[Welcome to The End!]
Now, that didn’t sound ominous at all…
Not that she had much time to consider that before being met with a veritable wall of text, replacing the previous one-liners.
[Quest received!]
[System Quest: Name: Be a TransmigratorContent:
Be a TransmigratorReward: 100 Stability
Gain Ability: Dungeon Compass
Gain Ability: Communication
Forced Spontaneous Skill generation]
[Quest received!]
[System Quest: Name: A body of potentialContent:Your body is a source of great potential power. Keep it, and your life, safe from those who would want to take it for themselves.Reward: ???]
[Quest received!]
[System Quest: Name: Vanguard of a breaking WorldContent:Your home is destabilizing by the minute. Having made your way to The End ahead of time, you have the unique opportunity to gather the support necessary to keep the shards of your home stable after the Shattering ahead of time. Gather sufficient support from gods to support your home world.
Current probability of critical destabilization within the next year: 2%
Progress: 3.21%Reward:
System support for your Home world and during the Shattering. Depends on current progress.]
[Quest received!]
[System Quest: Name: Bridge to The EndContent:Your home is destabilizing by the minute. Having made your way to The End ahead of time, you have the unique opportunity to prepare a place for the rest of your people. However, a single person can only do so much on their own. Find a way to establish a connection with your home world, allowing your people to build a bridgehead, transfer resources, and find their place in The End.Reward: Increased System support for your Home world.
Progress on Quest: “Vanguard of a breaking World”
Gain Ability: Gateway]
Within moments, Annabelle received four different quests from the System. Now, despite having little interest in that kind of stuff, it wasn’t like Annie had been living under a rock, so she was at least somewhat aware of what the term “quest” implied.
She would do what the quest told her too, and in return she would get a reward. The thing was, that was just a way for video games to get players to do certain things.
As such, it was a rather strange experience to be suddenly told that she had quests she could do in reality. It truly made her wonder what the hell was up with this mysterious “System”.
This entire time, it had sent her lines and boxes of text in the form of intrusive thoughts. It had done things to her she couldn’t tell whether they were good or bad, all while bombarding her with little, inconclusive snippets of information she had no way of telling whether anything of it was actually true and not just some weird, brainwashing scam.
She had no clue about what it wanted, or if it even wanted anything at all, and why it was doing the things it was doing. Really, what even WAS this “System”? The word implied there was some kind of logic behind it all, but at least for now, Annabelle failed to grasp even a sliver of it.
She could only hope that the tutorial she was supposed to receive, as little expectations as she had, would give her some more information. Not that she was willing to just up and believe any of it.
Her thoughts were interrupted at that moment by another wall of text.
[Be a Transmigrator: Quest Fulfilled!]
[You have gained 100 Stability]
[You have gained the Ability: Dungeon Compass][You have gained the Ability: Communication][Forcing Spontaneous Skill generation]
As had been a trend until now, it didn’t seem like this “System” intended to give her a choice in the matter.
[Warning! This process might be painful. Please proceed to take all necessary precautions. Process starts in 10 seconds.]
[10]
[9]
She read the red text once, then twice, and a third time just to be sure. Every time, she only got more anxious.
[8]
[7]
Usually, Annie didn’t have a big problem with pain. Sure, she didn’t like it, she wasn’t masochistic after all. But enduring some pain had never been a problem for her. The warning, however, had her concerned. It had the distinctive ring of “take care to not bite your tongue off” to it.
[6]
[5]
There was just one problem. She had cut off all of her senses. Which meant, she shouldn’t be able to feel any pain. And yet, the warning had come. Whatever kind of pain this warning was talking about, it couldn’t be good.
[4]
[3]
And worse, she would have appreciated the warning normally. But all the ways she knew of to prevent accidental self-harm were only useful when she had a body she could harm. So, unable to do anything, all the countdown did was to force her to watch in anticipation of the inevitable pain, anxiety growing continuously.
[2]
[1]
[0]
All of a sudden, her entire conceptual being seemed to get stretched apart. Not just her soul, or mind, but something deeper, something MORE. Something *plopped*. And with a contended, mental sigh, she relaxed. For a moment, at least, as the anxiety quickly crept back in.
For a while, she waited for the other shoe to drop. For the pain to come.
[You have gained the Skill: Summon Tentacle]
[You have gained the Skill: Golem-bound]
For a few more moments, Annie stayed ready, anticipating the promised pain. But as more and more time passed without anything happening, her thoughts slowly relaxed. Then, she scrolled back through the messages, reading the warning again.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
[Warning! This process might be painful. Please proceed to take all necessary precautions. Process starts in 10 seconds.]
It was then that she noticed a certain word. “Might”. On one hand, she was relieved. On the other, she was very annoyed. A single word that was usually used to downplay something. And the one time it was actually used correctly, it was almost worst than if it hadn’t. She almost wished for the pain to actually come. She could take some pain, but getting so anxious just for nothing to actually happen, she almost felt insulted.
Though, as she relaxed again and let it set in deeper, only then did she notice the change. She felt… better. Like some kind of pressure had been released. Like the relief one felt after popping a pimple. Like she had lived her entire life with constipation, and for the first time, it was gone. But none of these feelings were physical. They came from somewhere deeper, somewhere much more spiritual than she liked to admit. She had never been a fan of all this spiritualism stuff. Though, considering her recent experience, maybe she should revisit that particular opinion.
And then, finally, one more message appeared in her mind.
[Tutorial: Opening your Status screenTo open your Status screen, please say, think, or otherwise communicate the words/concept “Open Status screen”.]
She read it, and then continued waiting for the System to jabber on. However, ten units passed. Then a hundred, and then three hundred without anything more happening.
It was only then that she finally accepted that, at least for now, the “System” was willing to leave her alone.
It was only then that she could truly rethink everything that had happened, the things that had been done to her. Her mind shuddered at that thought, now that she was capable of gathering her scattered thoughts and focus.
She wasn’t exactly a professional regarding souls, hadn’t been when they were little more than a concept some religious type had come up with to justify why they would be better off than non-believers, and even less so now that they were apparently an actual thing. But one thing she realized those people had gotten right was that her soul was the very essence of herself, and that doing what the System had done was nothing if not disgusting.
Maybe the other soul had been an artificial one. Maybe it didn’t have any free will. Maybe, in this place artificial souls were the equivalent to computers back on earth. But Annabelle didn’t care. The fact that it had a soul, meant that it had a self. It was a feeling, an instinct that was so clear that she couldn’t deny it.
And the fact that such a soul had been mutilated in such a way, and then used to patch up and enhance her own was mortifying.
According to the messages she had gotten, the “System” had attempted to separate their souls at first, but deemed the risk too high for whatever reason.
But if given the choice, Annabelle was sure of herself, she would have chosen to risk the separation, even if it could have killed her.
After all, in a way, it was as if she had died already either way. Not a physical death, but an ego death.
The process had changed her in fundamental ways, and she knew that her new sense of time was simply the first change she noticed. Depending on how far reaching those changes were she wasn’t even sure she could still claim to be herself.
“I think, therefore I am”, it was the ultimate proof of one's own existence, according to Descartes. But she realized, it was not “I think, therefore I am myself”. The capability to think was proof of her existence, but not proof of who she was. As long as it was her herself who changed her thoughts and mind, she would inevitably stay herself. But if the same was done by an outside entity? Whether they changed, took away, or added to her, would she still be herself in the end?
And this too, was a change. She didn’t think that she had ever been that philosophical before. Then again, that might actually be a natural change. Who wouldn’t get a bit philosophical if they learned first hand that souls existed, only to have theirs fundamentally changed moments later.
She archived the thoughts, deciding to revisit them later once she had time. Right now, she had more important things to deal with. She paused, immediately realizing that this too, was not how she usually was. Who she had been. Sure, she could prioritize, but if she had thoughts even close to this, they usually tended to stick around like a catchy tune and only leave after she had thought them through to the end. She couldn’t just push it away and just… press pause on the train of thought to resume at a later point.
It was terrifying how concerning, yet fascinating that capability was.
Anyways, one thing was right. There were more important things for her to think about at the moment. Like the quests she had been given, for example. Even if she wasn’t sure whether to believe the information or not, she could at least operate under the assumption that the information was true until she had a way to obtain more information from a more reliable source.
For one, there was “Vanguard of a breaking world”. It was concerning for many reasons, but mainly because it seemed to foretell the end of her homeworld. Out of three keywords, the first was “The End”, which was a very ominous name for what she assumed was the place she had ended up in. Meanwhile, the keywords “the Shattering“ and “critical destabilization” were more than a little concerning. Whether that would result in some kind of apocalypse, or simply in everything going poof, it didn’t sound great at all. And even if she didn’t care much for those parts of the world she only ever heard about in the news, she still very much preferred having a chance to do something about that, even if only for the sake of the few people and things she cared about, like Sandra, Tony and Jason. And of course, Carly. They were like family to her. The family that she had found herself, not the one she had been forced into.
If there was even a chance that they could be harmed, Annabelle knew she would do whatever it takes to prevent it.
She could only hope her mother wouldn’t throw out her collection of vinyl records or her record player before she had a chance to reclaim them. The records were her treasured collection after all, and the record player was one she had found on a scrapyard but had spent months painstakingly restoring all on her own. With a shudder, she recalled the article about a guy who made the mistake of storing his video game collection at his parents house, until his mother threw out the “junk”, not realizing that in its entirety, it was worth over half a million dollars. Her collection may not have been remotely that valuable, but she put just as much love into her collection. And compared to herself, that guy wasn’t even…
She must have gone missing back on earth, didn’t she? That was, if she hadn’t just straight up dropped dead in front of her mother while she screamed at her.
She wasn’t sure which was better. If she had died, they might move on, and even if she found a way back, Carly might have already found someone else. It was a thought Annabelle couldn’t bear. But if she had just gone missing? Who knew how hey would react? How long Carly would wait for her to return?
Or maybe her old body had fallen into a coma? It certainly was a possibility she couldn’t deny either. But in the end, it changed little. One thing was clear, she had to find a way back as fast as possible.
And it was the “Bridge to The End” quest that gave her more than just a little hope that she would be able to return back home.
However, there was one quest that was on the more concerning side of things.
[System Quest: Name: A body of potentialContent:Your body is a source of great potential power. Keep it, and your life, safe from those who would want to take it for themselves.Reward: ???]
It stood out for many reasons. The reward wasn’t shown for one, and the content was so open-ended that she wasn’t even sure if it was possible to finish the quest at all. It read to Annie more like a warning than anything else, but it also another sign of hope for her. Her body, if she could even call it that, considering she had basically stolen it by fully assimilating the original owner's soul, even if it was against her will, was supposedly a source of great power. She had no idea what kind of power it was, or who exactly the people who would want it for themselves were. But if she was careful to evade notice, there would definitely be a way to leverage that power for her own gains.
And apropos body, it was time that she stopped stalling. Sooner or later, she would have to reactivate her senses and learn to make sense of them, no matter how dizzy it made her the first time around. Rueful that she couldn’t resort to any of the techniques she usually used to calm herself and focus, she steeled her mind as best as she could and went for it.
Just like before, images and sounds flooded her mind, overwhelming her thoughts as everything fought for her attention at the same time. For the longest time, Annabelle simply did nothing, letting it all wash over her as best as she could while trying to make a sense of everything. For a while, nothing seemed to change at all. But the human mind is adaptable, and sooner rather than later, Annabelle’s subconscious began the process of filtering the information. Bit by bit, the amount of information Annabelle received receded until it was within the limit of what her mind could take.
However, even then it was only of limited usefulness. Because what she was hearing and seeing was distorted beyond recognition. Little more than a cloud of random color and noise, as if someone had tried to decode the image data with the wrong decoding key. Which might not actually be wrong considering that this information was not meant for a human mind to begin with.
So it was lucky, or maybe preordained, when a solution offered itself all on its own.
[Level up: Main-Skill: Golem-bound Lv 1]
The moment the message came, something changed in her. What had been little more than clouds of colors and indistinct noise, suddenly took on a semblance of form. It was still blurry and barely recognizable, but starting from that moment, she could feel her vision and hearing clear up with every moment.