After exiting the white space, a cloudless bright blue summer sky appeared before Marie.
And the weightless sensation of falling.
Flustered, Marie instinctively flailed her arms in the air trying to latch onto something and halt her descend. She had just opened her mouth to scream when her state changed from free-falling to sinking deeply into some body of water.
She hastily closed her mouth, remaining motionless for a brief moment, too shocked by the sudden change to move her arms and legs.
Fortunately, Marie was a good swimmer, unfortunately, this wasn't just any random body of water.
At the moment, her body was being randomly flung around in the wild river.
She desperately struggled to get the spiriling and messy tumbling of her body under control. This wrestling over control with a force of nature took her everything and panic welled up inside her as the oxygen in her lungs was quickly depleted.
Feeling slightly dizzy, Marie gave her all to push her body through the deep river's surface.
After breaking the water surface, Marie hungrily gasped for air, coughing while barely keeping her body afloat.
"...Hey! Hey, host!! You have to swim to the right! RIGHT! GO!-"
Supplimented with sufficent oxygen, Marie finally noticed the blarring voice shouting in her mind. She subconsciously started swimming in the direction the voice told her to.
The river was seemingly unwilling to let her have her way just like that, pulling her underwater again and again, causing her to swallow a few mouthfuls of water. But no matter how often the water currents dragged her into their dephts, Marie escaped by a thread, breaking through the surface and taking a quick gasp, entirely focused on swimming.
Another time when she hurriedly sucked in a breath and was already preparing to sink down again, she caught a glance of the goal she had unbeknownst been pursuing .
A huge fallen tree reaching into the water, its immense size and weight the only reason it hadn't been dragged away by the river yet.
Instantly any resignation or hopelessness she felt were burnt away by the desperate desire to survive.
Her movements became more vigorous, this last sprint decided her life or death and she gave it her all.
The voice inside her head cheered her on as she closed in on the tree's branches.
She reached out her arm to grasp her only chance at survival.
Her hand clasped the rough branch, relief burst from her heart and a short laugh escaped her tightly closed lips.
Katcha!
The branch broke off the tree, her disbelieving gaze landed on the -now- stick in her hand.
Despair instantly drowned her relief.
Just as she thought all hope was lost, the fallen tree seemed to come back to life, gathering her into its endless web of big and small branches, holding her firmly in place.
All this happened in just a split second, Marie felt her heart drumming against her chest as she panted with intermitted coughing in between.
Slowly, she was able to calm her heart and breath, but she knew that she wasn't out of danger just yet. Before the exhaustion completly set in and all the adrenaline from her body was gone, she carefully, but quickly climbed up the tree trunk. Occassionally a sharp branch would cut her arms and legs, drawing blood, but this was the least of her concerns right now.
As soon as she reached her saving grace, that was, the riverbank, she didn't even get off the tree, directly collapsing on the massive tree trunk.
Marie's eyes were closed, entirely concentrating on regathering her thoughts while breathing heavily.
After a while, she came to a conclusion:
This transmigration bullsh*t was f*cked.
Being transported to another world in the face of death but almost immediately struggling to hold on for dear life just moments after.
In fact, she was not such an unreasonable person, in face of imminent death, she would accept it without any qualms, thinking there was nothing she could have done. But just as she had made peace with her inescapable fate, she was saved, given hopeful words, before being dumped somewhere on the brink of death.
Her depressed thoughts were interrupted by a soft sobbing sound that echoed directly in her mind. She didn't want to ask, but she couldn't stay quiet.
"System?"
The crying insantly stopped, as if realizing its embarrassing demeanor just now, after a slight pause the male voice sounded even more emotionless than when it initially introduced itself.
'...Yes, host?'
Marie would have found this funny, if she hadn't almost drowned just now.
"...I want to quit Kore Foundation."
'...'
Marie waited for an answer, but the System didn't say anything. Gradually, she got a bad feeling.
"...I want to write a complaint to Kore Foundation."
The male voice still remained silent.
The bad feeling deepened.
"999?"
Only this time did the System reluctantly answer.
'...It seems there is an issue with the connection to Kore Foundation, I am unable to send a resignation letter or a complaint.'
Marie continued questioning the System in her mind.
"What do you mean 'connection issue'?"
Hesitatingly and with an exceptionally meek tone the system replied:
'The connection to the main base is extremely faint, receiving missions and exchanging items from the shop is currently impossible.'
Baffled, Marie lay silently on her back, the sun slowly drying her ripped clothes and dripping hair. Minutes passed before Marie had mental strength to ask:
"So, what do I do now?"
'...'
'It will be alright, host," the system comforted with a voice uglier than crying.
Marie sneered, these words didn't feel very reassuring.
The System continued:
'This is just an F-Grade World,'
Yeah, a primitive world with dangerous demon beasts and beastmen that lived in reverse harem, Marie added without any enthusiasmn.
At that moment, a rustling noise sounded not far away from Marie.
She was almost unwilling to open her eyes and face the next set of troubles, just then the System reminded:
'A group of beastmen hunters have appeared!'
Ist this an RPG, or what?
Marie thought silently while lazily opening her eyes.
Before her, a group of men with animal ears on top of their heads had appeared, they stared at Marie with bulging eyes, as if they didn't expect to find a living person here.
They probably didn't, Marie remarked in her mind.
She slowly rose from the tree trunk, her strained muscles protesting her every move.
"Hello."
Marie chose to take the initiative while greeting, as the beastmen were clearly too stunned to do the same.
With this word, the group of beastmen seemed to explode, and various discussions broke loose, but this didn't stop two of them to rush forward and simply pick up Marie.
Now it was her turn to be stunned listening to what they were talking about.
"It's a female!"
"Why is such a beautiful female here in the forest?"
"No idea, but we should take her to Agnis, we will get a reward for sure!"
"That's right, maybe we might even get a Separation Pill if he likes her and makes her his concubine!"
"Yeah, let's grab her!"
With that, Marie was abducted by the group of beastmen, internally screaming.
Small theater:
Marie: Bad customer service, definitely a scam, 0/5 stars.
System 999, who is also on his first ever mission: QAQ