think of something when the grass around him stopped swaying, and the girl herself stopped moving. Everything around him came to halt, and a small blue window with three choices opened up in front of him.

[1. I was just reincarnated into this body, I did die, but I am alive right now! Don't hurt me!]

[2. I really am a human! Stop pointing your weapon at me or I will call for help! Someone will definitely arrest you! Police! Police!]

[3. I just killed a squirrel and ate it. Maybe that's why you feel the deathly aura around me!]

'Isn't this...The Tempus of The Story ability? That's great...This will definitely come in handy, but what the hell are these choices?!'

It looked to him as if his ability turned on by him thinking about what he should say, but he will have to figure that out later. Now, he is facing a bigger problem. He looked at the options and couldn't help but frown.

'The goddess did tell me there was always one good choice, one fine choice, and a very bad choice...I can't escape this and need to choose one of them or I am guessing I will be stuck here forever...From the way I look at this, the first one is probably the good one, the second one is the fine one, and the last one is the worst, but a gut feeling of a novel reader is telling me that usually, the weirdest one out there turns out to be the correct one, but the question is, should I risk it or not? I am hesitant...'

'...'

After a few minutes of doing nothing but thinking and staring at the choices, he chose to rely on his gut feeling. He slowly aimed his finger at the third choice, and his mouth moved almost automatically.

"I just killed a squirrel and ate it. Maybe that's why you feel the deathly aura around me!"

The next moment, he saw another icon pop up.

[1. THE WORST CHOICE]

[2. THE AVERAGE CHOICE]

[3. THE BEST CHOICE] ✔️

Yomite stared at the checkmark that appeared before him and sighed in relief. His gut feeling didn't betray him.

Not long after, the world returned back to normal.

The girl in front of him had a thoughtful look on her face and nodded, "I see, that would make sense as your smell is so faint! In that case, let me remove the smell for you so that it wouldn't bother you or anyone else, kay~?" The girl put away her polearm and pulled out a yellow talisman with weird symbols from her pocket.

Yomite stabilized his breathing and calmed down his beating heart.

He was still a bit afraid she would try to do something but once she put away her polearm his face relaxed.

She put the talisman on his chest and a yellow glow was emitted in the surrounding area. A few seconds later, she cheerfully smiled and said, "It seems like you were telling the truth! You are truly not an evil spirit!"

"Hm? How are you so sure all of a sudden? Didn't you want to kill me a few seconds prior!?"

"Te-he, sorry about that! If you were an evil spirit, the talisman would have turned red and purified you, just now!"

'I see, this is certainly important to remember for the future.' Yomite thought.

He took a closer look at her and couldn't help but admit the girl in front of him was very good-looking. She was a young girl with fair skin and scarlet eyes with flower-shaped pupils. Her eyes were intriguing and he felt like he would get lost in them if he were to stare into them any further.

'A flower-shaped pupils...this is a fantasy world for sure...amazing...'

She had long, dark brown hair fading to crimson at the tips, parted into a pair of twin ponytails.

Her clothes consisted of a dark coat and black shorts with a pair of low-heeled shoes. She also had a few rings with skulls on her hands and coupled with her black nails, it only added to her overall beauty and fit her very well.

"Well...We started off quite steamy, haven't we? Hehe~ I'm the 77th Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, Hu Tao! 'Hu' as in, WHu put me in this coffin!? And 'Tao' as in, I can't get Tout! Hehe!" Feeling proud about her dry joke, she threw a triumphant smirk his way.

"..."

"...No? Not funny?"

"..."

Choosing to ignore her, Yomite introduced himself instead.

"...My name is Yomite Hissha and...I am a simple wanderer. Currently, I am trying to find a way out of this forest so if you don't mind, would you show me the nearest village or city?"

She put a finger on her head and tried to think, soon after, her smile beamed, "Actually, I was about to go to the nearest city of Mondstadt! You can follow me if you want to! I don't mind~!"

Yomite nodded and glanced at her small bag. He was thinking about whether to ask her or not but decided to do it anyway.

"Hey, before we leave, do you have clear water to drink by any chance, I am dying of thirst."

She didn't seem like she minded, "Sure, sure~! Here, drink this!" And looked into her bag. She quickly pulled out a wooden bamboo bottle with plenty of fresh water inside and handed it to him.

Yomite swiftly grabbed it and gulped the contents down. The water was sweet and it was the first time he ever drank something like this. He almost felt like he was drinking a melted popsicle or an apple juice.

*Gulp* *Gulp* *Gulp*

"...Thanks, that felt great. I am sorry I drank the entire thing, I will be sure to buy you something in the future." He returned the bamboo bottle into her bag.

While it might have not been much, thirst was scary, and at times like these, people will part with expensive things just to save their lives from thirst or hunger. So Yomite was taking it as a serious debt, especially since she didn't even hesitate and willingly gave up on her supplies.

"Don't mind don't mind! Once we are in the city, I will be able to restock so don't worry about it! Let's go to the city!"

"Sure, soun-" He couldn't finish what he wanted to say, as she grabbed his wrist.

"Now let's go, let's go, let's go! No time to waste!" She ran while pulling Yomite behind her.

***

Five minutes later, they managed to get out of the forest, soon enough, they saw the mentioned city of Mondstadt.

It was a huge fortress that acted as a large stronghold and it seemed to have a town as its base.

'Fortresses are usually run by high military soldiers, which means it might be impossible for me to enter without some form of identification or verification.'

He looked at Hu Tao and thought about his second ability. The Tempus of The Heart. Apparently, it was a skill that would let him peer into the heart of an individual, an animal, or even certain items. The only requirement was looking at the target, but so far, no matter how he tried, he couldn't activate it.

'Status, Observe, Arise, Stats, Skill Window, Tempus of The Heart...Sheesh, none of these are working.'

Feeling that the atmosphere turned awkward ever since their weird introduction, Yomite tried to strike up a conversation.

"So...Where are you from if you don't mind me asking?" He wasn't the best when it came to talking to a person he just met, but even he could strike up a normal conversation.

"Ah! I am from Liyue! I work as a director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, but I did tell you that before. If you ever need a coffin, I will give you a 48% discount. So, what do you say!?"

"No...No thanks. I am too young to die...and what's with that weird percentage? Might as well let it be 50%..."

"Now now, don't be shy, it's completely normal to buy the coffins upfront. Especially for the adventurers and such! You never know when you will kiss the dirt after all! No need to be scared of death. It comes suddenly, but it's essentially the end of your journey, and all journeys must come to an end, so you should just accept it with open arms~!"

"That's not very uplifting..."

"It shouldn't be, it's about dying after all~! But then again, passing away is a peaceful process, so there is really no need to be afraid~!"

"I am not afraid of death anymore, it's more about the fact that if I die without being able to finish what I wanted and without enjoying my life, it would be a really depressing death. I might even come back to haunt people as a ghost just for fun. I won't be able to pass on in peace."

"Mhm~ that may be true~! Restless souls are the worst kind to deal with and sometimes you even have to complete certain requests or tasks before they can pass on, like this little girl here!" She pointed towards the back of her neck and a small white apparition peeked from within her long ponytails, although it was visibly uncomfortable to show itself.

"...Wait, that's an actual ghost? Is this how people look like after they die?" Yomite was intrigued. While he did die, he never saw the form of an actual dead person's soul.

"Nah~ This little girl here is just a remnant of her soul. Unfortunately, she was unable to pass on due to her regrets, so I offered to help her. It's been five years, but I still wasn't able to fulfill what she wanted from me...at this point, her soul has dissipated so much, she probably doesn't even remember what she was searching for..." Hu Tao turned a bit solemn and caressed the head of the ghost with her finger, which in turn, headbutted into her cheek lightly, out of affection.

The atmosphere turned pretty dark, but she quickly bounced back into her eccentric personality.

"But back to your question~. Once a person passes away, they either become a restless soul or they immediately pass on to the other side. If I see a restless soul, it's my job as the director of the Liyue Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, to make it follow me to a special place called Paradise, where it stays until I complete their requests. After that, it can pass on in peace."

"Sounds tough. But I think it's great that you are helping them. Because without you, they would just wander on forever until they turn into a malicious spirit, right?"

Hu tao stopped in her tracks, and her mouth slightly quivered, "...Yep, that's right...You are quite knowledgeable yourself! I might make you my assistant! If the restless soul goes unattended, they might turn into a vengeful spirit...In which case, we can only exorcise them! Which was something similar to what I wanted to do to you a few minutes prior, hehe~."

"Yeah, don't make me remember something like that!" He glanced at her hand, which was pierced through by her polearm, and saw that it has magically healed. "Come to think of it, I noticed a streak of flames during your attempt to behead me, what was that about? Are you a magician or a polearm master that can cast sorcery on your weapon, or maybe a Lancer?"

"Magician? Lancer? Sorcery? I am not sure what those mean, although I did get some weird power after my grandpa passed away...The thing was called...what was it again? V...V...Vis...Viscent? No, Vision! That's it~!"

He glanced at the pendant on her chest and thought, 'So this is the thing the goddess mentioned. She is one of the chosen ones by one of the gods of this world. I think that it will be wise to stick to her for now. She is a valuable source of info.'

As Yomite was thinking about stuff, Hu Tao was fidgeting. It was only then that he realized he was basically staring at her chest area the entire time, and while she was fully clothed, it still didn't change the fact that it was creepy and uncomfortable for the other party. That was what he thought.

"You don't have to sta~re at them for so long, they won't grow~ I tried a lot of things like drinking milk but none of them worked~." She gave him a teasing smile and she didn't seem to feel embarrassed about anything that she just said whatsoever, it was as if she was talking about some everyday normal topic.

"I wasn't looking at you like that at all. You look like you are thirteen. Unfortunately, underage Lolis are out of my list, and while you might be attractive you are still a child, so you don't have to worry about it, although I do admit it might have been uncomfortable for you, so I apologize for that.." He swatted her teasing away like a fly and delivered a heavy punch to her ego. Hu Tao definitely felt this one.

"...L-Loli...?"

Yomite observed her crestfallen expression and continued, "Anyway what is this Vision about, I've never seen it before, can I check it out?" He smiled with a bit of hidden intent.

"...Loli...Ah...Vision...Oh, you mean the thing you were looking at?" She pointed towards her chest. There was a red ruby crystal pendant engraved into her clothes. "Yeah, whatever...It just showed up in my house one day...I don't really need it but it does help me with purifying the vengeful spirits, so I guess it can stay. Here you go, you can check it out!" She unbuttoned the Vision from her chest and threw it to him.

"Fu...but to call me a loli..."

Hu Tao still seemed stunned by Yomite addressing her as a Loli, dejectedly looking into the distance as if she didn't want to acknowledge the reality.

'I wasn't expecting she would know what that term means, but whatever, it's not like it matters.'

Yomite caught it and observed the exterior.

'Interesting, so from what I heard, this apparel is projecting her power like a catalyst.

The moment he touched it, however, the crimson-like color dissipated from the pendant and it immediately turned gray. 'So it's like that huh...It only works for the chosen ones, so even if the user was to die or if it was stolen, it would be a useless piece of jewelry. Well, at least some info for now. Interesting.'

He returned the pendant to her and smiled, "It seems like you were chosen by the gods, lucky you."

Hu Tao sighed and replied, "I honestly don't really care about being chosen or something...I-...We are entrusted by the people to loyally see out their wishes. Wangsheng Funeral Parlor is special, in that it carries a dual responsibility, to those both of this realm, and the next. I could care less about something like that when people all around the world are suffering."

Yomite widened his eyes and felt his respect for her jump by leaps and bounds.

'What a selfless person. She is basically only living for others. Completing tasks so that other people can rest in peace.'

"That's actually a really noble way of living. Aren't you a bit bored though?"

"It's fine, I am not! Because during my adventures I get to bury a lot of corpses into the ground which is actually pretty fun! Although sometimes I play with the bones and forget where I put them so I am forced to bury them while they are missing some of their body parts but ey, stuff happens~."

"..."

It's funny how the respect for someone can disappear in a matter of seconds...