Altyria munched on her snacks and sipped her drinks as she studied this system.

Currently on the menu, it showed her current stats and items.

Stats

Overall rank: E+

Spiritual power: Rank F+

Soul power: Rank C (SS)

Physical: Rank D-

Agility: Rank E+

Soul Bonded: Chrome

Skills: Spiritual array master, Inscription master

Items: None

Solstice coins: 5,200

Altyria saw that her mastery of spiritual arrays and inscriptions were listed in the skills. She also saw that she had 5,200 Solstice coins. Altyria looked around to find a piece of paper to jot down her questions to ask Chrome later. She spotted a notepad on Chrome’s desk. Seeing that he was not using it, she used spiritual power to bring it towards her. Using spiritual power to hold a pen, Altyria wrote down a question about what solstice coins were and why she had 5,200 coins when she just joined his team.

The pen paused for a moment. It said that she joined his team, but she was not sure if there were others on his team. She should ask him about that as well.

Setting the pen aside, Altyria continued to look at the menu.

On the left hand side, there was a column of buttons: Stats, Map, Party members, Tasks, System Mall

Her eyes lit up when she saw ‘Party Members’. She tapped on it and the screen changed. There were four names listed, including hers: Chrome, Altyria, Dylan, and Yilan.

It did not show any other information besides the name, so Altyria still had to ask Chrome about the party members.

Next, she tapped on the ‘Map’ button. The screen changed into a large map that showed her surroundings. There were two blue dots on the map, which she assumed was her and Chrome’s position. Currently, the map was at bird’s eye view and showed lines, which indicated the different buildings. There was an option that said ‘3-D’ and she pressed that.

The view changed and the buildings became real-life looking. Although she could not see inside the buildings, the blue dots were still blinking on the map. Altyria switched it back to the 2-D map, which is simpler, but easier to understand.

Altyria pressed the next tab on the column, which was ‘Tasks’.

Main Task

Gather information about the recent incidents at Duanxin High School.

Branch Task

Destroy/seal 100 spirits: 46/100

Altyria tilted her head to the side. Tasks? Spirits? Did Chrome have to deal with spirits? Although she did not know why Chrome had to do these tasks, she intended to help out. She had confidence that her spiritual arrays could play a role in destroying or sealing those spirits. These spirits should not be too strong since there was barely any world essence to support these spirits unless some means were used.

Altyria jotted down some questions about the tasks on the notepad.

Chrome had been working on his pile of documents while looking at Altyria once in a while. When he glanced at her, he saw that she was writing something on the notepad and assumed that she must be familiarizing herself with the system. Since he did not explain anything about the system, he was certain that he would be asked questions.

He glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was about time for lunch.

“Alti, let’s go out for lunch. Those snacks aren’t enough to fill you up.” Chrome got up from his desk and walked towards her.

Altyria looked at the snacks that she had not finished since she was so engrossed in the system.

[Okay, what are we going to eat? I want to try something other than fish!] Altyria threw everything that she had been thinking about to the back of her mind when she heard that they were going out for lunch.

“I’ll take you to a restaurant that is known for their dessert. I have two other party members in our team. One of them is also in this office building, while the other one is out gathering information. I’ll introduce you to the one here first, then the other one when we meet up at the restaurant.” Chrome took out his phone and texted his teammates. Once he was done, he scooped Altyria into his arms and headed out the door.

Outside Chrome’s office was a wide space with several other rooms. These rooms were conference rooms, a small cafeteria, and office rooms. In the middle of the open space were desks with computers, tables, and couches.

Chrome walked to one of the three office rooms and opened the door.

“Hey, we’re going out for lunch. You have 5 seconds to get to the elevator; otherwise, I’ll leave you behind.” Without waiting for the other person to respond, Chrome turned around and walked towards the elevator.

[Isn’t 5 seconds too short? It seemed like he was half asleep.]

Chrome smiled but did not say anything. He gently caressed her soft snow-white fur. The elevator arrived and Chrome stepped inside.

The next second, Altyria heard hurried footsteps coming towards their direction.

“Chrome, can’t you give me at least 10 seconds??” A man ran in a hurry into the elevator as he yelled out to Chrome in an angry voice. “Phew! Safe!”

Chrome glanced at his watch. 4 seconds had passed. “5 seconds is more than enough for you.”

“5 seconds is not enough for me! You don’t know how much I had to…”The man had started complaining until he saw Altyria resting in Chrome’s arms.

Altyria had been staring at this man since he entered the elevator.

He was wearing a black custom-made suit. His hair was combed back and wore a studded earring on his left ear. He appeared to be in his early 20’s with a handsome face. He had a proportional body and was about 176 cm tall. He had grey eyes with a rogue-like smile on his face.

Altyria scanned him from head to toe.

Hmph! Although he could be considered handsome, he is still lacking compared to Chrome! Altyria flicked her ears at this thought.

“Hey, when did you get a cat? You know we are not going to be able to bring it with us later.”

Chrome ignored him and looked at Altyria with tender eyes as he gently rubbed her little head.

Dylan saw that tenderness spewing out of Chrome’s eyes and rubbed his own eyes to see if it was an illusion. Seeing that it was not an illusion, Dylan had an O-shaped mouth.

“Alti, this guy is called Dylan. He’s a bit of a fool, but he gets the work done.” Chrome’s face darkened a bit when he discovered that his little Alti had been staring at Dylan since he came into the elevator. He quickly covered her eyes with his hand.

“Alti, don’t look at this fool too much. His stupidity is contagious. Later on, you’re not allowed to stay alone with him.”

[Stupidity is contagious? I didn’t know that. Un, I’ll stay away from him so I don’t lower my IQ. If my IQ lowers, I won’t be able to do my research.] Altyria nodded.

“Y-You! How could you say that I’m stupid?! I’m considered an international hacker, you know! My IQ is at least 185! I’m. Not. An. Idiot.” Dylan stressed his four last words. “And, you didn’t answer my question. Since it could talk with spiritual power, it’s not normal, is it?”

Altyria readjusted herself in Chrome’s arms. [Nice to meet you. I’m Altyria, a new member of the team and Chrome’s soulmate. Just for your information, I’m a Lylin, not a cat.]

“Oh, oh. Nice to meet you. You can call me Dylan. My specialty is anything related to electronics, including the internet. If you ever want to blacken someone’s computer, you can count on me!” Dylan patted his chest proudly and extended a hand for a handshake.

Chrome looked at him in disdain when Dylan was introducing himself, but when he saw Dylan’s hand extend for a handshake, Chrome stared at him with the expression: If you dare handshake with my Alti, I’ll waste that hand.

Dylan saw that cold look and shivered. He quickly retracted his hand and smiled with a ‘He he’ laugh.

At this time, the elevator door opened at the underground parking lot.

Chrome stepped out of the elevator and walked towards his car.