1 1. Devastatingly Beautiful

Her name was Cola, like the drink. As to how she got the name, when her mother was pregnant with her, she was apparently addicted to it and drank it like water. Cola, nevertheless, ended up being the total opposite of what it was. She was neither fizzy, bubbly, nor sweet. The only thing she might've probably gotten from it was darkness. She was broody, moody, and a total bitch.

Perhaps that was the expected turnout from a kid born of broken family. Cola's mom divorced her father when she was just three and whatever semblance of normal family she could've had was split in half.

Her phone chimed and a message popped at the top of her screen. Cola picked up the phone and swiped down the message.

It read, "Will you still stay home tomorrow?"

It was from Tia, a close college friend.

Cola pushed up the square glasses up her nose as she chewed on her cookies. The crunch reverberated its way to the top of her head and interrupted the smooth flow of the drama playing in her laptop screen.

Cola brought up her on-screen keyboard and seamlessly typed in a reply. "What you think?"

"I'll come by then to drop the homework," Tia told her.

"Thanks."

Cola set aside her phone to continue watching when another chime interrupted her.

"I talked with Rin. We'll find a way to clear your name."

Cola looked at the message for a moment, hesitating whether she should actually reply. She paused from chewing and briefly recalled the tragedy from a few days ago. The sweet voice of the male lead from the drama faded in the background and she dazed off into the embrace of bad memories.

Her face burned from the rising feeling of humiliation. Triggered, she switched off her phone and exited the drama she was watching due to the taste pooling in her mouth. She suddenly felt bitter. The romance suddenly turned cheesy and was unappetizing.

"Bitch, ruined my mood," she muttered under her breath.

As she clicked the close button on her web browser window, an ad popped up in her screen. She was streaming from an illegal site anyway, so this was expected. She instinctively ignored it, not bothering to read the contents. It was probably another one of those penis enlargement ads that was not applicable to her because she didn't have any.

Because, damn, if she had any balls, she would not be holed up in this room wallowing in her misery.

She looked for the close button and found it greyed out. The ad was bright yellow and blinked several times on her screen, calling attention to the words written on the very center.

TICKETS TO ANOTHER WORLD. FREE EXPRESS DELIVERY. BOOK YOUR TICKET NOW.

"Bullsh*t," she found herself saying. "People do everything for money nowadays. What bastards."

Feeling totally pissed, she decided to reboot her computer to erase whatever spyware or bots had attached to it. She couldn't click the exit button, but she still had access to the power button. She then wormed her way out of bed and went to the bathroom for a moment to relieve herself. She'd refused to come out of bed earlier on because she was too hooked on what she was watching earlier, but now that her computer had to restart, she finally had a window of opportunity to see to her needs—other than eating, of course.

After a brief visit to the toilet, she climbed back to bed and pulled her computer to her lap once again. The screen was prompting for a password.

She entered it.

The screen faded to black and later popped with colors. However, instead of the usual desktop background, she found herself confronted with the ad from earlier. It was bright yellow and blinking just as it had been—a sight that was burrowing holes in her patience.

She restarted her computer.

She did it twice.

Thrice in a row now.

Four times.

"What the f*ck!" she exclaimed in frustration. She wanted to throw away the damn thing but as if that would work at all. She might be left with more disaster than now. "Damn virus."

Her mother was not home yet. She said she would be home late tonight because of overtime so she would not be able to go out and have it fixed. She wasn't literate in eradication of computer viruses or anything with coding. She was a nerd, but not in that regard.

"Son of a…" she took a sharp inhale. "Fine. I'm bored anyway. Let's see what you have for me. It's not like my life isn't already ruined."

She had no pictures except for lame memes. Her computer was basically a bin for trash. There was only useless data save for the occasional yaoi mangas pirated off the internet. Whatever virus had clung to her computer would not come off with any sensitive data (kind of). Even if it was corrupted, she had backed herself up with a USB.

Upon clicking the ad, a poorly-made website popped up on her screen. There wasn't even any additional information about the whole thing to convince her to proceed. After a small loading page, it just went straight to a signup form and a questionnaire.

[Server entered]

[Please select preferred destination]

Cola clicked on the drop-down button and found a variety of options.

There was zombie apocalypse, post-apocalypse, time travel: past, time travel: future, a novel of your choosing, pop idol, actor/actress and many more along the list. Cola was a little flabbergasted because this site was starting to feed the intrinsic desire to click on everything. Her imagination was going wild with all the possibilities to choose from. If there was a ticket to stardom, this might be it.

She continued scrolling down the options and found a genre that deeply took her interest: high fantasy. Although she was tempted to see how all the other options went, this would no doubt be her first choice.

[HIGH FANTASY selected. Personality questionnaire generated. Please answer truthfully]

Cola clicked her tongue. "You also want to invade my personal life?! Dream on!"

[NAME]

"F*ck You."

[Sorry. That name is invalid]

"F*ck Yuu."

[Sorry. That name invalid]

"Fine. Wynter Raven. That good enough for you?"

[AGE]

"Muddafakin eighteen! Let's be young and pretty!"

[SEX]

"Let's go with rough. Eh? No option like that? Boring! I thought you'd be better than this, come on!" Although there was an option to be sexless or a hermaphrodite. What the actual hell? "Let's go with…this option! Androgynous. Hehehehe."

[How would you describe your appearance?]

"Devastatingly beautiful. No one else measures up to my beauty. Anyone who lays their eyes on me becomes stumped. They start thinking…how can a beautiful creature exist on earth? Why isn't she already a goddess?"

[How would you describe yourself? Five main traits]

"Talented, sexy…no, that word isn't enough…" she paused. "Spicy. Kekekeke! Powerful. Charismatic. And…I don't know. Let's go with something different. Way too strong for regular men."

[What are your biggest challenges?]

"Way deep, bro." Cola tapped her chin. "Stubborn. Petty. Too trusting of other people, maybe that's why I get played for all the time. And this mama is simply TOO PRETTY."

After bullsh*tting her way down the form, filling up every space with nonsense things, she finally came to the end of the test.

[Tickets are issued at random based on the provided information and is ONE WAY. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, please wait until you die in your destination to complain. NO REFUNDS. NO RETURNS. We are not responsible for dissatisfaction due to false information. If you are confident all the above data is true, please click SUBMIT]

"Whatever."

Cola clicked submit.

[Information submitted…]

[Your request is being processed…]

[Transferring you to checkout page…]

[Your bill for this session is 2000$. Due to ongoing promotions, price is cut 98% off. Your total bill is 40$]

[Do you prefer credit/debit card or COD (cash on delivery)?]

"What bullcrap. Let's go with COD. Hehe. It's not like you can find my house. I never entered any address."

Cola selected COD.

[Your session is successful]

The page loaded one more time and the last line appeared on her screen.

[Thank you for your patronage. Your delivery will be with you soon]

Cola popped her knuckles and laughed manically as the screen finally faded away. The usual desktop background replaced it.

"That was fun," she muttered. "I guess this virus was trolling me. I wonder when it'll pop up again?"

Ding dong, the bell sang. Cola jumped on her seat, startled by the suddenness. She wasn't expecting anyone to be here and she was in no mood to entertain any guests.

Ding dong, it rang again. Seeing as there was no one in the house, Cola stood up to answer the door.