"Shit, shit, shit, shit!"
The branch whipped Roxy Bell across the face, stinging her cheeks, but she didn't slow down for fear of her life.
Her lungs were on fire, and breathing was extremely hard. Behind her, a loud pig squeal and the sound of thundering hooves were closing in. The beast was on her heels!
She, the visitor to this world. What sin must she have committed to be this unlucky?
It was a pig beast. Larger than a goddamn moving van, with tusks as large as an elephant's and blades that covered its back.
A razor-backed boar, she'd mentally dubbed it. And it wanted her dead.
Am I going to die... again?
"This is not how I planned my day!" She screamed in horror, sobs racking her voice as she forced her legs to move faster.
To be fair, her day hadn't had a plan. Not really.
Three hours ago, or maybe it was three days? Time had become a blur. She was in her crappy one-bedroom apartment, safe in the twenty-first century. In her favorite sweats, hate-reading the latest chapter of a webnovel on her tablet.
It was called .
It was, objectively, a terrible novel. The world-building was a joke, the heroine was a doormat, and the leads were all cardboard cutouts of brooding and possessiveness.
She shouldn't have picked it up in the first place.
The title suggested one male lead, but the author made it a freaking reverse harem, which was offense number one.
"God, this heroine is useless," Roxy had muttered, her lips drawn into a frown as she swiped to the next page. "She's surrounded by the most handsome beasts on the planet, and all she does is cry? If I were her, I'd at least give them something better to do. That dragon king sounds like someone who would sit pretty in smut books. And I'd be the one to climb that scaly mountain."
Unfortunately, Roxy was a sucker for smut.
A pop-up window suddenly flashed onto the screen.
[This world is dying. Do you think you could do better?]
[YES] / [NO]
Miss Roxy here snorted. "Yeah, right. Even a blind monkey could do better than this heroine."
Only by a slight mix-up, she ended up clicking YES. A Mistake, she had screamed in her head.
A blinding white light made her squint her eyes closed. That was when the smell of the greenery and fruit filled the air. She felt herself being pulled forward, as if she had just been vacuumed out of her own reality.
Her coffee mug shattered on the floor, and the world went black.
The next thing she knew, she was in a forest, cold, disoriented, and still in her bleach-stained sweats.
Before she could even process what happened, the pig beast appeared and began to chase her.
Now, her legs were giving out. She'd been running for what felt like an eternity, and her clever detours had been laughably useless against the boar who knew the forest like the back of its hoof.
How could a pig be this smart?
The thorny thicket she'd dived into? The boar had smashed through it like tissue paper, leaving her with a dozen new cuts.
The tall, climbable-looking tree? She'd gotten halfway up before the branch she was clinging to, which had looked perfectly sturdy, snapped like a dry twig. She landed hard on her butt.
"Of course!" she shrieked, scrambling back to her feet. "Why would anything in this stupid world work? This is bullshit!"
Roxy barely had time to think. Every time she tried to run left or right, the beast would cut her off, its tusk gouging deep furrows in the earth where she'd been a second before.
She was exhausted.
She couldn't run anymore. Her sides were cramping, the sun was baking her skin, and the boar was closing in. Desperate, she leaned against a massive rock to catch her breath.
When she raised her head, panting, she caught sight of an opening. A large cave loomed in front of her. It looked straight out of a horror movie. There was no way in hell she was going in there!
"There has to be a better place to hide…" She muttered to herself while scanning her surroundings.
As soon as she caught sight of the pig, she cursed, "Holy fuck!"
With no other choice, she rushed straight into the cave with her last bit of strength. Her foot caught on a rock, causing her to fall face-first onto the rough stone floor.
Her head pounded, and her feet screamed in pain. Fucking hell, what did I do to deserve this?
She quickly scrambled to her feet, looking back at the boar as she retreated deeper into the cave. The boar screeched to a halt right outside the cave entrance.
Snorting. Whining. Squealing in frustration.
A grin formed on Roxy's face. She got back up on her feet triumphantly, sticking out her tongue as she raised a middle finger at the boar.
"Take that, you big-headed waste of space!" She screamed
The pig squealed as if it understood the insult, and immediately, Roxy ran further into the cave.
But the pig didn't move any closer. It stared into the darkness of the cave with fear in its eyes. Then, it turned and bolted.
Roxy blinked. She didn't know why the pig had run, but she took the win. She decided to explore the cave further, just in case the boar changed its mind.
Finally alone, in a very dark space, Roxy gulped. There was no smell of any animals in the place, a sign that it was safe.
Roxy searched for a place to sit.
[Ding!]
A three-note chime echoed in Roxy's mind. She was now fully alert.
A blue screen flickered to life before her, and she stumbled back in surprise. "What the hell was that?" She snapped angrily.
The screen followed her. She moved her head sideways, and the floating text mimicked her movement perfectly. She raised a hand to swat it away, but her fingers passed right through the light.
What the fuck?
[Initializing... Host detected. Calibrating biological signature...]
It was a pop-up, just like the one on her tablet, but this one was floating in the air.
[Welcome, Host: Roxy Bell!]
[Activating: The Baby Making System!]
The what now? Roxy felt like she was being pranked. If this were all a dream, now was the time to wake up.
[You have been selected as the sole compatible host to save this world from the 'Infertility Curse'. Your mission is to repopulate the dying bloodlines. I shall be your guide!]
Roxy felt like throwing up. She didn't ask to be put in this world, and now she has to make babies to save the world?
"I just want to fucking go home," She whispered, horror creeping into her voice.
[Unfortunately, that request cannot be granted.]
"Why not?!"
[Task 1: Get Pregnant in 8:00:00]
Roxy's eyes bulged. Was she seeing things correctly? Get...what?
"Pregnant?" she choked out. "In eight hours? With who?! That pig?!" She pointed at the cave entrance.
[A suitable partner is required. Please note the penalty for failure.]
A new line of text appeared, in blood-red font, signaling danger and urgency.
[Penalty for Failure: Horrible Death.]