The darkness was cold and silent, and most of all, oddly comfortable. Eric felt like sinking deeper and deeper. He felt like getting deep into the pit of darkness was a good idea.

 

No, it’s not, you fool! something inside was telling him. 

 

It told him not to give in to the desire. It told him that if he sank very deep into the darkness now, he would meet something terrifying.

 

Something… terrifying… Just the thought of it made him shudder. What could have been so terrifying? He didn’t know, and he didn’t care to know.

 

He began floating upward, hoping to reach the surface. He floated up and up and up. The feeling was exhilarating, the act of defying the law of gravity. Even in the midst of haziness in his mind, he still felt good.

 

Something finally came. A sound. Was that bird chirping? It sounded rather pleasant, but still hazy.

 

He floated up again, faster and faster, like a jet shooting into the sky. The sound got clearer, the bird chirping.

 

“Mmm…” He opened his eyes slowly. His vision was blurry. He blinked twice when a headache attacked him.

 

He groaned, shut his eyes tight, and rubbed his temples and the bridge of his nose. Last night sure did quite a number on him. It was a blast. He and his two buddies had gone out to celebrate the new year. He’d drunk a lot, and now he had to face the horrible consequences.

 

“Miss, are you okay?” a voice came.

 

His eyes opened at once. 

 

In his vision that became clearer after a moment of adjusting stood a woman with brown hair and… wait, was that cat ears on her head?

 

Eric blinked, staring at the woman.

 

“Are you alright?” she asked again, the look of concern on her face.

 

“Yeah, I’m alri—huh?” The moment he replied, he suddenly found something strange.

 

This… This wasn’t his voice! The voice coming out of his mouth just now sounded so sweet and high-pitched, like the voice of a girl!

 

His eyes went wide as he jolted up into a sitting position, reaching his hands to touch his throat. He looked down and became even more astonished.

 

Th-This wasn’t his body, either!

 

He was now dressed in a simple white sundress. His body looked delicate and small with moderate mounds on his chest. 

 

No matter how he looked at it, t-this was definitely the girl’s body! B-But, it’s not, it’s his body, it’s…

 

Confusion and astonishment filled his mind. His mind went completely blank.

 

“Miss?” 

 

A voice.

 

“Miss, you okay?”

 

Eric snapped back to reality and looked at the woman in front of him, wide-eyed.

 

“Is something wron—“

 

Before she could finish her sentence, Eric suddenly caught her hands, looked into her eyes, and said with a trembling voice, “M-Miss…? D-Did you just call me miss..? W-What do you m-mean…?”

 

He shuddered again from hearing his own feminine voice. 

 

He’d wanted to ask why this woman called her Miss when he was a guy. He actually started to have a vague idea of what happened to him, but he still wanted to deny it.

 

But this. The voice coming out of his mouth just now—again—made him speechless once more. He couldn’t quite deny it. He wanted to, but he couldn’t.

 

He was lost in thought.

 

Somehow, he had turned into a girl. He’d realized that. But, what…?

 

“Miss? Hey,” the woman called out again, this time gently tapping his cheek, snapping him to reality. “You’re spacing out again. What’s wrong?”

 

He looked at the woman, and once again realized that she had a pair of cat ears on her head. And now that he looked closer, he could see that the woman was really beautiful, with brown hair and green eyes. And her pupils… there were vertical slits in her pupils like that of a feline.

 

She was a cat-woman no matter how he looked at it.

 

“Are you…,” he started, doing his best to get used to this new voice. “Are you a cat-woman?” He looked at her cat ears again.

 

She tilted her head. “A cat-woman? You mean a beastkin?”

 

“That’s how you call it?”

 

She nodded. “Well, yeah. It’s common knowledge, isn’t it?” she said. “Where are you from, by the way? Why is a little girl like you all alone in the BloodHorn forest?”

 

What? BloodHorn forest?

 

Eric looked around and noticed that indeed he was now in a clearing of some forest, under the shade of a tree. It was daytime, and it was very sunny. The weather felt nice too, and the sound he’d heard just now…

 

He looked at the tree branches and saw some birds perching and chirping out nice melodies.

 

Honestly, he expected to see red wood and dirt and grass, but somehow this forest looked normal for a place called BloodHorn. 

 

He now started to have an idea of what’s going on. At first it was just a slight suspicion, but now it was very clear.

 

Somehow this kind of scenario was very similar to most light novels he’d read.

 

He—had been isekaied. Somehow.

 

Waking up in a forest, the changes of his body, genderswap, this beautiful cat-woman that claimed she was a beastkin. All of these were so similar to the isekai scenario. Everything pointed to that fact. 

 

So, he’d got reincarnated. It seemed. Or… maybe, transmigrated? He wasn’t reborn as a baby, but rather in the body of a little girl. He hadn’t seen his entire appearance, yet, but from what he’d seen from his point of view, his body was quite petite compared to the cat-woman.

 

Finally gaining some light of understanding, he looked at the cat-woman again. 

 

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t remember anything.”

 

The cat-woman’s eyes drooped for a second, an empathetic look on her face. “Is that… so?”

 

He nodded. 

 

He felt bad from lying to the cat-woman who seemed to be concerning about him, but he still didn’t want to tell her that he’d actually been transmigrated. Although he understood the gist of the situation, his mind still wasn’t quite there yet. All of this was so shocking, infact, if it wasn’t for his self-control restraining him, he would have lost his mind already.

 

More than that, even if he told her the truth, he wasn’t quite sure she would believe everything he said. Judging by all these elements—isekai being real, the cat-girl, and the fantastical name of this forest—he concluded that he was now in a fantasy world. 

 

Honestly, he should have felt excited by the possibility of being able to see and maybe even use real magic, going on exciting adventures, and facing the fantastical creatures he’d read about in fictions—but, he wasn’t quite as excited as he thought he would.

 

Maybe it was because of the suddenness of it all. His mind hadn’t quite registered this as a fact yet. He still expected to wake up and go on with his mundane life. 

 

Why would he want to continue living his mundane life instead of living in the fantasy world? He wasn’t sure. Maybe it was because of suddenly being thrust into a foreign world full of unknown. He still wasn’t sure what to expect.

 

But, he could only go along with it for now…

 

He felt a touch on his shoulder. A warm and reassuring touch snapped him out of his daze.

 

The cat-woman knelt down in front of him and looked at him with a warm smile. He also noticed a hint of sadness on her face.

 

“You must be really surprised and confused right now,” she said. “It’s okay. You’re not alone.”

 

Hearing such warm words, Eric felt moved. The warm feeling enveloped his heart.

 

He looked at her and again noticed how beautiful this woman was. Big and slightly droopy eyes, dainty nose, cherry-pink lips curving into a gentle smile. She could definitely become a famous celebrity on earth, no doubt about that.

 

“What’s your name?” he asked.

 

“I’m Liana. You?” 

 

Eric went silent for a moment. His name was Eric, but he couldn’t tell her that now, could he? Should he just come up with another name? Or maybe…

 

“Oh, my. I’m so sorry. I forgot,” she said, looking apologetic. “You’ve lost your memory, so…” She paused for a moment. “How about I give you a name?”

 

Eric nodded, though his mind went into a near panic.

 

That was close! He almost blew up his cover of being amnesiac. What a real fool he was!

 

Fortunately, the cat-woman, Liana, seemed to take his silence as he couldn’t remember his name. It was so close just now. If he were to blow his cover, Liana would definitely become suspicious of him. 

 

“Mmm,” she hummed, lost in thought, her finger tapping her lips.

 

She looked so cute with that gesture. Eric felt like hugging her, but stopped himself for now. 

 

Liana suddenly went, “Ahh!” with a smile on her face. “How about Ayuna?”

 

“Ayuna…?” Eric repeated.

 

Wasn’t that Japanese? He didn’t know Japanese that well aside from some words like: “Itai~”, “Kimochi~”, “Onii-chan, Yamete kudasa—ahem… just some words.

 

Liana nodded with a bright smile. “Yep, Ayuna. What do you think?”

 

Ayuna. Ayuna. Ayuna… Although he didn’t know the meaning, he liked the sound of it.

 

He smiled, a very beautiful smile. “Ayuna. I like the sound of that. Thank you~”

 

Seeing his smile, Liana went into a daze for a moment as she stared at him, entranced.

 

After a while, she finally snapped out of her daze and smiled back. “Yep. Nice to meet you, Ayuna.”

 

Her smile was very beautiful. Eric—now Ayuna—felt quite moved. He really, really wanted to hug her right now, but before he could do anything…

 

*Ding*

 

[+ 20 AP]

 

A ‘ding’ sound rang out followed by a small pink translucent window popping up over Liana’s head. Ayuna was surprised for a moment. Her eyes went wide and her mouth agape as she looked at the screen.

 

Liana noticed this and tilted her head. “Ayuna?”

 

Ayuna didn’t hear her. Her mind was now racing at a very fast speed. 

 

What the hell was that? 

 

No, actually, she knew what it was…

 

Th-That looked like a game system!

 

Now that she thought about it, if this situation was just like those isekai scenarios, it was to be expected that there would be a system as well. Everything was happening so fast. She’d just woken up and a lot of things had already happened. She wasn’t yet ready…

 

She looked at the system screen, staring at it intensely. 

 

As if sensing her will, a ‘ding’ sound rang out again, followed by a bigger pink translucent screen in front of her.

 

Name: Liana

 

Race: Beastkin — Feline

 

Affection Point(AP): 20 — acquaintance(+)

 

Ayuna’s gaze focused on the last line. Affection Point? Could it be…

 

The moment she’d seen it, she recognized it right away. It seemed like this system of hers wasn’t just a normal system. The only system with Affection Point would be…

 

A dating sim system.