When Elena opened her eyes the next time, she found herself sitting on a bar stool, slightly slumped on the bar counter. She felt a little tipsy, and with the half-empty glass of vodka in her hands it was obvious that she was a bit drunk. She could hear loud music from the background, which did nothing to alleviate the slight pounding in her head, as well as her drunken state. Either she was in a party, a bar or in some sort of club.
She glanced back and after watching the people grinding their bodies against each other on the dance floor to the catch beats of the music, as well as the seating arrangement and the bar counter in the corner, she confirmed her later guess to be true. 'A Club it is then.'
She once again rubbed her temple and wondered if this was all a dream or not. However, when her eyes fell on the black wristband on her left hand, she slammed all the confusing thoughts at the back of her mind. That was all true. She had accepted System's offer, and this is her first mission. She cannot back out now.
First things first, she needed to find out about the cannon fodder's body she's occupying and her backstory.
"Ruby? Are you alright?" A pretty woman with smoky-eye makeup sitting next to her asked her in concern. The woman in a tight-fitting black dress was also obviously drunk too, since she tried to pat Elena's shoulder, but instead somehow hit her cheek lightly.
Elena frowned and slightly smacked the woman's hand away. "I'm fine." She grumbled to the other woman, whoever she was. She pushed the drink in her hand away and tried to stand up straight –only to almost stumble a bit because of the high heels this body was wearing. "I'm going to the washroom." Saying this Elena somehow made her way to the washrooms on the second floor after asking around about them to a few people. She then stumbled towards a toilet stall in the washroom, and after locking it's door did she finally sighed in relief.
She slumped on the toilet seat and took a deep breath.
"System?" She glanced at her wristband and asked softly, her voice seeming a bit slurred due to her body's drunken state. "Where are we?"
The black digital screen on the wristband flashed, before the System's voice appeared in her mind.
"Host, this is your first mission world. Since you are a Beginner level task-taker, the first mission the System has found is a D-ranked quest- the easiest one, which would help the host to get some idea of how things should be done. Now Host, would you like to know all the information regarding this mission?"
She nodded. "Yes."
The virtual screen appeared before her, on it appeared the following words in bold-
***
Loading Plot Information...…
Loading Complete!
***
A moment later, Elena clutched her head as a huge amount of information was suddenly slammed into her brain, making her head ache even more. She took a few deep breaths and waited for her brain to process all the information. As soon as her brain caught up with all the information sent by the system about this world's plotline, her headache eased. Giving one final glare at her wristband, she closed her eyes and skimmed through the new information in her head.
The main plotline was a typical romance story of a young Secretary and a rich CEO.
The Female Lead of this world is Lily Collins- a bright and talented young lady of twenty three who has somehow gained the job of the personal secretary of the CEO of Carter Industries- Mr. Robert Carter. The sweet personality of Lily and her kind heart intrigued the young CEO –for someone who had seen through all kinds of schemes that women in higher society use to gain a rich and influential partner, the Female Lead's genuine kindness was genuinely surprising- and soon this intrigue turned into fascination and love. Robert pursued Lily's affections, but Lily hesitated at first. However, after Robert saved her a few times from various schemes, she decided to accept his feelings. After overcoming the schemes of others and facing many obstacles together, the two finally got married and lived happily ever after.
The body Elena was occupying in this world was of one Ruby Davis –a recent graduate from a renowned university who was working on setting up her own company. She was a cannon fodder that died a gruesome death because she unexpectedly fell into a scheme that was supposed to be for the female lead. The tragic thing was, this cannon fodder was an innocent person who had nothing to do with either of the leads or their story. She was a victim of circumstances, a prime example of someone who had to suffer because she had been at a wrong place at a wrong time.
In the original plotline, the male lead's fiancé Miss Linda Haven –who was deeply in love with the male lead- hated Lily and schemed against her again and again. The male lead tolerated her since she was his childhood friend and that their parents were close friends. However, she crossed the line when she spiked Lily's drink when the female lead was once out to party with her friends, and hired a few criminals to kidnap Lily, rape her and finally kill her. Fortunately, Robert -the male lead- somehow found out about her plan and brought the drugged female lead away before she could fall into the kidnappers' hands. Hence, the female lead was saved, but the same could not be said about Ruby herself.
Coincidentally, Lily and her friends went out to party in the same club where Ruby was treating her coworkers on the success of a small project of theirs, and what was even more surprising was that Ruby and Lily were wearing the same type of white dress that night –a one shoulder form fitting white dress that came up to above their knees. The kidnappers did not know that Lily had already been taken away by the male lead, and hence, they mistook Ruby for her and kidnapped, raped, and killed her. It was only when Robert's fiancé called them the next day and scolded them about not doing their job properly and informed them that Lily had been with the male lead last night did they realize that they actually killed the wrong person. Fearing being caught for the murder of an innocent, they extorted a huge amount from Robert's fiancé and fled abroad.
Linda Haven –the male lead's scheming fiancé- did get her comeuppance when the male lead –infuriated by her latest stunt that could've gotten Lily killed if he hadn't arrived in time- broke their engagement, suppressed her family and exposed her scandals to the public. Linda's reputation was tattered, and in the end her parents pleaded to Robert Carter's parents –who were their close friends- and finally Robert stopped his suppression on the Haven family for the sake of their parents' friendship, and let Linda go abroad ad start a new life. He then got engaged with Lily, convinced his family members to let her become his wife and finally happily married her.
In this world, the main leads lived a happy and satisfied life after their marriage. Even though the Villainess courted death from time-to-time and even schemed against the female lead, she was still forgiven in the end and got to start a new life abroad. However, it was only Ruby who died a gruesome death, and no one even got her the justice she deserved. After her death, the investor who sponsored her funds to start her company sold it to the government and her coworkers sold the project details to their competitors and got themselves good posts in their respective companies. No one even got her justice. She truly died a cannon-fodder's death, ah!
Elena glanced at the virtual screen and read the mission objectives-
***
MAIN QUEST- To make Davis Software Company one of the best in the IT field as well as to sponsor money to the orphanage Ruby had grown up in back home.
SIDE QUEST- Find the truth behind Ruby Davis's birth parents
HIDDEN QUEST- Locked.
***
She frowned while looking at the screen. "What is the difference between Main Quest, Side Quest and Hidden Quest? Also, why is the Hidden Quest Locked?"
System answered her in it's mechanical tone, "The main difference between the three tasks is that in every world, it is necessary to complete the Main Quest. Failure to do so would result in deduction of Experience points and the Host would be forced to go to a random world with unknown difficulty level for punishment. While the Side Quest and the Hidden Quest will help the host earn additional Experience points, however, they are not compulsory to be fulfilled. The Side Quest will be assigned along with the Main Quest; however, the Hidden Quest will only be triggered when certain conditions are fulfilled."
Elena nodded, indicating that she understood it's words.
"Is there anything else, Host?" System asked her.
"Yes." she spoke.
"What is it?"
"Where's my Beginner Package?" She asked expectantly.
System hesitated for a while before replying in it's usual mechanical tone. "Let me check, Host."
Elena stared at her wristband with raised brows as it vibrated a bit, before a dialog box appeared on the Virtual screen.
***
Ding! Beginner's Package Unlocked!
You get Sobering Pill (x1); Hacking skills [UNLOCKED] (39/100); Intimidating Aura Effect (x1) and additional 12 Skill points.
Work hard for future rewards, Beginner!
***
"...…..You just made it up, didn't you?" She then glanced at the items showing on the virtual screen in disdain and mumbled, "How much poor are you to actually get me such cheap things? And you even tried to scam me by saying that it's Beginner's package?"
A certain sneaky System. "..." (O_O) 'How did she know that?'
Elena rolled her eyes. "Ah, forget it. At least, something is better than nothing." Saying this, she clicked on the option –STORE IN INVENTORY- on the virtual screen, and the items immediately shifted towards the System Inventory- except the Sobering pill, which she immediately took.
the Sobering pill immediately took effect and eased her headache, making her sigh in relief. "Ugh, finally." Elena spoke when she felt the haze of drunken-ness from her mind starting to lift.
"Well then," She mumbled under her breath as she leaned backwards on the toilet seat. "Let's get on with this mission then."
System explained to her, "Host, before you begin, there are three rules that you absolutely have to abide by in each world-
Rule no. 1:- Host cannot be Out of Character (OOC)-> In each world Host has to act like the body's original personality. System will give three warnings in each world for OOC-ness, after that on the fourth act of OOC-ness the Host will be forcibly ejected from the world. This is because the World Consciousness gets alerted because of the character's OOC behavior and it will try to harm the host. Hence, it's better to retreat earlier rather than facing an overpowered World's Consciousness.
Rule No. 2:- The Host cannot kill or directly bodily harm –except for plot reasons- the Main Leads. This is because the main leads are the darling children of heavens, and directly acting against them would earn the wrath of the Heavenly Dao of that world.
Rule no. 3:- The Host should not get herself killed before completing the Main Quest.
The consequences of breaking of any of these rules would be not only result in Host's soul being forcibly ejected from the current world-causing deduction in Experience points and decrease your soul strength- but there will also be a punishment task of higher difficulty level assigned to host and no additional points would be given on completing the punishment task."
"Do you understand, host?"
"Yep, I get it. I'll keep that in mind." Elena spoke as she waved off the virtual screen, and it disappeared. She then got up from the toilet seat and unlocked the door of the stall and walked out. She washed her hands, and then glanced up at the mirror and observed Ruby's appearance.
Ruby Davis actually looked fifty percent similar to Elena. The two had the same raven curls –though unlike Elena's straight hair, Ruby's were a bit curled; the same dark eyes and the same oval face. Unlike Elena's paler face and petite nose that made her look graceful –but intimidating; Ruby had a slightly tanned complexion and small nose that made her appear like a calm and professional beauty. Ruby wasn't very beautiful, she had an average beauty that could be called pretty if she ever dressed to impress. Unfortunately Ruby always wore modest and professional clothes, that always suppressed her true beauty.
"Tsk, tsk, such potential got buried just because of her fate as a cannon-fodder character? Oh, what a pity….." Elena said scornfully as she clicked her tongue.
She then calmly stared into her –no, Ruby's- eyes in the reflection on the mirror and spoke, "Ruby Davis, I will help you gain everything you deserve in this life in exchange for letting me use this body. I will get you the justice you didn't get originally." she then placed her left hand over the mirror –her reflection copied her actions- and she muttered, "Let your soul rest in peace."
Since Elena was staring into her reflection's eyes, she never noticed that the wristband on her left hand that was placed on the mirror flashed a red light for a second, before the light dimmed and the system returned to normal.
Elena pulled back her hand after her solemn vow to Ruby's soul, and took a step back. "Now then," She smirked. Her eyes flashed darkly as she said mischievously, "Let's get this show on the road, shall we?"