3 Accepting Her New Reality (Revised)

As Adrian walked back to his room, P thought, 'Now's as good a time as any to start filling in the blanks, or he might not understand.'

"So, your—" This being the first time she participated in this sort of event, she didn't at all expect Adrian to react so violently to just her voice.

"Ah!" Adrian, jolted at P's unprompted speech, jumped with goosebumps lining his arms.

P said, "Now, now. Don't get frightened every time you hear my voice. We'll be bound like this for quite a while, so you'd better get used to my voice randomly popping up from time to time."

"Anyways," she carried on with what she originally wanted to discuss. "You probably have questions as to what the Functions I mentioned earlier meant. To put it simply, you've been turned into an 'RPG Character.'"

"Just like in a game," she continued, "as the Player, you can view and increase your qualitative physical and spiritual traits which from now on will be quantified through the Status Functions. Additionally, through Quest Functions, you'll be able to earn rewards for completing assigned tasks."

"As for who will give you the tasks…" P dragged on her words causing the atmosphere around Adrian to feel colder before she concluded, "For now just assume either I or one of my peers is the source for the demands."

As P finished her explanation of the Functions Adrian had gained, he finally reached his room. There was hardly any lag P's tone as she directly materialized the aforementioned Starter Pack atop Adrian's bed and continued to explain.

Adrian wasn't even afforded the chance to react to the sudden appearance of his Starter Pack as P said, "Those things on your bed are the contents of your Starter Pack."

"Let's see," P reviewed what she knew about Adrian and did him the favor of trying to explain in terms of games. "You built yourself up to be a Time Mage, who practices… medicine? Strange choice, but not necessarily bad."

Moving on from her own opinion, P continued, "With your build, you were awarded a couple things. First of all, you see those clothes?"

To P's prompt, Adrian walked over to his bed and picked up what he considered to be a plain white dress accented with red outlines. Upon picking up the dress, Adrian estimated that it could cover up to the top of his ankles. Furthermore, it came with translucent arm-length gloves, shorts to be worn under the dress, and accompanying thigh-high socks. As far from a fashion icon as Adrian was, even he could tell that the dress was made of high-quality fabrics.

P continued, "That is Elizabeth's Beginner Armor Set and now would be a good chance to try out one of the two primary Functions of the Status Function. By focusing on an object or person, you can will for its Status to appear. How much you know, how strong you are, and what it is that you're appraising, will determine how detailed of a description the subject's Status will be relayed to your mind. The other primary Function of the Status Functions, calling for a Status appraisal while not focusing on a particular subject, will just display your own Status."

Adrian followed through with P's instructions and a breeze-like sensation flooded his mind. After experiencing the direct transfer of information from his Status Functions for the time, he thought, 'It's nice to know that getting information this way won't give me headaches.'

The sensation wasn't unpleasant, but it wasn't euphoric either. It was strange for Adrian to put it into words. At best it could be described to be like getting splashed with water. In any case, since the information transferred wasn't anything too capacity-heavy, the sensation didn't last long. In the end, the clothes' Status read as:

[Elizabeth's Beginner Armor Set

Grade: F-Ranked Mortal Armament

Defense: +20 (+5 Chest, +5 Waist, +5 Arms, +5 Legs)

Description: Woven from the highest quality mortal-grade fabrics in the universe, these clothes were the only thing Elizabeth's master managed to gift her before having to regrettably destroy her Cultivation Base and have her descend onto the mortal world. The set of clothes consists of chest armor, waist armor, leg guards, and arm guards.]

"Elizabeth?" Adrian asked aloud. He had heard P when she named the Armor Set and also read its name immediately after calling for its Status. However, it was only after reading through its description and adding together all the oddities he had experienced shortly before waking up that some semblance of the reason for why this was all happening began to form.

"Isn't Elizabeth the name of the character I made last night?" Adrian asked thoughtlessly even as his mind raced at a mile a minute.

"Wait…" Gradually turning crestfallen, Adrian said, "Are you telling me that the reason I'm now a girl and you're my partner or whatever, is because of that shitty game IRL?" For as impossible as his situation was, too many clues had piled up for Adrian to ignore.

"Yeah, yeah," P didn't even make an effort into trying to reason with Adrian. In fact, to Adrian, it almost sounded like she found his situation humorous as she continued, "You were turned into a girl because of your character creation choices. But considering how quick you were to resolve the situation before, I don't think you should be reacting so extremely." P's voice had a bit of confusion instilled in it.

From beyond the void, she thought, 'What an eccentric Chosen. He only reacts normally after learning what caused his transformation, but actually had thoughts of cruising through life as if it hadn't even happened in the first place before I made myself known. He literally didn't care about it a couple minutes ago, so now shouldn't be any different, right?'

"So you're telling me that if I had just chosen to make my character a male I would have stayed the same? I wouldn't have turned into a girl? Can I still change back?" While Adrian had resolved the issue within his heart earlier, if he could still be a guy, he'd rather not have changed.

'Fuck this gender-bent shit,' Adrian cursed internally. 'If this P Goddess or whatever thinks I'd be happy to know that my transformation was predicated on filling some stupid character creation, she must be beyond stupid.'

Unable to keep it to himself, Adrian spoke aloud, uncaring if P took offense as he said, "I never asked for this, nor have I ever been glad it happened. I just accepted the situation as it was presented itself to me. If it had just been a miracle transformation where I could carry on with my life, I could make do without complaining once. But now, you want to come into my life and tell me that all of this is happening because I created a character on some random underground website?"

"You think I want to be a girl? You think that after living life as a shut-in male for fifteen years, I, of all people, want to swap genders? You made me an attractive young girl and for what? To attract guys? If you're really a Goddess, shouldn't you already know that I have no reason to want this? I just want to be content with my games!"

As Adrian was left gasping from his tirade, P considered where to take the conversation before speaking again.

"It isn't my fault you were the one who made your character this way, nor did I care to take into consideration how you would react," P said.

"Why?!" At this point, Adrian might as well have been throwing a temper tantrum. Though a temper tantrum that P found acceptable considering the card she had dealt him.

"Because it wouldn't matter in the long run," P calmly explained. "You might as well vent your all your frustrations out now as life as you've come to know it changed the moment you were chosen. The moment you became my Chosen."

"You see, the transformation will be the least of your worries as you are now a part of the Cataclysm. You and ninety-nine other Chosen are destined to fight one another and fate itself as apocalyptic calamities befall your home. Compared to the Cataclysm, what's the use in caring whether you're a boy or a girl?"

"Besides," the mood lifted, as P started answering questions, "It's not like we can change what's already been done and even if you hadn't made your character a female, you would have undergone a transformation regardless. Granting you your Functions and altering your body once has consumed a great portion of my power. Even if I wanted to transform you again, since the Cataclysm has begun, you'd also need **********'s permission."

Adrian took a couple seconds to calm down. Though he still somewhat lamented his fate, he reasoned that it wouldn't matter in the long run.

'Now there's some more bullshit in the form of this Cataclysm,' he thought. Taking a deep breath, he further thought, 'A fight against other Chosen and calamities, huh?'

"Heh," a chuckle escaped his lips as he shook his head and concluded, 'Whatever. It's not like I did anything with my identity as a guy in the first place.'

It felt like his consciousness was splitting as a part of him tried to find any positives to his situation while a different part, one rooted in cynicism and negativity, wanted to curse the world to death.

"Hahaha…" His chuckles turned to sickly-sweet psychotic giggles as he thought, 'There's also those Quest Functions.'

His crimson eyes glowed iridescently despite their now squinting state. 'If Quests work in even a remotely similar capacity to the games I'm familiar with, then maybe this new female form of mine will make the inevitable adventuring and socializing I come across easier. Being a girl might even excuse my personality.'

A couple minutes passed with neither Adrian nor P speaking. That time served to stabilize Adrian from his erratic state. Fortunately, he recovered quickly enough and said, "It's fine, I guess. I'll just have to embrace being a girl now."

Returning to the Armor Set on his bed, Adrian continued, "Elizabeth Ultimatia. I guess that will be my new identity."

Though his… now-her words sounded like they had conviction behind them, the way she said them would make anyone sigh and shake their head in exasperation.

P said, "Well, it's good that you've accepted this change. Who knows? Maybe you'll actually come to like being treated as a girl."

Elizabeth couldn't help but scoff at the overtly patronizing tone in P's voice. But P just laughed it off and continued on with her explanation of the items in the Starter Pack.

"So, getting back on track," P said. "Pick up the cyan-colored book next. That one will be your Gateway Magic which, thanks to your decision in picking Time Affinity, will make both our lives very convenient in the future."

Elizabeth did as P asked and some more information surfaced in her mind.

[Grimoire of Time: Shadow Realm Gateway

Grade: F/SSS

Energy Cost: 0 (1D) 1,000,000 (Active)

Description: Blessed by the Goddess P********, this Grimoire can be activated without Status requirements. Upon activation, the caster can transport themselves to the Shadow Realm. Passive activation requires a cooldown of one day, at no cost to the caster's Time Energy, while active activation requires one million units of Inner Strength to activate the spell at no cooldown cost.]

"Shadow Realm?" Elizabeth, still finding it hard to accept that she had literally been made into a game character, asked for clarification.

"Yeah, yeah." Elizabeth could almost feel P waving her hands dismissively as she said, "It's not as serious as you think. The Shadow Realm simply refers to an alternate dimension where you may go to more easily complete several Quests."

"Wait." Elizabeth grinned at the implication, "Does that mean I won't have Quests in the real world?!"

Elizabeth's eyes shined with such luster that even P in her non-physical presence shuddered at her demented obsession for avoiding social interactions.

As if she couldn't stress the point enough, P bluntly said, "No."

She added, "I've already mentioned it, but to reiterate. The Cataclysm will force calamities onto your home. Meaning Planet Earth, where you currently stand."

"Even if it will take a while for any drastic effects to sow chaos, most of the Quests you'll be receiving at the moment will only ask for things you can do on Earth. Nevermind the fact that you'd probably die within the hour if you teleported to the Shadow Realm as you are now, you're hardly fit to survive on Earth," P said, unable to contain the slight derision she held from knowing her words to be true.

"So," P concluded, "while you're still adapting to your new life, don't expect that you'll be exempt from treading the Earth, so to speak."

Elizabeth couldn't even get in a frown of disapproval before P drew the conversation back to the remaining items of her Starter Pack.

"As for the last five items of your Starter Pack, the glowing orb will give you the option to pick a Beginner Weapon, while the smaller stack of needles is your Beginner Medicine Kit. The remaining books are introductory manuals for Medicine, Time Energy Cultivation, and whatever weapon you choose."

Audibly excited, P concluded, "Now that all is said and done, I can finally give you your first quest!"

[Quest Alert!

Main Quest 1: Reach Level 5!

Difficulty: F

Objective 1) Pick a weapon.

Objective 2) Enter the Shadow Realm and gain experience.

Objective 3) Reach the Peak Phase of the Mortal Stage.

Description: P has given you your first Quest to get you prepared for the inevitable Cataclysm. Level 5 will be nowhere near powerful enough for you to survive the Cataclysm, but the purpose of the mission is to inspire a sense of pressure in you to get used to gaining experience and leveling in a short span of time.

Deadline: 6D 23H 59M

Side Quest Detected!

Side Quest 1: Elegant Return

Difficulty: (Incomprehensible to the user)

Objective 1) Storm back up to the ninth layer of Heaven and take revenge for yourself.

Objective 2) Reunite with your previous master.

Optional Objective 1) Take revenge while wearing your Beginner Armor Set.

Optional Objective 2) Prove your strength by taking revenge with only Time and Space Skills.

Description: They tried to put you down, but like a phoenix rising from the ashes, you rebelled against fate and now want revenge. Climb back up the martial ranks of cultivation and deal the same fate that was dealt to you by Sublime Council of Heavenly Sovereigns.]