"Seth, are you blaming mom? Mom only thought of doing what is best for you and your family since you're not at home. Your wife has given birth to so many children already. Why do we need to send her to the hospital this time? She doesn't really need to be sent to a hospital. The hospital fees are expensive. Listen to mother, mother knows best. Let's bring her home now." I heard a woman's voice.
I opened my eyes and felt pain in the lower part of my body. I looked around and saw what looked like a hospital room.
Where am I? What happened? Why does my whole body feel weak? What's the last thing I remember?
I went out hiking with my friends. I finally got a well deserved break. My friends invited me to go hiking as it was trendy these days and then… I slipped and rolled down the cliff.
Oh my god, did I injure myself down there?
"Nurse." I tried to call out but my throat was so dry that I couldn't even hear my own voice.
My head suddenly started to hurt so much.
System Boot. Checking System Compatibility. Compatibility Checked. Start System Synchronization.
I heard robotic voices in my head as the pain started to worsen.
System Synchronization Success.
After that, the pain in my head suddenly disappeared and my brain was suddenly showing me a movie. A story of a young girl marrying her first love, giving birth to her first child, getting scolded for giving birth to a girl, getting pregnant again, giving birth to another girl, getting bullied at home, and the sequences of giving birth and being bullied kept on repeating. Her husband, her first love, was an asshole, who kept on chasing other women and didn't take care of her and her children. He spent his days fooling around, chasing women, getting in trouble until his grandfather finally got angry and sent him to the military in hopes that that would straighten him out.
"Hello User Athena, Congratulations on successfully synchronizing with our Matriarch System." I heard the voice again.
"Who are you? What's happening?" I asked, frightened.
Did I hit my head hard when I fell down? Did I go crazy? No, I can't be going crazy. I would lose my job.
"User Athena, please calm down. You are not going crazy. Please allow me to explain what happened." The robotic sound said again.
I looked around the room to see if my friends were just pranking me but I'm the only one inside this small room.
"You are chosen by the Matriarch System to be its user. The Matriarch System is a system that aims to help its user to be a proper matriarch. The system function includes giving a quest and receiving appropriate rewards for the completion of the quest. The user can also buy materials in our store in exchange for money." The robot explained.
"Why would I need this kind of system? I don't need to be a matriarch. I'm an orphan and not dating anyone. I am not in a hurry to start a family." I told the system, or the robot, I figured I'm talking to the system.
"User Athena, would need this system in this new reality you are in." The system said.
"What reality?" I asked, confused.
I'm starting to feel dread. Surely, this is not that right? That, transmigration stories, right?
"User Athena, your soul is summoned to help this family. I have already synchronized your memory with the body's memories." The system explained.
"Oh my god, did you kill me?" I asked fearfully when I heard that my soul was summoned.
"No, the system only checks souls that are already dead for compatibility." The system answered.
"So you're saying that I'm dead." I said, trying to hide my panic.
Oh my god, I'm dead. Did I die when I rolled down the mountain? Oh no, what about the reservations for next week's financial meeting? I haven't finished compiling the data for this Friday's board meeting. Did I book the ticket for the business trip on the 20th? What about the year end party? I still haven't contacted the suppliers. The invitations are still not sent. I still haven't emailed the planning team.
"User Athena, please calm down. Those things don't matter now. You're already dead in that world." The system placated me.
But I don't feel very placated. Is this how you placate people? Telling them not to worry because they're already dead.
"Is there a way for me to return to my former world?" I asked the system.
"Your body is already buried and the decomposition has already started. Are you interested in returning to your body?" The system asked.
"No, thank you. I'm sorry for asking something ridiculous." I replied.
I could feel the hairs on my body standing when I heard that my body was already decomposing. I don't want to return and become a zombie.
I started to reorganize my thoughts and try to understand what is happening to my life. Let's start with who I was. Athena Sy, a single 36 year old executive secretary, is now dead. This system… Matriarch System, summon my soul and insert it in this body, whose name is the same as mine. Now this Athena Sy, is a 26 year old mother of 10, no, wait, I just gave birth to twins, mother of 12. Oh my god, girl, how did you do it?
I took deep breaths and tried to calmly arrange my memories to make sense of what was going on.
Athena married her first love, Seth. He was the first person who told her she's pretty.
I sighed when I recalled that it was the reason she fell in love with him. Was she crazy? How can you fall in love with the first person who told you you're pretty? You're probably wasn't even the first one or the last one he told that to.
I sighed again when I realized that I couldn't really blame her as she was bullied at home. She was the third daughter and 5th child of her family. Both her older sisters were great at escaping chores and all of their chores would be pushed to her. The boys in her family, of course, wouldn't be allowed to do chores.
What century am I in? Which country is this? How come it's so patriarchal?
"User Athena, this place is not on Earth. This is a different plane from yours though it has some similarities to your plane. If we were to compare then this place would be the same as in the 80s. Women are given rights now but some older generations can't move past their old way of thinking so it is still hard for women to assert their rights. As for the country's culture, it's 80% east asian culture and 20% west culture." The system explained.
I tried recalling the knowledge the original owner has but she grew up farming in their old province. The only reason she was able to marry Seth whose family lived in the city was because of the promise of marriage Seth's grandfather gave to her grandfather.
Athena's grandfather saved the life of Seth's grandfather during the war. Athena's grandfather was heavily injured and has become infertile. It was a good thing that Athena's grandfather already had a son.
Seth's grandfather then promised marriage for their grandchildren as Seth's grandfather didn't have any younger daughter.
Athena was the one who was closest to Seth's age as Seth was a year older than her. It would have been her 2nd sister if she wasn't born as her 2nd sister was only 2 years older than her. This also made her older sister resentful of her as she also liked Seth but Seth's mother chose her.
I sighed when I realized that Athena is illiterate. That means I'm also illiterate, I don't understand the words and characters I'm seeing but I still can speak the language and understand it.
This can't do, I should find a way to learn how to read and write. The former Athena was being bullied at home and has an unreliable husband, saying unreliable is the polite word I'll use to describe him. There's no one who can help me in this world, I can only trust myself.
I remembered the voice I heard when I woke up. It seemed like it was from my mother-in-law or stepmother-in-law. She's trying to gaslight that stupid, I mean unreliable husband, again.
I sighed and thought of the system again. Why am I summoned here? What am I supposed to do in this world?
"The system received a request to help change the future of your 12 children. Your aim is to give them a bright future." The system replied.
I guess it can read my thoughts. But what do you mean change their future? How bad can their future be?
"The 12 children would grow up full of pain and suffering, some of them wouldn't even survive to adulthood while those that did would be committing unspeakable crimes." The system replied.
Oh my god, that bad?!
"Yes, User Athena." The system affirmed.
"You can just call me Athena rather than user Athena. You said you would be giving me quests, what are those quests?" I asked.
Since I can't change the situation, let's just adapt to the situation. As an executive secretary, I have met a lot of unforeseen situations, albeit this is the most outrageous of them all, but one of my strengths is adapting to situations and quickly thinking on how we could improve the situation to our advantage.
"The system would give the user quests and once the quest is resolved, the system would give the user rewards, and punishment, in case failure to finish the quest." the system explained.
I didn't realize that there would be punishments. I guess I have to take each quest seriously.
"As for your first quest, you have to stay for two more days in the hospital. The user's body is very weak right now and should not be moving around. The rewards for the quest, is a recipe for nourishing the body of a woman that just gave birth. The recipe would help the user's body to get back in full health after 10 days. As for the failure of the quest, the user's body would be ruined, and you would be feeling pain at least once a day." The system explained and I gulped in horror when I heard the punishment.
Have I ever said, I never liked being in pain? How am I supposed to convince that unreliable man to let me stay here in the hospital?
While I was thinking of solutions, I heard the room door open and saw a man, my husband, walking towards my bed.
I have to say, the original owner has good eyes. Appearance wise, this man is top notch, big sparkly eyes, high bridge nose, and those kissable lips. If he's in the modern era, he could probably compete with those actors and idols. Really handsome, I have to say, his face, I like.
"Athena, are you awake? How are you feeling?" I heard him ask.