When the app said ‘in your vicinity’ it really meant in Leo's vicinity. All Leo had to do was take the elevator down and walk to a back alley, and lo and behold, a man, seated on the cold, hard ground was waiting.

“Fuck.” Leo exclaims as he takes out his phone, ready to call an emergency number. Damn, might be better to drive him myself. Leo thinks as he walks closer. Leo's eyes widen when he notices the wound. What the fuck is that!? He exclaims. There was a black wound eating at the man's stomach. Some sort of weird energy was attached to the man’s stomach and it sparkled in flashed of purple light. “Holy shit, man. What happened?” Leo calls out as he approaches the man.

The man’s gaze shoots up and watches Leo with hawk-like eyes. “Who are you? Who do you work for now, or you’re dead.” The man says with a steady voice.

Leo raises an eyebrow. “Damn, man. Don’t we all kind of work for the Black Star corporation? Why are you being so defensive?” He asks, unsure of the situation.

The man lets out a smirk before letting out a loud laugh. “Hah! I’m dying and they send a newbie undead? Those assholes really don’t care, do they?” The man says in a somewhat self-deprecating manner. “Damn, I’m not even sure I have enough karma points for rebirth… This just turned out to be a shit show…” He says with a sigh.

“Karma points?” Leo repeats, unsure of the term before shaking his head. This didn’t seem to be the time. The man looked pale, and he looked very near to death, so Leo felt he had to do something. “Alright, let’s not worry about that for the moment. We should get you to a hospital.” Leo says as he leans down to reach for the man’s body.

The man instinctively slaps Leo’s hand away before sending out a palm.

Leo’s eyes widen as he felt a weird weightlessness. Leo was gently lifted into the air before landing two meters away. Holy fuck! What was that!? Leo exclaims.

The man lets out a sigh. “It’s no use. No human hospital would be able to cure this wound. The darkness is going to eat away at my body until I’m dead. Unless there’s an undead who walks the Angel Path around, there’s no chance of me surviving this.” The man says in defeat.

“Angel path? What the fuck are you talking about, man? Look, I’m no expert but we should probably do something, right?” Leo says somewhat anxiously.

The man lets out a chuckle. “Enough about that. Just relax. Tell me about you. You smell like a virgin and I could use a good virgin story right about now. To remind me of the good old days.” He says with a smile.

Leo’s eyes widen before letting out a breath. Fuck, fine. If this guy doesn’t want to find help, the least I could do is entertain him. He thinks, deciding to play along.

“I’m Leo. I became undead a few weeks ago. I’m still figuring shit out, but from what I gather, we’re just accessories to living people’s life. And I guess I’m meant to just work for a few lifetimes? Or something?” Leo tries to say.

The man lets out a snort. “That's dumb. Who told you that? Actually, I don’t care. There’s more than a few clueless undead out there, wandering the world like ghosts. Tell me how you’ve been earning work points.” He says.

Leo raises an eyebrow. Clueless? Should I be info gathering right now? This dude seems like he has a decent amount to say. He thinks.

“I, ugh, I’ve been writing fanfiction. And I recently got a job as a Service Desk Analyst. So there’s that.” Leo says.

The man smirks. “Maintenance and Character Development? First of all, Maintenance is a trash undead occupation. All that bullshit will get you nowhere so get out while you can. Character Development isn’t too bad, but you’re not going to be able to do enough with fanfiction. You gotta get published my dude, or promote a movie script. That’s where the real work points are.” He says casually.

“Undead occupation?” Leo says with a tilted head. “Then how do you earn your work points?” He asks, very curious.

The man puts on a smile. “Of course, I do what earns the most work points possible. Plot Progression!” He says, clearly proud of his profession.

“Plot Progression? What’s that?” Leo asks. If there were a way for him to earn more work points, he would be more than open to it.

The man smiles. “See, you got to think of each person’s life as a story. When a person moves from one plot point to another plot point, a shit ton of work points can be earned. There’s two ways to go about it, Setting Progression and Personal Progression. Setting Progression is big picture shit, and it’s risky because it get’s a little close to the public eye, but if you somehow convinced someone to start a third world war, that’s a shit ton of work points. Personal Progression is a better fit for most people; it’s like Character Development, but with actual events driving the progression. For example, a lady gets married young, and 10 years down the road, she begins to wonder of what could have been. She starts getting into romance books and begins to tempt thoughts of affairs and exploring her sexuality. So there’s all this build-up with nowhere to go. But if in an undead were to walk in, either convince this lady to cheat on her husband, or maybe seduce her personally, then you just broke a seal, and breaking seals earn a shit ton of work points.” The man explains enthusiastically.

Leo’s eyes widen at the man’s words. “Starting a world war? Convincing married ladies to cheat? Holy fuck, man. What are you? The devil?” He thinks, some fear in his eyes.

The man bursts out into laughter. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess you could say I am the devil. But the system made me this way, my friend. And no one, I mean absolutely no one, can escape the machine.” The man says seriously.