When Anna Cheng died, she did not go to heaven and she did not go to hell. Anna Cheng went to a secret third place she had never been remotely aware was an option.

The first thing she heard was the cicadas. They screamed in a steady rise and fall, louder than Anna remembered them. The shitty old box fan in her apartment usually drowned everything else out. It occurred to her then that it was January and she shouldn’t be able to hear cicadas at all.

Disoriented, she opened her eyes and beheld the wood beams of a ceiling she had never seen in her life.

Had she passed out again somewhere? And been brought to some kind of rustic cabin? In her experience, there wasn’t a plethora of rustic cabins in Chicago.

She glanced around and became abruptly aware that she wasn’t alone in this room. There were three other people in here.

Kneeling at Anna’s side, as it appeared she was on some kind of bedroll on the floor, was an extraordinarily handsome woman in a rugged looking Chinese historical costume. She had her hair tied up in a knot, but strands had fallen loose around her face. The woman had a solemn expression, staring into the middle distance with half-lidded eyes.

Slumped over on the ground near Anna’s legs were two half asleep children, similarly dressed. A boy and a girl—they seemed maybe middle school age? Anna didn’t spend a lot of time with children so she wasn’t sure.

All three were complete and total strangers.

Suddenly, Anna Cheng’s wrist was seized and she looked up to see the woman staring fiercely at her. Anna instinctively tugged her wrist away, but the woman’s grasp was firm and she quickly moved to take her pulse.

The strange woman asked her something. In Mandarin.

Ah, fuck.

Anna Cheng, despite the attempts made by her mother, grandmother, and albeit halfheartedly, her father, only knew an odd handful of words in Mandarin, and a few others in Cantonese.

The movement, however, had woken up the two children, who immediately began making a ruckus and speaking to her rapidly, also in Mandarin.

She smiled apologetically at the woman, feeling extremely embarrassed. “Sorry, I don’t speak Chinese,” she said, her voice sounding especially hoarse.

Everyone in the room froze. The strangers stared at her like she had grown a second head.

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Had she said something wrong…?

The woman blinked and shook herself briefly, before turning and saying something to the two children, who promptly got up and took off at a sprint, already shouting something Anna couldn’t understand. She then turned her attention back to Anna and asked her another question. She was trying to be comforting, Anna could tell, but anxiety was written plainly across her face.

Anna wanted to reassure her. Sorry, this happens, I’m used to it, it's really not a big deal, she wanted to say. Well, she wasn't used to waking up in mysterious cabins surrounded by… Cosplayers? Historical re-enactors? But the passing out in public places had happened before. But she couldn’t do that.

Because! She couldn’t! Fucking! Speak! Chinese!

Anna heard running in a hall outside and the children burst back into the room, followed by a teenage girl wearing too much blush and a severe looking thin man. They were also in costume and also weirdly good looking.

Just who the hell were these people? Idols?

The man came and sat next to the woman, who handed him Anna’s wrist and he proceeded to take her pulse as well. Why did they keep taking her pulse? On both sides too? Anna shook one of her hands free to check her own pulse and it seemed normal enough to her.

Well. She had no idea what was happening but it was probably time to go.

Smiling nervously, Anna tried to communicate via vague hand flapping that she was alright and stood up.

Immediately, her vision swam and she became aware of a dull ache on the back of her head. Shit. Had she gotten a concussion? She pushed away at the hands that immediately reached out to steady her and took stock of how she felt. She froze.

She felt fine. There was a dull pain at the back of her head and she was a tad dizzy, but aside from that she felt fine. Good, even! She took a deep breath and felt the air flow in and out of her lungs with ease.

It was then that Anna Cheng realized that this was not her body.

Anna examined the hands in front of her, flexing them and turning them over. They had broad palms and blunt square nails. There were calluses on the base of each finger. She had been so disoriented and distracted by not knowing where she was or who these people were that she only now realized that these were absolutely not her hands.

Ah, Anna thought. It finally happened. I’m dead.

If Anna Cheng was dead, this meant that she was wrong about sweet oblivion, and she was instead in some kind of afterlife. Anna glanced up at the strangers, who were all hovering nervously around her, looking even more anxious.

Had she been reincarnated? Into the past? Had she gone to a special afterlife specifically for Chinese people? Were these people her ancestors?

She dismissed the idea quickly, remembering her family mostly spoke Cantonese. Also, she was pretty sure she couldn’t have descended from these idol looking motherfuckers.

I’m sorry, Mom! Anna Cheng thought, in a sort of reverse prayer to a living woman. You were right! You never should have let me quit Chinese school!

“What the fuck is going on?” Anna asked helplessly.

Anna heard a clear chime and a smooth voice rang out, coming from no discernible direction.

[System: Initializing.]

[System: Please wait while packages load.]

Anna put her head in her hands. A video game? Was she in a video game? A Chinese video game she had never played?

Anna would have preferred returning to the primordial soup.

The younger girl, seeing Anna’s distress, wrapped her arms around Anna’s waist. Anna patted her back, not knowing what else to do.

[System: Download complete.]

[System: Integration with host “Heng Xiaowen” complete.]

[System: Welcome to the System, Protagonist.]