Lin Yue woke up to pain.
Every part of her body felt like it had been put through a meat grinder, chewed up, spit out, and then put through again just for fun.
Her waist ached with a deep, throbbing soreness.
Her thighs screamed every time she moved even an inch.
There was a tenderness between her legs that made her want to cry just thinking about it.
She tried to sit up and immediately regretted everything.
Her muscles screamed in protest.
Her head pounded. And when she pressed a hand to her lips, she felt how swollen they were, puffy and tender to the touch.
"What the hell happened to me?"
A sound echoed through the room.
Laughter.
Actual laughter.
Coming from somewhere right in front of her face.
[HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.]
-_-
The floating blue screen materialized out of nowhere, but this time it looked different. It had a face now.
Well, not a real face, but an emoji floated inside the bubble, a little grinning expression that was clearly enjoying her suffering way too much.
[OH MAN. OH MAN, THAT'S GOOD. YOU LOOK ROUGH.]
Lin Yue glared at it. "You think this is funny?"
[I THINK THIS IS HILARIOUS. FIVE SECONDS WASN'T ENOUGH. I COULD LAUGH FOR FIVE HOURS.]
"Five seconds?! You were laughing at me for five seconds?!"
[SEVEN, ACTUALLY. I STOPPED COUNTING AFTER FIVE. YOU WERE REALLY OUT OF IT. MUMBLING IN YOUR SLEEP. VERY CUTE.]
Lin Yue wanted to punch the screen.
Unfortunately, she couldn't punch a screen.And even if she could, her arm currently felt like it weighed five hundred pounds.
"Where am I?" She looked around properly for the first time.
The room was massive.
Ceilings stretched up way higher than they had any right to, with intricate patterns carved into the stone.
The bed she was lying on could have fit five people comfortably, with soft furs piled on top of her and pillows that felt like clouds.
Sunlight streamed through tall windows, illuminating dust motes floating in the air.
It looked like something out of a fantasy movie.
The expensive kind.
[FIRST THINGS FIRST. CONGRATULATIONS! YOU COMPLETED YOUR FIRST MISSION. I HAVE TO ADMIT, I DIDN'T THINK YOU HAD IT IN YOU. THE WAY YOU JUST WENT FOR IT. NO HESITATION. IMPRESSIVE.]
Lin Yue's face burned. "I don't want to talk about it."
[TOO BAD. I'M TALKING ABOUT IT. YOU EARNED REWARDS. SO PAY ATTENTION.]
A new screen appeared next to the first one, covered in text.
[MISSION COMPLETE: SUCCESSFUL FERTILIZATION]
[REWARDS UNLOCKED:]
[• 500 BONUS POINTS]
[• ACHIEVEMENT: AGGRESSIVE PURSUIT]
[• ACHIEVEMENT: TARGET ACQUIRED]
[• ACHIEVEMENT: FIRST CONTACT (EXTREMELY DIRECT)]
[• UNLOCKED: BASIC CUB CARE PACKAGE]
[• UNLOCKED: NUTRITION TRACKER]
[• UNLOCKED: DEVELOPMENT MONITOR]
Lin scrolled through the list, her eyes getting wider with each line. "I get points for... jumping a stranger?"
[YOU GET POINTS FOR EVERYTHING. THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT OF HAVING A SYSTEM. NOW, NEXT THING. PUT YOUR HAND ON YOUR STOMACH.]
She blinked. "What? Why?"
[JUST DO IT. TRUST ME FOR ONCE.]
Lin Yue hesitated, then slowly placed her hand on her stomach.
It felt normal. Flat. Just like always.
Then she felt it.
A flutter. Tiny. Almost imperceptible. But definitely there.
Her breath caught in her throat.
[THAT'S YOUR CUB. SIX HOURS OLD AND ALREADY MAKING ITS PRESENCE KNOWN.]
"Six hours?" Her voice came out strange. "It's only been six hours?"
[TIME WORKS DIFFERENTLY HERE, REMEMBER? CHECK YOUR STOMACH. REALLY LOOK AT IT.]
Lin Yue threw off the blanket and looked down.
Her stomach wasn't flat anymore.
It was subtle, easy to miss if you weren't looking for it. But there was definitely a small curve there now. A tiny bump that hadn't existed yesterday.
"That's..." She couldn't find the words. "That's not possible."
[YOUR BODY HAS BEEN GENETICALLY MODIFIED TO MATCH LOCAL REPRODUCTION RATES. RIGHT NOW, YOUR PREGNANCY IS THE EQUIVALENT OF ABOUT ONE MONTH BY EARTH STANDARDS. THE CUB IS CURRENTLY THE SIZE OF A LITTLE BEAN. A VERY ACTIVE LITTLE BEAN.]
"A bean.." she repeated dumbly.
[BY TOMORROW, IT WILL BE THE SIZE OF A MELON. THE DAY AFTER, THE SIZE OF A MELON. BY DAY THREE OR FOUR, YOU GIVE BIRTH. IT'S A VERY EFFICIENT SYSTEM.]
Lin Yue stared at her stomach.
At the tiny bump that held a living being inside it.
A being she had created with a stranger in the back of a flying car.
She had never thought about having children. At twenty-five, she wasn't interested in marriage. She wasn't interested in boyfriends. She definitely wasn't interested in babies.
Her life was supposed to be about work and friends and maybe adopting a cat someday.
But this.
This feeling of a new life growing inside her.
It was different.
She couldn't explain it.
Couldn't put words to it.
But something shifted in her chest, something fundamental, and she knew with absolute certainty that she would do anything to protect the tiny bean-sized cub currently chilling in her womb.
[YOU'RE DOING THE FACE.]
"What face?"
[THE FACE. THE MUMMY FACE. THE ONE THAT SAYS YOU'D KILL SOMEONE FOR THAT CUB. IT'S A GOOD FACE. VERY BEFITTING.]
Lin Yue blinked away the moisture in her eyes. "Shut up!"
[MAKE ME.]
She snorted despite herself.
Then she swung her legs over the side of the bed, ignoring the way her entire body protested the movement.
"Where am I, anyway?"
[A CASTLE.]
She paused mid-movement. "A castle? Who's Castle?"
[WHO KNOWS. BUT IT'S A VERY NICE ONE. TOP-TIER ACCOMMODATIONS. YOU SHOULD BE GRATEFUL.]
Lin Yue stood up carefully, using the bed for support. Her legs felt like jelly. Her knees almost buckled. But she managed to stay upright.
"How did I get here? Who brought me? Who was that man? What did he see? What did he think?"
Silence from the screen.
"MS?"
[I CAN'T ANSWER THOSE QUESTIONS.]
"Why not?!"
[PRIVACY PROTOCOLS. I CAN'T RELEASE INFORMATION ABOUT THE MALE WITHOUT HIS CONSENT. ITS BASIC ETHICS.]
Lin Yue wanted to scream. "Basic ethics?! You had me jump a stranger in the middle of a heat-induced frenzy and now you're worried about basic ethics?!"
[I NEVER SAID THE ETHICS WERE CONSISTENT. I JUST SAID THEY EXIST.]
Three rapid knocks, polite but firm.
Lin Yue froze. She looked at the screen. The screen's emoji face shrugged.
The door opened.
A woman entered.
She was beautiful in an otherworldly way, with sharp features and feline ears twitching atop her head. A tail swayed behind her as she moved, long and elegant.
She wore a simple but high-quality uniform that screamed "I work here but I'm important."