“…Why did you do it, Rhea?” She asked the reflection in the bathroom mirror, noting her disheveled appearance. Her fingers traced the deep, reddish line across her throat where the rope strangled her.
The reincarnated soul wondered what the original owner of this body had been thinking moments before taking her own life.
She used to be [REDACTED], but now she's in the 20-year-old body of Rhea Gonzales, living in a world that is very much like her previous Earth, but not. This version of Earth is plagued by what officials call the "dungeon plague", meaning portals from other worlds are popping all over the continents, releasing hostile monsters into cities to attack people.
Rhea realized it was just like one of those Korean webtoons she had always read about, but this was different because one: there isn't a ranking system, two: there's no such thing as awakened hunters, and three: magic is real.
The thought of magic existing caused Rhea to bubble with excitement, because, although it is a dangerous world, she is a reincarnated person. She must have been transferred here with life hacks and cheat-like perks that would allow her to be strong enough to handle anything.
Like water-bending!
Unfortunately, after waving her arms around like a maniac splashing the hot water everywhere in the shower stall, she realized water-bending wasn't on her skills list. Hell, she might not even be capable of harnessing magic, considering only less than 1% of the entire population can manipulate it.
Sighing heavily, Rhea resigned to drop the idea of her wielding magic and turned the shower off.
Once dressed in jammies, Rhea made her way out of the bathroom and bedroom--ignoring the hanging rope on the ceiling fan--to the den where she realized she was in an apartment. Her eyes caught sight of the pile of letters on the kitchen counter and she approached to investigate.
Upon further inspection, memories of this body slowly came to her and she read through the troubles that the original Rhea had suffered.
Rhea Gonzales came from a troubled family of drug-addicted parents, thus she was placed in foster care at a young age. The trouble began when she tried to start college and applied for loans, but got rejected. After investigating, she discovered that her parents committed fraud and used her credit line to borrow a lot of money. The debt accumulated to more than $500,000 from different creditors.
After months of dispute, she reduced the debt to $239,700--less than half of what she owed, still the number is alarmingly large. With no way to hunt her parents' location down, Rhea opted to freeze her account, but that meant paying for everything with her debit card or cash. With that, Rhea struggled to make ends meet.
"Huh...with rent past due and a one-month eviction notice, she would be put to the streets..." Rhea said, clenching the pink-colored letter tightly in her hands. "...And putting her out in the streets is the same thing as dying."
In this version of Earth, the city Rhea lives in is a city-state called Ontario City--a sovereign political entity that used to belong to America. Because of the Dungeon Plague of 2019, chaos plunged into the world, resulting in nations falling. Major world leaders either ceased to exist or were forever changed into smaller entities, like America. Laws are also slightly different because while homelessness still occurs there isn't an influx of it. The reason was that there were gang members responsible for diminishing the number of homeless people by throwing them out of the City-State's protective walls to the monsters wandering about outside.
"There had been news like that..." Rhea spoke softly, taking her phone out as she scrolled through the news. "This isn't anything new, and yet nobody is doing anything to fix it..."
She clicked her tongue.
After a moment, Rhea takes her phone and the letter of eviction, comparing the dates.
"Okay so...I've missed three months of rent, meaning I need to pay at least $4,800 including this month's rent if I want to overturn the eviction," Rhea reasoned with herself, and then she checked on her bank statements via phone. "...And I have only $86.10 left on my account... Great."
Not to mention, Rhea still needed to pay the $566.45 bill for the fraudulent debt or be forced to sell an organ or a limb--which is very much legal here in the city-state of Ontario.
What to do? Rhea pondered as she paced around the apartment. Being homeless is out of the question, selling her parts is also less than ideal. She needed to find a solution before the end of the month, which is less than three weeks from now.
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Rhea could feel her heart beating against her ribcage as she clutched to her chest, trying to maintain deep breaths. Her trembling hands felt clammy and sweaty as panic started to set in. What was she going to do? Was suicide truly the only option?
What was the Administrator thinking of putting her inside a host with worst dire circumstances?!
✓ [ Initialization completed. ]
Rhea blinked dumbly at the blue-tinted, pop-up window that appeared inches away from her face.
...What the fuck?
↺ [ Loading... Warlock Patron System is currently being established upon Host...Please Wait... ]
Curious and desperate for hope, Rhea waited patiently for the circle to stop looping around. She wished there was a percentage that showed how many seconds, or minutes were left for her to wait about. Not knowing only made it more agonizing to stand by.
Thankfully, it had only been less than a minute when another pop-up window replaced the message with the word 'Completed'.
Rhea waited for anything else to happen. When nothing came up, she began implementing various techniques she'd seen in shows and read in novels to make this 'Warlock Patron System' appear, like tapping her chest, saying the magic words 'open sesame', or 'status', and even waving her hands about as if touching an invisible screen. She even did a little dance to get it to appear.
Nothing.
"ACK! Please! Would you just tell me how to make it appear?" Rhea asked at the air around her.
A message popped up.
↺ [ Apologies. The system is going through updates.]
"What?!" Rhea cried out a bit in frustration, scratching her head before she finally gave up and plopped down on the couch, taking deep breaths.
"Ugh...why even say 'completed' in the first place?" She asked, rubbing her temples.
↺ [Apologies. The system encountered a strange phenomenon. This unidentified phenomenon is preventing the 'Warlock Patron System' from operating. Please wait for updates to be completed...]
Rhea blinked again incredulously at the message. Something was preventing the system from working...?
She wondered if it had anything to do with the dragons...
Compared to her old Earth, this Earth had a strong and rich history of magic because the humans got their magic from ancient dragons. Suddenly, one by one, they disappeared, and by the late 1600s, not a single dragon was sighted. As generations passed, people started to lose their touch on magic, giving rise to technological advances, which is why only less than 1% of the global population can still wield magic. In this era, almost every operable device is crafted through both technology and magic or 'technomancy'.
Still, the fact of the matter is that this world probably lost its magic and its dragons, because of whatever this 'strange phenomenon' is, and Rhea remained hopeful that the 'updates' would be enough to overcome the error.
✓ [Updates completed. Host may now summon 'Warlock Patron System' through thought.]
YES!
Rhys sat right up, controlling her excitement as she took deep breaths, before commanding in her mind to summon the system to open.
Thankfully, it worked.
A menu-like title screen appeared before Rhea and she took her time examining every bit of it, noting the few important aspects.
[Launch AuraConnect]
[Host's Bank: 5,000 PP | $86.10]
[Followers: 0]
Rhea's head tilted at those three important aspects before maneuvering to the settings and guide. For something so magical, it was strange how the system was like an application. She wondered if it was because the information was being translated into something she could understand.
Thankfully, the guides that came with it were more than helpful.
[AuraConnect] is an app that can be launched on mobile or stationary devices that are connected to the internet. Host can develop contracts to propose to potential followers, granting them the ability to wield magic through progression.
Rhea blinked several times and reread the paragraph over and over to realize something very important...
She could gift anyone the ability to wield magic, like an actual, real Warlock Patron.
And anyone who can use magic in this world is highly sought after.
"Holy shit..." Rhea couldn't help but curse happily at the money pot she uncovered.
Money pot, because she read further down the guide stating she could add her personalized demands that followers must meet to continue using the gifts she would bestow upon them. This meant that she could charge her followers a monthly subscription fee of any amount!
Not only that but a dollar equals 10 PP.
At first, Rhea thought PP stood for platinum pieces until she read further down the guide, where it started explaining about 'Patron Points'. Basically, it's the currency used to improve the Warlock Patron System by purchasing available features that enhance not only the app [AuraConnect] but also the [Warlock Player System] that will be implemented upon the patronee once a contract has been signed.
After reading through the guides, there were two things that Rhea needed to do:
1.) Develop the App with the necessary features and prepare it for launch, and
2.) Draft the terms and conditions contract to establish the connection that would allow users to wield magic through her Warlock system.
With so little time remaining, Rhea decided she should get started, especially with only 5,000 PP, she would need to be wiser about spending it.
Remembering that the guide mentioned she could use the mobile or a stationary device to make changes, Rhea returned to her bedroom where the laptop should be, but then she stopped in her tracks, seeing the hanging rope.
Sighing once more, Rhea hung her head, guilt gnawing at her insides. She decided to wait a bit, casting a small prayer of the original host of this body. After a while, she moved to grab the step stool kicked off the side and used it to reach the ceiling fan, untying the rope.
"I'm sorry..." Rhea quietly told herself as she dumped the rope into the trash before making her way to the desk.
She sat down in front of the computer and got to work.