"Hehe," a girl laughed quietly under the bedsheets, which covered her entirely. Her voice echoed softly in the dark room. There were no sources of light except for a sliver of sunlight peeking through the curtains and the glow from her phone, which she was fixated on. She swiped her fingers across the screen, occasionally smiling or even laughing at the videos she watched.
But her laughter and smile faded when she heard a doorknob turn and someone enter the room. She quickly grabbed the blanket tightly around her as she heard the curtain move—then something grabbed the bedsheets and tugged at them with eager force, causing Mari to yelp in shock.
Bright light filled her eyes as she quickly raised her hands to shield them."Ah! My eyes, my eyes—help!" she cried.
The woman who had entered the room let out a long sigh before casting a sharp glance at Mari, who was growing increasingly pale and panicked. The dark circles under her eyes had deepened, and her mother immediately understood why—her eyes landed on the phone lying next to her daughter.
The vein on her hand became more visible as she raised it and smacked Mari on the head.
"Ahhh!" Mari cried out in pain, rubbing her head as she looked up at her mom.
"Mari, how many times have I told you not to spend all day and night watching videos and using your phone, hmm?" her mother asked, her smile tight and cold—it didn't reach her eyes.
"Eh… ah… like, two—" Mari stammered, trying to explain, but before she could finish, her mother grabbed her ear and began pulling it.
"Ow, ow! It hurts, Mom!" Mari cried out in protest, but her mom ignored her completely.
"No, Mari! I didn't tell you just two times. And I definitely didn't teach you to lie!" her mother shouted angrily, still tugging on her ear as punishment.
This was how Mari started her last day on Earth.
"Ahh, why did she have to hit me that hard…" Mari muttered to herself, looking down at the ground as she rubbed her ears, which were still stinging like hell.
'I hope the teacher doesn't come to class today,' she thought, sighing as she waited for the bus to arrive.
'Why the fuck was the bus late today? It always arrived on time—right?' Mari thought as she opened her phone. A notification popped up from an app she didn't recognize, something that looked like a new survey.
"Huh? A notification for a survey?"
Mari wasn't particularly interested in surveys, but she had time to kill—and the bus was nowhere in sight. So, she tapped on it and opened the survey, only to be greeted with a bizarre, almost game-like question:
"If given the chance to gain any power in the world, what would you choose?"
That was an easy question—or so it seemed. There were so many powers to pick from. She could go with something dramatic like summoning gods, or something mysterious like The Visionary Pathway from Lord of the Mysteries. But those were basic answers. Common. Predictable. Mari was not a common person .
After all, she was a gambler. A gacha gambler but a gambler none least.
She grinned, already knowing exactly what she would choose. Something chaotic, something wild, something that fit her twisted sense of humor. So she typed her answer without hesitation something she thought would be both fun and funny as hell.
After all, this was a…
Wizarding Gacha System
A gacha with no pity system it could brutal and it was also limited only to powers, items, and characters with magic in them. There was no "summon all" button either. But Mari had added some tweaks: world travel, power booster cards, and even weakness-removal cards. Those could come in handy.
"Alright, I'm done with this question," Mari thought, satisfied as she clicked Next.
What appearance would you want if you were teleported to another world?
"Hmmm…" Mari brought a hand to her chin and tilted her head slightly, thinking hard.
think about it she thought about her know current appearance which was? Yeah… you could call it below average. Her face had freckles all over, with dark circles under her eyes. Her hair was tied up in a lazy ponytail, and she was so tiny and thin people often asked if she was eating properly which. And fashion sense? Nonexistent. Trends? She couldn't care less. She always wore what felt comfortable—usually oversized hoodies.
Letting out a sigh, she thought for a moment more… then typed in her choice: Jeanne. More specifically—Jeanne Alter from Fate. She liked the character a lot. She was cool, strong, cute... and hot. and hotness was the thing that matter a lot. Not like she was going to become her, right?
Smirking, she pressed the Next button.
What was the most recent animated TV world you watched?
"Well…" Mari muttered as she read the question, then grinned.
"It could be Invincible," she said to herself with a chuckle, thinking about the TikToks she'd seen. The memes and edits? Pure gold. Hilarious enough for any fifteen-year-old brain like hers.
"Oh, the survey's done? Only three questions, huh? what a weird survey " Mari muttered to herself, glancing up from her phone to the road. Cars sped past at high speed, but there was still no sign of the bus.
Well, at least she'd killed some time.
Just as she was about to open TikTok, she felt it—A push.Someone shoved her from behind, straight into the road.
She didn't even have time to scream.
A truck horn blared.
Mari turned her head just enough to see it coming. The blinding sunlight hit her eyes. A wave of cold steel rushed toward her, and her body froze.
Time slowed.
Everything dulled.
She felt the pavement beneath her, the warmth of the sun still lingering on her skin as her eyes fluttered open one last time to the bright, blue sky above.
"H–hel—"
Mari couldn't even finish her last word a call for help as her body went still. Her voice faded before it could reach the world. She died there, on the side of the road, swallowed by the light and silence.