Klaus felt someone grab his arm and drag him across the ground.
But shouldn't he be in his bedroom, playing games in his gaming chair with the AC blasting? Was some prankster friend messing with him?
He wanted to wake up, but found he couldn't open his eyes or hear anything. Apart from the arm being held and the friction on his back, the rest of his skin was numb.
After failing to control his body, he decided to first recall what had happened last night.
To pull a C6R5 Columbina, Klaus had to tap into his hidden emergency reserves, scouring every map of every nation in Teyvat.
Last night, he had grinded non-stop for over forty hours. Klaus didn't know when he had passed out, and until he just woke up, he hadn't noticed any strange incidents related to his current situation.
"This is what I get for playing Genshin Impact," he mocked himself.
Just then, the person pulling Klaus let go and walked aside. Klaus heard a faint gasp for breath.
"My senses are coming back a little." He redoubled his efforts, trying to open his eyes.
He managed to squint his eyes open a crack and saw that he was lying outdoors. The sound of ocean tides reached his ears.
His skin gradually began to feel the warm sunlight, the cool breeze, and the damp, heavy clothes.
"I was wearing a T-shirt. Even if it were soaked, it shouldn't feel this heavy."
Klaus opened his eyes wider, moved his arm to his waist, and pushed against the ground, trying to sit up.
He saw that his thighs seemed a bit shorter, and were covered by a pair of white over-the-knee socks. He now wore a pair of white gloves, and as his palms pressed against the sand, he noticed his ten fingers were slender and nimble.
Looking back at his torso, a multi-layered long dress of gold and black was thoroughly soaked, lying limp against his lower body, while his chest was bound in a corset.
Staring at the bulge on his chest, Klaus thought he must be dreaming. He used his right hand to pinch a piece of exposed skin on his inner thigh and twisted hard.
"Ow!" Klaus cried out, a clear, feminine voice escaping his lips.
This new body, despite its petite frame, had an unexpectedly immense strength. The pain was so intense that Klaus couldn't help but curl up, his facial features contorting.
It wasn't a dream. Then perhaps it was... transmigration!
But why did I transmigrate into a girl?! Could it be because I always pick the female protagonist when playing gacha games, and this time the "system" automatically chose for me?
Right, the system! Klaus tried to search his mind, looking for anything extra that might be in his brain.
However, there were no "original owner's memories," no "system," and certainly no "main quest" prompts.
"How is there nothing at all?"
Momentarily without a goal, Klaus began to examine his current body again. The dress felt somewhat familiar. He lifted a lock of hair—it was brown. He felt the top of his head and found he was wearing a bonnet.
"Why am I dressed so much like 'The Puppet,' Sandrone? Don't tell me I've transmigrated into Genshin Impact, and into Sandrone's body!" Klaus then felt his back, but he didn't find the large wind-up key that Sandrone has. "It's probably not Sandrone's body, just similar clothes."
Unable to determine the identity of his current body, Klaus decided to first observe his surroundings and search for the person who had been dragging him, hoping to find some clues.
Looking left and right, he indeed caught sight of a figure with black hair and white clothes moving away on the beach.
Klaus stood up from the sand and looked more closely. A flowing white dress, waist-length hair that was mostly deep black with ginger-red gradients, and a very conspicuous six-winged hair ornament on the back of her head... Wait, isn't that his gacha target...
"Columbina!" Klaus blurted out. The sound was so loud it was as if he'd used a megaphone, startling even himself.
The young woman stopped, glanced back, but didn't respond. She turned and continued on her way, her steps soft and unsteady, swaying from side to side as if she were about to fall. Her whole body seemed like a feather that could be blown away by the wind at any moment.
Klaus saw that her eyes were closed, covered by a mesh veil.
"Judging by her appearance, that is definitely Columbina."
Klaus looked at the beach in front of him again. The drag marks were still there, stretching all the way to the water's edge.
"She probably means me no harm, otherwise there would have been no need to pull me out of the sea."
"She didn't answer me, how cold. Has she lost interest in me? Or does she have something more important to do?"
"Her way of walking is rather... unique. But, she has the power of a god, so maybe that floating walk is just a habit of hers. Better not make any rash moves; she could swat me dead with a single slap without breaking a sweat."
"But I have to find her. My 'main quest' might be related to her." Klaus decided he would go look for Columbina again in a little while.
For now, he needed to dry his soaking clothes first.
He looked around. The high sky met the vast sea, waves crashed against stone cliffs. Following the cliffs upward, the upper part of the mountain was covered in snow and shrouded in thick fog, its peak invisible.
At the base of the mountain, looking along the beach in the direction Columbina had gone, there was a valley with some greenery inside.
After Columbina disappeared into the valley's bushes, Klaus confirmed no one else was around, went over to a rock, took off all his clothes, wrung them out, and spread them on the rock to dry.
While waiting for the clothes to dry, Klaus noticed that some parts of his body were different from a real human's.
The articulated joints at the elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles clearly indicated that this body was not made of flesh and blood.
Placing a hand over his heart, he felt a faint mechanical vibration instead of a heartbeat.
Klaus realized he was a mechanical creation. Who made him? Judging by the style of clothing, could it be that "The Puppet," Sandrone, made him in her own image?
What was he made for? This body didn't have any advanced systems, nor could he find any "skills" or "talents." There was nothing. It wasn't like an engineering machine or a weapon; it was more like a souvenir.
A souvenir? This body wasn't just made to look good, was it? For a collection, or as a gift?
If it's a gift, who is it for? For Columbina? If it's for Columbina, does that make me a "Moon-Gazing Doll"...
Although he couldn't figure out the truth of this body, Klaus was still quite happy. After all, humanity has its limits, and his current self had transcended them. Though he didn't yet know what this body was capable of, the road ahead was long, giving him plenty of time to explore.
"I'll have to interact with people eventually, but the name 'Klaus' doesn't fit this image." Klaus decided to give himself a female name and live as a woman in Teyvat from now on. Racking his brain for literary works he had seen, he found a suitable name.
"From now on, I'll be called 'Coppelia'."
Once the clothes were dry, Coppelia put them on piece by piece. Previously, his clothes had been simple to throw on. In contrast, the complexity of this dress was beyond her imagination. It took a great deal of effort to finally get dressed again. If this mechanical body could sweat, the clothes would probably be soaked through once more.
She walked around the beach a few times, slowly adapting to her new identity.
Her body felt normal, except for the empty feeling beneath the hem of her skirt, which still made it a bit difficult for her to walk properly.
It was about time to find Columbina.
After preparing herself, she walked towards the valley's thicket, slipping through the same bushes where Columbina had disappeared, and began to search.
Finger-sized gray mushrooms were scattered on the forest floor. Around the small mushrooms were disturbed mycelia, suggesting that many larger mushrooms had grown there but had all been picked.
A rustling bush not far away caught her attention. As she approached, a figure suddenly emerged, startling her and making her take a step back.
Once she steadied herself, she saw it was Columbina, holding out her right hand to offer her a mushroom.
Coppelia took the mushroom and glanced at the mycelia covering the ground, now understanding why Columbina hadn't responded to her call earlier.
It wasn't that she didn't care; she was just too hungry and weak to answer!
Coppelia's impression of Columbina changed. It seemed she wasn't as cold as she had first thought.
She saw Columbina pick up another mushroom and bring it to her lips. Seeing the details of the mushroom, she froze.
Yellow cap, white stalk, and in the gills beneath the cap, there were still uncleaned bits of fine leaves and dirt...
"Wait!" Coppelia stopped her.
I can't believe these people who just eat random mushrooms, Coppelia complained internally, before saying to Columbina:
"It might be poisonous!"
___
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