Races: Online

"...What kind of life would you be living if you didn't do what you wanted, right?"

His gaze flickered up at those words, eyed the look of determination on the young woman's face. It was reminiscent of him choosing to no longer fulfill what his father had wanted when he had graduated. Was it silly that he needed to be reminded of this? "Hah, I should do them huh?"

"Yeah, do what you love." She nodded and gave him an affirmative smile. Chan Lee blinked for a moment before she tried to keep a blank expression, "Yes, 'do' them." She pressed her lips together as they twitched.

She was trying to stop herself from breaking into laughter.

Han Jing realized what his words implied a moment too late and waved a hand, "Woah I wasn't trying to—"

She laughed and wiped an imaginary tear, "No, it's my fault. That… it wasn't even that funny. My bad." Her gaze averted to the door, "It was a little funny to me but you get my point right?"

"Yeah, I need to pursue the things I want to do." Han Jing scratched his head and thought about it. Did he really like playing the game or was he only feeling better because of her words—

Somehow it felt like the events around him were conniving him to join again.

But it was his decision.

He eyed the young woman in front of him. Somehow it really was suspicious that the day that he ended up downloading 'Races: Online' happened to be the day that she also moved into his apartment though.

Was there a connection? Or was his brain playing tricks on him? He bit back a cough as he glanced back at his washing machine. They had only managed to place one load of laundry so he was going to be stuck here longer than he expected.

Chan Lee didn't say anything else after that, the young woman soon pulled her phone out of her pocket and began to pay attention to it. There really was a limit to how much one can interact with a fellow neighbor after all.

As for him, he prepared the second load of laundry and took out the first batch. He sighed inwardly as he placed them back in the basket, he would need to leave as the landlady was too cheap to even get a proper dryer.

"I'll just be hanging my clothes, can I leave our laundry with you?" He asked.

The young woman looked up from her phone and nodded, "Sure, no worries big bro Han Jing."

Reining back a sigh, he nodded and left the laundry room. He ended up doing all the loads of laundry by himself—his mother might have forgotten that she left her son to talk with the neighbors. And even Chan Lee had left earlier on to prepare for her night classes.

Normally, Han Jing would end up with a soggy shirt and numb arms after all the physical wringing out of the water from the clothes and bed sheets that would come out. But thankfully, he wasn't actually feeling that tired.

Instead he wiped his hands on his shorts before he pulled out his phone.

He wasn't going to be some kind of idiot who'd return immediately to the game though—he'd be reading all the related documents that had been attached in the email:

] Survival Handbook For New Players In Races: Online Simulation.txt

] Creators Will.pdf

] So You Want To Make An Alliance? ( 101 On Player to Player Interactions ).txt

] Warning and Precautions for Human Players.docx

He opted for the last one first, it might actually help him with his awful condition from when he woke up. The Moderator had mentioned something about his 'Soul' and even the app of Races: Online mentioned using his previous 'soul waves' to complete the activity he left.

Han Jing wished he could read faster, because somehow, even the document itself resembled a thousand-paged waiver along with safety tips and other words that left his head hurting.

This could seriously be the time where either he read faster or his intelligence went up or something. Alas, this was something that Han Jing would have to will himself through—he began to read the document bit by bit and block by block.

And then he started scanning, before looking for key words and entries. He really should have checked if there was a table of contents or something first.

Until he came in contact with some of the terms that he was looking for:

Soul - in the simplest of terms is the essence of Life and is referred by ancient scriptures and texts with a multitude of terms.

Soul Waves - the inherently unique and original mark of one's Soul that contains thoughts, actions, and emotions 

As part of the Human Race that had forgotten their ability to use their inner energy to interact within the world, all chosen Individuals that come from the Human Race are only capable of interacting with the Worlds fashioned by the Creators through their Souls.

One's Soul will create a lasting impact in the World that they interact in and will produce Soul Waves that are collected and used by the Creators to allow one's Will to still be established in the world that has been left behind if they are chosen to do so.

Continuous use of Soul for travelling back and forth from one Plane to the next can be taxing on the Soul, and may create a long-lasting negative impact on the physical bodies accepting the Soul. Not returning to a physical body for a long period of time will disconnect one's connection to that particular body and will result in 'death'—if one wishes to mitigate this, one can also train their Soul in order to grow stronger.

Soul Eater - an entity that exists across the Universe in search of stray Souls to consume.

"...and where's the part of getting the Soul stronger?" Han Jing blinked. He also eyed the part of the Soul Eater with some suspicion. "Don't tell me that while I'm travelling back and forth—I have to face something that wants to eat me?"

Somehow that only added more problems to his plate than alleviating his current ones. He sighed and rubbed his face, his soul. How to strengthen his soul. Somehow this seemed like something he'd read from a Xianxia.

Xianxia.

Cultivation.

He blinked and looked at his empty hand, "Am I going to be a cultivator?" That somehow sounded way cooler than being a rogue as Han, this was him as Han Jing. And he was forgetting an important detail too. Well, Peach had already mentioned it before. He had a chance to meet with other Races around him—who cared about distance?

Surely the other Races he'd know would all have some super speed or transformation. He'd have to ask this via her again though. How to strengthen his soul… would it be possible to do it through cultivation? Alchemy?

He sent her a message.

Han: Moderator, it seems that I have the option to strengthen my Soul. Is it possible to do it through something like cultivation? Or something else?

It wasn't like he could ask anybody else about this. The Creators, or whoever actually sent the message in the first place had entrusted the task of answering his queries. Surely she'd be able to give him an answer right?

And so he waited.

Waiting.

A couple minutes passed.

Han Jing waited some more.

And then before he knew it, his laundry chores was over with. Soon after, his mom finally remembered that she had a son and came back after all the work of hanging up the clothes were done. 

"Ah, it seems like you've done all the work, son. Thank you!" Even his mother didn't have to specify the reason why she didn't came back so soon.

It wasn't like she needed to explain herself.

He would get a bit pissed about doing all the hard work, but he didn't feel tired. Rather he was both annoyed and impatient with the Moderator. She had managed to add him as soon as he downloaded the app but now he couldn't get in contact with her?

"Don't look too upset, I'll cook dinner later and we'll have some snacks too. Come on, let's go back."

"Thanks, mother." Shaking his head, the day continued to go on. Once they reached back their room, Han Jing plopped back on his sofa and checked his phone, and then he placed it down. It wouldn't do well to keep clinging to it and waiting for his phone to get—

Ding!

He scrambled to check his phone and found it was an email. But not from Peach or game related, it was from one of the work he had applied on.

'You need more experience.'

At least that was essentially the gist of the email, and even though the job description said they were fine with any level of experience as long as they had a degree—of course they'd opt for someone who's already gotten a job before.

He sighed and placed his phone down.

Somehow this was the only moment where he wished and could feel enough willpower to not touch his phone. Or maybe it was because he had lost the energy to do so.

Ding!

Another notification came again.

Slouching for a bit, Han Jing still picked it up regardless. His eye twitched for a moment as it showed that the Moderator had replied at last. Now this one really took their time.