Sacred Souls: Genesis

Jiang Qiao moved to the more spacious living room, took out his mobile phone and turned on the latest version of the Sacred Souls app.

It was a version that only Jiang Qiao had—for other players, the Sacred Souls app only had a single function: login.

In fact, Jiang Qiao’s own Sacred Souls app had an entire load of new functions that he made himself as the Maker, and one of the most important of them was the Abyssal Rift.

Jiang Qiao selected that function, and a map of River Town—the city he lived in appeared, although there was nothing on it at the moment.

Be that as it may, when the dimensional rifts are opened when the invading plane arrives and its monsters started to charge into the city, the map would display the location of the rift.

It was the primary gameplay of Sacred Souls: an Abyssal Hunt!

“Ocean Blue, release my Soul Fall limiter,” Jiang Qiao said.

“It’s already released. However, Bluestar’s World Barrier is still very strong, and you would consume a lot of energy if you summon your character here.” Ocean Blue warned him, stepping out of the kitchen with a basket of strawberries while eating one.

“How much energy?”

Jiang Qiao glanced at the screen of his mobile phone—beneath the interface of the Abyssal Rift, only a single Soulfall option had turned from grey to yellow, meaning that Jiang Qiao could select it.

“300 points, enough for me to build a town in my world.” Ocean Blue sounded sad but muffled, because she was still stuffing strawberries into her mouth.

Jiang Qiao stared at her sadly too, since she was about to finish the entire pack of strawberries he just bought. That being said, it was even more sad that…

“300? Wouldn’t robbery be easier? I mean why would it cost so much here on Blue Star?”

Having experienced the Maker Mode before, Jiang Qiao knew what 300 points could provide.

Daily maintenance cost of Sacred Souls would only take fifty points, most of which were used on refreshing monsters and items.

Now, there are over ten thousand active monsters roaming the 240 square kilometers land of Sacred Souls, each of which costs only 0.00001 energy points.

In fact, energy points were only consumed on a larger amount when creating new monsters, new items, and new cities.

“That’s because your character can do magic while Bluestar has none!” Ocean Blue replied. “It’s only after the invading plane tear down the Rule Barrier of this world that it would take less energy to summon a character from the game in the rifts.”

“So that’s a limited function for rifts? Let’s try it for a bit though, I want to make sure that there are no problems.”

Jiang Qiao sat on his couch and promptly clicked on the Soulfall option, and instantly felt his consciousness pulled away.

When he opened his eyes again, he could see ‘himself’ on the couch.

“Although I was mentally prepared, the summon actually worked…”

Jiang Qiao looked at his own hands in disbelief—the Aura Gauntlets that dropped from the King Boar was equipped.

For further confirmation, he moved to face the tall mirror in the living room and see what he looked like now, and it was indeed the Summoner who was controlling water and fire spirits to give the King Boar a beatdown!

His pale blue robes were glinting with dim, mysterious radiance. His features looked a little softer beneath his hood compared to real life, and his hair was dark grey as well.

The game interface was also within view: HP, MP, EXP, bag and every other option was available, although mail and certain social functions were grayed out.

At the same time, he could feel a unique power flowing within his body—that was probably the so-called magic.

Water spirit, summon!

Complex runes appeared over Jiang Qiao’s left hand, and after a five-second chant, a puddle of blue liquid converged beside him, hovering in the air staring at him blankly with two eyes.

“This feels… awesome.”

Jiang Qiao could not help but smile as he looked at the water spirit floating in the air, and the creature smiled the same way as well after blowing a mouthful of bubbles.

That was the first time Jiang Qiao felt a vague connection between himself and the elemental creation.

He would not have felt a thing in the game world of Sacred Souls. On the other hand, having a power like magic in the real world was definitely an experience every gamer in the world yearned for.

Jiang Qiao was therefore feeling sentimental about the body of his Summoner character too, and returned to the couch to sit beside his real-world body, putting aside his staff while picking up a bottle of cola from the table.

“By the way, 300 points only maintains your Sacred Soul body in the real-world for ten minutes.” Ocean Blue suddenly ran to him and snatched the bottle away. “It would cost a lot more if you continue on like this!”

“I’m doing this to perfect the function itself. And those strawberries you gobbled up were expensive.”

Jiang Qiao gestured for his water spirit to snatch back the cola with its tentacle. For her part, Ocean Blue felt a little guilty when she heard the word ‘strawberry’, and stopped complaining to stuff a few more of those fruits down her mouth.

“First and foremost, we have to prevent Sacred Souls character from touching physical objects in reality.” Jiang Qiao shook the bottle of cola for a bit but did not drink it—Sacred Souls characters had no taste buds since they were ‘sacred souls’ after all, heroes who exist to purify vile beings.

“Why?” Ocean Blue asked.

“Not all Sacred Souls players are the good guys, and they could easily lose their sense of self with such power in real life.”

Jiang Qiao waved his hand to summon a fire spirit, although he quickly withdrew it since he would be homeless when a fire occurs.

Players would certainly turn Sacred Souls into a game of robbery since they commanded such great powers in the real world without worrying that they would expose their identity.

Furthermore, many of the players’ skill were AOE, and there would be hostile reactions when civilians were harmed.

“It should be possible. Turning attack-type skills so that it only works on monsters from invading planes… would healing spells require that sort of adjustment as well?” Ocean Blue asked, putting the now-empty strawberry basket on the table.

“Heal would have an effect too?” Jiang Qiao realized right then what an impact Sacred Souls could bring to modern society.

Everyone might begin cultivation from now… or indeed, level up.

“Yes,” Ocean Blue said. “That said, resurrection wouldn’t work for this world now since I don’t have the energy to break the reincarnation rules of Bluestar. Still, it might world on other world fragments.”

“Normal healing is enough, and the skills’ effects don’t need to be changed! However, a complex judgment system is needed when players use their game characters to help others… I think I’ll use Maker Mode to directly adjust that.”

With the discussion finished, Jiang Qiao ended his Soulfall and his consciousness returned to his own body. The Summoner character beside him vanished, just as the water spirit was reduced to a puddle on the floorboards.