[Main Quest, Phase One: The Path Upward]
Mission: Endspace has disguised the Explorer. To the inhabitants of this world, the Explorer is a life-form composed of highly concentrated reishi. You are currently a drifter in North Rukongai, District 80. Find a way to join the Seireitei and open your path upward.
Time Limit: 3 natural days
Difficulty: Easy–Hard
Success Reward: 500 End Coins
Failure Penalty: Erasure
Join the Seireitei...
At first glance, the mission did not seem particularly dangerous, nor did it seem difficult. But the wide difficulty range marked on the menu caught Luke's attention.
In Soul Society, the drifters of Rukongai occupied the lowest rung of society. Yet for anyone with talent, joining the Seireitei was not difficult.
The Gotei 13 needed fresh talent, after all. In the original story, plenty of exceptional Soul Reapers had come from Rukongai. They entered Shin'o Academy, trained there, and eventually joined the ranks.
Luke had no idea where his talent ranked in this world, but he should still be stronger than most drifters. Taking the normal route and enrolling in the academy should not be hard.
The problem was whether he could make it to the proverbial admissions office in one piece. The higher Rukongai's district number, the more chaotic it became. This was the edge of Soul Society. Running all the way to the Seireitei meant anything could happen along the way.
For now, Endspace had only told him where he was, not where he stood in the timeline. After mulling it over, Luke decided he had too little information to reach any useful conclusion. He might as well inspect his own condition first.
When Endspace had sent him into this world, it had implanted some knowledge into his mind, allowing him to understand its basic functions.
Luke summoned the menu in his mind and examined his status.
[Explorer No. 404040404]
[Level: Lv. 1]
[Reference: For all attributes below except Luck, the average ordinary adult has 5 points.]
[Note: The Explorer's body has not been fully digitized. The following values are provided only as a reference for self-evaluation.]
[Life Source: 100%]
[Soul Source: 100%]
[Constitution: 15]
[Strength: 15]
[Agility: 15]
[Spirit: 20]
[Charisma: 6]
[Luck: 1]
Since this was his first time checking, every attribute came with an explanation.
Luke had played games before. Put simply, Life Source represented his physical health bar, while Soul Source was his mana bar and was also connected to his soul. But since he was a real living being, neither value could be completely digitized.
Constitution determined the maximum value of Life Source, stamina, defensive resistance, and the speed at which injuries healed.
Strength determined carrying capacity and attack power. Together with Agility, it also affected sprinting speed, while Agility further governed neural reaction speed.
Spirit, according to its description, affected mastery over techniques and skills, the damage of certain abilities, perception, and resistance to mental interference.
Charisma affected the results of conversations with people, the power of summoned creatures, and resistance to certain forms of mental interference.
As for Luck, it was linked to random factors such as opening items, crafting, and drops. It was extremely difficult to raise.
Luke stared at his single point of Luck and fell into thought, unsure whether that was high or low.
"Aaaah!"
A scream suddenly rang out in the distance, snapping Luke into alertness. He turned toward the street corner.
A figure in a Soul Reaper's black robes flew through the air, spraying blood as he crashed into a decaying wooden house.
The few ragged drifters on the street were startled as well. Somehow finding strength in their skeletal bodies, they scrambled to their feet and ran.
One look at their reactions and the way they fled told him exactly how chaotic this place usually was. Their practiced escape was almost painful to watch.
The ones who had not learned to run had probably already moved on to their next lives.
Luke frowned slightly. He had seen it clearly—the man who had been sent flying was most likely a Soul Reaper. This was not some petty brawl between drifters.
A Hollow? Or rebels within Soul Society? He might soon find out where he was in the timeline.
By then, the drifters had already run past him. They assumed Luke had frozen in terror when they saw him standing there, but none of them bothered to warn him.
Then, two more bloodied figures burst around the corner. The Soul Reaper in front seemed to be shouting into some sort of communications device.
"We've encountered a rebel attack in North Rukongai, District 80! Requesting backup! I repeat, requesting backup!"
The Soul Reaper making the call had already lost one arm. With his remaining hand, he clutched his Asauchi desperately, terror of death written in his eyes.
He and another squad member fled for their lives, clearly no match for the rebels he had mentioned. When he spotted Luke, he did not change direction. Instead, he charged straight toward him.
After briefly assessing the situation, Luke understood why the first phase of his main quest had such a broad difficulty range.
Obviously, if he had not stayed put to inspect his status and think things through, he probably would not have run into this incident. With good luck, he might have made it safely to the Seireitei and completed the mission without trouble.
Even now, if he chose to run, he could probably avoid the danger in front of him.
But that was not what he wanted.
Blood splashed across Luke's face. A spinning head flew through the air, terror still frozen in its eyes. The Soul Reaper handling communications never made it past Luke. Before he could reach out, the rebel behind him had already taken his head.
The other Soul Reaper was pierced through the chest by another rebel, his eyes remaining open even in death.
Clang—
The headless Soul Reaper's Asauchi fell to the ground and embedded itself before Luke. Blood from both its owner and his enemies ran down its blade, trickling into the parched earth.
Dressed in nothing but tattered roughspun clothes, Luke stood there and watched the ten rebels inspecting the Soul Reapers' bodies.
They were called rebels, but they were really former Rukongai drifters dissatisfied with the Seireitei's rule. Aside from a handful of organized rebel groups, most were nothing more than a rabble.
Still, the Gotei 13 members who had died before Luke were merely ordinary Soul Reapers. They could not even perform Shikai.
From the clash he had just witnessed, Luke could roughly judge the rebels' strength.
"What are you laughing at?"
A wild-haired rebel barked at Luke.
"A drifter from around here? Deal with him. The pursuit force should be here soon."
The rebel leader glanced at Luke. Blood still dripped from the sword in his hand, and the scar across his face made him look even more vicious.
Luke raised a hand and touched his face. "So I was smiling."
As he spoke, his body trembled. The rebel approaching him assumed the drifter had been scared witless and lost his mind.
The rebel raised his sword and slashed at Luke. None of the others paid attention. They were busy checking the dead Gotei 13 members for anything that could be used to track them.
The sound of a blade cutting through flesh rang out.
But the one who fell was not the drifter.
It was the rebel sent to dispose of him.
Luke now held the Asauchi that had been embedded in the ground. With a flick of his wrist, he shook the blood from its blade, spraying a sinister crimson arc across the dirt.
His gaze swept over the stunned rebels. His body would not stop trembling as he bared a row of gleaming white teeth. "This place is great. It's been a long time since anything got me this excited."
Uncertainty flashed through the leader's eyes, but he quickly made his decision. "All of you, attack! Kill him!"
A spear ripped through the air, bringing a hint of coolness to the scorching heat. Luke merely tilted his head, and the shaft swept past the tips of his hair.
In the next instant, as the ambushing rebel stared in disbelief, Luke's blade flashed upward from below.
Flesh split. Bone snapped. Soul severed!
In the blink of an eye, two rebels had been cut down. As Luke stepped forward, an invisible pressure seemed to spread from him, forcing the rebels surrounding him to take an involuntary step back.
Under the gaze of the rebels, Luke looked up at the sky and the blazing sun. He took a deep breath and savored the feeling of being alive.
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