After reminiscing about the circumstances of her new flesh suit, she finally decided to tackle the issue that had been bothering her since she first saw her status screen, a name.

She believed that such a concern would have been silly and out of character to her in the past. But she had decided to masquerade as a human for this vacation, therefore a proper name was essential. At least her past studies on humans said so.

She had been called many different phrases in countless different languages but found them entirely lacking in dramatic flair. Most were just a variation of monster, calamity, or the name of some bogeyman in their ancient texts.

One had always stuck out in her mind. The Parathians had a word in their old tongue that the top brass on the planet called her when they tried, keyword is tried, to meet in secret to discuss plans to kill her.

It was Nex or The Nex. It meant terror or some kind of existential horror as far as she could translate it. Her favorite researcher had coined the name after she had stolen his notes on the study of her biological structure from his house. She left not a single trace of her intrusion except for a small thank you note under his pillow as he slept soundly in bed.

The poor guy was scared to the depths of his soul after that and went a little kooky. Sometimes he would break out into sobbing fits in the middle of meetings with important military leaders. Even so, he strangely never stopped researching a way to kill her.

“Maybe a little bit of a homage is in order. After all, he was one of the few I ended up taking a personal interest in.”

Barefoot and with the appearance of a ghostly beggar, the freshy christened Nex wandered through the eerie woods that surrounded the clearing. She figured the baboon-like men and the abused girl had to have left from some kind of settlement or town near here.

Several hours had passed, and the sun had just started its descent below the horizon. Nex had finally stumbled upon civilization, but in reality her reaction wasn’t very enthusiastic based on what she saw.

Behind the cover of a thicket of bushes she quietly observed the remote village.

There were around 200 people living in this little community. Dirt roads lined the streets between the simple and windowless wooden homes. Several crude wooden defenses surrounded the town, a clumsy combination of a small fence and wooden pikes. Beyond them were a handful of fields, growing unknown crops.

One of the two buildings made of stone seemed to be some kind of crude manufacturing area. The other was the largest building in the village, but she wasn’t able to immediately discern what it was used for. People walked to and fro, talking to their neighbors or friends.

Nex decided she would carefully move as close as she could, without being discovered, to further observe these natives. With light steps, she managed to reach a freshly fallen tree on the edge of one of the fields.

Crimson eyes, filled with equal parts joy and insanity, observed the unsuspecting villagers like those of apex predator. A pair of young men and a young woman appeared to be tending to some of the mystery crops.

The group appeared to be around 15 to 17 years old. One of the boys was a great deal taller and more well-built than the other, but they both had a head of light brown hair. The only woman in the group had a beautiful head full of long, golden hair that shone brilliantly in the evening sun. Her innocent expression and green eyes only added to her charming allure.

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Their clothing, while extremely dated in Nex’s eyes, appeared to be of a fair quality considering the rural nature of the village. Nex’s arrival could not have been better timed, as the three of them started a conversation while looking over the crops.

“I definitely think that it would be more beneficial for the village to let me go hunting right now instead of bothering with these.” The tallest boy said while making a slightly dissatisfied expression.

“You really intend to get into another fight with the village chief huh Hans?” Remarked the shorter boy in exasperation.

“But we can’t even eat these kotal leaves, can we, Issac? I know that they’re supposed to be selling well to the merchants, but do we need to devote so much time to them?” Continued the taller boy named Hans.

Their small argument was broken by the sound of the giggling voice of the blonde-haired beauty accompanying them.

“You two always get into a spat over the silliest things these days. It is sad that we can’t eat these things at all, I don’t want to make my father mad. I promised him we’d do a good job with this.”

“Well if Anna already promised her father that much then I guess I’ll put my whole heart into it. Just for today at least.” Hans uttered in a teasing voice.

“What will I do with you? You really should put your heart into doing the best for the village every day!” Anna pouted in a mock-upset voice before showing him a dazzling smile.

“Yes, you’ll have to make sure to avoid handling the kotal plants roughly. I’ve been reading a couple different books the village chief gave me on how to take care of them.” Said Isaac in a rushed but scholarly tone.

“Wow, those books looked pretty lengthy and complicated. I’m really surprised you managed to get anything out of those Isaac! Of course my boyfriend is so smart.” She said in a warm tone.

“Ah no, it’s uh, not really that big of a deal.” Isaac stammered in an embarrassed manner.

“Well I hope you can bestow some of that knowledge upon us oh wondrous planet sage!” Hans said mockingly as the group slowly made its way towards the village.

Nex watched as the group continued to walk away from her hiding spot.

“I thought this was supposed to be a fantasy world, not some shitty love triangle romantic comedy?” She whispered to herself.

“I could practically smell the pheromones oozing off that muscle-brained guy from here as soon as the little blonde one started giggling, how absolutely revolting.”

“That little vixen is either as naive as the last world that tried diplomacy with me or quite the little flirt. For some reason I have such a strong desire to make her feel pain. Strangely, even more than those days I was educating Floppy.”

Nex chalked it up to the fact she hadn’t ‘played’ with anyone for at least 16 hours.

More than that she was surprised that she could understand whatever language they were speaking. Nex had tried to read their lips as they spoke, comparing it to any of the languages she had encountered, but it seemed not to match the words she heard. Eventually she found that while focusing on her connection to the construct while desiring to turn off the translation allowed her to hear what it sounded like. This would greatly reduce the time it would take her to fully integrate herself into this society.

It seemed that those “goodies” given to her by the System were already paying off.

Nex pondered over her next moves as she continued to stealthily eavesdrop on several groups of villagers before stumbling on an interesting conversation.

“The wife really won’t give me a break about having another kid.”

“I mean you can’t really blame her right? With all the money from that kotal business, everyone is so much better off now.”

“I know, I know. But I was hoping for better food and more good times, not another mouth to feed!”

“Oh speaking of good times, did you see the new sexy little toy they’ve got down in the Hold these days?” The man said, slightly lowering his voice.

“Dammit Charlie, shut your mouth. How many times have I told you not to talk about anything to do with that place unless we’re at a meeting or gathering with everyone else?” The other man said angrily.

“Shit, I’m sorry brother but seriously, they picked her up on one of the ‘outings’ but she looks like one of those people from the Badlands. She’s such a tasty treat I can’t stop from wanting to get her for myself.”

“Not another word, you idiot! You're lucky that none of the village chief’s hounds work in the fields, or you would have been forcefully addicted to kotal by now.”

“Hey don’t worry so much, I heard after the usual group did a disposal earlier today they decided to go patrol around the river after.”

“Still keep it to yourself, you reckless moron. Or at the very least don’t drag me into it.”

The pair continued bickering and walking on their way and out of earshot of the still hidden Nex.

“Seems like not everything is as innocent as it appears in this homely little village.” She thought to herself with a toothy grin.