Would you believe me if I told you the world is never fair to us?
It all happened so quickly… I'm Sarrah, a thirty-year-old woman, a doctor. I had been wrapping up a seventy-two-hour shift at Lockwood Hospital during the height of the pandemic. A surgeon by training, yet I chose to stay on, pushing myself far beyond my field to treat the most critical patients. By the end, I had saved more than two thousand lives.
But then… my eyes blurred from exhaustion, my head spun, and a piercing beeping sound cut through my nerves until I felt sick. Cold sweat clung to my skin, and my left hand, which had been holding a patient's wrist as I checked their pulse, suddenly lost all strength.
"Doctor Sarrah? Are you feeling alright?" My colleague's voice tried to reach me, but no matter how hard he tried, his words faded into the void. My heart burned as if it were on fire, my chest clenching violently. A heart attack. I knew it.
I can't die yet… I thought, forcing myself to stand, to return to my duties. But my colleague held me down, calling for help. And yet… moments later, it was too late. No matter how much they tried, I don't believe they could bring me back from the dead. Or maybe… something else was keeping me from returning.
[DING!]
A sharp, mechanical sound, utterly out of place in the silence of death, echoed through my ears. The disruption forced my eyes open, and what I saw would have left most people either haunted, overjoyed, or ecstatic.
But not me. All I felt was an overwhelming loneliness as a massive video game window unfolded before me. It filled my vision completely. I could no longer feel my body. It was as if I had been cast adrift between heaven and hell.
[Congratulations!]
A loud voice, as if taken straight from an AI narration video, echoed through the entirety of my being.
What is there to congratulate me for? For dying? Is this a joke? I cursed inwardly, wondering if I was simply hallucinating in my final moments.
[For your heroic sacrifice, you have been chosen to reincarnate into one book of your liking.]
The voice spoke with calm detachment, as though narrating a story. A tinge of shock, excitement, and confusion surged through me. I mean, anybody would feel the same, right? Concluding that this hallucination was my brain's final trick before I ascended to heaven, I thought of the last book I had read: "Beyond the Horizon: The Legend of the Moon Heroine."
It was the tale of a heroine named Hera and her party as they ventured across the world to free it from the hands of a villainess, to dismantle the empire she had ruled for over a thousand years, and to save the world from destruction.
It had been a good read. If I could live as part of the heroines's party in such a world… it would be amazing. Maybe even peaceful. Anything was better than the life I had just left behind.
[Make your choice…]
This time, the voice urged me, tinged with impatience.
I tried to speak, but nothing came out. How am I supposed to choose? I wondered. After a moment, I decided that if this was truly inside my head, then the only way to decide was to think it.
I choose "Beyond the Horizon: The Legend of the Moon Heroine" as the novel I will be reincarnated into.
The void around me shuddered. A flash of white light engulfed everything, and I felt myself being dragged forward, sucked into something vast. Then crimson followed—blinding, searing, as vivid as blood.
The colors twisted and blended together before settling into crimson text against a stark white background:
[Welcome to the world of your choosing!]
[You have successfully been reincarnated into the body of Beatrice Vermelion.]
[You have received a starter pack gift to aid you in your new life: Blood Surgeon (Mythic Grade Class); Ten Skill Points; System Tutorial Book; Evolving-Grade Mana Core; Immortal Body.]
The voice cut sharply through my mind, leaving me frozen, at least mentally. I don't know how to explain it, but it felt real, far too vivid to be a comforting trick of the brain before death. No… I could feel the searing heat burning into my very essence; until, with a blinding flash, everything disappeared, and darkness followed.
A heavy scent of blood invaded my nose. I inhaled sharply, eyes snapping open. Even in the operating room, I had never once encountered blood this thick, this suffocating…
"Block the main gate!" A thick, booming voice snapped me from my stupor. It was as if a giant were speaking right beside me. My eyes darted toward the source, and there I saw a towering, beastlike figure: at least three meters tall. No… it looked like a minotaur, a monster from myth, half bull and half man.
This cannot be real, I told myself, my eyes wide with shock. I slapped my own face, the sting biting deep, painfully real. My hands trembled uncontrollably. Did I actually…? No. It can't be. This is not scientifically possible. Or is it?
The sounds around me grew louder, booming as though the entire world were shaking. Only then did I realize I was standing on stone pavement, the walls ahead made of the same dark material: cold, oppressive, almost as if I had been dropped into the heart of a villain's castle.
Wait… I glanced down at my hands, my heart lurching. My fingernails were painted black; A strange sensation pressed at my back. Reaching out, my hand brushed against leathery material, cold but alive, as if it were part of me. Wings? The first thought that came to me was bat wings.
And then it struck me. The message said... Beatrice Vermelion?
If I had truly reincarnated as her… then I'm already as good as dead.
The rumble of war outside could only mean one thing: the heroine had come to kill the demons. And I am nothing more than a cursed vampire, a side character in the story, fated to die today.