"I said..." A fair hand, one that has never picked up a sword or grabbed a Knight's yoke, slams my head on the table, hard. My cheek turns red from being rubbed against the coarse paper on the desk. "Draw!"
...
...
...
"You're just a commoner, a mud eater..." A high heel stabs downward, nearly piercing my hand that is outstretched involuntarily. "It's your glorious duty to dedicate everything you have for a personage such as I, an immaculate Princess!"
...
...
...
"Why! Do! You! Keep! Resisting!?" Each word marks a whip splitting the flesh on my back. "By the Gods! What does shefeed you with for you to be so loyal!"
...
...
...
"Tell me... Aren't you tired? Tired of all the pain, all the torture?" My chin, which is hanging low from all the fatigue, all the trauma, is forcefully lifted by the same hand that has tormented me for... "For how long do you want to keep those precious bits of knowledge locked up in your head, huh?"
...
...
...
"Give me everything you have. Sign your life away to me. Or else..." My tormentor strangles my neck. "Do you know how much I hate you, hate herfor having such a loyal supporter in you, a common whore?"
...
...
...
"I hate you! I hate all of you!" The fair hand repeatedly slaps my face. "Why don't you listen to me!? Sign that contract, and all of this pain will go away! Or do you really want to see me finally lose my patience, huh!?"
...
...
...
"This Princess has had enough... Congratulations, you little scamp. You have successfully made it to the top of my most hateful list for just being stubborn. You're willing to risk your life for her, someone whom you only met once because of a scholarship? What has she done to inspire such loyalty from you, imbecile!?" The fair hand pulls out a dagger and swings at me, carving a bloody vertical cut that tears apart what's left of my tattered robe. "Up until this point, I have spared what little dignity you have, considering we're both women. But since someone has been a stubborn mule that can't see any reason whatsoever, who doesn't even agree to the vastly better terms than what she can ever hope to give you, I am forced to undertake a more drastic, less than agreeable approach. You will either break or submit; either way, I stand to benefit. So think carefully in the minutes you have left, little whore, for it may be too late afterward for your integrity..."
...
...
...
"You're asking me what we shall do with her!?" The familiar voice of my tormentor drifts into my ears alongside the nostalgic crashing of waves and howling winds. Am I outside at last...? Suddenly, I feel something pierce my left shoulder. My body feels colder as my warmth flees away due to the wound. "Throw her overboard! If I can't have her, no one can, not even those mongrels that dare to raid us!"
...
...
...
_____________________________________________________
"That is..." I open my mouth before closing it and repeat the process multiple times. My hand idly strokes the long silver hair of the head that is sniffling on my lap.
Bloody Hell, Viola, you never said anything about memory synchronization, or the fact that theyoung girl resting on my lap is literally another me. She is the me of this world or universe for technical purposes. Even our name and appearance matched! And for whatever damn reason, my soul from another world is placed into her maimed body when she is not even dead yet. So right now, the hilarious trope of two souls occupying one body is playing in full blast. The only difference here is that the original soul of this body is bloody traumatized! Heck, she got all the signs of a full-blown PTSD patient that are a mere breath away from snapping!
Trust me, I have come across PTSD-inflicted compatriots in my line of work enough times to know that, more often than not, they're self-destructive to themselves and are destructive to others.
Hence, one thing after another, I have 'subdued' the Other Me into resting on my lap. I even figured out how to customize this shared mental space of ours, transforming a previously cracked and barren world into a calm, soothing Eastern Villa on a cloudy mountain top. I hope the Zen-like atmosphere that I painstakingly brought to life will soothe the aching, wounded heart of the Other Me somewhat... Given how she is still a trembling mess on my lap, though, calming her and then getting her head out of the gutter will take a lot of time and a lot of effort.
Time, however, is something we don't exactly have in abundance. I do not need a memory synchronization to know just how badly injured our shared body is. We will both be gone-gone if our bodies collapse under the weight of our wounds. So, as much as I can't bear to leave the mentally distraught Other Me alone in the mental space, I have no other choice but to do so if we both are to survive playing the part of Robinson Crusoe on a random island.
Convincing this scaredy Other Me, though...
Viola, you'd better watch that ass of yours if both me and the Other Me are to perish because I fail my Charisma check.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good news, the Other Me is calm enough now. I do not need to cuddle with her until we're dead on a random, virgin beach. Hurray!
Even better news, the Other Me introduces her name! Now, this may not sound like a big deal, considering how we are both one and the same, just different upbringings and career choices. But it's a big head start for the Other Me's recovery process. Since she's willing to introduce herself, even after we shared our memories with one another, it means the Other Me still retains a sense of proactiveness. It means she is willing to move on and recover from her PTSD, no matter how long it takes.
Still, since we are one and the same. It will be weird and cumbersome if we keep calling each other the Other Me or our shared name. So, playing it by the manner of seniority in who has been using our shared body the longest, the Other Me gets to keep using our shared name of Aurea, while I change my name to Umbra because I have only just bound my soul to our body. Combined, our name forms the words:
The Golden Shadow.
It's a beautiful title to call us both, if you ask me. Aurea would have agreed as well, given that we should have similar thought trains, but she has since cried herself to sleep after handing the control of our body to me alone, at least for the time being.
Fucking hell though... I can handle pain, but this lethargic feeling that I am feeling all over my body is one heck of an annoyance. Being thrown overboard while stabbed and tortured means that our body is severely crippled, even if we are not at risk of drowning, since our body is washed up on a beach of golden sand, and the tide is lower than it could have been. Can't even move my neck, or my neck, since I am the one in control now, without it turning like rusted gears.
Viola, I bloody hate you for giving me one heck of a Beginner's Quest. The damn difficulty is seemingly dialed up to Dante Must Die level with how many internal and external injuries that I now sport.
[Detected activities from User 1. Initiating System starts up.]
[System starts up completely. User 1 has registered herself as Umbra. User 2 has registered herself as Aurea. Names changed successfully.]
[System Updated according to inputs from Alpha Tester Ein and Administrator Nicolae. Full changelogs and available modules can be reviewed upon reaching a suitable clearance level or upon unlocking via System rewards. In its base form, the System only provides benefits via randomized Daily Login rewards and the ability to store certain objects.]
[Beginner's Gift Package receives. Do you want to open the Beginner's Gift Package?]
[Disclaimer: The Beginner's Gift Package has randomized contents.]
[Yes/No?]
I'll take back any negative word I may have said or thought about you, Viola. So don't you dare give me shitty stuff, as I have the Other Me to take care of now!
Aurea did nothing wrong and deserves to be vindicated. I will exact judgment on the people who have harmed Aurea, and by extension, me. The only way to do so is... Well, I hope my skills haven't gone rusty upon dying, once. And it will help a lot if Lady Luck favors Aurea and me.
Now, without further ado...
[Yes/No?]
[Acknowledging Umbra's choice. Opening Beginner's Gift Package...]
[Umbra has received:
System Module Upgrade: Grand Admiral Dreadnought.
...
...
...
- 1x Black Silk Cybernetic Bodysuit.
...
- 1x Multi-spectral Adaptive Camouflage Trench Coat.
- 1x Lightweight Tactical Vest.
...
...
- 1x Crate of MREs (7-day supply).
- 1x Auto-Collect Canteen (1 Liter capacity).
...
- 1x Military Outdoor Survival Kit.
...
- Minor Stamina increased.
- Minor Vitality increased.
- 1x Health Potion (Mobius-certified).
...
- 1x Bag of Coffee-flavored Candies.
...
- 1x Q Fix Short-barreled Rifle (8.6 BLK, 12-inch barrel length, integrated bipod, titanium suppressor, 1-10x LPVO) with six 10-round magazines, and 300 bullets.
- 1x Gunslinger Combat Belt.
...
...
...
- 1x RSh-12 Assault Revolver (Five-round .50 caliber revolver) with six speed loaders and 120 bullets in total (divided in a 50/50 ratio between 509 grain heavy subsonic lead bullets and 277 grain lead bullets with armor-piercing cores).
...
...]
Huh, will you look at that...
Very quickly, I run a check of the whole shebang I just received. Like a game, the System, or the Beginner's Gift Package in this instance, has given me things like status increases, albeit in a non-numerical form. It's gonna be hard to keep track of how much of an improvement all those bonus stats will amount to. But then I come to review the actual physical motherload. My sincere gratitude to you, Viola, for not screwing Aurea and me over.
The TLDR version is:
- Black Silk is a dark gray bodysuit that is somewhat bullet-resistant and durable, has auto-repair and self-cleaning functions. The bodysuit also offers me a slight buff in all physical attributes and gives me the ability to more easily wield technological equipment. Oh, and it also projects a minimalistic HUD into my vision, which gives me neat little things like health monitoring, local motion sensor, and a built-in compass.
- The Multi-spectral Adaptive Camouflage Trench Coat is exactly what it sounds like. It's a camouflage apparel that is smarter than those before it, and surprisingly comfortable to wear, and seemingly can tank a hit or two in lieu of Black Silk.
- A Lightweight Tactical Vest is a Tactical Vest, but it's more Lightweight. Useful for keeping some of my gears on hand and readily available instead of having to fish them out from the System's Inventory.
- Auto-Collect Canteen is one heck of a magic water bottle. It automatically generates a liter of water from absorbing the moisture in the air... Probably. The stuff is like magic, man.
- The Military Survival Kit is big. Like, it has everything I would ever need while stranded and hunted. It even has a deployable tent! And since I don't have a good melee weapon, I will be using the shovel that comes with the Survival Kit as a durable and sharp, stand-in. Those guys in gas masks would be pleased to find a compatriot in me.
- Health Potion! Thank all the Divines and Viola for looking after Aurea and me! I can feel our wounds slowly heal when I drink the Potion after carefully reading the User Instruction Manual. To bear the risk of my hair turning green is an acceptable trade-off, not to mention the name Mobius carries a certain weight to it.
- I love coffee, and coffee candies are handy to have.
- A Q Fix? That thing is a Steyr Scout Rifle, but on steroids. Given the fact that I don't have much of a body mass to wield anything bigger than a lightweight 12-inch SBR, the Fix, with its heavy-hitting but stealthy 8.6 Blackout bullets, is a proper survival rifle to have.
- The Gunslinger Combat Belt, I don't know why, but it must have been fated to be with the RSh-12. Yeehaw~!
- The RSh-12 Assault Revolver is a Desert Eagle on drugs, need I say more?
Overall, after Aurea survived a man-overboard situation and my subsequent arrival, I can say for sure that things are starting to look up for us. Now that our wounds are healing, and I have all the proper gear to maintain a Survival Evasion Resistance Escape posture, the first thing we, or I should do, as my Other Me is still only an offline spectator, is to move away from this open beach. Afterward, it's to determine our position in the world and to find a course of action. The risk of pursuers from the Princess who tortured Aurea or dangerous, uninvited threats coming upon us is greater than I would have liked, given the memories I acquired from my Other Me.
So, once I have donned the stuff that I need while putting away the rest in the Inventory, I start dragging our healed but still battered body into the dense foliage beyond the beach we washed up on. Idly, and in an attempt to hype myself up as I don't have many fond memories of the jungles in my past life, I start humming.
"Welcome to the jungle! We got fun and games!"
Oh, wait...! I think I forgot something!
[System Module unlocked: Grand Admiral Dreadnought.]
[Sail the High Sea. Pacify the Waves. Subjugates the Ocean.]
[The Grand Admiral Dreadnought Module allows Umbra to design, construct, and materialize a warship either from something or out of nothing. The more complex the design, or the more improbable it is, the more materials and time the Module will need to bring the design to life. If Umbra has no or not enough materials, an additional time penalty will be incurred during the construction process. Given that Umbra currently has no Base of Operation, nor does she have any resource income, it's recommended by the System that Umbra designs a ship that is simple to construct fast for free if she is to use the Module.]
[A Base of Operation is the Grand Admiral's Headquarters, which features advance facilities and self-sustaining capabilities to maintain Naval Dominance in the Theater. Additionally, the Base of Operation provides a more efficient way at procuring war materials, equipment, and vehicles. To build a Base of Operation, a Strategic Location must be found.]
[The System will explain the Grand Admiral Dreadnought Module more in-depth when Umbra explore its features. The Tutorial of this Module can be replayed at anytime.]
Ok... That is too much information for one paragraph. I nearly stumble upon a tree root as I try to process all the new knowledge the System has given me.