A girl in a blue-and-white school uniform knelt beside the lake, her hollow eyes radiating nothing but despair at the world.
In an instant, Lara understood.
She had become a stand-in.
The one who should have transmigrated was Lara.
The one who had to transmigrate was Lara.
And by the looks of things, this body had originally belonged to Lara too.
In this world, the only one who knew about James was herself.
She had even tried to recall what he had looked like — but the image was blurry, as though seen through frosted glass, and all she could faintly make out was the unmistakable aura of a corporate drone.
Lara had no choice but to abandon her old identity and face this new world with an entirely new face.
If the gods of this world discovered that the person meant to transmigrate had been switched out with a substitute, she’d be flagged as an illegal and quietly disposed of before her new life had even begun.
She gave herself a quick once-over, then sat cross-legged and tried to collect her thoughts.
Yes, she’d been royally screwed over — that much was a fact.
But she still hadn’t tested the Transmigration Bonus she’d been given, or the blessing she’d received shortly after.
“0083.” Lara tried calling out to the spirit vessel.
She was completely clueless about this world and needed someone to guide her.
Besides, hadn’t it been able to fly?
Maybe it could carry her out of this forest.
“Present, Master.
How may I be of service?” The moment the words left Lara’s mouth, a faintly translucent orb of light appeared before her.
She could see straight through it to the far shore of the lake — it looked absolutely nothing like anything you could sit on.
Lara stared at the glowing ball that had materialized out of nowhere, and immediately started to panic.
“Wait — weren’t you a ship?
Where’s my ship?
How am I supposed to survive out here in the wilderness without a ship?!” As she spoke, she reached out to touch the orb, but reality, as always, was deeply unsatisfying — her arm passed straight through it, as if the two of them didn’t exist in the same plane of space.
“My apologies, Master.
You could think of it as: I don’t have a visa.
I was only able to reach this world by anchoring myself to you, so for now I’m a spirit form — you can see me, but you can’t touch me.” “That said, please don’t worry, Master.
I can generate a panel with your body data and physiological status, and compile intelligence on this world.
I’ll definitely help you make it through this.” ♪(^∇^*) 0083 drifted through the air, flickering through little bursts of red, green, and blue.
Lara could tell it was trying to cheer her up — but the longer she stared, the more 0083 looked like a nightclub strobe light, going absolutely wild over her grave while she lay there dying.
She couldn’t just sit here and wait for death.
She had to save herself.
With that thought, Lara got to her feet and headed north into the forest, intending to first get a feel for her surroundings.
She picked up a rock from the ground and scratched a mark into a tree as she passed, so she wouldn’t get lost on the way back.
She had no idea how large this forest was, but judging by the encircled lake at her spawn point, it was no small stretch of woods.
Forests like this usually had large predatory animals, and she desperately needed some way to defend herself.
“83, can you pull up my personal info?
The kind that lets me see my own stats.” The Transmigration Bonus ability, the god’s blessing, and one talking light ball — that was the sum total of everything Lara currently had.
This was her first transmigration, but as the saying goes: you don’t have to eat pork to know what a pig looks like.
In novels, the Transmigration Bonus was always the overpowered cheat skill you could count on.
Sure, 83 was half-broken — but there were still two bonuses left.
If even one of them hit the jackpot, she’d be flying.
“Generated a personal status menu based on Master’s general impression.
Further adjustments can be made upon request.” A brown panel unfolded in front of Lara.
At a glance, it showed her basic information; in the sub-menus were a map and an identification function.
That was more than she had expected.
She’d thought 0083 was completely useless — but this was basically a pure intelligence dog.
The panel’s information was fairly simple.
Name: Lara Age: 18 Race: Human Physical Condition: Healthy Grip Strength: 223 kg Mana: 2 Special Abilities: Metamorphosis · Holy Light She used the identification skill on a nearby mushroom.
Brown Illusion Mushroom Poisonous.
Causes hallucinations in those who consume it.
Has sufficient applications in other areas.
Although 0083 had made clear it could only identify things on the surface level, even so, it had already brought Lara plenty of pleasant surprises.
The ability to identify objects meant she could avoid poisoned food for now.
The map could give her a rough picture of this world’s terrain and the area nearby.
Though the map felt strangely familiar, like she’d seen it somewhere before.
She also finally understood why, on top of the Transmigration Bonus, she’d been given 0083 as an extra.
Metamorphosis — an ability similar to a druid’s.
As long as she could analyze the composition of another being’s existence, she could transform into that exact being.
As long as Lara understood another person’s abilities, she could reproduce them perfectly.
It was powerful, but it came with a steep threshold — something she couldn’t use in her current state.
But with 0083, that was a different story.
She’d just need it to handle the analysis on her behalf, and reproduction would follow.
Like running a game on integrated graphics that can’t handle it, then slotting in a dedicated GPU.
In other words, she still had a chance.
With this ability, she could eventually return to a man’s identity.
Then there was Holy Light.
After 0083’s explanation and some basic experimentation, Lara arrived at her conclusion: it was over.
Holy Light meant exactly what it said — emitting a sacred glow.
Beyond making her body light up, it had absolutely no other effect.
Walking around, she’d look like a human lightbulb.
This wasn’t “fearing no darkness” — this was straight-up obliterating the darkness.
Thank you so much, oh divine being I’ve never once met.
Ding~ dong~ dong~ dong!
Lara has acquired the ability to illuminate the night.
Three cards in hand, and not a single one was immediate combat power.
Using the mountain ranges and the map to get her bearings, then observing the sun, she concluded it was currently afternoon — which meant, barring any surprises, she’d be spending tonight in the forest.
That was not good news.
Lara thought.
The situation was full of challenges.
She hadn’t found any food to replenish her energy or a clean water source.
That meant the best option for now was to turn back the way she came, establish a temporary base by the lake.
Sure, the area around a water source was generally more dangerous — large beasts liked to lurk nearby — but it beat dying of thirst.
Lara retraced her steps by following the marks she’d left on the way, not knowing how long she’d been walking, only sensing that the path back felt surprisingly long.
The sky was growing dark.
She had no choice but to summon her light to drive back the darkness and make sure she didn’t trip and injure herself.
Watching the trees thin ahead of her, Lara knew she was almost there.
She’d been moving non-stop all afternoon, yet this body wasn’t especially tired — despite being female, its physical endurance was more than a notch above her previous life’s.
She pushed aside the branches in front of her, wanting nothing more than to drink some water and then hide up in a tree for a decent night’s rest.
She stepped out of the forest with her light leading the way, mentally braced for the possibility of a predator drinking at the water’s edge.
At the first sign of danger, she’d have 0083 fire off a flash grenade and she’d vanish from the scene like a squid.
The lake’s surface was covered in fine, scale-like ripples.
Cold moonlight lay across it, perfectly still.
But at the center of those ripples stood a figure — the figure turned, and her gaze met Lara’s.
Pale cheeks looked even paler in the glow Lara cast.
A pair of horns jutted prominently from long pink-purple hair, and scattered across the ground nearby were small glinting objects of gold.
Could it be — 83, quick, identify that person in front of me!
Lara gave 0083 the silent mental command.
Running into a humanoid creature in the middle of nowhere that didn’t even look fully human — that was definitely not good news.
The girl before her squinted against the light, her lips parting softly: “A human…” The words hadn’t finished leaving her mouth when daylight arrived.
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