After facepalming at yet another stupid email from her micromanaging CEO, Lexi opens her eyes to see something that looks like a real-life version of a cartoon monster salivating right in front of her.
The hell?
As soon as the thing moves, she does too - turning and sprinting as quickly as possible despite her lack of shoes and stamina, and despite all the excess weight she’s carrying.
What the HELL is going on?!
The trees in front of her look weird.
Wasn’t I at home?
Panting hard as she tries to put distance between herself and Horror-On-Legs behind her, she chances a look around and tries to take stock of the situation.
This doesn’t look like home.
It looks nothing like anything she’s ever seen, despite her extensive travels and the documentaries she’s watched.
I can understand not being able to see skyscrapers if I’m deep in a forest, but are trees supposed to look like that?
And that psycho beast behind me...
Taller than her even as it charges on all six stocky stomping limbs, eyes a weird glowing mix of yellow and red that bleed out into the air in sinister crackles, and with the kind of teeth and claws no child in a red cloak would even think of sticking around to question.
That’s not normal.
As she runs - legs and lungs burning from exertion, tense shoulders starting to ache - she wonders if, on the off chance, this is one of those transmigration stories she enjoys reading.
They usually start with a truck or river, or falling asleep after reading a novel. I was AT HOME and AWAKE.
She’d been working in her personal study at the family manor and had just finished another video call that could’ve been an email when a damned missive had come in from her boss. Railing at the stupidity of her CEO before slapping her hands on her face, she’d moved her palms away and opened her eyes only to stare into the gaping maw of a nightmare made flesh.
If this is an isekai kinda gig then...
Something trips her up, and she barely catches herself in time before wincing when she steps on some sharp brown object.
Dammit!
The foul breath behind her is too close for comfort so she can’t stop to check, forcing herself to continue moving heavy legs as quickly as possible.
Maybe I’ll die of a heart attack first.
Given how she can’t seem to get any air into her lungs despite sounding like a busted train, that seems likely.
I’d rather read a thousand dumb emails from Dean than deal with this thing so just get me out of here already!
System screen: Do you wish to quit? [https://i.imgur.com/C9Mhou7.png]
What the fu-
She should have barrelled right into that screen and broken her face but somehow it keeps hovering just in front of her.
It distracts her enough that she rams her right shin straight into something that feels like the evil stepmother of that one punching bag in the gym back then, the one even the amateur fighters tried to avoid training on.
MotherFUC-
That damned rectangle continues to glare at her obnoxiously until her face meets something bitingly hard, and then she thinks she’s screaming and possibly tearing up but everything hurts and she just wants it all to STOP.
It feels like eternity and a second before the pain subsides enough, before her eyes open to a dark blur that makes her panic and wonder if she’s gone blind.
The blue screen appearing in front of her when she’s pushed herself up on shaky arms proves her eyes are fine, especially when she’s blinked a few times and dared to gingerly tap her face with hands that have been hastily wiped on a silk shirt.
System screen: welcome, player [https://i.imgur.com/15wD7KT.png]
What?
It’s her right leg - blood flowing from ripped skin as discoloration spreads along with the rapid pulsing of fire in her veins moving up to join hands with the pain emanating from every pore of her head - that tells her she’s very much alive. That this is real even as words turn into confetti that turn into words while everything else around her stands still.
New player welcome package #2,342,592! [https://i.imgur.com/8eh62dp.png]
This useless, cheating, piece of...
Whatever this stupid screen is, it’d effectively forced her to enter into a contract that she hadn’t even been aware of and that’s illegal.
Except, no matter how much everything hurts and makes no sense right now, Lexi has always had good instincts. And they tell her that no matter how much she tries to mimic a Karen, nothing’s going to change the fact that she’s in a crazy situation with a crazier looking beast frozen in mid-air an arm’s length away from absolutely flattening her.
’Strength of skills in welcome package reduced.’
She’s played her share of games, watched plenty of animations, read enough stories and comics to understand that that line is bad news for someone who knows nothing about how strong whatever skill this is is.
I need to get out of here before the spell runs out.
Forcing herself to rise despite the pain, Lexi momentarily considers trying to kill the weird creature - but there's no way she's touching it with her bare hands, nothing within reach that would serve as an adequate weapon, and she's not about to try and climb trees to grab a branch. With no idea when the beast will move again, she struggles to limp as far away from wherever here is as possible, quickly, before I run out of time...
Wait a minute.
Twisting her neck and torso to turn back as much as possible without involving her legs somehow makes more parts of her body scream in pain, but that’s a good thing because it keeps her mind locked in the present.
No. Way.
Somehow she continues stumbling through the silent forest without falling over, even as her mind goes a mile a minute in every possible direction.
It’s later, much later, when she tumbles into some sort of hole she hadn’t noticed in the dark, when the splash of cold water shocks her to the bone, that the disparate shards of consciousness reunite into one solid, cohesive piece.
Time magic.
----------------------------------------
Any other magic would be better right now. ANY other magic. I won’t even be picky and ask for healing magic or fire magic, just give me ANYTHING other than this blasted time magic.
Lexi has never been good with cold or heat, always requiring a carefully regulated environment customized for her comfort.
This place is nothing of the sort.
It doesn’t help that since she’d been working from home, she’s dressed only in an oversized silk shirt because of the online meeting, and had just tossed her shawl aside while looking for satin slippers so she could pad to the bathroom when everything went to hell.
Which means she’s now shivering violently, and the soles of her feet have joined the cacophony that rages from her shin and head and everywhere else to underscore just how absolutely miserable her situation is.
> ’Player must not receive any form of assistance from other players or NPCs before the end of first 7 days of gameplay.’
At this rate either hypothermia or sepsis would kill her before then.
Maybe the hypothermia will slow the spread of infection, cold making things freeze and all.
Biology had been Lexi’s worst subject in school. And all she knows about things like hypothermia and sepsis are whatever she’d seen in movies and books.
Why am I here? What’s going on? None of this makes any sense, I didn’t do anything special, I’ve never taken drugs so it can’t be a hallucination, I haven’t started drinking for the day so I’m definitely lucid...
It’s getting too cold to think, to try to dredge up the slightest memory of some first aid or survival advice she might have spotted on a screen once or heard through her earphones, though she does recall one scene where someone’s telling someone else to stay conscious...
Screw it, just get it over with quickly. Even if I'm tired and hungry and thirsty, even if everything hurts like hell, even if it's as cold as my mother's heart right now, I'm not about to beg.
There’s a faint light beyond her eyelids, and she wonders if daddy’s come to the pearly gates to greet her.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
----------------------------------------
System screen: ... [https://i.imgur.com/HstGP5Z.png]
System screen: Command unclear [https://i.imgur.com/OiwppsW.png]
System screen: ... [https://i.imgur.com/HstGP5Z.png]
System screen: Command unclear [https://i.imgur.com/OiwppsW.png]
System screen: ... [https://i.imgur.com/HstGP5Z.png]
System screen: ... [https://i.imgur.com/HstGP5Z.png]
System screen: Player? [https://i.imgur.com/MBGQZrD.png]
System screen: ... [https://i.imgur.com/HstGP5Z.png]
System screen: ... [https://i.imgur.com/HstGP5Z.png]
System screen: ... [https://i.imgur.com/HstGP5Z.png]
System screen: searching archives [https://i.imgur.com/K4YiK9T.png]
System screen: Command accepted [https://i.imgur.com/76cqBNS.png]
----------------------------------------
This is definitely Hell.
What had she been expecting anyway. It’s not like she’s ever been the slightest bit saintly.
Every part of her body feels stiff and sore, while stinging and screaming with the kind of fury that occasionally possesses her to do very stupid things.
It hurts to try and open her eyes, hurts to try and lift her head and focus on a blue rectangle with frantic words that keep flashing and moving...
Oh. My. GOD.
System screen: warning, penalties incoming [https://i.imgur.com/qpHZwRp.png]
SHIT! What the hell is going on?!
System screen: time remaining to penalties: 43 seconds [https://i.imgur.com/JCYW03V.png]
Think think THINK!
System screen: time remaining to penalties: 40 seconds [https://i.imgur.com/3yYeHk9.png]
’Penalties’? But that means...
OH.
I’m screwed.
HOW, in the name of God’s BACKSIDE, am I supposed to use up all the remaining bonus skills when I don’t even know what the bloody hell they are?!
System screen: time remaining to penalties: 37 seconds [https://i.imgur.com/UDt539Z.png]
Panic unbinds her frozen body, as Lexi scrambles to her knees and stares wildly at the words scrolling speedily while spitting sparks of red that disappear before contact with her skin.
Think, Lexi, think. Time magic. You’ve used STOP, and if it’s almost penalty time you must’ve used HASTE.
Wait. Isn’t HASTE supposed to work on me and not everything except me?
System screen: time remaining to penalties: 32 seconds [https://i.imgur.com/6W9kiYS.png]
No time for pedantics.
What other time magic spells are there? What would be considered an ultimate, cheat-level skill?
Stopping the world around her. Speeding up the world around her.
“SLOW!”
System screen: C... [https://i.imgur.com/iqtI0we.png]
Huh?
System screen: Co... [https://i.imgur.com/07JHCC2.png]
“What the hell?”
System screen: Com... [https://i.imgur.com/Axwabmp.png]
Oh!
“YES!!!”
Perhaps cheering so loudly in the middle of a random forest isn’t the best idea, but she doesn’t care right now.
“This even works on the stupid screen!”
As the letters appear painstakingly slowly, Lexi dares take stock of her surroundings.
She’d fallen into some crevice-like thing (geography had been her second worst subject) that had been hidden by overgrown plants, and landed in a shallow creek the other day. Though the water looks absolutely filthy, the one thing she’s grateful for is that somehow her injuries aren’t infested with maggots, and the discoloration doesn’t seem to have spread.
The water should have soaked into more of her clothes, which is an interesting fact that Lexi decides to file away for later, because right now she has absolutely no idea if she’s managed to use up all of the damned welcome bonus.
What other time spells are there?
Stop, haste, and slow were the ones she’d had inflicted on her game characters most often.
What’s an OP time skill?
“Reverse...?”
The screen, which had almost completely spelled out ‘Command’, starts losing letters.
And if her eyes aren’t playing tricks on her, the ripples in the water are moving in the opposite direction they were earlier.
Wait. What if it wasn’t a ‘haste’ spell, but an ‘advance’ spell?
Which means I haven’t used ‘haste’ yet.
“How do I stop the current spell and try another?”
Rising to her feet makes her wince and hiss, but it’s a good thing Lexi forces herself up and squints at the screen from this new vantage point.
Bloody hell.
There are two tiny little ‘x’s in circles flickering almost out of sight in the top right corner.
This scammy, conniving little...
Forcefully expelling a breath before she loses her temper and rages at an ephemeral object, she looks around once more to try and find a way out of this hole in the ground.
Using HASTE now would be a waste, not when she has no idea how far away she is from the closest friendly player or NPC, or from safe shelter.
This isn’t going to go well.
Lexi has never managed a single pull up in her life, not even with copious amounts of expensive personal training sessions.
No time like the present.
If her body hadn’t been screaming bloody murder at her, she would’ve patted herself on the back for that quip.
Grunting, she grabs hold of what she at least knows to be roots, wishing she’d opted not to have extensions put in for once because gripping rough parts of plant and crumbling soil while trying to scrabble her way up makes her wonder if she’s about to lose all her nails.
Come on...almost there...
Somehow, she manages to claw her way a few feet up and reach over the edge. Then it’s a matter of wriggling, kicking, cursing, and heaving the rest of herself the rest of the way until she’s a panting, muddy, bloody mess on slightly higher ground.
I definitely need to lose mass so gravity doesn’t affect me this much. Was climbing that few feet supposed to be so hard?
When she peers back down, the screen is still stuck where it was and she’s glad it can’t obscure her vision right now.
Usually in fantasy games there’s smoke from a village, or the chime of a clock tower from a town.
Or even the sound of hooves and footsteps, from people traveling somewhere.
Her hearing has always been the keenest of her senses, so Lexi holds herself as still as possible and strains her ears.
There!
It’s warped by the SLOW and REVERSE spells, but she’s positive she’s hearing laughter.
Stumbling to her feet while trembling from the effort, Lexi determinedly clenches her teeth against the pain and moves towards where she hopes the sound is before stopping.
“Do I cancel these spells now before it reverses too far?”
The screen can’t follow her like it had before, so it’d be stupid not to cancel the spells now and end up having to backtrack with her injuries.
Shit.
Without an adequate understanding of the rules in this ridiculous game she’s ended up in, she can’t be sure if she’s making the right decision.
And let’s not forget the fact that I’ve ended up in this crazy world in the first place. I need answers.
Sighing, Lexi drops to her knees gingerly and crawls towards the edge, brushing what she assumes is this place’s grass aside and reaching out as far as she can to cancel both spells currently in place.
Instantly the screen zooms in front of her face, letters flashing and scrolling in quick succession.
System screen: time remaining to penalties: 2h 37m 10s [https://i.imgur.com/QOERO5O.png]
Oh ho?
Nice!
Resolving to do the math later, Lexi pushes herself up once more and forces herself towards where she hopes help is.
----------------------------------------
System screen: time remaining to penalties: 1h 52m 28s [https://i.imgur.com/xM1vQAD.png]
That’s it?
It feels like she’s been gingerly hobbling along for hours.
Change your focus. Think good thoughts.
From experience, dwelling on pain and exhaustion only made them more debilitating.
There’s no point trying to think about why she’s here, not when she’s all alone and the damn screen tells her absolutely nothing, so Lexi decides not to drive herself mad with that line of inquiry.
As for going home...
I don’t even know if it’s possible. But if it is, I’d like to go back. Not for anyone, just for the numbingly comforting familiarity and predictability of that useless life.
She’s never thought there’d be a day when she chooses predictability over adventure, but Lexi supposes she’s learned her lesson after being put through the wringer. Besides, the kinds of adventures she’d had in mind involved safety nets in some form or other.
That screen called me a ‘player’ and this a ‘game’. But it also said I can’t quit, so what does that mean? Does it mean I can’t go back? Does it mean I won’t go back even if I die? Does it mean I can’t die?
It’s frustrating, not having answers, so she tries to focus on getting to somewhere safe instead. The laughter had faded awhile back, so she only hopes she’s still going in the right direction. Lexi thinks she’d once read something about moss growing on a specific side of trees, but that’s also assuming the rules of her world apply to this world with its mix of weird plants and weirder creatures.
What’s up with this place?
Pausing, she focuses on the screen she’d been doing her best to ignore while limping painfully along.
“Menu.”
Nothing happens.
“Status?”
The wind ruffles the leaves around her gently, but otherwise the screen continues counting down.
“Settings. Options. Help. Guide.”
Frustration boils within her, but she just glares at the hovering shape once more for good measure and forces herself to keep walking.
The words are in English, so I don’t think using another language will change anything.
Come to think of it, why is everything in English? Did I get some sort of innate translator function like in some of those stories?
It’s more than an hour later when her ears pick up the sounds of human activity carried on the wind. Feeling energized by the validation, Lexi moves forward with renewed vigor even as terrain grows less grassy and more rocky.
Hang in there. We’re getting help.
Her feet are probably a pedicurist’s worst nightmare right now - the damage from running and walking barefoot making them blistered and bleeding, with toe nails broken from climbing - but that’s the least of her concerns, even when she can't quite feel her toes anymore. More worrying is that strange monster and the possibility of many others like it, along with the likelihood of encountering bandits or other unfriendly types of characters common in such settings - which means no matter how much walking hurts right now Lexi knows she absolutely has to get out of the woods and to a safe haven.
I need water.
The water where she'd fallen had looked way too disgusting to drink, and even if it'd been clear she'd landed and bled in it which means there's no way she's putting that stuff in her mouth.
Eventually the path she’s on starts to undulate, which is hell on her soles and her aching body, hell on her bruised and bleeding right leg, but she knows she’s running out of time and prays that HASTE is the final spell she needs to use.
When the sounds of conversations - banter and jokes, she can tell from the tone - become clearer, she stops caring about her skin and focuses on listening in.
“...Alric looked great with that salamander head on him!”
Laughter resounds clearly, and she knows it’s not malicious because she’s sensitive to these things.
“C’mon Dorne, you could’ve helped me out!”
That’s probably Eric, and he sounds young. Possibly the junior of the bunch, by the way other voices join in to tease him.
Though just because they get along with each other, doesn’t mean they’ll get along with her.
Creeping carefully towards the top of the sandy slope she’d been inching up, Lexi keeps low and peeks over and through the screen.
It’s still a distance to the group, though she also knows from movies and comic books that the wind blowing towards her helps hide her scent from them in case they turn out not to be friendly parties.
Squinting, Lexi thinks she counts about five people on horses, with one of them pulling a covered wagon behind him.
Mercenaries? Hunters? Adventurers? Knights?
Despite the lack of pennants fluttering in the breeze, she can’t be sure that knights in this world don’t go on apparent monster subjugations in such small groups while dressed so simply.
Focusing on the screen, she sees that she has less than fifteen minutes remaining.
Come on, Rick, Donny, SOMEONE drop me a hint.
“...captain.”
What was that?
Perking up slightly, Lexi stills her breath as much as possible and strains her ears.
“The viscount’s always been worried.” The wind stills a little and she curses under her breath. Though the next words carried towards her make her heart skip a beat.
“...players alive.”
What was that?!
It seems the topic causes the group to lower their volume, which isn’t helping matters because it’s only downhill after she gets over the slope she’s hiding behind.
Screw it. Time’s running out, and it’s not like I have options.
Pushing herself to her feet, Lexi takes a deep breath and yells at the top of her lungs.
“HASTE!”
Ten heads - human and equine - whip around towards a bloodied, muddied, underdressed, barefoot woman on a little hill, before the warped sounds of hooves and shouts fill the air.
Hope they’re not enemies. I’m in no condition to fight.
----------------------------------------
CHAPTER 1 END