F7’s immersion into Takahashi Ren’s mind was completed. It was a bit like looking over someone's shoulder, who was both invisible and untouchable in pitch black darkness. Well, it’s not like his new body was developed enough to open the eyes.

F7 launched the welcoming text at Takahashi Ren’s mind and waited. Then…

...Huhh? A thought rang with the voice of a man, a voice different to their own. The fun thing about this was that they could hear the target’s every thought, but he couldn’t hear F7’s at all.

Allright, here we go. F7 thought feeling slightly bored already. Everyone reacted with a ‘Huhh?’ when they first discovered there was something inside their head. F7 was so over it. They sighed in exasperation and waited for the target to do something.

F7 felt the target’s confusion and disorientation. They felt him squirm around in his new tiny body. They felt mama tanuki’s rough tongue wipe over them through Takahashi Ren’s senses. They felt the target’s disgust at the sensation. They heard his thoughts.

...Why is something wet/gross/weird/possibly-a-tongue licking me?

...Where am I?

...I thought I died.

...Am I dead?

...Is this the afterlife?

...Am I being punished by some gross tongue licking me in hell?

...What is going on?

...And what is with that weird text?

…

… …

[Welcome to the world Fortima 7!]

[You have been chosen through a lottery and won the once in a lifetime chance to be reincarnated to a world of magic, Fortima 7, the seventh planet in the Fortima solar system.]

[Would you like to look at your status?]

[YES/NO]

…

…So I’ve been reincarnated then…

…Riiiiiight, because that makes sence… And what does it mean, I won a lottery? What complete bullshit – I never won anything in my entire life. This must be some kind of trick.

 

---

Oh, give the man a medal! The first one to figure it out from the start! F7 jeered.

---

 

…

…

…So assuming I’m not in hell, and I’m not dreaming… I mean it does say there ‘reincarnated’…

…Am I alive?

…

…Reincarnation… rebirth… birth…

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeehh??? T-Then this tongue is what, my new m-m-m-mother’s tongue??? What was I reborn as??? A cat…???

 

---

F7 yawned inwardly.

---

 

…

…

…Okay…

…

…Still what does it mean status? Like in a game? And why is there an option to decline?

F7 perked up.

Oh please, oh please, oh pleeeeeeeeaase, choose ‘NO’!

They felt the target ‘stare’ at the options. They sensed him contemplating choosing ‘YES’ then opting for ‘NO’, just to see what would happen. A notification popped up on F7’s mental screen.

[Target ‘Takahashi Ren’ has declined looking at his status. Would you like to enforce showing the target’s status?]

“Yes.” F7 mumbled out loud with glee in their observatory’s immersion capsule.

The next moment they felt the target wrighe in agony. F7 of course didn’t feel any pain, but they new it would cause a splitting headache for the target as the Status window forced itself into his consciousness. They felt the target grow dizzy. It was very strange to feel the room spin with somebody else’s senses. A couple of minutes later the pain and dizziness must have subsided, because F7 felt the target relax.

…S-so it showed up anyway… Then what’s the fucking point of putting a ‘NO’ in?! To watch me squirm in pain?! Takahashi Ren raged inside his head indignantly.

“Fufu, yes.” F7 chuckled into the gloom of the observatory.

…Well, let’s see this shit then. The target grumbled.

[Name:                    / Takahashi Ren][Level 1]

[Health: 50/50][Mana: 50/50][Stamina: 50/50]

[Age: 0 (+31)]

[Race: Tanuki]

[Gender: female]

[Current condition: conscious, healthy]

[Current location: Mother’s burrow, Maggria world tree, Denroe Great Forest, Denroe continent, Fortima 7. View map HERE.]

[Strength: 1]

[Agility: 1]

[Vitality: 10]

[Endurance: 1]

[Intelligence: 34]

[Charisma: 10]

[Luck: -100*]

[Basic skills: Code breaking Lv. 1, Friend of fish Lv. 1, Petty thief Lv. 1, Calm mind Lv. 1, Drug resistance Lv. 1, Pain resistance Lv. 1, Shut in Lv. 1]

[Innate skills: Night vision*, Beast’s nose, Sharp ears*, Balancing tail*]

[Martial arts: Club wielder Lv. 1]

[Arcane arts: Transformation*]

[Unique skills: Unlucky bastard*, Walking disaster*]

F7 looked over the stats alongside the target. Takahashi Ren’s mostly high level stat’s levels (including the basic skills he developed in his previous life unknowingly) were reduced to 1 due to his extreme bad luck. Usually, in similar situations the values of target’s levels would be halved. Vitality remained the same because F7 changed that manually while Intelligence remained unchanged because even Luck would need a serious accident or something to render someone newborn level stupid. And finally Charisma increased because babies are cute.

Though it’s already very lucky, that his crazy Luck stat didn’t sink lower. F7 mused, then was interrupted by the target’s thoughts.

Eh? …T-tanuki? I’m not a cat the- WHY AM I A GIRL??!!!

F7 snorted as they felt Takahashi Ren trying to feel for his berries-and-twig only to find a little clam instead. The baby tanuki let out an indignant mewl (which neither of them could hear, because his tiny ears were still folded), while the target raged inside his head.

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY???????!!!!!!!!

F7 cackled and waited for the target to calm down. It was at this point that his head was shoved onto some round, protruding thing that smelled like milk. The instincts of the little tanuki’s body took over, and Takahashi Ren felt his mouth open and clamp down on a nipple, his two tiny paws making muffins and his pink tongue pushing to squeeze out milk. Startled, he started drinking the warm liquid, and thought he never before tasted something so good before in his entire life. F7 watched as he started to feel more and more comfortable and safe surrounded by his mama tanuki’s soft fluff, and calm down with mother’s milk filling up his belly.

When Takahashi Ren was sated, he unclenched his mouth from the nipple, and snuggled deeper into his mother’s fur. He started to fall asleep, but then he felt – the now familiar – wet tongue lick at his crotch.

What the…?! Takahashi Ren was instantly alert and let out a mewl he hoped sounded indignant. Not that that stopped mama tanuki from doing her thing.

Oooooi!!! Weird mother-o-mine! Just what do you… think… you are… oh. At this point suddenly everything became clear. Takahashi Ren’s little tanuki body was doing her little girl business and mama tanuki was cleaning her up.

F7 was always baffled by the feeling of excretion. Their body was modified so they never had to do it, and always thought they couldn’t imagine doing it for real in real life.

Anyway, mini-tanuki-Ren was now awake enough again to digest his stats. And the milk.

 

Why are some things marked with a *? What does it mean? Takahashi Ren wondered.

F7 pulled up the requested information and sent it to their target’s mind.

 

[Luck: -100* – Host is able to experience good luck (1/1000 chances) or no luck (1/100 chances) to balance things out.]

[Night vision* – Inactive. Will become available when host opens her eyes.]

[Sharp ears* – Inactive. Will become available when host opens her ears.]

[Balancing tail* – Inactive. Will become available when host grows big enough to use it.]

[Transformation* – Inactive. Will become available when host grows capable enough to use it.]

[Unlucky bastard* – Host is extremely unlucky. Misfortune befalls her wherever she goes, whatever she does.]

[Walking disaster* – Host can divert her misfortune towards her surroundings once a day. Cool down: 10 days.]

 

Oh! It answered! Takahashi Ren exclaimed startled. Still, my luck really is awful to be in the negative digits. ‘Unlucky bastard’ and ‘Walking disaster’ sound very brutal… I mean I’ve always kinda known about the first one, but seeing it written down like that is just…

He pondered for a moment, then ordered the system.

Explain what the skills ‘Code breaking’, ‘Friend of fish’, ‘Petty thief’, ‘Calm mind’, ‘Drug resistance’, ‘Pain resistance’ and ‘Shut in’ are about.

 

[Code breaking Lv. 1 – Host is able to decipher and interpret languages, mannerisms, texts, images and codes more quickly and accurately.]

[Friend of fish Lv. 1 – Host is able to understand fish better. Paired with the Code breaking skill, host is now able to communicate with fish.]

[Petty thief Lv. 1 – Host is able to discern easy marks better, and has a higher chance of successful stealing, pick-pocketing, lock-picking and breaking-and-entering.]

[Calm mind Lv. 1 – Host remains calm in stressful situations, is less likely to panic and more resistant to psychological attacks.]

[Drug resistance Lv. 1 – Host is more resistant to drugs for better or worth. Poisons, addictive or mind-altering substances and medicines have a lesser chance of working on the host. Applies only to ingested drugs.]

[Pain resistance Lv. 1 – Host is less likely to succumb to pain.]

[Shut in Lv. 1 – Safety in solitude – host doesn’t seek connections with others and is very territorial about her space. She will become violent when her things or home is threatened.]

 

F7 felt Takahashi Ren digest the information. He fell silent for a couple of minutes, and sensing what he was thinking of, F7 activated Chatroom.

It makes sense for me to possess the ‘Night vision’, ‘Beast’s nose’, ‘Sharp ears’ and ‘Balancing tail’ skills because I’m an animal now. But why do I have the rest?

 

                              Administrator F7 has joined Chatroom.

[It’s because host ‘Takahashi Ren’ has cultivated those skills in her past life, and they were brought over when she reincarnated.]

…

…But then what about other things I learned? Like programming, or aquascaping.

[It makes no sense to allow those skills to exist in a world where there are no computers or aquariums.]

Does that mean that you have tempered with my other skills?

[Yes.]

Which ones? Is that why most of my skills are only level 1? They should be higher since I worked on them during my past life…

[Luck and Vitality. I added those chances to Luck, because host ‘Takahashi Ren’ is so unfortunate, that the negative value of the stat would have got in the way of host ‘Takahashi Ren’s’ development. I increased Vitality to 10 from 0, because with the host ‘Takahashi Ren’s’ luck host ‘Takahashi Ren’ would have died in childbirth. I also added Walking disaster so host ‘Takahashi Ren’ would be able to redirect host ‘Takahashi Ren’s’ bad luck away from host ‘Takahashi Ren’. The reason why most of host ‘Takahashi Ren’s’ levels were reduced to 1 is because host ‘Takahashi Ren’ is a newborn infant now.]

…

… Please stop referring to me with ‘host Takahashi Ren’. It’s weird.

[Quiery: How would host ‘Takahashi Ren’ would like to be referred to?]

 

---

F7 spoke like a glitchy AI on purpose. They thought it was fun to troll the target.

---

 

Call me Ren.

[Host ‘Takahashi Ren’s’ designation has been changed to ‘Ren’.]

… Thank you. …So… What am I supposed to do now?

                              Administrator F7 has left Chatroom.

 

F7 wasn’t obligated to answer stupid questions.

You don’t know what to do? Well shit, figure it out!