3 Chapter 2: Electric Shock

"Call for help, accepted. System activates in three... Two... One... Zero." A robotic, cold voice sounded in her ear, and Kanae stumbled in surprise.

"Huh?!" She cried out.

"System greeting: Welcome to Nunoct, Player White, your journey starts from now." The voice continued.

She looked around, only to see everything still. The monster had stopped moving, the petals were no longer floating, and the wind wasn't blowing.

'Time's been frozen?'

" Wait, wha-"

"System rolls out first and final goal, Become a mother.

First mission; Become strong.

Time allotted: Four years.

Time remaining: Three years, 365 days, 23 hours, 58 mins, 45 seconds.

Reward for finishing: Unknown

Penalty for failure: Death." The voice interrupted her.

"..... What in the world?" Her eyes almost fell out of their sockets.

"What do you think this is? A reincarnation manga? Get out!" She shouted at the voice, which replied;

"This command can only be used when Player White secures level 100. One level will be deducted for using this command. Current level of Player is: -1."

Three different coloured screens rose in front of Kanae. She gaped, unable to believe what she was seeing. Was she really in a typical reincarnation novel?

A serious look came on her face, and she asked in a wary tone, "System, am I a reincarnated person?"

"Analysing system data. Totaling all results, signs point to 'Yes.'"

"No way..." Kanae slumped against the tree, feeling mentally exhausted. Talk about clichéd. She died and reincarnated? What a joke.

"System, I feel like I'm in a dream."

"Searching up, 'How to wake someone up from a dream,' analyzing results, picking the best available option - 'Electric shock.'"

"Hu-?" Before she could finish, Kanae felt a shock that struck her to her core, making her feel hot and then cold. She uttered an 'Ahh' in pain, silently cursing herself for being stupid.

After a few minutes of her body tingling, she collected herself back, hair smelling like burnt chips.

"Damn... This is definitely not a dream." She whispered.

"Player White's stats will be shown once you complete a mission. Reminder; Do not harm your body. A mother needs to have a healthy body."

"..."

'Hey. Weren't reincarnated people supposed to have a system for power? Why do I have a baby-making system?! And it tells me to keep a healthy body after electrocuting me??' Kanae, once again, cursed her bad luck.

"Player White has received greetings, as well as an unknown 'Congratulations for operating system' gift. Continuing with the mission, *Time lock* has been removed."

With that, everything was back to normal.

Kanae blinked, and in just that moment, the monster appeared in front of her, its scalding hot breath making her freeze in horror.

'System... If you made me fall in this pit, at least take this monster with you.'

Kanae swallowed down the scream threatening to erupt from her throat and looked around, trying to escape. But it looked like the odds were indeed not in her favour. It was, without a doubt, a dungeon. There must still be a way out, right? Was it a hidden door?

'But what if this dungeon didn't have an entrance? If so, then it means that the sole purpose of the creation of this dungeon was to trap it.'

In other words;

Dungeon : Monster :: Escape dungeon : Kill Monster.

It was safe to say that this was how Kanae was awarded the title of [Eternal Nerd].

"Kill this monster?" She mumbled, cringing at the spit that fell on her face, the monster moving closer, and she, moving backward. Suddenly, it stopped in its tracks. As if recalling something, it scratched its head. Kanae froze along with it, wondering what it was up to.

Meanwhile, her brain calculated the ways to escape. If no doors showed up, then she had no choice but to break a wall. 'Time to put my bulky muscles to work.' She thought smugly.

She had been a gym-maniac in her previous life. She loved working out, especially, toning her muscles. Whenever she went to the beach, she would proudly show her three abs. Such a pity that no one except animals could see it. She only went to the beach at night, after all.

Azure blue eyes were trying to find a weak spot on the wall that would maybe collapse when she hit it.

'Hah! Found it!' She laughed in glee.

Rolling up her sleeves, she punched the wall made of bricks, expecting it to crumble or break in half. After all, she had trained herself to become capable of breaking barriers. Instead, her fist grew red almost instantly, and pain spread through her whole arm. Her face became blue from the effort of not screaming out loud in pain.

Our nerdy Kanae had forgotten a small detail. The fact that she no longer had her old body had slipped through her mind. And fate, who had been laughing all this while at her, was now rolling on the floor with laughter.

Eyes filled with tears, she pouted and blew on her bruised and swelled hand slowly, sighing in relief when the pain lessened.

Now, the monster who had been staring at Kanae, finally got to a conclusion. It snorted and ran a hand through its hair. Removing the vines from them, it pulled out something. That something was a huge, rusty sword. It was twice the monster's size.

Kanae, who had been holding her hand tearfully, looked up. "Bro what! Where did that come from?" She shouted, losing all the patience she had before.

An ugly smirk was pasted on the monster's face, and it lunged for the nth time at Kanae. Like a monkey, she dodged the wild swings from its sword. The cat and dog chase continued for a while until Kanae noticed something. Under the cherry blossoms tree, the monster lifted his sword, and the sword glinted dully.

'Light?' Kanae furrowed her eyebrows. 'That's right! How could I forget?! The sakura tree needs light to live, which means that it's receiving light from outside. In that case...." She trailed off, trying to look behind the monster. A small hole caught her attention, and a smile made her lips arch up.