"Urrgg!! Dammit, why is my head hurting so damn much!"
Bai Li cursed at the unbearable headache that she was having at the moment as she slowly opened her eyes. The insides of her head felt like it was being split apart from inside out. She rubbed her forehead and looked around herself.
Seeing the unfamiliar room and the unfamiliar surroundings, she was confused?
: "What's going on? Wasn't she just a moment ago celebrating her retirement from the army? Where is this place and why is she here now?"
Just as she was thinking, she again felt the unbearable headache coming back and she couldn't help but think whether it was because of the high alcohol consumption in the banquet?
But then again, she didn't seem to have drunk that much in the first place. Besides, she has high alcohol tolerance and she would definitely not get drunk just because of a few shots of alcohol.
She wondered where she was. After a few moments, she got up and paced around the small room. Looking outside the only window, she found that she was pretty high up in an apartment. She could see the blooming city before her but she didn't quite recognise the surroundings.
Looking away, she spotted the attached bathroom and walked towards there, Opening the door, she immediately saw a mirror.
Waking close to it, she looked at herself in the mirror. She was still wearing the jeans and shirt that she wore before and her face looked perfectly normal except for a slight paleness.
Just as she was about to get out of the bathroom, she suddenly heard a ding sound, like the sound of windows turning on in a laptop, followed by a weird mechanical voice!!
: Ding…
Booting the survival mod system.
Scanning the host for any bugs,
Ding…
The successful transfer of the host from the original world to the book world has been confirmed.
The soul contract has been successfully bound.
Initiating the Survival Mod system bootup.
Loading,.... 10%....20%......50%.,.....90%.....100%.
Loading complete!
"Hello, host. I am the assistant AI of the survival mod system. I will be guiding you through your journey in this world."
Bai Li felt a little dazed as she listened to the voice in her head before she immediately looked around her with a cautious attitude. As a soldier, honed through years in the battle field, her first instinct was that there was someone else besides her in this place or maybe this place was bugged and she was being monitored right now.
She even wondered whether she was kidnapped by some of the terrorist organisations that she destroyed back in her prime?
But just then, the voice again spoke,
"No need to look around the host. There's no one else besides you here and I am talking from inside your head."
As she heard the words, Bai Li felt a bit creeped out but looking around her carefully and even checking all the places where a bug or a microphone or maybe a hidden speaker was implanted, but she didn't find any.
Finally, after a few minutes, she calmed down and asked,
"Who are you? And why are you…. Inside my head?"
As she asked the question, the mechanical voice again spoke,
"As I said to the host. I'm your assistant AI for the survival mod system."
Again hearing the same set of words, Bai Li felt a little annoyed. It didn't contain any information at all! How was she supposed to know what this assistant ai or whatever system talk is!!
For a moment, she even felt whether she was hallucinating or something.
Finally, after a few deep breaths, she again asked,
"Why am I here? Where is this place?"
The voice in her head replied,
"You, host, are currently inside of the world of a book. Because of your outstanding physical fitness and combat skills and superb leadership capabilities and also your myriad of survival techniques and a huge depth of knowledge that you have acquired in your life has led the survival mod system to choose you as its host.
And I am, as I said, the assistant AI of the system which will help you to not only understand the system and its capabilities but also help you through your oncoming journey of survival in a world which is nearing its end."
Finally getting to know the most useful information, Bai Li felt a little relieved but the contents of it made her confused even more.
But thankfully, she has read a lot of web novels in her previous world and this very similar plot of travelling to a book is one of the most popular and stereotypical plots in the world of web novels. She is no way unfamiliar with this plot.
But she was still surprised that something like this actually exists!
Bai Li was shocked internally but she has always had a far superior mental construct than others and it didn't take her long before she calmed down completely and accepted this situation.
"So, I'm inside a book, like in those webnovel? Can I get back to my world then? Like in those plots, where I can get back to my world as long as I complete some sort of mission in this world."
Bai Li asked in her mind. According to the plots in those webnovels, the protagonist who travels into the book usually gets sent back to their real world at the end of the novel. Bai Li also thought that she could do the same but the voice in her head completely shattered the situation she imagined,
"What are you saying, host? Your body and soul has been brought back from that world to this world and has been registered in this world as one of its native residents. You now have a new identity in this world. You can no longer go back to that world. "
The moment Bai Li heard these words, she couldn't help but frown.
"What do you mean I can't go back? How can you just take me into a weird new world and ask me to do a mission for you and yet you also mean to say that I can't go back? Isn't that just straight up kidnapping?"
System: "No no no! Host! You cannot accuse the system of kidnapping! It was a well informed contractual deal between you and the system which you signed yourself through your own free will! The system never forces nor can it force someone's soul and body to be transferred to another world without the said person's complete free will! Please don't slander the system like this host!! The penalty for illegal transportation of souls and bodies through time and space is extremely high!"
Hearing the anxious words of the system as well as the fact that she seemed to have signed some sort of contract with the system? But how? Why doesn't she remember anything? Is this weird thing called a system lying to her? But based on the anxious voice it just displayed when talking about kidnapping, it seems that they cannot just transport her body and soul to another world without her permission or it could lead to some serious consequences.
Bai Ji: "Why don't I remember any of this? What's this contract that I supposedly signed? Show it to me if you are telling the truth."
After saying this, she waited for the system to show her this signed contract and in a few seconds, she felt some fluctuations in the space in front of her which shocked her.
Immediately after, a blue screen appeared before her eyes, suspended in the air, looking like some holographic technology from those sci-fi movies.
Bai Li felt novel at seeing this and tried to swing her arms and touch it but her hands went right through it without touching anything. It was quite magical.
Suddenly, The system's voice sounded in her ear again and a picture of a page appeared on the blue screen accompanied by the system's voice,
"This is the contract host that YOU specifically signed with your own hands."
Bai Li was shocked to see this supposed contract appear and she looked through the contents and immediately after, she seemed to remember something.
She remembered that when she was holding a glass of wine, talking with her fellow former colleagues and subordinates and she had drunk quite a bit and her face was flushed slightly, at that time, a strange looking figure, supposedly that of a woman, seemed to come walking towards her, holding a glass of wine in her hand.
Bai Li couldn't see what she looked like but she remembered the way that woman had smiled slightly towards her.
She could feel that it was a much older woman than her, probably in her 50's but she looked as young as if she was in her 30's. She was wearing a bright red cheongnam and walked towards her with a mask on her face.
Her every step seemed to be filled with mysteries of the universe, like some god descended on this planet. Bai Li didn't know if it was because of the alcohol getting to her head but that was how she felt at that moment when she looked closely towards this strange woman.
After what felt like an eternity, the woman finally came in front of her and Bai Li suddenly felt as if all the sound in the banquet hall, the clattering noise of the glasses clicking, the slow ball music playing in the background, the incessant chatter of her subordinates and friends, all of it seemed to die down. As if the whole world has gone silent.
As if time had stopped at that moment. Bai Li looked dazedly at the mature and mysterious woman before her and just when she was about to ask who she was, she seemed to hear a very low audible whisper from her mouth,
:"Found you… my daughter….."
Bai Li felt that she seemed to hear something wrong. What did she mean by daughter? And was she referring to her? Did she hear her right? Who was this woman? What daughter?
She was just an orphan from a small orphanage in the countryside. The orphanage director was a kind old lady who took quite good care of her and she had said that she had found her as a baby one day, right in front of the orphanage door. It seemed her parents had abandoned her.
Bai Li had always had a very calm and lukewarm personality. It didn't take her long before she accepted the fact that she was an out and out orphan with no parents whatsoever.
But she didn't feel sad. She always felt that if her parents really did abandon her, may it be under whichever circumstances, they do not deserve to be called parents. So, Bai Li never really cared about them.
She was satisfied with the old director who took care of her and loved her like her own child.
She was quite dazed thinking about the past as she now looked at the woman before her with a bit more seriousness.
She definitely felt convinced in her heart that she must have heard her wrong but she also wanted to ask who she was.
Bai Li: "Who… are you?"
The woman was also looking at her quietly for the past few seconds and when she asked this question, she seemed to wake up from a trance and suddenly smiled before saying,
"I am the system administrator."
.
.
.
To be continued.
Thanks for reading guys!! I am so happy you came here, hehehe.... Anyway, Do write a comment and tell me how you feel about this novel.