Chapter 40 - 2.1

"..That was a strange dream." Xu Jiaqi rubbed the sides of her head as she turned to look around her space. She placed her hand on top of her chest and found out that her heart was beating terribly fast.

Was the feeling she encountered 'fear'? Why did she fear the dialogues that she heard inside a mere dream? How could it be that her, someone who had never feared anything in her life, be shaken with just this simple exchange of words?

Xu Jiaqi felt like something was wrong with her, and ended up convincing herself that it was the result of having traversed through the realms and not being used to it- thus making her emotional levels spike up and make her misunderstand.

Yes, she denied it. Completely. Because something in her told her that she should not pay more attention to the scene, lest she get sucked into a bad predicament. She had a bad feeling.

Nonetheless, she tried her hardest to erase the conflicting thoughts budding inside her head and called for the System to attend to her.

"System, come and ready me up for the next transfer." Xu Jiaqi ordered as she let out a huge sigh. "I want to go to the next world as soon as possible."

Her mood as not ideal.

Before the thoughts were able to consume her any further, she wanted to jump straight into the next world and let her attention be placed on that. She wanted to bury herself in work.

The mechanical creature popped up in the form of a light ball floating in the space and cheerily spoke. Unlike before, where Xu Jiaqi felt like its emotions were being restricted by a lot, it seemed more natural this time.

[Yes, Host! Receiving permission to start the second transfer.. Permission received. Initializing agent Host, making sure that no anomalies get past.. 9%, 51%, 78%, 100%. Initialization complete. Starting up transfer!]

"Why do you seem so.. excited?" Xu Jiaqi's brow twitched as the System made a happy face

[The System received an update, which will increase our authority and unlock certain System features ^_^]

"I assume that.. Haah, that emoticon is the result of you upgrading yourself?"

[Yes, Host! O^O]

"Go bury yourself ten feet deep. What an embarrassment."

[S-System also likes the cruel and cold Host, who secretly is warm in the inside! T^T]

"Can you turn off the emoticon function? Or at least, lessen the use of it? My eyes are sullied. Do I have to see emotes pop up in front of me every time we speak?" Xu Jiaqi hasn't even recovered from her migraine yet, and this System was giving her another trouble.

[The function can be disabled, Host, but must you do this to me? The System is weak hearted, wuwuwu! Crying for justice!]

"Turn it off. Right now. Off." Xu Jiaqi spoke with a rough tone.

Xu Jiaqi's voice was so cold that the System shut himself down and didn't speak anymore, starting to focus solely on his job. His Host was certainly not in the best mood, so he did not want to risk his wellbeing in trying to meddle with her.

Because of the System's diligent procedure, in just a few minutes, she was immediately transferred to another world. The familiar warping sensation overcame her body, making her suffer a terrible headache that was hard to get used to.

Right after waking up in another person's body, she was immediately greeted by a mellow voice filled with hesitance.

"Lady Ariel.. The Lord.. Your father wants to see you."

It was a woman donned in maid clothing. Her expression was a little scrunched up, having been distressed.

Xu Jiaqi's sharp eyes swept across the room, and took in the sight of the furniture and setting.

It was rather grand.  It made her predict that her current world also gave her a high standing right from the start.

However, she also felt like her body was extremely heavy, like something was restraining her and making it hard for her to move. A plaguing disease.

She stilled for a minute. Memories slowly jammed itself into her brain, and made her migraine ridden head hurt even more.

After roughly deciphering the pieces of information, she replied to the maid weakly. Her throat was sore, and her body was in pain. Something was clearly off.

If she was indeed of a rightful high pedigree, then she shouldn't be feeling this bad, like each part of her body was splitting apart. There should be treatment given to her. Her memories also began to reveal the harsh treatment that the original body had suffered under. Her eyes narrowed.

She took a glance inside her layers of clothing and found what seemed to be marks of abuse. Her eyes grew cold, as memories continued to transfer itself inside her brain. Years of memories, most of it containing piles of suffering and anguish.

Her body was young, but there were already old scars formed on her supple skin- indicating traces of bad treatment from years ago.

Feeling stressed, Xu Jiaqi calmed herself down. She needed some time to arrange her mind, but how would she get that?

'A bath.'

First, she had to respond to the maid.

"..Father. Is that so? Then, ready me up this instant." Xu Jiaqi coldly said with a languid voice. This was the original character's personality from what she had seen. An emotionless crystal flower detained by her cruel fate. A robotic figure that was unable to feel after being afflicted with so many bloody memories.

The System seemed to be offline for this moment, which she assumed to be due to his work in setting the world up for her arrival like the previous round. In order to form a resolution, she needed the plot to know who she was going to face or use to her advantage.

The maid that she spoke to nodded her head and started carrying Xu Jiaqi in princess style.

"Please excuse me." she said.

The maid seemed unbothered, so this action must have been done a lot.

She was carried to the bathroom, where she was cleaned and dressed up in plain clothing. She was then once more carried downstairs to the dining room, where a couple of grim individuals were sitting by a long table with food served on top.

Readying up using her servant's intensive care bought her time to sort out her memories, so she more or less had an idea of where she was even before the System gave her the world's storyline.

She knew one thing that was sure.

Out of the individuals that she was about to face, none of them had affection towards this body she resided in.