Snezhnaya.
Cold.
A damp cold that seeped deep into the bones.
Aqina, lying on the training ground, wanted to cry but had no tears left.
The cold wind, mixed with ice and snow, slashed across her face like knives, so real it made her want to weep.
Aqina’s tears came readily; she felt truly aggrieved.
She had originally just been a corporate slave who loved playing allogene, having finally finished her shift.
To build up her account, she had stayed up all night grinding a few weekly bosses, only to have everything go black as she collapsed.
When she opened her eyes again, she was lying in this godforsaken place.
The tears that had just fallen froze into ice crystals, sticking to her face.
As Aqina’s mind raced with wild thoughts, she couldn’t help but try to scrape them off with her hand.
“Aqina!
What are you spacing out for!
Do you want to be frozen into an ice sculpture?!” The Fatui’s recruit Instructor roared, and Aqina scrambled up with a start.
As soon as she stood up and looked down, she saw the Snezhnayan recruit uniform on her body, as well as a pair of small hands that didn’t belong to her, covered in frostbite.
Fragments of memory suddenly flooded into her brain: Aqina, sixteen years old, an orphan from the northern border of Snezhnaya, a recruit who had just been conscripted into the Fatui reserves three days ago.
Great.
She had transmigrated, and into a cannon-fodder grunt in the game who wouldn’t survive more than three lines of dialogue.
Her future was uncertain, and her life was in danger.
Woe is me…
Everything had happened too fast.
Aqina was utterly bewildered, but she still stumbled along to keep up with the main Fatui unit.
Snezhnaya was indeed cruel, cold, and even devoid of human warmth.
Aqina encountered setbacks she had never faced in her previous life.
Training.
On the first day of training, Aqina felt that the 800-meter runs in her physical education classes from her past life were for weaklings.
The Fatui’s training was completely comparable to that of special forces; to be precise, it was significantly more intense than special forces training.
For Aqina, this was terrible.
Aqina cursed as she ran, the snow under her feet crunching with every step.
Every step was exceptionally difficult.
Her legs were already frozen stiff, and when she couldn’t help but gasp for air, her throat tasted entirely of iron and blood.
She nearly collapsed into the snow several times, and even considered giving up, unable to stop herself from wanting to slack off.
Before she could act on it, she noticed that the recruits around her were all running for their lives; even though they were shivering and pale, no one dared to stop.
Aqina curiously stole a glance backward.
The Instructor was wielding a whip at the end of the line, occasionally lashing out at those at the back, their cries of pain reaching her ears.
Terrified, Aqina also scrambled forward with all her might.
She finally understood why no one dared to stop.
So there was corporal punishment!
This Instructor was truly whipping people to death!
For the sake of her own life, Aqina braced herself, holding on solely through the obsession of wanting to survive.
Why?!
She hadn’t lived a single good day in her past life, working hard as a corporate slave where working overtime and staying up late were the norm.
She had finally found a hobby in playing allogene, just pulling cards and raising characters, hoping to escape the bitterness of reality.
How did she end up falling straight into the even more bitter Snezhnaya in allogene?
When others transmigrate, they get heaven-defying golden fingers or protagonist halos.
But her?
She became a Fatui cannon-fodder grunt who could be worked to death, frozen to death, or even beaten to death by the Instructor at any moment.
Let alone the start of the plot, whether she could survive the recruit period was a huge problem.
The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt.
She completely failed to watch her step, not noticing the steep downhill slope ahead.
Aqina stumbled and tumbled out, accompanied by the mocking laughter of the other recruits in her ears.
She flew out, rolling faster and faster down the slope.
The cold snow crept into her collar and sleeves, and she landed heavily in the snow with a thud.
She didn’t know if she was injured, but the pain made tears well up in her eyes.
She could hear the Instructor’s angry cursing from far away.
Cold, humiliation, despair—terrible emotions washed over her instantly.
This made her wish she could just faint, so she wouldn’t have to face this hellish training again.
Hypothermia began to set in.
Aqina struggled, but she couldn’t get up.
The Instructor didn’t know where she had rolled off to, so he simply ignored her and continued training the others.
Snezhnaya was this cruel.
At this moment of life and death, Aqina had only one thought.
She still wanted to live.
She wanted to live.
Her second life had just begun, and she hadn’t yet met that person she had always liked in allogene.
Even if she had to die, she still wanted to see that person…
Finally, when Aqina couldn’t hold on any longer, something responded to her.
It was the standard equipment for a transmigrator that she had always wanted.
— — A System.
< If you want to live, draw a card.
> A minimalist, pale blue light screen appeared before her.
Aqina used her frostbitten fingers, which could still barely move, to click the draw card button…
< Congratulations, binding successful.
> The pale blue light screen enveloped her, shielding her from the surrounding cold, and Aqina’s body began to warm up.
She finally calmed down.
After a bout of newcomer tutorials and introductions from the System, Aqina quickly understood its specific functions.
The System she had just bound to possessed several key modules, and it was powerful and multifunctional.
It was divided into two major categories: “Popularity” and “Promotion.” Simply put, Popularity meant she would use the cards she drew to fill in her own persona.
Then, by showing her face in the parallel world of < allogene >, interfering with the plot, and so on, she would increase her fame.
The wider the reach, the more Popularity she would gain.
Of course, in the world of Teyvat, being known by the masses also counted as Popularity points.
Popularity points were very useful; they could enhance the System’s functions and draw cards to improve Aqina’s strength.
And the Promotion module was even simpler and easier to understand.
It was just like getting a promotion in the workplace in her past life.
As she upgraded her rank within the Fatui, she could further flesh out her persona with each level.
For every rank, the System provided promotion suggestions, as well as candidates for commanding officers, along with their pros, cons, and benefits.
The System provided an initial tip.
It recommended that Aqina try to get promoted to a diplomatic post stationed in Mondstadt.
This way, she could become an aid to the Traveler and Paimon at the appropriate time when the plot first began, offering them help.
This would make it easier to collect Popularity, and she would receive more favorable reviews.
As the plot developed, filling in her persona would also become easier; this was the simplest and easiest method.
Leeching off the Popularity of the protagonists at the start of the plot was best, as that was when it was easiest to become a familiar face.
Aqina clicked on the card she had drawn to take a look: < Quality: Golden Legend > Skill Card: Undying Cockroach.
Description: As shown above, by equipping this Skill Card, you can gain the Undying trait.
No matter how severe the injury, as long as vital organs are not destroyed and you do not completely stop breathing, you can slowly recover.
< Cockroaches are just tenacious.
— — A certain big cockroach who wishes to remain anonymous, but provided the ability.
> — — Aqina thought it over.
The Skill Card was extremely useful, but not letting her leave the Fatui while also requiring her to help the Traveler—wasn’t this basically telling her to be a traitor?
The key was that she currently had no background or combat power; she was nothing but a grunt.
The System was even suggesting she follow the Traveler; it wasn’t even pretending anymore.
Aqina complained.
The System, being complained about, was somewhat helpless and pulled up its promotion plan for her to see.
When Aqina looked at the pool of potential commanding officers, all the Harbingers were there, even including the Tsaritsa.
Clicking on an officer’s personal details revealed the preferences of the Harbingers and others, as well as promotion plans, and so on.
For many Harbingers, serving under them meant more danger than opportunity.
For example, [The Doctor], where one could easily become a test subject by accident.
Who would want to be a lab rat!
For example, [Balladeer]; in the plot, he had a sharp tongue and was difficult to serve.
Serving under [The Captain] meant being more likely to face frontline combat; [The Captain] had the highest mortality rate.
[Marionette] and [The Knave]; one trusted her creations more, and the other trusted her children more.
[Damselette] was naive and worldly-inexperienced.
According to the allogene plot in Aqina’s mind, this Moon Goddess seemed truly lacking in common sense.
In the original body’s memory fragments, [Damselette] rarely chose subordinates, basically just singing in her little garden.
[Regrator] and [The Rooster]; one was a banker, the other the Mayor of Snezhnaya.
Both were full of schemes, capitalists who cared for nothing but money or power.
Serving under such capitalists wouldn’t allow for easy survival; without value, one would be easily discarded.
[Childe] was a total fighting fanatic, even a spendthrift who took all the funds to please that Mr.
Zhongli; following him, one would easily starve to death, right?
As for the Tsaritsa, this Ice God who loved mortals, Aqina was currently not qualified to serve directly under him.
She had no stamina, no combat power; relying solely on the Undying trait, it was impossible to be held in high regard.
She still needed more persona supplementation and skills.
After picking and choosing, there was actually only one Harbinger left who was most suitable.
The Eighth Harbinger.
[The Fair Lady].
The garrison in Mondstadt at the start of the plot was under [The Fair Lady], so it could be considered a match.
A famous diplomat.
But [The Fair Lady] didn’t seem very easy to serve either…
Aqina thought about [The Fair Lady] from her original memories.
A tsundere, slightly arrogant, and even hands-on Big Cat?
“Aqina!” “Aqina!
Are you still alive?” The Instructor hadn’t let her freeze to death after all and had sent people to find her.
Aqina responded to the shouts, calling for help loudly.
“I’m here!” The others followed the sound and found her, seeing Aqina, who was mentally fine and even quite lively.
They couldn’t help but think…
This recruit really was like an Undying Cockroach.