The world was grey. Sticky like a bog, sunless, soundless. Over the chapped ground hanged grey skies without clouds as far as an eye could see. Miles, dozens. Hundreds. The sight would fail a casual onlooker before the horizon would deign to appear.

On boundless plains, a person was walking, vested in a grey dress, laps mending with the ground and skies. The person was a woman and the only colors that were not grey belonged to her. The face, the eyes lacked emotions. Not cold, just… dispassionate. How long she had been walking was impossible to say. The ground kept no traces of her bare feet.

There was no meaning in her walk. The scenery wouldn’t change no matter what. The chasm was simply too vast to cross, to measure. Still, the woman never stopped. She walked and walked…

Until she suddenly opened her eyes as a girl with white pale skin in a strange robe laying on hard rocks.

“Still alive.” She spoke with amazement. Well, not exactly spoke, wheezed out from her dry throat.

Her body was hurting in many places so the girl moaned pitifully. Pain. One of the unfortunate implications of having the body in the first place. Made of soft flesh, brittle bones, foul liquids, and other disgusting stuff to be exact. Mostly of uncontrolled nerves and useless brain activities right now though.

Instinctively, the girl turned around to disconnect hurting places from the stone floor. It did help somewhat but very soon the limbs she hadn’t been feeling at all started to act up, bringing brand new sensations.

It’s nothing like a simulation! The girl thought...

“Ah! Nh! Hi! Mhm!” …while her mouth was letting out all sorts of embarrassing sounds.

The dreadful torture didn’t last for long. The girl was able to sigh with relief soon. She even teared up. No, not her…

“You woke up.”

“Hi!!!”

It was not her, it was her body!

No way she would react this way!

Instincts are b…

No swearing, no swearing.

The main point, not her. Yep.

The girl exhaled and looked suspiciously at the owner of the voice. A girl. Small one. Can’t be a kid… doesn’t sound like it. The little stranger approached and lifted an archaic lamp that caught her attention. Really, the thing was using fire to light up the surroundings! Chemical fire! What is it, like four hundred years old? Shouldn’t it reside in a museum?

Oh. It must be a system’s item, she lost the interest and switched to the stranger.

The little girl had a mature face. Not beautiful, but not ugly by any means either. Narrow steel-colored eyes were giving away her Han heritage. Most likely third generation? Mainland or peninsula though was hard to tell. She had pointed nose, sharp cheekbones and chin, thin lips. Alas, the only quality deserving a prolonged stare at her back was the girl’s short hair, black like a raven’s wing and shining like a starry night. Straight, it was covering her ears and neck while keeping the forehead open.

Shortly speaking, it seemed the girl had yet to use any number of appearance corrections despite having a raw base for that. Would be admirable a century ago when such practices were frowned upon but in the current age, it had zero sense. There are social standards to follow, you know? Ever heard of the doctrine of perfection?

Of course, she kept the critique to herself. The girl was armed to the teeth, for God's sake! Barbarically so. A sword on her belt, a bow and arrows on her back. She remembered her having a spear too. Spear...

From her laying position, the girl looked around frantically. The cave. The passage. She remembered... she remembered...

Her hand swung up to cover the nose, the look on her face was completely hideous as the eyes sprung to the side where she...

"I cleaned up after you." Again with this voice, both cold and sarcastic. The steel eyes for a brief moment showed full depths of irritation with it.

"I..." She glanced and indeed saw only yellow stains left. The acidic smell wasn't that unbearable as she had imagined for a moment. Memories though, memories were flashing in her mind as she tried to push coherent words out of her mouth: "I... sso..."

"Here." The voice softened somewhat. A reaching hand that held a half-filled bottle of water provoked her on a greed dry gulp. "Hard times, huh. Sorry, I suppose?"

The tone wasn't apologetic at all though.

"But I really want to hear the story about this space station you came from. The one I can clearly see in on the other side of this damn... portal."

----------------------------------------

Alice watched the awoken beauty finishing off her water supplies for a few moments before walking away. She had been waiting hours for answers, surely several minutes wouldn't crush her patience.

"Very sci-fi." The short girl started to comment as she stared right into starry space inside the portal. "I don't see anything like engines I can recognize, so space station is it. The form is close to ocean liners, why? Well, this part is different. Strongly."

Theatrically, Alice pointed at the notable section with her index finger. A giant disc was dividing the space station into two and was slowly rotating clockwise.

"I am not that bad with math, you know. This station is two kilometers long, give or take. Look at the outer part of this section. Very wide but not high, it rotates at a very specific speed. Space lacks gravity in common sense, right? Centrifugal force here is intended to mimic it, right? This is the habitual part of this station, right?"

Hearing herself raising the voice, Alice inhaled forcefully and closed her eyes for a moment. Logically speaking, there was no reason to confront the elephant in the room so forcefully. Being social, friendly would be surely far more fruitful, right?

But this was a too freaking big elephant! My entire world, my Earth could not sponsor, let alone hide such elephant, right? Right?! On the inside, Alice was screaming curses on this continuing breakdown of her old nice world. On the outside, she was like a statue with every muscle frozen by the power of will and skill. Mostly skill.

"Now it's obvious the two of us are from universally different places." She spoke after a pause in an aloof way. "I wouldn't mind normally, not with how crazy this day has been already. A lie. I would mind, but system broke my common sense, I get that, shouldn't be surprised by anything by now. A rant, I know. The point is..."

Even more theatrically, Alice crossed her arms behind her back and nodded at the portal:

"A few sections of this station blew up at some point. Internally, I should add. Constructions are bent outward, you see. The station stopped losing atmosphere only recently. See these little dots flying around? These are people. The portal, the door, this thing moves over time. I saw them up close. No safe cables, no propulsion systems, nothing, but they maneuver freely. Fascinating."

Indeed she sighed as if of envy.

"Did you experiment with the space-time continuum? I am not crazy, it's a trope. A science experiment goes wrong, boom, things happen. Like giant bugs and dungeons things. So did you?"

The silence lingered. Alice continued staring in the portal, hearing only a rustle of cloth behind.

"Did we? Yes, yes, we did." The blonde beauty answered frankly, albeit weakly and Alice clenched her fists. "This is Final Hope. Both the station and the experiment. A trivial name, want I admit myself, but it does hold quite a significance, very literally, for everyone."

An experiment, huh. Should I be glad for narrow escape for our planet with LHC potentially having created a black hole?

Alice turned around while keeping her face cool.

"Let's play it fair, shall we? You answer my question, I answer yours." The voice was nice to an ear, deep yet melodic. She smiled: more the blonde girl was speaking, more liven up she seemed. "Actually, it's too old a game for our so novel circumstances. Change of the rules: if one of us asks a question, she should answer it too if possible. Ideally, little personal details spoken of freely are to be met fairly by the other party.

Of course, a demonstration of goodwill is essential. Very well. My name is Kristine Mefodievna of the Oligovichi, knyaginya russkaya."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Alice managed to keep the poker face but lost her words here. Fortunately, Kristine didn't plan to stop with just an introduction.

"Our primal mission was folding and puncturing of space, so to speak. I hope you are not against me withholding specific secret details, yes? Great." When Alice nodded mechanically, she rejoiced for some reason. "Our current predicament was not the goal, this I assure you. In fact, it's baffling me to no limit. May I ask, did you have some... body modifications? Anything to check?"

"...huh? Sorry, I am still lost on... fuck." Alice touched her teeth with her tongue and suddenly became angry. "Fuck!"

She didn't realize Kristine wrinkling at her swearing.

"I should have noticed. Damn. I had a dental filling. Had."

"Filling? I don't... oh." Realization sparkled in green eyes. "What an old technique!"

Alice waited for continuation but only saw expectations on Kristine's face slowly becoming resentful. What an open girl, she admired with a hidden chuckle, which surprised her.

"I am Alice. I don't have titles or anything. Just your average American citizen."

"American?" Kristine looked both joyful with the acceptance of her game and confused by Alice's words, but smiled soon. "Since it's within your customs, you can call me Kristine."

The girl gave her approval dead seriously. Alice, being not a stereotypical American on a vacation, just wisely answered with a nod.

"My whole body was artificial."

Kristine casually dropped a bomb.

"And how is it?" Nothing else came to her mind, honestly.

"Inconvenient. Slow. Everything is so... abrupt. I don't like pain." The blonde girl shared. "Wait, I will try to stand. Can you watch me not to break something? I feel so fragile."

"I meant how... your old body... was..." Murmured Alice to no one in particular.

Kristine moved up comically awkwardly, holding onto a wall with her both hands. The short girl even wondered how she had managed to fight back monster ants, but didn't ask. Magic, right?

"Phew." The blonde looked very pleased with herself. "I have no idea how. The experiment was near its end, I was correcting a few parameters on a fly... then I was here. Then this system messaged me and before I had any chance to make sense of it I had been attacked. These creatures kept coming in waves of two at a time so I looked through the system shop to find a weapon.

Fortunately... and unfortunately as it happens there were these mind clearing potions. They helped. Then I got sick from them – is it a correct word to use, got sick? Ten times worse than a simulation's safe block. My following memories are vague. You probably know the rest."

Alice knew. In return, she told pretty much everything that happened to her starting from the boring lecture. She talked briefly, but her head start gave her more history to share. Next, the two girls very cooperatively exchanged exact system messages they received.

"I had no test." Kristine denied. "No sign of anyone acting strangely, nothing of sort. Emphasizing, I was connected to the station network and had full authority."

"But I did. Psychological test, physical, inner energy, and magic tests."

She didn't recount exact results though.

"Ah, an explanation is necessary." The blonde girl frowned and lifted her palm. The air above spun with a whistle. "These are telekinetic abilities. Yes, they were enhanced frighteningly and even unbelievable, I am willing to agree here."

Kristine's Earth – and Alice was still in a mild shook from this 'different Earth' setting discovery to the point she temporarily ignored random revelations – apparently had such a thing. Not a magic thing.

"I could lift a pen so my ability was the undisputed peak."

"We don't have scientifically proved paranormal abilities although I am not that sure now."

But they still have pens! If it even means the same thing!

"Oh."

"What is it?"

"What language are you speaking right now?" Alice asked with her eyes searching something on the ceiling.

"Russkiy. O-oh."

"American English. Yeah."

"I feel stupid. You shouldn't have asked." Complained Kristine. Her slightly flushed cheeks looked adorable, and it was a good sign that Alice recovered some spirit to pay attention to these little details.

"I feel ya."

No one asked a meaningless 'how'.

----------------------------------------

Kristine was pondering her or maybe their next course of actions. Alice might look small but she recognized in her a little smart person from a backward society. In their circumstances, the last fact was of no matter. Knyaginya was still under the impression of the heroic tale the small girl had told. Killing so many monsters by using one's fleshly body and cold weapons definitely earned praise.

"Let's not beat around the bush."

"What bush?"

Kristine switched from her thoughts with great vigor despite Alice making a very serious face.

"...it's an idiom. It means that the translation is literal."

"I noticed as well. Remarkably how it disposes of the accents and synchronizes with movements of our lips." Kristine smiled sweetly. "So why do you want to stop to walk around and about?"

The eyes of the short girl sparkled, and not in a playful manner. Knyaginya pretended not to notice.

"Do we cooperate fully or not? System wants us to complete the dungeon, signs all are here. How this shop works, one exit from this place, so on."

"I want to say that we should..." Kristine started slowly.

"But you are afraid that this is a trap of some sort, an insane experiment, alien social study, very convincing hallucination."

Alice listed calmly. Involuntary, the blonde girl uttered:

"I am impressed."

"One of us can be a tool of system or the system's creator."

What a bold smirk.

"Now it's just preposterous."

"Yeah, pushing it further than a fun conspiracy theory would be a stretch."

At least for now.

"At least now."

She is bold.

"Very good. I accept full cooperation on the path to survival." Kristine sighed and smiled. "I can't see a reason to push the decision either, right?"

"Riiight. Then your game is still in force."

"Don't look so disappointed. What do we need first... oh, I know. My true chronological age is fifteen years."

Still smiling, Kristine didn't even bother to hide her eagerness to find out the true age of the little bold girl.

Spoiler: Status!

Alice Sung-Hyun Branson Age: 16 Classes Level Race: Human/??? Hunter (common) 3 Exp: 8,600/14,000 ??? (???) 3 Skill Points: 6 ... ... Battle Points: 2,763 ... ... Attributes Strength: 6.5

Mind: 9.0

Endurance: 6.7

Will: 8.9

Dexterity: 9.1

Perception: 9.4

Agility: 7.8

Wits: 9.1

Absolute Body Control Lvl: – Like a magical undead being, you are lacking muscle memories and have to control your body at all times. You can completely avoid unnecessary movements; your Perception reaction bypasses instincts. Hunt Lvl: 1 (2) Hide from sights, track your prey and take it down. This skill provides a specific hunting experience for all your 'Hunter' templates-related skills. Bow Lvl: 2 (3) Nock an arrow, aim, and shoot. Three months of training with a bow. Spear Lvl: 3 (4) Choose your stance and pierce your enemy. Nine months of training with a spear. Observation (Nature) Lvl: 3 (MAX) As a child of nature, you can discern signs of life and behavior patterns in a complex landscape. Stealth (Nature) Lvl: 1 (1) Basic ability to conceal oneself in a complex landscape. Butchering (Animals) Lvl: 1 (1) A child of nature is capable of providing herself with provisions.