Clarice woke up, feeling a slight pain thumping near her left chest area. Her head was spinning so fast as if she was thrown into a high-quality washing machine that wealthy people use to get rid of all air and dirty molecules. Why rich people? I don’t know.

She could not think clearly about her current situation, so she tried to wait out her dizziness by relaxing herself. That was precisely when she realized her current condition. She was lying flat on some mattress that felt like cotton candy, possibly exposing her double chins. Her arms and legs were spread out like Patrick, the red starfish.

She was on a bed, again—a huge one at that. Clarice would estimate it as at least 80 to 100 meters wide and 200 meters long.

She could feel the softness of the material underneath her in all parts of her body when they screamed in joy at the excellent sensation.

“Ahhhhhh, is this heaven? Because I’d rather be dead than making that cruel and harsh and intimidating and bad and that earthly mother man in love with me. I don’t even know if that is possible?”

Question received. Yen used to be dead, but now Yen is alive. Yen needs to accomplish the assignment. Yen has 6 days and 13 hours left to complete it.

Ah, the pain struck her like a punch in the stomach, felt clearly inside but with no injury on the outside. Clarice immediately swore at System in her head. She tried to come up with all the pejorative words to alleviate her hatred toward the inhuman System.

How could she, he, it, whatever, the System, be so uncanny? Does it not understand that sometimes people need to be encouraged through kind lies?

“Excuse me for interrupting, but is this Uta Cognido in this room?” A distant and disembodied voice coming from the other side of the room spoke in a tone of vigilance and wary, like the woman on the bed need to be treated with god-like respect for some reason.

Easily startled as always, Clarice got jump scared and started calculating in her head what she needed to do to act like Uta if she was still alive. Though that brought some feelings of remorse for ending someone’s life to get a new body.

“System, are there any tips to act like my body’s previous owner? What would happen if people start to realize I’m not her? I forgot to ask this. Actually, I didn’t even think this through, but is she…dead? Did I end her life…for my selfish desires?”

Yen, System has heard your inquiries. Tenens are offered artificial life to maintain order in the worlds. Tenens, in general, would not be identified as human because of their lack of emotions and ability to connect with others despite what it may seem like on the outside. To regular humans, they are humans. But they do not possess individual thoughts like Yens. Their purpose in “life” is to act as tools for Yens. In higher levels of assignments, Yen would receive the Tenen’s memories for adapting and would need to act according to their possible behaviors. In “easy” assignments like Yen's current one, Yen would not need to receive the memories because nobody would notice any oddities.

“Oh, thank goodness.” She sighed in relief as her subtle playfulness emerged and decided to take over her body.

“Yes. I am Uta Cognido, cute girl. What do you want from me?”

As if Clarice’s casual words frightened her, the girl’s formal tone turned tense, “I want nothing from you, Lady Uta. I am so sorry if that came as offensive. Would you want some dessert? I am the helper of the kitchen here, and I brought trays of cakes for people on the third level.”

Now Clarice was fully aware of the girl’s evident respect and panic when she tried to tease her. Her mock must had occurred to her as evasive.

“I’m sorry if I sounded rough, but I would sure like to have some cake,” Clarice said as pleasant as possible in hopes of the girl being less frightened.

A young girl, perhaps around sixteen or seventeen, with scarlet red hair that invited a soft, orange light, came in with a tray that had a fine-looking cake on top, possibly a lemon flavor. Clarice could see her leaving the rest of the trays on a golden cart outside, which was so shiny she was sure to be blinded if she hadn’t looked away.

“Here is your cake, Lady Uta, now I shall be excused.” The girl carefully put down the tray on the nearby table with her head stationed low. Clarice was unable to see her face.

Strangely, bursts of anger overcame her when the girl’s head remained low as if she was some inferior being to her. Her outrage was sudden and so random she couldn’t even control herself before words came out of her mouth like bullets.

“What made your head like that? Who made your head like that? So low like you would withstand all threats or harsh judgments from people. So low that it seems you don’t even respect yourself. TELL ME WHy?”

The sudden alteration of the atmosphere distinctly unsettled the girl, whose head went even lower like a slave about to be beaten by her master.

Eyeing the girl with furor while her eyebrows tightened, Clarice’s anger progressed and slapped the kitchen girl before she realized it, “Look at me! LOOK AT ME! Tell me, girl, why is your head so damn low?”

A light sob came from the girl who now turned her back to Clarice, her posture slightly straightened but shifting up and down like she was trying to control herself from crying out loud.

Clarice got out of the bed and walked over to face the girl. But what she would see would shock her to the bones.

She saw a girl with shrewd features, a girl with a keen look whose eyes was clouded by tears, a girl that brought waves of shock and odd familiarity that she stumbled on plain ground.

That girl was her. She looked the exact same when she was her age.