Excerpt

A soft beeping sound was heard and Luna opened her eyes to find soft ambient white light filling the entire room. She sat up and looked around the small white simple room that only has a bed, a study table and a single window. A digital clock with dark blue numbers glowed from the wall above the table. It was still 7am in the morning. She tried looking outside the window but found that it was opaque. It was merely a screen giving off ambient light.

Suddenly, BaoBao appeared by the study table then touched a device that looked like a bluetooth earpiece in her original world. His body started to look like television static as he faded away. 

"BaoBao?"

After a brief moment of silence, BaoBao's voice rang through her mind. "Woah!! This place is awesome!" BaoBao exclaimed excitedly. "Everything in your tiny home can be controlled with this one communication device! What would you like to do first? Bathe? Eat? Surf the web? Watch a show?"

While BaoBao threw out his suggestions, he simultaneously activated them in her room. The sound of water came from the bathroom just beyond her bed. The screen built into the wall at the foot of her bed turned on. 

"How about you give me the memories of the original soul first?"

"Ah! That's right." BaoBao laughed with embarrassment. He had gotten carried away in his excitement. 

Luna felt the familiar pain in her head while the original soul's memories of her life thus far flashed past her eyes.

Naoko did not start off as the wallflower kind of girl that she appeared to be in the book. When she was younger, she was not only bright, but also fun-loving, brave, and adventurous. These were perhaps traits passed down from and nurtured by her parents. 

Her parents were not just simple adventurers but recognised ones with achievements to their names. Their birthdays were always made into a public affair organised by the public, but they would make sure to hold a private one by themselves. 

During her father's birthday celebration when she was 10 years old, Naoko watched as people presented their gifts to her father. Looking at the presents that her father received made her feel dissatisfied with what she had prepared for him, so she asked Aimi to make sure that her parents would not come finding her until she was done creating a whole new present for them. 

Knowing how much her parents loved the world outside and getting inspired by the presents others gave, she snuck out alone.

Awhile later, alarms that signaled an incoming attack blared throughout the building and entire area. The ambient lights turned red, causing panic among the less experienced ones. 

A robotic female voice soon announced repeatedly along with visuals on every screen there was in the area. "30 metres Humaneater. Code red. Move away from the point of invasion as softly as possible."

Anything that produced vibrations, no matter how slight, but was not necessary immediately got shut down.

"Naoko!!" Her mother called out.

"Did anyone see Naoko?!" Her father yelled. He was already trying to contact Naoko's communicative device.

"Uncle! Auntie! Naoko snuck outside earlier! I don't think she's back yet! What do we do?!"

Just as Aimi said that, Naoko's father established a connection with Naoko's communicative device. "Naoko! Send me a live feed and stay online!" 

He quickly got what he asked for but what he saw made his heart drop. "Oh Lord. We have to go." He held onto his wife's hand then took off running in the opposite direction that everyone was supposed to go. 

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