34 Waking Up and The Importance of "Personality Traits"

Kumi opened her eyes.

Her eyes were a mix of pale pink and black with pure white pupils.

She sat up from her lying down position as she took in her surroundings.

'I can actually see!'

She thought as a lock of hair fell in front of her, blocking her vision.

Pushing it aside and behind her ear, she thought.

'I can actually feel solid things! With my alive meat fingers!'

Her hair was light pink with the inside of her hair being grey.

On the top of her head, there were ash grey demon horns along with a single cowlick.

And above the horns, there was a pure white angel halo.

Kumi was currently about half a metre tall.

Her hair however was a fair bit longer, about 60 or so centimetres.

Looking at her hands, Kumi thought that they weren't as chubby as she would expect them to be considering she was a newborn.

She was taller than she had expected to be as well.

'Finally. A body that isn't just a floating mass of glowing whatever-I-was.'

Touching her body over, she found nothing strange, except of course the horns.

'Ah. Two pointy things that won't come off. Don't tell me that the System was actually telling the truth and not just spouting jokes.'

Shaking her head, Kumi stood up from where she was lying down at. She was actually on a bed inside of a room that looked like a hospital.

Finding a pane of glass, or rather a window, Kumi stared at her barely-visible reflection.

'I have a halo too? Couldn't the System just pick one race and be done with it?'

She touched the halo and horns above her head.

'Besides these things, I'd say I'm actually pretty cute. Bet I'd be even more adorable if these things weren't here.'

And as she thought so, the horns and angel halo turned to particles of light and disappeared into thin air.

'Ah... That's better...'

Kumi thought, trying not to acknowledge what just happened.

She took another look at herself in her reflection.

'Hmm. Cuter than I have ever been. Chibi even. What was chibi again? Eh, whatever. What's troubling me right now is my size. I'm about the size of a two-year-old. I definitely wasn't this big when I was in the flask. Neither did I have any hair.'

She twirled a lock of her silky pink hair around her finger.

'Honestly, it was a silent fear of mine to be bald for months while growing up.'

Turning away from the window that she could barely see out of since she was still a bit too short, Kumi took another glance around the room.

'Fancy hospital.'

She didn't find it particularly interesting.

As such, she jumped back on her bed and covered herself with a blanket.

As she looked at the ceiling and felt that she had nothing better to do, for now, she thought of that word she needed to say in order to see her attributes.

'Wait. Didn't I already think of that word a few times? Does it know when I want to see it and when I'm just thinking about it? That's hard to believe... what if we try... Properties.'

Her Attribute bubble screen popped up right in front of her.

'Ah. That works too. I wonder what other words would work?'

She looked away from the bubble for a second while thinking of how it should disappear.

Looking back after a moment, it was gone.

'Nice. Then how about... Status?'

The same Attribute bubble popped up.

Making it disappear again, Kumi thought.

'Attributes.'

And it appeared yet again.

'Nice. Honestly, I think I'm just going to use either Attributes or Properties since I feel like the words are fancy.'

Looking over her Attributes as she had done before, Kumi focused on the thing she was interrupted on.

'Personality. I have a choice here. Hmm.'

She thought about it.

'If I choose something, then it will probably also affect my actual Personality or at least give me a Trait or something. The Inscrutable one isn't really a Personality.

I vaguely remember people talking about sending me to war at some point. I think. So what Personality or Trait would be best for war?'

Kumi went through quite a few different possibilities.

'I have only one choice so I should make it count. Hmm. War... War... What about strategic? It does have its limits, however, it would be helpful if I have some allies. Brave? Nah, that's a death sentence. Cowardly? No, I'd rather not label myself as a Coward. Strong? Hmmm. That probably won't work. Strong Willed? That should be the type of person to continue fighting even when at death's door.

Intelligent? I'd consider myself smart. But having it as a Personality Trait would probably just make me a bit annoying. It depends on what type of Intelligent I end up being. Although it is a good choice, I'll have to think about it.

I'd rather have a Personality that makes survival easier, war or not. Honestly, I don't plan on staying with the assassin-like people for the rest of my life.'

Kumi was debating on whether or not to take Intelligent as a Personality Trait.

'There are a lot of choices here. Intelligent is just one of the good ones. What else could there be?'

And then... she landed on it.

'Ah. Right. Isn't that a good option? It shouldn't change my core Personality much and would help me in combat and a few other things...'

She thought about the pros and cons.

'The only big con that I can think of is not trusting people easily.

But hey. Look at that one guy... Uhhhh. That I don't remember. He basically had that Personality as his entire character and he ended up really strong. If I remember correctly...'

Thinking of any other good option, she just couldn't think of one as good as that one.

'Ah. Screw it. I can probably just change it in the future if it ends up bad or I can just get another one too.'

Kumi focused on the Choice section of Personality.

'I guess I'll go all in and phrase it as that guy did too. Why not? A small Personality Trait won't get me killed.'

And so she made her choice, not knowing how important "Personality" was in this world.

Her choice was something that would definitely let her survive for a lot longer than any other personality would have.

Let us hope her choice was the right one.

{Personality: <Implausibly Inscrutable> <Impossibly Cautious>}

After she had chosen, a System bubble appeared.

{Personality Matrix Finalized}

{Obtaining Unique Skills Based On Potential and Personality}

{Obtained!}

'Wait... What?'