The Loading Bar
Elise should have known not to trust novels. After waiting for eternity, the legendary feeling of falling and transmigrating didn't happen. She started suspecting Nathaniel had lied to her or she was just hallucinating.
Until she looked down and she saw what made her curse at Nathaniel in fury. There floating beneath her was a loading bar. A very slow moving loading bar.
[Installing; 3%]
From what she could feel, it installed one percent every 10 hours or so. Having stared at the loading bar for hours and hours, she finally saw a change that sent joy sprouting in her ethereal heart.
[Installing; 4%]
Honestly, this speed is worse than the old computer she used during her childhood, the horrible internet as she downloaded things wasn't even that bad compared to this and she was still tearing her hair out in impatience.
[Installing; 5%]
In the first place, she didn't even know what is installing. A System? What is this, a cliché novel?
She rolled around in the air, lazing about and waiting.
[Installing; 6%]
Turns out ghosts can't sleep, there is absolutely nothing to do in this huge nothingness.
[Installing 10%]
Floating about, the boredom would have killed her if she wasn't already dead. She had finished counting to 10,000.
[Installing; 15%]
She started going through the her memories from childhood, everything she had experienced.
[Installing: 35%]
Elise had finished revisiting every novel or moving she had watched, dug through every last corner of her memories for any entertainment.
[Installing 53%]
She gave up and began reciting and revising all the useless knowledge she learnt during her horrible university years.
[Installing 88%]
What wouldn't she give to eat something good right now. Such boredom is so hard to tolerate.
[Installing 99%]
Sitting up, Elise glared intently at the god forsaken download bar. Time passed slowly, yet the number didn't change. She could only helplessly watch at the pixelated bar slowly filled up, infinitely reaching the edge.
Her heartbeat sped up as tension grew in the air, her ghostly arms ready to be thrown up in celebration.
Tik tok, there's no clock.
And then.
Flicker.
[100% installed, initialising]
Watching with disbelief, Elise threw her hands up as she yelled in celebration, however, before she could do anything she was engulfed with a sense of falling.
Thinking about the cliché transmigration descriptions, she decided she could maybe once again trust novels. And then she passed out again.
XXX
Elise awoke in pure darkness once again, making her question whether she was still in the same mysterious space. As she tried to get up, she realised she could no longer sense her own body. A chocking horror erupted as her consciousness desperately tried to move the ghostly limbs she no longer felt.
As she lay there paralysed and panicking, the darkness brightened suddenly into a pure white room. It was as if the internet was reconnected and her game character could finally move again, that kind of feeling. Looking around with her new body, she saw herself within a huge white room, empty and vast with nothing in it.
As she stood up, she felt something off but she couldn't quite put her finger on it until she looked down. In her vision was a naked young girls body, long silky black hair fell onto her unblemished white skin. She didn't know what scared her more, the foreign body or being naked, her mouth subconsciously let out a piercing scream.
"Good morning, host. How are you doing?"
Another scream escaped her mouth as a slightly robotic voice sounded behind her. Elise couldn't help but wonder why everyone liked to speak to her as a disembodied voice, what happened to eye contact? Whipping her head around, she saw a scene out of a fantasy novel.
Standing somewhat nearby in the huge white room was a very normal looking lady in a work suit. Beige coloured shirt and a black pencil skirt accompanied with nude coloured leggings and a pair of shiny red heels. She held a bright red clipboard and adjusted her red-rimmed glasses, looking like a typical office lady from an anime or whatever. The strangest part, however, was her hairstyle. Her straight light grey hair fell down to her waist with two.. horns on her head? The two brown horns from her forehead to the back of her head in a huge arc.
The lady readjusted her glasses once her, awakening Elise from her stupor, letting her notice how naked she is. Just as she opened her mouth again to scream, the lady, as if predicting the future, said calmly, "Stop"
Elise gulped from the commanding tone and helplessly closed her mouth. After pondering for a moment, she selected a few crucial ones out of her thousands of questions and opened her mouth once again. "Who are you? Where are we? What is this? What about the thing with the gods?"
The office lady lightly smiled at the questions and readjusted her glasses, an action she had done 4 times in a span of 20 seconds. Seeing the wary Elise, she responded in the same calm voice.
"To answer your questions, I am Helper:230985462 who is assigned to you to aid you in the 'thing with the gods', in your words. This place is a your dungeon and we are currently within it. The dungeon is… some sort of dimensional space granted by gods. I am here to help you control this power and grow."
"Grow? What do you mean dimensional space?" The answers she gave only created more questions.
"The dungeon is a space existing solitarily between the endless dimensions. It has the ability to instantly connect to different space, effectively twisting time and space. However, we function under several strict laws. No one understands how the dungeons are created and function, we all just accept it and utilise it. I am one of the many systems created by the gods to aid the champions, however, I am one of the lower level systems after all." The office lady sighed, admitting to her faults. Elise didn't mind, any help and knowledge is better than nothing.
"Did Nathaniel send you?" She blurted out suddenly.
Helper:230985462 looked puzzled. "Nathaniel?"
Seeing this response, Elise decided to move on. "Nothing. So tell me how I'm supposed to run this dungeon and survive. Also, I need to give you a nickname, your name is kind of annoying to say and I can't call you 'you' forever. Lastly, please get me some clothes." Elise smiled awkwardly as she got to the last part.
As Helper was just about to open her mouth to begin the tutorial, Elise suddenly beamed "How about Zwei! That means three in a language from where I came from."
Closing her mouth, she pondered over it for a moment before speaking again. "You can call me that if it's your wish, Host. Now let us begin."
Hearing the name 'Host', Elise grimaced a little. "Wait wait, just a moment. Let us get our names right first, since we're going to be together for 1000 years right?"
"If you survive that long." A calm voice instantly shot back.
"guh." Choosing to ignore the comment, Elise continued to introduce herself. If there was one thing she did not lack, it was optimism. "My name is Elise, not host. So just call me that. Now that we're friends, let's do this!"
Sighing helplessly, the previously calm and stiff voice seemed marginally more relaxed. "Alright Elise, let's begin the tutorial."
XXX
A young man sat in front of a computer and looked at the scene on screen. A little girl, looking no older than 14 was chatting enthusiastically without a shred of clothing on her exposed body. Her long jet-black was her only coverage. She opened her eyes wide as she shouted something in amusement, her purple eyes and scarlet lips were as beautiful as a seductress.
Across her stood a calm lady dressed in an beige and brown office suite and bright red glasses. She calmed adjusted her glasses while writing things down on her clipboard.
The young man smiled smugly to himself, proud of his work.
"Nathaniel, what the hell are you doing. Get out of your divine space, we need to talk. NATHANIEL"
The man frowned a little at the voice and shut down the computer in a well-practised fluid motion before getting up. Opening the door, he stepped out of a normal looking bedroom into the endless void.