'I guess it's time now, right? Thank Goodness for that, I don't think I could take that pain any longer'
Leon did not have a very lucky life, one could even say that he did not even have a life. His family lived in a steel mining town. Leon's family was doing well financially. His father was a worker for the steel mine, and he barely made enough to survive. He was a solemn and not very well spoken man, his words were more precious than jewels and he rarely spoke to his son. Whilst Leon loved his father, due to the limited amount of contact he made with him, they did not know each other well. His mother however was the reason why he was able to continue to this day. She was a cheerful and joyful woman whose smile could light up the room. Leon was always confused as to how his parents got together as their personalities were polar opposites of one another. Either way his mother was his light, his guide and he dare say his sole source of happiness in that life.
When he was 5, he had the unfortunate luck of developing a type of pulmonary cancer. He himself attributed it to the steel mine, and the company that was very lax in following regulation. Of course they would never admit to this, and although this was not an uncommon thing in the town, even if his parents tried to sue them, the company would get off free. So the family took the settlement fee, and used that to pay for the cost of treatment. The sum was enough to pay for medical fees for ten years, and then some. And so for the remainder of his years he spent going from home to hospital. He was too sick to go to school and thus Leon never truly interacted with anyone outside his home. Years past and on the eve of his fourteenth birthday, Leon passed out on the floor. His condition had gotten drastically worse, and he was on death's doorstep. This was when he was transferred to the hospital to Room 301, the room he would spend the rest of his in. His mother would visit him everyday and Leon could tell that she was visibly exhausted, not that she would show it. So towards the end of his life he urged his parents to give him another sibling. He told them that we wanted to see them once before he inevitably past away. Under his constant urging they relinquished to their dying son, and 9 months later, little Theresa was born. When his eyes fell on her, he finally felt a true sense of satisfaction. His vision started to blur, sounds started to dull, and the pain that had been haunting him for years started to fade. As he closed his eyes, he shed a single tear.
'Ahh, this is nice and warm. Who would have though death was this relaxing' Leon thought to himself.
He was in a daze, a state of lapsed consciousness and thus he was unaware of his surroundings. A small ball of light left his body and started floating towards the sky. If Leon had been awake he would have noticed that the tear he had shed was stopped motionless in mid-air. The ball of light rose, and the sky illuminated it self with balls of light, some were black, some were white, some yellow. The whole sky was illuminated with a myriad of colours, some more intense than others. Leon's ball of light gave off a golden sheen as it traversed the universe. It floated past the satellites in the stratosphere, past the moon. It just kept travelling.
In another end of the universe, a huge ball of darkness, traversed through the void. It was swallowing up light like a black hole swallows up matter. It gave off an intense sheen as it continued its voyage as it was resisting the current of the river that willed it to follow.
At the intersection between these two mysterious things, laid a body, a corpse. The corpse of the newly dead Long Chen. He had been unfortunate enough to anger a very powerful person. Our courageous Long Chen had unwittingly gifted another man a green hat [1], which resulted in the green hat man sending Long Chen to space to die. He had been drifting for a while and had been dead no more than 15 minutes. His little ball of light had already long left him, drifting towards along the River of Styx that flowed throughout the universe. But of course now he was no longer drifting he was just laying there motionlessly.
And so, time stood still. However our little mysterious things did not halt. They continued to traverse the universe. One was drifting along the current like a log flowing down a stream. The other was resisting the overwhelming current that was battering against it. The radius of the ball of darkness seemed to decrease every passing second. It was growing smaller and smaller but seemingly that did not shake its resolved to go against the flow. As it pushed its way through, almost as if it had eyes, caught sight of a motionless body. It pushed and pushed itself towards it with all the force it could muster, ignorant to the little golden ball of light right behind the body. And as the ball of darkness, which was now one-tenth of its original size collided with the body, so did the little golden ball.
The two lights hit the body, they collided with one another and they intermingled. The two lights started to touch and merge, and yet opposing one another like the Yin-Yang Fish. As they slowly merged a propulsive force was felt in the body.
This is when time unfroze, launching the former Long Chen through space.
'Huh? Where am I? I thought I had just died'
Leon tried to open his eyes but when he did all he saw was red. He was able to make out the outline of what seemed like trees but he couldn't be sure.
'Where is this place?'
*It doesn't matter where this place is kid, the way things are lookin', we ain't got much time*
'WHAT WAS THAT'
*It's me Kid.*
'Wow who would have thought death makes you go insane.'
*Like I said you ain't dead and though I can't make any guarantees whether you are insane or not*
'Okay okay, haha, Guy who is not definitely not a voice in my head. If I'm not dead then where am I and who are you'
*Me? I'm Hermes, Operator of the Journey System, I'll be your new partner so I'm glad to workin' with ya'. Unfortunately I can't tell ya' where we are because I ain't sure yet*
'Haha this is hilarious. Then tell me what is this Journey System then Hermes'
*Lemme show ya' then Bud*
-Journey System : Preparing for launch-
-Journey System : Initialising-
-Journey System : Active-
-Now accessible via Operator H301, known as 'Hermes'-
-The Following has been unlocked :
Inventory
Missions
Character
Shop
Map
Upgrade to Journey System V2.0 for more-
*Ain't that neat Kid? If there's anything you need you just gotta go through me. Pretty convenient I know heh. But before I go through with his lemme just show ya' somethin'*
-Emergency Mission: You have just broken through the atmosphere and landed on this planet. Though the system was able to mitigate 99% of the damage you are still in critical condition and risk death. Survive and start your divine journey
Rewards: 100 Shop Points, +5 Endurance
Punishment: Death-
'Oh I'm so screwed.'