Chapter 1: Feels good to die

"Grandpa! Grandpa!"

Little by little, Li Bai's senses shut down one after another.

First, his mouth can't seem to move and his tongue was immobile. He can no longer comfort the children surrounding his deathbed.

After that, his vision went dark until his eyes slightly fluttered one last time and a gentle white light flashed his eyes.

Finally, when the light became brighter and brighter, the mourning sounds faded gradually and the warm cover on his cold body disappeared, his sense of touch and hearing was taken away.

In a second, Li Bai thought that his fear of death was nothing to worry about and it actually feels good to die.

Suddenly, he was startled awake by a male voice.

"If you died a horrible death, I dare you to say that again."

'What!?' Li Bai sat up.

Is this God speaking to him?

In front of his sight is a pair of slender legs in mild-brown slacks, the black polished shoes created a feeling of unblemished cleanliness.

He looked up and saw a man near his thirties. His silver framed glasses added a sliver of glint in the narrowed blue eyes. The neat cut hair added a youthful tint in the serious face.

The pale mouth opened, "Number A13006388916, subject name Li Bai, fifty years old, died of natural death."

Li Bai didn't speak but his face clearly showed his thoughts, 'Are you God? So good looking!'

The man paused and bowed a little as he held out his hand for Li Bai, "I am Agent 013, a system assigned to assist you in the Underworld Agency."

Li Bai seemed to be highly absorb on the system's face and had no intention of taking Agent 013's hand.

The man sighed, he leaned down to gently pulled up the unresponsive old man. Patting the fragile back, he gestured to the white door and said, "May I request for you to please follow me."

Li Bai snapped out of his daze when the man turned his back and started to walk. Realizing how shameless and stupid he looked, he embarrassedly scratched his wrinkled cheeks and followed.

When they left the white room, Li Bai widened his eyes in awe to the unimaginable sight— data numbers' flying above their heads, hallways and floors are pure white, and he can see the milky way outside the window. There are people who's clothes looked like Agent 013 are busily working while some greeted them.

He noticed that everything seemed to be in a systematic way— the pace of their walking are all the same, their working movements are fast and efficient. However, he could still see the dynamic differences between every Agents.

His Agent, in particular, seemed to be more strict, compared to others that are varying in personalities. He quietly noted in his heart that these agents are definitely not a bunch of data like what he read in novels.

When they reached the elevator, Agent 013 called him again, "Subject name Li Bai—"

"Just call me Li Bai, please." Agent 013 nodded as Li Bai sighed in relief. He felt like he was in laboratory and he is the guinea pig with that name.

"Li Bai, it seems that your article 15b is correct. However, I underestimated the word 'like' here. You extremely like good looking appearances. Am I right?" A data appeared on Agent 013's hand and it showed an article about his personality. But the one that the system had read was highlighted in yellow.

Li Bai's mouth twitched, out of all the articles, why is that highlighted ah?!

Then he turned red when he understood that Agent 013 was pertaining to their first meeting. Li Bai wanted to bang his head on the elevator walls.

He cleared his throat and tried to pretend that he wasn't bothered. Li Bai retorted, "Correct. You can call me as one of the 'facecons'. The-there's a lot of people like me so don't judge me."

"I see." The system seemed bought his answer. Agent 013 read his 'life book', even his embarassing memories are not even let off. Li Bai blushed in shame until they eventually reached their floor.

The man took him to a spacious room. Looking at the desk plaque with Agent 013's name engraved, he knew that the minimalistic style and calm tones on the room is indeed, his agent's room.

"Have a seat." A matcha milktea suddenly appeared in his hands right after he sat by the gray sofa.

Agent 013 also had an espresso in his hands as they sat in front of each other. They didn't speak at first until a notification sound appeared on the room.

Li Bai almost choked when the 'ping!' entered his ears but the system who was casually drinking seemed to be used to it.

A data materialized midair in front of his face, this time he was not that shocked— two options appeared below.

'Accept' and 'Reject'

Agent 013 finished his drink, the cup disappeared as he sat straighter. He glanced at Li Bai and explained, "You should read the contract first before accepting it."

"In summary, it contains what will your life be on your next life in exchange for the good deeds you made in this life. It's safe for you to read it since you will forget all about it once you drink *Meng Po's soup."

[Meng Po (Old Lady Meng) is the goddess of forgetfulness in Chinese Mythology, who serves soup on the Bridge of Forgetfulness or Nai He Bridge (奈何桥). This soup wipes the memory of the person so they can reincarnate into the next life without the burdens of the previous life. Source gathered in Wikipedia]

Li Bai read the contents of the 'contract' and his brows knitted as he read further. Why does it look strange and wrong?

However, he was overcome by shyness from their earlier conversation and didn't ask Agent 013 about the contract so he asked something different, "Then what will happened if I reject this?"

Agent 013 paused, his finger's unconsciously tapped on the arm rest. He looked away and said, "If you can't accept your destiny for your next life, you can reject the contract and work as a system agent like me."

"—How sinful and bloodied your hands are in your life, the more tragic your next life is and in exchange, the more time you need to serve as a system."

Noticing the furrowed eyebrows of the old man, "However, as this slightly concerns me as your agent, you had lived comfortably and no one held a grudge on you which is rare."

"Therefore, your next life would highly be possibly borne in a prospered family and lived comfortably in wealth."

Li Bai didn't speak any further and the system took it as silent acceptance on his explanation. He looked at the Li Bai on the corner of his eyes and then walked towards his desk.

His hands are full from work and his desk is a mess (not really). He can take this time to organize his things when suddenly, another contract fell in his desk folder.

When he took a glimpsed on the contract, his eyes widen and looked immediately at Li Bai's direction but Li Bai was no where to be seen.

'Shit!' He gave the wrong contract to Li Bai!

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Author: Welcome to my second book, Metamorphosis!