"What is happening to her?" Mrs. Grace asked. Her voice trembled a little as she watched Healer Faith draw blood from Rose's limp arm. The healer worked with steady hands, sealing the filled vial inside a small case as if it were something fragile and dangerous at the same time.
"With my assumption, she might have amnesia," Healer Faith said. She lowered the girl's arm gently onto the bed. "Or something else no one can explain. A dead person coming back to life is impossible. I will take this sample to the main clinic for proper testing."
She gave Mrs Grace a short nod and walked out. The door shut behind her, leaving the room quiet again.
Mrs Grace stood beside the bed for a moment. Rose's chest rose and fell slowly beneath the blanket. Her face looked calm but unfamiliar, as if the girl inside was not the same one who had spoken earlier. Mrs. Grace pressed her lips together. She still had a class waiting for her. She tucked the blanket a little higher around Rose's shoulder, hesitated for one more heartbeat, then turned and hurried out.
Silence filled the room like warm mist before Rose opened one eye. She stayed still for a second, listening. The soft tick of the wall clock. The faint hum of the ceiling lights. No footsteps, no voices. She opened both eyes and pushed herself upright. The glowing screen she had seen earlier appeared again in front of her, floating silently like it had been waiting.
She let out a long breath. She had been pretending to be unconscious while she tried to put everything together. The more she thought about it, the more ridiculous it sounded, yet it matched every cliche she had ever laughed at in stories.
She died, only to wake up in another world, inside another person's body, a female. A complete transmigration. And not only that, a system was waiting for her as if it had been assigned from the start.
She rubbed her forehead. "Not bad," she muttered. "At least I get to live another day. That man should have been better in bed if he didn't want his wife to cheat. Why did he shoot me? He should have shot his wife instead."
The moment the words left her mouth, the memory flashed. A gun raised toward her. The shout. Pain bursting like fire. The final drop into darkness. Her stomach tightened. She shut her eyes for a second and let the memory dissolve before forcing herself to stand.
She stretched her arms. The movement felt unfamiliar. Her limbs were thin and soft, like she had not eaten properly for days. She looked down at herself. "But this body looks so fragile and thin too. If they were going to give me a female body, they could have given me someone like Beyonce or JLo. Or at least some gorgeous model. This one looks like it has been suffering."
The floating screen shimmered. She pointed at it. "So this system is a talent system or whatever. Fine. Show me my stats."
The screen reacted the moment she spoke.
[User Profile]
[Player Name: Rose Milky Flowers
Level: 1
Health bar:100/100
Xp: 0 / 1000]
[Status Window]
[Strength: 10
Speed: 10
intelligence:10
Magic points: 10
Talent Skill: None]
She stared, reading it again and again.
"Milky. Your mom gave you Milky as a middle name," she whispered. Her lips twitched. Then her grin widened. "Hahaha. Milky. Oh this is gold." Her laughter burst out in loud waves until her stomach hurt and tears formed at the edges of her eyes.
The laughter faded when a memory that did not belong to her pushed its way into her mind. It was not a full memory, more like a small window opening. She saw pieces of the world she now lived in.
A dark sky split by strange lights. They came down like lightning but glowed in unnatural colors. Wherever they struck, they opened holes in the air. Doors.to other worlds. Monsters crawled out from these Doors, creatures with claws and strange shapes that tore through cities and villages. Screams, running crowds, smoke rising from the ground.
Humanity almost fell.
Then another burst of light covered the world. When people opened their eyes again, many of them had powers called Talents.
Element Talent. The power to control fire, water, wind and more.
Sense Talent. Hearing, sight, smell and other senses becoming sharp enough to feel like new organs.
Physical Talent. Strength and speed that broke human limits.
ESP Talent. The rarest, combining all three.
The first people with these Talents fought the invading monsters. They cleared the cities and destroyed the creatures one by one. When the last monster died, the Doors closed. Those warriors became heroes called Soldiers.
Peace returned for a while.
Then more doors appeared, not just one or two but dozens and hundreds all across the world, and no one knew why or how to stop them.
The new soldiers decided to go inside the Doors before the monsters came out. If they cleared the other side first, the invasion would not reach the cities.
Now, in the present, Doors still showed up without warning. Warriors trained everywhere. The world built an organization to manage everything. They called it the Community. Under it were many smaller groups. Anyone with a Talent could join one and rise through the ranks.
This was where Rose's story became complicated.
The original Rose had stayed in Class 10 last year because she failed to awaken a Talent. It had never happened to anyone before. Her classmates had laughed behind her back. Some did not bother hiding it. Her family treated her like a burden. They gave her a roof because they had to, not because they cared. She lived quietly in the shadows of her own life.
"This world is cruel too," Rose muttered. He sat on the bed and let the weight of the memory sit with him for a moment. There was something familiar about the loneliness in the original Rose's life. Something that reminded him of his own. "How did she die anyway?"
Before he could think deeper, the system screen flashed with bright light.
[Alert
A New Message]
He squinted at it. "What do I say? Open message?"
The text changed instantly.
[Daily Quests Available]
[Run: 20 km / 0]
[Jumping Jacks: 100 / 0]
[Squats: 100 / 0]
[Pushups: 100 / 0]
[Plank: 30 minutes / 0 minutes]
[Drink water: 5 liters / 0 liters]
He stared at the list.
Then exploded. "How the hell do you expect me to do all this with the feminine body you put me in!"
More text appeared.
[Note
Completing Daily Quests will help your body grow stronger and fit]
[Warning
Incomplete Quests will result in a Time Out
01:58:36 Time Remaining]
"Time Out? What is that? Do I fall asleep? Is it detention? Or am I fighting monsters?"
The warning box glowed like an impatient eye watching her. She rubbed her arms. Curiosity pulled at her thoughts. She wanted to try the quests, but her legs still felt heavy, like they belonged to someone else. Her chest rose and fell with tiredness.
She lay back on the bed. The mattress felt soft under her shoulders. She crossed her legs and put her hands behind her head. Her eyes traced the shadows on the ceiling.
"Huh. I wonder what Time Out looks like," she murmured.
Her eyelids grew heavier. She let them close.
When she opened them again, she was floating. Her body drifted weightlessly. It felt like moving underwater without the pressure of water. Or floating in an endless sky with no wind. The space around her stretched endlessly.
[Daily Quests Incomplete
Time Out Zone (Survival)
4:59:40]
Rose blinked at the glowing words.
"Well, I expected something like this," she muttered.
A soft feeling brushed the air behind her. She turned slowly.
A tiny, adorable bunny floated there.
"What are you? A cute little monster bunny? Are we going to play chess? Or play catch the bunny?"
The bunny smiled.
The smile stretched.
Then it tore open into something twisted. Its eyes turned red. More bunnies popped into existence around it until they merged into a giant monstrous rabbit towering over her, shaking the empty space.
Rose's eyes widened.
"Mommy!" she screamed as she turned and ran for her life.