Yue Qin rubbed her nose in annoyance as she felt something cold and wet tickling her.
"Go away....." She mumbled hoping to return back to sleep, her face nestling in her arms.
As if in retaliation, a gallon of cold icy water poured onto her followed by a chorus of laughter. Immediately, all traces of sleepiness left her mind as she shot up slamming the table.
"Bloody hell! Do you have any manners?!" She hissed looking around to see who was the one who poured the water on her.
To her shock, all she saw around her were a bunch of little kids of various ethnicities in school uniforms. And in front of her, stood an angry-looking woman with her hands crossed.
"No manners you say?" The person in front of her asked coldly.
Yue Qin stared, dazed, her mind frozen for a second. What was going on? Where was she? Why was that woman looking so angry? Why were there so many kids of varying origins sitting together in uniforms?
The last thing she remembered was -
Alarms blazed through the city as ambulances continuously drove past her front door. Yue Qin leaned against the door devastated as she hugged her knees. Was there hope of tomorrow? She was tired, so tired. Every day, news of the pandemic poured in from all over the media, people begging for oxygen and medicine, pleading for aid. Hospitals were overcrowded and understaffed, with many dying in the corridors of the hospitals. People lied on the streets gasping for air. Bodies were being dumped into potholes and burned. It was like a scene straight out of the history books; a scene from World War II.
Her parents had fallen prey to the sickness, and she had not heard from them for weeks. Were they okay? Did they manage to get treatment? Or were they not prioritised in the distribution of ventilators and already dead? She herself could feel the tightening of her breath as the days passed and she slowly lost her sense of taste. Was she going to die soon and become one of the many statistics on the worldometers page? She had tried to phone for help so many times but the hospitals were all full and had no vacancies, while the volunteer organisations that promised help never came.
Where was God when she needed him? Didn't they say that as long as one believed in him, he would protect them? Where was he when her parents were infected and carried away? Where was he when she got infected? Where was he when she needed him the most?
Yue Qin sobbed. She was afraid, so afraid. And she just wished that everything would return once more to normal. That she could live once more in a world without such a deadly disease. A world where she could live freely without fear of illnesses or diseases. As she glanced at the mini machine attached to her palm showing her declining level of oxygen, a single tear slid down her cheeks.
Please, if there's anyone out there, save me. She pleaded one last time.
Then, she closed her eyes and knew no more.
Now, lifting her own hands before her, it seemed like they had shrunk? And she could clearly see that she was wearing a navy school skirt identical to that of the other female students.
Yue Qin's heart skipped a beat as a ray of hope sprouted from within. Did God hear her prayers? Did she go back in time? No wait, she couldn't have gone back in time as she was pretty sure that she had never been in such a class before. Did that mean she had transmigrated into someone else's body? Was she in a parallel world?
"YUE QIN! How dare you fall asleep in my class, say that I have no manners and then daze off in front of me!"
Shit. Perhaps it wasn't the best time to be thinking about these. For now, what she had to do was to calm down and blend in. Although she wasn't sure what was going on yet, there was certainly nothing wrong with keeping a low profile.
Lowering her head, Yue Qin apologized meekly. "Sorry. It was all my fault. I promise I will pay attention in your class in the future."
The teacher nodded as if appeased. "Very well, sit down. As for your punishment, I expect you to hand in an essay of 2000 words in 3 days about any topic in the textbook."
Yue Qin smiled and nodded her head. It was best for her not to open her mouth and talk. Otherwise, she wasn't sure if she would commit any faux pas. After all, she didn't even know the name of the teacher! Still, at the very least, she gained the name of her current identity from this mini-crisis. To think that the name of her current identity would be the same as hers!
Then to her utter astonishment, the teacher waved her hand, and all the water drenching her clothes vanished. She pinched herself discretely, wondering if she was dreaming.
As the teacher turned and returned to the whiteboard in front, she turned to asked her deskmate anxiously. "Did you see that?"
Her desk mate, a guy with spiky brown hair combed his hand through his hair sheepishly. "Sorry, I tried to wake you but you wouldn't wake up."
"I meant her making the water vanish with a wave of her hand!"
He blinked and fell silent for a second. "That's.... that's the basic water vanishing spell. Almost all the teachers know how to use it in conjunction with the water summoning spell to punish misbehaving students. Are you alright Yue Qin? You've seen that spell many times already."
Yue Qin felt her face burn in embarrassment. "Sorry, my mind must have been muddled by sleep. And as for not waking me up in time, it's my fault anyway. No worries."
After internalising his words, Yue Qin felt skittish yet excited at the same time. On one hand, she was in a whole new world where she knew nothing about. And humans were naturally afraid of the unknown. On the other hand, this was a world of magic. A world where every child dreamed of being part of and adults could only fantasize about.
However, the more she thought of this new world, the stronger her sense of loss became. She was no longer in her world anymore. All her friends, her family, her home, her loved ones, her everything - they were all gone. She had absolutely nothing now. Although she had already come to terms with her eventual death, nothing could have prepared her mentally for dying and transmigrating to another world.
Yue Qin bit her lips, biting back the tears that were forming in her eyes. She could not cry. Not now. She had to blend in. Whatever her current identity was, it would do her no good to be pointed out as odd, especially in a world of magic. Who knew if possession existed here? What if people discovered she wasn't the original? All she could do now was minimise her interaction with others and familiarize herself with this world and her identity as soon as possible.
Her table mate's reply broke her out of her self-reflection as he used his pen to point at his tablet. "Then you should pay more attention before the teacher comes back again. Try not to fall asleep again. Otherwise, no one would be able to save you."
It was then that Yue Qin realised that every student had 2 tablets on their table. One which reflected everything the teacher was writing on the board, and the other which seemed to be showing a textbook.
Grabbing her own tablet to take a look, Yue Qin was amazed by the contents
'The 1st rule of magic is that all energy cannot be created or destroyed. As such, all magic users must be extremely careful when casting magic. Should they overdraft on their mana while casting a spell, they only have 3 choices. The first is to draw magic from another source, usually a storage item that is designed to store mana for emergency use or be transferred mana by another user. The second is to burn their life force and covert it to mana. The third is to forcefully cancel the spell and suffer a magical backlash. Depending on the power of the spell and the degree of completeness of the spell, the consequences of the backlash can range from a minor headache to death by self-combustion...'
Yue Qin gaped as she read on. Although she already knew that she was in a world of fantasy, it was a different story reading the content directly from the textbook.
Scrolling the textbook, she wanted to read on, hungry to devour more knowledge about this new world. However, her deskmate poked her with his pen again. "Are you that eager to be caught by Ms Ana again?" He whispered.
Yue Qin's eyebrows furrowed for a moment in incomprehension. After all, wasn't it normal to read the textbook in class? Then, she realised that she was the only one in the class grabbing her tablet and scrolling while everyone else was busy scribbling notes down - or at least they looked like they were scribbling notes down. Being a student once herself, she knew that there were many ways students pretended to be following the teacher instructions while doing something else.
And she could feel it in the atmosphere too. Although everyone looked like they were writing notes down obediently, the side glances they threw each other, the way they sat on the edges of their seats vibrating with impatience and the way they bit their lips continuously glancing at the clock every few moments – even an idiot could tell something was up.
Still, Yue Qin exchanged the tablet in her hand for a pen. It wouldn't do for her to get into trouble again after just transmigrating.
As if finally sensing the bizarre atmosphere of the class, Ms Anna paused and turned around to face the class again. "Calm down everyone. Now, I'm sure that you are all extremely excited for later. But that will not be the end of your journey; only the beginning."
A harsh silence fell over the class before they erupted into conversation, their chatter filling the room.
Ms Ana smiled graciously. "How about this, since we have around an hour left till the Core Formation ceremony, we can do a short revision about what will happen later. Remember, your Core Formation ceremony will determine your future."