Chapter 1: You Have Died... System Booting
*Ding*
A girl with a high ponytail strode toward the chair by the window. A woman with ear-length hair sat quietly, book in hand, nibbling at a small plate of cake with a milkshake beside it.
“Gale!”
The short-haired woman looked up, her expression indifferent. Her features were exquisitely refined—but what struck people first were her eyes: deep-set, mismatched. The right one, blue. The left, dark brown.
“Kelly.” The woman blandly responded back.
Kelly plopped into the chair and snatched Gale’s milkshake, chugging it in one go. “Ahh, much better!”
She wiped her mouth and gave Gale a once-over. “Looking sharp as ever.”
Gale glanced down at her outfit: a long demi jacket, a strapless shirt, and high-waisted jeans. Nothing extravagant, but enough to accentuate her angles.
“Cut to the chase.”
“Oh, right.” Kelly cleared her throat. “Noise said the project’ll be finished by tomorrow.”
“I thought they’d finish by noon.” Gale raised an eyebrow.
Kelly looked away. "A-about that..."
Gale’s brow tightened. She pulled out her phone and dialled. After two rings, the line clicked.
“Hello, Fan Zaoyu speaking.”
“Noise,” Gale said, voice level. “Explain why the deadline’s been pushed back.”
Fan Zaoyu’s easygoing expression slipped. He blinked and looked off-screen for a moment, buying time.
“There was an issue with the CPU,” he said. “It overheated while we were doing some checks.”
His words came out fast, unsure. As his nerves crept in, he switched to his mother tongue without noticing.
Gale followed his lead effortlessly. “I’m coming over.”
“No, no--there’s really no need. We’ve got this co—”
Click.
He stared at the disconnected call for a second, then slid the phone into the chest pocket of his lab coat. A long exhale left his lungs. He left the room.
---
At the café, Gale stood up and pushed in her chair.
“Good luck,” Kelly said, already digging into what was left of Gale’s cake.
Gale gave her a quick glance but didn’t respond. She walked out, hands deep in her pockets.
Outside, the street was quiet. A few cars passed by. The sun was low, casting long shadows against buildings and crosswalks.
She moved at a steady pace, focused. People glanced at her as she walked—not because of anything loud or flashy, but something about the way she carried herself made them look twice.
Her car was parked on the other side of the street. She stepped up to the traffic light and waited for the signal.
'The project’s been stable for months… Noise would’ve flagged a heat spike before it got serious. What the hell was he running?'
Suddenly, she heard something behind her. Not a voice or a footstep—just a shift in the usual sounds. The kind of change you feel before you hear it.
She turned her head.
A huge log had broken loose from a truck further up the road. It was bouncing across the pavement, fast. Out of control. Screams cut through the street. A man stumbled backwards. Someone else tried to pull a child to safety.
The log smashed through a bus stop. Metal twisted. Glass shattered.
Gale’s eyes locked onto it as it barreled forward—straight toward her.
She didn’t flinch in time.
Then---
The world went quiet.
Everything went black.
***
A loud hum was all Gale could hear. Her eyes wouldn’t open, her voice refused to come out, and she couldn’t feel anything. Just that strange sense of floating—weightless, detached. She felt she had been floating forever, suddenly she fell a pull followed, by a cherry mechanical voice:
[System 71125, welcome (^-^)]
The voice echoed, followed by glowing text that appeared in front of her.
[Who’s there?!] Gale looked at the text with vigilant eyes.
[Don’t be afraid! I’m System 18912521. You can call me Riley—or just 18 (^o^)]
[…]
18 cleared his throat and said, [I know this is sudden, but… you’re dead.]
[So this is the afterlife?] Gale felt her lips press together as her eyes revealed the mockery she did not know she held.
[Hahahaha, no.] 18 laughed. If his physical body were there, he would have been short of breath.
[This is just void space. We collect highly intelligent souls to become systems. Your job now? Help improve multiversal worlds and make them better places to live! (^o^)]
[…Wait. You mean all those novels were right?!] Gale had been influenced by the novels Kelly would not shout up about. [Seems I own Kelly 2,000.]
[Yes… and ι(｀ロ´)ノ no.]
Gale could feel the passion behind 18 voice and text.
[Those novels are worlds created by humans. And because new ones are always being written, and most 'side' characters, who are not the designated main characters, are interrupting the flow of the story by killing the main figure of the story, things can get a little… messy. Plot holes, inconsistencies—you name it. That’s where you come in! We bind systems like you to hosts who can repair the narrative, while you provide them with resources and guidance. (^o^)]
A huge frown appeared on Gale’s beautiful face, making her scary to look at, [...so I’m a system now? (ー_ー)]
[Y-yup! (; ﾟ 3ﾟ)] 18's voice faltered for a second.
[“So… my world was a novel?] Though her voice now sounded slightly robotic, Gale’s words trembled with emotion.
[Hey, hey, don’t cry. Every world is a novel —and isn’t— at the same time. Your dimension had the highest number of writers feeding it, so it kind of became the main hub! Don’t stress your CPU, you’ve got a mission o(^o^)o!]
[…I’m not crying. I’m *excited* (ФωФ). So much data to collect. Send the mission— quickly!] Her voice brimmed with manic anticipation. If Kelly or Fan Zaoyu had heard her, they’d never believed it was the same Gale.
[(＾~＾；Okay, 71. Sending.] For a split second, 18 wasn’t sure he’d recruited the right soul for this job.
[See you after the mission! You’ll get the handbook on arrival—it’s got all the rules in it ( -∀・)]
Everything twisted around making anyone who looked dizzy.
When Gale came to, she was standing over a girl sprawled on cold, blood-slicked pavement.
Frowning she looked around in her virtual form. Finding it inconvenient, she manifested a chibi version of herself next to the girl. She squatted her already tiny body and poked the girl's cheek.
The girl had Chinese features. She was a dainty beauty, the one that made people want to protect her. Even Gale had to admit, she was beautiful. Not as much as her though.
[This must be the host ( -_・)?] Gale tilted her small head as she looked at the dying girl. She could not be sure, since 18 didn't tell her how she could identify the host.
Just because she appeared next to this girl, didn't mean the girl was the assigned host.
Clearing her head, she tapped the air in front of her. Imitating one of the novels Kelly forced her to read.
[Hmm, let's see here.] Gale looked at the interface in front of her. She pressed a few buttons and found a scanner. She pressed the scan button and scanned the girl.
[Okay, here we go.
Name: Xia Ruoyu
Age: 20
Height:167cm
Status: Severe bleeding, multiple fractures, bleeding internal organs...more
Click for more information]
A heavy frown appeared on Gale’s face. Not knowing what to do, she tapped the screen and pressed the (i) icon at the top corner of the screen. A book appeared on the screen. She quickly opened it.
[System Guide Manual.] Gale looked at the cover for a while, then quickly opened it.
[Welcome! This must be your first day...]
Gale skimmed through it.
[Here! Okay. If the host you're supposed to bind to is in life-threatening danger. Enter their consciousness and make them sign the contract placed in your personal inventory. As soon as they sign it, most problematic injuries will heal, and the nearest hospital in their world will be notified and arrive as soon as possible.]
Gale didn’t hesitate. She closed the manual with a flick, dove through the interface, and reached into her inventory. A glowing contract hovered mid-air, its text shifting languages before settling into neat, inky Mandarin.
With a chime, a gateway shimmered open before her— rippling like disturbed water. Gale stepped forward and—
Slam.
She was inside.
Xia Ruoyu’s consciousness was fragmented. Floating shards of memory hovered in the vast blackness. Some flickered weakly, others pulsed like damaged lightbulbs. Whispers echoed around her: voices from the girl’s past, distant arguments, lullabies, and sobs.
[System 71125 entering conscious domain…] Gale muttered, flicking open her interface again. [So this is what the human subconscious looks like. Too bad, I don't have a camera (-＿-)]
A bridge formed beneath her as she walked forward. Every step rebuilt another piece of the girl’s mind.
Then she saw her.
Xia Ruoyu’s essence— shimmering like translucent glass— curled at the centre of a crumbling platform. Blood from her physical body seemed to ripple in from nowhere, staining the fragments red.
"Hey,” Gale called. “You’re dying. So sign this.” Her voice was no longer mechanical but it still held coldness in it.
She held the contract in front of Xia Ruoyu.
Ruoyu looked up, dazed. “…Who are you?”
“Your second chance. Or your cosmic paperwork assistant, depending on how romantic you want to be about it.”
Gale flicked the contract forward. It floated just above Ruoyu’s head.
The girl hesitated.
Then a thunderclap shook the realm— something was pushing in from the outside. The Grim Reaper? Reality crashing in? Either way, Xia Ruoyu was running out of time.
“SIGN IT,” Gale barked, eyes glowing. This was her first mission and she wasn't failing it.
Ruoyu reached out—
A burst of light.
Then silence.
On the outside Xia Ruoyu stirred as the blare of sirens cut through the haze. Consciousness flickered in—sharp, bright—then slipped away again.
