Acadia appeared in a white space that had no end in sight. Immediately, all her senses were amped to the max, on alert for any danger. As abruptly as she went on danger, the next moment she calmed all her senses again. She was already dead, so why did it matter?
Narrowing her eyes, she tried to look for a break in the white space but found nothing. She frowned. She had expected to go to hell when she died considering all the things she had done in her past life, but where was this?
She stretched her senses to feel anything but was only met with a pure nothingness. Static. Blank. How long would this go on? Unknowingly, small signs of anxiety started inside her before she abruptly calmed down. In any case, she would be able to adapt at whatever was thrown at her, so no matter how long she had to wait, she would do so.
Slowly, Acadia started examining her body. The strange feelings she had was completely founded. Her body no longer existed. Instead, it was more like she existed in the form of what one might call a soul. She didn't have a body, but her sight was intact.
Acadia looked around, calm and indifferent. There was nothing left for her.
After an unknown amount of time, she grew bored as she drifted around. Why was nothing happening? She wasn't used to being this idle. Since the moment she had been aware, she had already begun training for her post as Acadia.
The white soul chuckled. "Haha," she laughed. Maybe this was the true hell. A void where nothing existed, and everything was lost.
Ding!
Acadia immediately went back on alert. She strained her ears, lowering herself slightly for quicker action.
Abruptly, a screen appeared in front of her.
[Welcome to the world of systems.]
Acadia narrowed her eyes.
[As the first customer, we will provide a special service and allow you to create your own system.]
The white screen blinked out of existence before being replaced by another.
[Create system?]
"Yes."
[Please think about the system's appearance.]
Acadia thought about it before having a flash of inspiration. She visualised a tiny turtle, barely half the size of her palm, with a green body and a green shell, she added delicate patterns to the shell.
With a pop, the turtle she visualised appeared in the white space. Acadia stared at it curiously. If she didn't know better, she would've thought this was a dream, but the pain she had felt before her death had been very real, and she would never have mistaken reality for a dream.
[Please choose a gender.]
"Male."
[Randomly generating A.I.]
Slowly, the little turtle blinked its eyes, taking a glance around for the first time in its life. It floated around in the air with its little flippers, diving up and down happily as it spun in circles.
[Name the A.I.]
Acadia glanced at the silly green turtle, deciding its name. "Blue."
[Confirm?]
Blue's head shot towards her as if silently protesting his name, but she didn't let him have any chance at correcting his name as she confirmed it straight away.
The white screen widened as a list of choices made itself known.
[System functions. Choose 3.]
Acadia's eyes scanned through the list, eliminating various options before decisively choosing three options. Skill learning. Invisibility. Time deceleration.
[System Soul Binding Complete.]
[Character Features]
If Acadia still had her body, her brows would have been raised. It felt like she was playing a game.
"Am I playing a game?"
[No. Once your new life is over, you will cease to exist.]
Acadia nodded.
[Character Features]
"Blue hair, blue eyes. Delicate features. Tall."
[Gender]
The soul raised a metaphorical brow. "Surprise me," she said dryly.
The words [Random World Generation] flashed on the screen as nothing happened for the longest time.
Bored, Acadia snuck up on the happily flying Blue and loomed over him, causing him to startle and flip through the air. She inwardly smirked at how easy he was to scare. She started chasing after him as Blue fled frantically. Why was his mistress bullying him!?
The dead woman snorted as the frantically fleeing A.I. was flying in the air at the same speed as a terrapin would have walked on land. She suddenly felt that he was a bit cute. He seemed slightly unreliable, but she would have fun with him.
[Loaded]
Startled, she grabbed onto Blue as she was sucked in a vortex, her vision swimming dizzyingly as the world bled into colour.
🐢
"Your highness!" she heard someone calling, seemingly frantically as they shook her.
The shaking must have been too much for her, as she actually passed out. Moments before she passed out, she indignantly thought she would stab whoever was shaking her. When had she ever passed out before!? Even during the harshest training, she had somehow been able to endure it and power through.
Gradually, her senses returned as various memories flooded into her brain, leaving her with a throbbing headache. Turns out that the system had a sense of humour. She really didn't know that asking to be surprised would really cause her to have this sort of surprise. It really caused a person to be speechless.
As a Crown Prince of the Cosmic Empire, she was actually biologically a girl. Furrowing her brows inwardly, Acadia – no, Nine reviewed the memories of this body. What she found made her want to slap the previous owner of this body silly.
As a Crown Prince, the girl had neglected her duties, disappointing her father emperor and causing her mother to worry. She didn't exhibit any extraordinary signs or talents, quietly fading into the background. Not only that, she listened to all sorts of wrong advice from the subordinates under her, leading to them plotting against her and subsequently dying!
Very good. She would help the previous owner get revenge and kill those plotting subordinates. She would sacrifice their souls as a peace offering for her body's previous owner.
Dying to something like a Mushroom Monster of all things. Nine wanted to roll her eyes. As far as she could tell from these memories, even village kids would be able to handle the monster with no problem. They attacked slowly and overall weren't powerful, being at the lowest of the food chain. Truly, the previous owner had been too stupid and weak, to actually die just from being thrown out here.
Nine examined her body. Her hands were covered in scrapes, but at one glance she could tell that these were the hands of someone who hadn't done any manual labour. White and delicate like jade, they looked more like a princess or noble daughter's hands instead of a crown prince who should have picked up a sword at a young age.
Cowardly and timid, the previous body only hid away in their residence, whiling the days away. She didn't like to go out, causing her skin to maintain its pale white, untouched by the sun. But there was one thing that this cowardly crown prince was good at. It was reading books. Books were her only friends and constant companions. She devoured books as if she was starving. The mansion that the emperor bestowed to her was more like a library. There was hardly a room that wasn't filled to the brim with shelves and books.
Although she was the crown prince, the civilians mocked her, her siblings scorned her, leading to a vicious cycle where Nine just ended up holing herself up away from judgemental eyes. In the end, a female servant that had gotten slightly close to her had incited her, saying that maybe if she headed out to adventure, she would win everyone's respect.
Nine scoffed. That last decision had led to the previous body's death. There was such blatant mockery in the servant's tone, but the previous body had actually taken the servant as a friend and listened to her. She really didn't know how she had been so naïve and trusting. In the end she had accidentally disturbed a Mushroom Monster and died to it! She had been so silly that she was almost adorable.
Nine sighed inwardly. It was probably just as well that she had passed on. Maybe she now had a system of her own and was off to a less brutal world. A royal family was never peaceful. There was always scheming and backstabbing.
Nine tentatively called out for Blue, staring as he popped into existence. He swum up and down in the air, as happy as ever. She could only watch him speechlessly. This silly turtle only did what he liked, ignoring his mistress. Slightly unhappy, she pinched his shell holding him, her lips curling slightly as he futilely flapped in the air.
Resting for a long time, Nine eventually recovered a bit of her strength. She could tell that this body actually had a bit of training, not to mention intensive training that was received from being a crown prince, but all of it had gone to waste.
Paired with a cowardly and timid personality, none of the training had any effectiveness. The only thing that changed was the body, but the mind stayed the same. Nine kneaded her temples. She really didn't know how the original soul had survived to the ripe age of thirteen years old.
Nine whirled around, alert. She ordered Blue to turn invisible. The bush rustled slightly as she felt a faint vibration through the ground.