The night was creeping up on Lea. It was already completely dark for hours, but she still hadn't finished this damn paper that was due tomorrow. She was exhausted and could barely concentrate anymore. A yawn escaped her lips. Her eyes felt stuffy and irritated. She sighed.
'Well, I've only got myself to blame,' she thought. Instead of starting on time to make sure she could hand in her paper, she kept reading those online yaoi novels. They were totally addicting. A few years ago she accidentally stumbled upon that world and now she was forever hooked. She tried to quit a couple of times, but it never worked. The pull was to strong. She just couldn't resist. Ah, what she wouldn't give to read one right now.
She immediately shook her head. If she kept thinking about it any longer, she might fall into temptation and leave the paper for what it was. She couldn't let that happen! The paper had to be finished. Just because her own life looked like a bore in comparison to all those exciting adventures, didn't mean she should just ruin her chances to keep living this comfortable life her parents had given her.
After another half an hour, she gave up on writing the paper. Sleep was the best option. With a refreshed mind she could tackle the last few hundred words tomorrow. The deadline was only at 4 PM after all.
Totally exhausted she went to bed. After only a few minutes sleep washed over her.
As soon as she fell asleep a strange sort of creature entered her bedroom through the wall and approached her. The creature was a small ball of dark fluffy hair, with white spots all over it. It's face was nowhere to be seen.
[Confirmed. This is the person Writer wants.]
After it uttered this, the creature jumped on top of Lea's head. The next second Lea's mind was taken out of her body and the furry ball disappeared.
***
Lea's mind awakened in a white empty room. "Where am I?" she wondered out loud.
[You're in the resting space.]
Lea jumped from the voice that didn't seem to come from anywhere, but instead directly entered her head. 'Am I imagining things?'
[You aren't.]
The furry ball appeared out of nowhere and floated in front of Lea. She didn't know what she was staring at. At first she thought it was a pompom, but it didn't really look like a ball of wool. It was more like the fur of a dog. Very shiny fur. It was cute. The white spots spread between the dark hair, seemed to glimmer like the stars in the sky. She wanted to touch it.
[Don't you dare.]
The voice in Lea's mind spoke again and she realized it must have come from this cute furry thing.
"You're reading my mind, whoever or whatever you are. So I think, I am imagining things."
[I am your system. Of course I can read your mind. How else will we communicate when you're in a world?]
"A system? Like in those quick transmigration stories?" She couldn't believe her ears. This thing was a system? And it picked her to be its host? Unbelievable.
[Yes, like that.]
"I'd like to say that I'm dreaming, but this doesn't feel like a dream. And I should know, I've had lucid dreams before." Lea immediately started counting her fingers. "See! I've got five fingers on each hand, ten fingers in total. I'm not dreaming."
[That's obvious isn't it?]
The furry system sounded annoyed.
Lea nodded. "Now it is."
[Okay… Well now that you've confirmed I am real, let's get down to business.]
"Hold it," Lea interrupted. "I've got some questions."
[That's getting down to business, dumbass.]
"Oh, nice! I've got a feisty system, those are the best," she said excitedly.
[Are you a masochist? Well, whatever. I am indeed the best. You'd better live up to my greatness.]
The white spots in the systems fur seemed to glow with pride when it said this.
"A masochist?" Lea pondered. "Maybe, I've yet to find out a lot of things about myself."
[Since you aren't asking me questions I'll just start talking. I am the best system of all the different systems. I am the favored system of the esteemed Writer of the worlds. With me, you'll get to go to a lot of exciting worlds and you can do whatever you want. I am the amazing Doing Whatever You Like system, after all.]
The furball jumped up and down, like a little spoiled child that thought it was the best in the entire world. If Lea heard correctly then maybe it was. It didn't sound like this system was an ordinary system, not at all like those systems with who you needed to follow a script, or save the world from destruction. Doing whatever she liked, sounded really good. The less rules the better!
"Does that mean I can do literally everything I want? Like, what if I wanted to destroy an entire world? Or what if I want a harem made out of every person in the entire world, and each and every one of them is completely in love with me? Can I do that?"
Lea was just naming a few random things that popped in her mind. She didn't really want to do any of those things, although the more she thought about it, the more intrigued she was with the harem idea.
[… You are crazy.]
The system didn't jump around anymore. It stood frozen in front of her, as if judging her.
"I am not! I'm asking a hypothetical question, which you haven't answered yet."
[Hypothetically, you could destroy an entire world, but you'd have to do so, without braking character.]
"So, you're saying I can't do anything I want. Cause I can't break character settings for fun. You don't live up to your name, almighty Doing Whatever You Like system."
Lea wasn't really disappointed. How could she? She was chosen to transmigrate! Some stupid character settings wouldn't hold her back.
[Don't insult me! I can make your life miserable.]
"Really?" Lea called the systems bluff. "That wouldn't really be what I want. If you really have to do what I want, then you should have a function that makes sure you won't make my life miserable."
[I can already see, we won't be getting along. You are a tyrant! You just want to use me for my talents and then throw me away. I am not your slave and I never will be.]
"Just pick another host, then," Lea rebutted. It came out of her mouth before she could stop herself. She hoped the system wouldn't take her joking seriously.
[… I can't.]
"Why not? If you'd asked me, you should've chosen a boy. You're depriving the yaoi world of another great transmigration story! Well, not that I think I am in a novel off course."
Lea honestly felt it was a pity. She was super happy she was so lucky, but somewhere inside her fujoshi heart it didn't sit right. But then again, being selfish is allowed sometimes.
[You are disgusting, but sadly you're the only one who can be my host.]
"Why?" This intrigued her. What did she have that others didn't? Luck? A good family? A great education? Those just felt like reasons not to pick her. There were so many other less fortunate people, who could use this chance to live a better life. Not that she would give it to them. This was a once in a lifetime chance!
[I don't give answers to twenty-one year olds who keep asking the same question. You're not a child.]
Lea realized the system was dodging her question, but then again she had more than enough time to figure it out.
"Let me ask you a different one then. If I say yes to worldhopping with you, when will I be able to go back to my own life? Even though it isn't that exciting, I'm quite happy with the way I live."
[You can go back after you've gone through at least ten worlds.]
"Seems reasonable. You need energy or something?"
[I don't have to tell you my reasons.]
Suspicious.
"How about my harem? Can I get that?" Now that she thought of it, she couldn't get it out of her mind! How amazing would it be to have the entire world worshipping your feet?
[You… You are awful. Why would you want to string so many people along?]
"Cause it seems fun. I want to live out my most far fetched fantasies while worldhopping! It's not like I can do it in my real life."
[You can have your harem.]
The system sounded ice cold. 'Ah, does it hate me?' Lea wondered.
"Really?"
[As long as you've got the ability.]
Lea wanted to smack this irritating system. Whose stringing along who?! Of course she doesn't have the ability herself. If she had she would've long been in a relationship. But no, she was still a lonely, horny, little virgin with no one to love (romantically at least).
"What about missions?"
[No stupid missions. How could you do whatever you want when you have to complete a mission? You're too dumb for that anyway.]
"Don't insult my intelligence. I am graduating from university this year!" Although she said this. She knew the system was right. She had read a lot of transmigration stories, and she could never come up with all those elaborative plots to make sure she succeeded in the mission. She wasn't dumb. But she wasn't all knowing either. This made her come up with another problem.
"You said I can't OOC, right?"
[Indeed.]
"I don't think I have the capability to pretend to be someone else."
[You'll get their memories.]
"I am not even sure if I could go back in time and play my own ten year old self!"
[I'm sure you'll be fine.]
Lea wasn't sure at all. Thus she had to ask another important question: "Are there penalties for OOC?"
[Not telling.]
She felt like crying. This system was so sadistic! Keeping her in the dark like this. What if punishment was death? "I'm too young to die!"
[You won't. Not for real anyway.]
Lea was relieved. This system was really a handful. "How should I call you?"
She couldn't just call it system. That was rude. She always made sure to give her pets names.
[I am not a pet! I am a system with feelings!]
"I'm sorry," Lea said. "Shall I regard you as a friend then?"
[Who'd want to be friends with you?]
Lea gritted her teeth. "Can you just tell me how to call you? If you don't I'll call you… Harem Lover."
The system flew to Lea's face, as if wanting to hurt her for insulting it but with the opposite effect. Her face felt like being stuffed in a really soft, nice smelling pillow. She felt like rubbing it forever.
[Let me go, you pervert!]
The system struggled to get out of Lea's touchy hands. This was the biggest mistake it ever made in its entire life! It really shouldn't attack this filthy host.
Lea let the system go. "Tell me."
[Dwyl. Short for Doing Whatever You Like system. Don't you dare call me anything else!]
"Alright then, Dwyl. When do we start?" She really looked forward to visiting all kinds of different worlds. She didn't even need to fulfill a mission!
[We can start right away. But first I need to know your preferences.]
"Preferences? I can chose the world?"
[You can give criteria and I can try to look for a world that fulfills them. Or you could chose for a random world.]
"Oh, that's hard to decide." Lea had a thousand of ideas rushing through her head. She could go to the middle ages, or live in an European fantasy world, or even an Eastern fantasy world. She could go to a world with only mermaids! There were so many options. Maybe there would even be a world in which she could feast her fujoshi-eyes, like an ABO world. Lea thought and thought, but couldn't come to a decision. Maybe it was better to choose randomly, but what if it was a boring world like the one in which she lived? She absolutely couldn't have that.
"I just want a world different from mine," she spoke finally.
[That's not hard to arrange. There are billions of worlds like that.]
"Then chose randomly from those worlds."
[World Selected. What kind of a role do you want in this world?]
"I can chose a role?"
[Yes. Do you want to be the villain, the protagonist, the love interest, a side character or someone completely unrelated to the main story?]
"This is the world of a love story?"
[You'll get the plot after you've entered the world.]
"If I am one of the main characters do I need to follow the plot?"
[That's a dumb question. Of course not! You can do whatever you want, as long as you keep to the basic character settings.]
"Then I'd like to be the protagonist. I'm sure it will be more exciting that way. If the love interest is cute, maybe I can even finally get in a relationship!" She squealed just thinking about it.
[Role Selected. I sincerely hope that you'll get what you want.]
"Aw, you can be sweet." She was touched. Maybe she and Dwyl could become friends.
[I also hope that it will bite you in the ass.]
Lea pouted. "You really ruin everything."
[Prepare for transmigration. 3… 2… 1. Transmigration complete.]