A strong sensation of vertigo woke her from her long sleep. Was she falling? How was that possible? She was still at work doing... "What was I doing?"

Jean's eyes snapped open as soon as she spotted a large fissure speeding away. Instinctively, she opened her arms, but there was nothing within reach to grab onto. Absolutely nothing.

An intense pain struck her from behind. The feeling of her bones breaking all over her body caused her to lose consciousness.

When she awoke, a sudden spasm caused her body to move uncontrollably. The pain was long gone, but the sensation still lingered in her mind.

She opened her eyes and inhaled deeply. The air was so stale and heavy that she felt nauseous.

“Yuck! Where does that smell come from?”

Jean moved her head in search of the source of the smell, but there was little she could do without standing up; it took her a while to regain control of her body.

Her surroundings were dark, but not entirely dark thanks to tiny, faintly glowing, light blue crystals dispersed all over the place. The crystals grew along the stone walls, gradually decreasing in size until they reached the fissure at the top.

“I fell from up there?!”

Being alive after a fall from such a height was incredible, but coming out unscathed was even more so. Almost as much as the dark fantasy that was the cavern. The absence of natural light, combined with the peculiar blue haze that enveloped the area, made it challenging to discern anything beyond the shapes of objects. At least she wouldn't trip over everything she came across.

She closed her eyes and concentrated on remembering how she had gotten there. Her memories were a haze of uncertainty mixed with fragments of utter darkness.

A flashback came to shed some light, but it didn't come alone. She got so dizzy that she had to put her hands on the rock to keep from falling flat on her face.

The flashback felt real, but disconcerting at the same time. Even though she was the one experiencing it in real time, it didn't feel like hers.

She was at work, specifically in the warehouse of the hypermarket. The situation was unusual. Everything was shaking and the abnormal light coming through the skylights on the roof became blinding. Her heart almost stopped; that couldn't be an earthquake. She cringed and dropped to the ground, praying it wasn't what it seemed. An explosion that would end everything.

The vibrations began to knock small boxes off the shelves to the floor. At the same time, a loud buzzing sound settled in her ears. That's when she realized she was floating a few inches off the ground. She wanted to scream, but no sound came out of her trembling mouth.

She tried to stand up, but the mere touch of the ground made her float even higher. Gravity didn't seem to be working for her. She swam through the air, trying to grab the frame of the huge door that connected the warehouse to the hypermarket. But instead of getting closer, she felt herself moving away.

She then realized that the boxes in the warehouse were lying on the floor, and only her floating.

“Aliens?”

She curled up into a ball and started screaming again. This time, the sound came out.

Still not giving up, she tried to hold onto something again. Now the shelves were closer than before. However, despite her desperate efforts, she ended up face up and even further away from everything.

The blinding light intensified. This time, she had to cover her eyes.

Jean thought about her lonely life. She thought of her damn little sister and her adorable older sister. She thought of her mother and her strange habit of feeding the resentment that separated them. She also thought of her father. She missed him so much. Maybe he was watching her from heaven right now. Maybe it was time to see him again.

A whirlpool of despair washed over her. She would never recover what she had lost, nor repair the damage she had caused.

Jean began to cry uncontrollably. She was not alone. Despite the vibrations and the deafening buzz, screams of despair filled her ears like a cacophony. The entire hypermarket and parking lot must have been suffering the same fate.

As she floated more than two meters above the ground, a transparent membrane descended from the sky and passed through her completely. An intense heat followed, but it didn’t burn her. It felt as if the sun had exploded in a slow-motion supernova, except for the deathly heat.

Finally, darkness and silence enveloped everything, but not immediately. She still had time to see her body disintegrate into glowing particles of a blinding yellow color.

Darkness settled, transporting her back to the present.

"What the hell! That couldn't happen! It's... It's impossible!"

She sat up and tried to clear her thoughts. She needed to find something that made more sense. However, no matter how hard she tried, nothing made more sense than that madness.

"Does that mean this is real? Then... where am I supposed to be now? Hell?"

That was even crazier. There had to be a more logical explanation. Could it be that the brutal fall was causing her hallucinations? That certainly made more sense.

Jean took notice of a dim light to her right, and carefully stepped down from the rock on which she had fallen. She continued to descend from rock to rock, hoping to find a way out, but instead encountered a cave-in blocking her path.

"Well, at least it's clear which way I can't go!”

She didn't feel stressed at all. How was that possible? In a normal situation, she would be trembling. But instead, it felt like she was strolling through the park on a beautiful sunny day.

She continued her exploration and descended to the last rock, encountering a puddle on the ground. She jumped over it, but realized too late that the puddle was too large, covering almost the entire floor.

The water splashed up to her knees, causing her to shiver from head to toe. "Shit! They don't pay the electric bill here?!"

Jean persevered and kept moving. She was too hungry to stop. A fierce hunger that she didn't know where it came from.

The haze near the ground was thicker, making visibility even more challenging. However, the small blue crystals that glowed in the same shade as the water were also more concentrated. That made it easier for her to find a narrow passage in the winding cavern.

“[Mission »Choose your destiny!« updated to: »Reach the surface!«.]”

That startled her. She looked around, but saw no one. “I’ve gone crazy?”

“[You are not crazy! If you don't remember us, that has an easy solution.]”

Another vision made her dizzy again, taking her back through her memories. Like the previous one, she felt it was her present.

She had been there for days in an odd state between sleep and wakefulness. Unable to move or think properly because of a persistent sadness that afflicted her. She had no idea if she was dead or alive.

On the verge of despair, she thought about crying over the end of her life. She just wanted to feel alive like when she was a child. A little girl silenced and oppressed by others. Maybe she could have been like him if she hadn't given up.

"I should have been like him! If I get out of here alive, I won’t hold back!"

A hopeful feeling flashed through her mind like a lightning in the dark. It forced its way through her like roots piercing the ground. Without pain or punishment. A phenomenon that created a strange flow of information that became a constant wave of whispers in her mind. A feeling that made her understand that she would never be alone again.

“[»Magic core« successfully implemented.]”

[Magic core]: Provides support for your attributes and the assimilation of new knowledge, skills and spells.

“[Welcome »Player 314.127AJ«!]”

“[New Mission: »Choose your destiny!« Reincarnation or Insertion?]”

The flashback ended abruptly, leaving as many questions as answers. The only thing that became clear was that the whispers were the Magic Core. They would always be with her to assist her and turn her into a player. She now resembled the protagonists of the role-playing games she adored so much.

Even though that was the craziest thing she had ever experienced, her attention was focused on something else. Who was this guy she wanted to look like? She had no idea what he was like, so the whispers reminded her of a name. Ian.

"Was he... my friend? My boyfriend? My lover? ... No, it can't be! I don't know anyone with..."

“[He’s none of the previous ones.]”

Her disappointment was palpable, so she tried to soften it by changing the subject. "Okay... What did I choose then? Reincarnation or Insertion?”

“[You chose »Insertion«. You don't remember that either?]”

Jean shook her head silently. She felt overwhelmed, still getting used to the constant bustle of the whispers and the incessant flow of information that accompanied every new word.

From one day to the next, her life had changed radically. From a hypermarket clerk, to a player of god knows what madness. However, the most disconcerting thing was that she felt tremendously comfortable with the idea. Was that because the strange whispers made everything normal and logical?

“[It's normal. You suffered a serious head injury that took days to heal, but don't worry! You will eventually recover your memories.]”

“I've been lying there for days?! Why didn't I bleed to death?”

“[Your »Last Breath« skill won't let you die so easily. We tried to save your memories too, but it proved impossible to preserve them all. We have done our best.]”

[Last Breath]: Unique skill. Allow whispers to activate your skills in order to keep you alive.

“WTF! I have skills now?!”

Jean wanted to smile, but the cold didn’t let her do anything more than make a crooked face. At that moment, she remembered the soft brush of someone's lips against hers. Shivering, she touched them. The texture felt different from how she remembered it.

"Who kissed me? ... Ian?"

It was exciting to feel desired for the first time. She wished she could at least recall his face.

“[It was »Her«!]”

“I've kissed a woman?!”

Jean found that exciting too. She tried to imagine it, but there was no flashback.

“[That was lost too... It was before crossing the left door. Before you got your new body.]”

Jean had no idea which door they were talking about, but discovering that she had a new body shocked her to the core. “Wh-What do you mean by a new body?!”

That wasn't her voice. Her heart raced with uncertainty. The gloom didn't help, but her hands did.

There was no trace of her former body. The texture of her skin felt very smooth now. Her hair was red, gently waving to the middle of her back. Her voluptuous bust was now barely contained by a bra, her belly was flat and fit, her hips were wide and curvy, and her butt was strong, but cute.

All of a sudden, there was a faint splash nearby. Jean got a bad feeling, so she remained silent, regretting not having kept her mouth shut.

The distant splashing sounded closer and closer. At first she remained calm, but when she heard faint moans, she couldn't help but feel safer climbing back up onto a rock again.

A figure crawled out from behind a bend in the winding cavern.

Jean trembled in fear of the unknown figure. “What the heck is that?!”

Jean froze as the figure slowly advanced. Thankfully, she quickly pulled herself together. Something clicked in her head, forcing her to tense her body. When she saw what it looked like, her doubts disappeared completely. She didn't recognize herself.

The figure rose with great difficulty, revealing huge protuberances and deformities all over its body. It was extremely thin and swayed sideways, barely keeping its balance. It was dressed in rags and moved its head in all directions, as if it saw even less than Jean.

At first, Jean thought it was short, but then she realized she was quite tall.

“What is that? A zombie?”

An emergent brought by the whispers arrived promptly.

Creature: »Infected«
Level: ???
Name: Rikkom
Marks: [Thief], [Traitor]
Details: You are unaware of the affliction that plagues him. This player has been consumed to his minimum expression, making him an insignificant adversary to you.

The guy wasn't what he seemed. He was Marked.

[Marked]: Negative title easily visible with identification. Some titles of this type are:
◦ Thief: It can be removed by returning what was stolen and compensating for the grievance.
◦ Killer of … (Humans, goblins, orcs …). Permanent.
◦ Traitor: After breaking a pact or deliberately attacking an ally. Permanent.
◦ Weaver: After convincing others to do evil things for you. Permanent.

“Eh?! He's a player too!”

Her player number crossed her mind again. In the flashback, the whole hypermarket had suffered her same fate. "A customer? No. The number was too high. The light probably involved a lot more people. Maybe the entire city..."

Jean flinched when she noticed him sniffing the air. If she wanted to get out of there, she would have to evade him. But how? He was blocking the only exit.

“[What are you waiting for? Open the »Inventory« and select your weapon.]”

“Inventory?! I don't have any...”

A very dark turquoise panel, visible only to her, opened before her eyes. It showed a grid of 5 horizontal squares and an infinite number of squares procedurally growing downward. The edges were gold on a black background.

Jean found what she was looking for and then some. In the first square was a spear. In the next, a pair of panties and a bra. Both primitive looking and made of raffia fabric.

Attracted by her scent, the infected took advantage of her slight distraction to approach her. Not knowing her exact position, he dashed against the rock.

Jean's pulse quickened dramatically. "Shit!"

It was only a whisper, but it was the trigger for his eyes to glow purple.

Jean immediately turned her attention to the spear in her inventory. The mere thought made it instantly appear in her hands. When the inventory closed, she pointed the spear at him. The slightest contact of the handle against her skin was enough for him to go crazy.

After a macabre convulsion, he lunged straight for Jean, leaving all traces of weakness behind. If the spear hadn't stopped his advance, he would now be digging his scaly, infected fingernails into her arms.

Even though the spear was stuck in his chest, the infected didn’t stop. He advanced forward while the spear began to emerge from his back.

Baffled by his absence of pain, and the shortness of space due to the creature's deranged advance, Jean jumped from the rock.

The creature didn't hesitate. He leaped towards Jean with the spear still stuck in him, managing to reach Jean's hand with his nails. Surprisingly, he barely managed to inflict some minor scratches. Jean's skin was very tough.

“You son of a bitch!”

Jean gripped the spear tightly and lifted it along with the infected. She then swung it to the right, causing him to impact against the rock. However, not everything happened as she expected.

He fell at her feet and kept moving frantically until he grabbed her left foot. Despite Jean's attempt to free herself, the bastard managed to sink his rotten teeth. Whispers broke out with the bad news.

“[An »Unknown Substance« has entered your bloodstream.]”

“WHAT?! NO, NO, NOOO!”

Until now, the possibility that she may know him had undermined her psychologically. She didn't want to kill him. However, that idea had completely disappeared.

Jean kicked him in the head and distanced herself momentarily to gather momentum. This time she aimed for his arms. After a powerful stomp, the infected's arms snapped like twigs. However, the infected didn’t give up. He propelled himself with his legs in an attempt to bite her again.

Jean aimed at his head again. She was managing to keep him at bay, but nothing more.

“DIE, DAMMIT!”

Jean unconsciously increased the force used so much, that she imbued the stomp with a red aura*. The impact crushed his head, and his brains ended up all over the floor, staining it with a disgusting black liquid.

*[Effects: To imbue an attack or skill with an attribute, the attribute must have a minimum value of 10. This will give a colored aura and add magical damage. The most common effects by attribute are:
◦ Strength: Red aura. Adds impact power and the possibility of knocking down.
◦ Dexterity: Orange aura. Surpass enemy’s defenses.
◦ Agility: Yellow aura. Adds simultaneous attacks.
◦ Toughness: Brown aura. Provides a magic shield that reduces or absorbs physical damage.
◦ Resistance: Mauve aura. Provides a magic shield that reduces or absorbs magical damage.
◦ Wisdom: White aura. Overload the skill to multiply its normal effects.
◦ Intelligence: Blue aura. Increases the magic damage.
◦ Willpower: Cyan aura. Multiplies the pain suffered.
◦ Perception: Jade aura. Dulls the enemy’s senses.]

“WTF! If I knew it was so powerful, I would have used it from the beginning!”

“[Mission »Reach the surface!« updated to »Prevent the Infection!«]”

"What do you want me to prevent it with?! ... ... ... COME ON! IT'S NOT A GOOD TIME TO SHUT UP! GIVE ME A HINT!"

Two other infected appeared from the bottom of the cavern. One was just as tall as the previous one. The other, somewhat less than she was.

The discomfort caused by the infection spreading throughout her body tormented her like nothing else ever had. The idea of making them pay became stronger and stronger. It all depended on how reversible the infection was.

“[You have been infected with an »Unknown Affliction«.]”

The familiar feeling of helplessness resurfaced. The one that always appeared when she was on the verge of achieving something, but instead covered her in mountains of shit.

“You fucked me up, motherfuckers!”

Jean looked at the ground while holding back tears. She had no experience in combat, except for the occasional slapping and hair-pulling that two adolescent alley cats might engage in. This was a daily occurrence during her rebellious childhood, when she refused to be intimidated by a group of bullies.

What would Jean be like today if the old Jean had not been defeated? Perhaps it was time to find out. Maybe it was time to leave the lid of that grave open.

“Yes, this time it will be different!”

Spear in hand, she advanced against those Dark Souls-like abominations. If those creatures were immune to anything other than literally losing their heads, that's what it all came down to.

The most impatient of the infected was the first to die. He didn’t even evade when the spear went straight for his head. It entered through his mouth and exited through the back of his neck, severing his spine.

Surprised by her own strength, she smiled maliciously.

She performed a kick to prevent the second infected from reaching her, and pulled hard on the spear, which was still stuck on the first. She prevented him from getting up by stomping on his chest, and finished him off with the spear.

A third infected pounced and bit her arm, catching her off guard. She attempted to shake him off, but the infected persisted in biting her. However, he was unable to do any real damage. He only managed to scratch her skin like an enraged child.

Jean stuck her thumb into his right eye, causing it to burst. She then clenched her fist and squeezed his head, causing his skull to explode and black liquid to trickle down her arms. Shortly after, the infected fell lifeless.

With the spear in hand and drunk with power, she executed a mid-height sweep attack. She attempted to slash two of them with the tip, but she used so much force that it glowed leaving a red trail. The attack proved to be more powerful than anticipated. The impact shattered their rib cages, breaking ribs and organs in its path.

“Holy shit! I'm the fucking Wonder Woman!!”

The next five received more of the same, but the spear didn’t seem designed for such fighting style. Noticing that the handle was splintering from the effort, she stored it in the inventory and stepped back.

She looked down at her fists and charged forward again, full of confidence against a new wave. Her fists lit up with the fearsome red aura as the black liquid splashed everywhere. Whether it was bursting his head like a pinata or turning his chest into a bagel, Jean didn't stop delivering blows for a moment.

After breaking one infected's spine, fatigue hit her subtly. Adding effects to attacks was a waste of mana for some flimsy bastards. That could be fatal if she ended up needing it to heal herself. After all, she was alone, and mana didn't replenish quickly.

She didn't stop to think how she knew all that. She understood that all that flow of information came from what the whispers shared with her.

“It’ll have to be the slow way then!”

Engulfed in a frenzy of violence, she barely noticed the number of smashed infected around her. The continuous combat and her reckless way of fighting kept attracting more and more creatures.

Some of the infected tried to get up with serious difficulty, but it didn't take long for them to carpet the floor again. Her heart rate kept increasing, but exertion was not the only reason. The taste in her mouth was unpleasant. There was mucus in her throat and her body started to shake like crazy.

“[»Unknown Corruption« has taken root in you. You will soon succumb to its effects.]”