1 A doomed fate?

And so I died.

Obviously, I had a lot of regrets. In the end, I couldn't get the love of the person I wanted the most.

I was so desperate for that person to look at me and only me that I only realized too late that they weren't worth half the sacrifices I made. Why did it take me so long to realize it?

Why did I waste my life, yearning for that person's affection?

Now, no one will miss me.

I wonder, could someone like me go to heaven? I had wanted to become a better person to atone for my sins and to my parents who abandoned me in my pointless quest, I thought I could move on with my life but the second I made up my mind to start a new chapter, my book of life ran out of pages.

What does my life matter so long as the heroine and the hero get their happy ending? I suppose my death is more than enough atonement. I'm sure my enemies are rejoicing right now.

This thought alone was enough to make me want to weep and gnash my teeth. Frustration, bitterness, animosity, self-loathing and finally resignation.

This last emotion overwhelmed me as I approached the blinding white light at the end of the void. As I approached it grew brighter and brighter.

(. . .)

I blinked. I was in a blank space, completely naked. My body transparent, I couldn't feel anything, I was just... aware. Yeah, I suppose that describes it. I was just aware to the white void around me. There was no trace of the darkness that once encompassed my being.

[Welcome to the Archaven Labyrinth!]

Read a transparent screen before me.

I reached a finger towards the screen and slid my finger down the screen. Like a hovering tablet, the screen moved.

From the looks of the screen's contents. It was like a job listing site on the internet, my resume was a summary of every activity or hobby that I had done within my whole life.

I clicked on the apply for jobs tab. My eyes widened at the soul cultivator class listing. Hundred of light novels I read back then in my spare time came to mind and I poked it. A mini pop up with red text overlapped it.

[Sorry, you do not have enough soul points to be considered for transmigration or reincarnation.]

You mean. . . such a thing was real?

(Soul points? What's that?)

The screen must've heard me because it provided me with text.

[When a human dies, all their soul points are summed up. Soul points are earned based on how often the human followed the promptings of the soul. ]

In other words good deeds? Hmmm. I lived my life as I pleased without much regard for right or wrong. So it was no wonder I didn't have enough of these so-called soul points.

I tried applying to other jobs but I was unqualified for those too. I sighed.

(What am I supposed to do here? Am I stuck here for the rest of my life?)

Text answered me.

[As your soul is still pure, you can still earn soul points by becoming a temp agent in the Archaven Labyrinth]

Even though it was just a spider's thread, the offer gave me hope.

(Really? How do I do that?)

[By reaping the souls of those that bring disorder to the Labyrinth, you can absorb those souls into your own and acquire soul points.]

I think I heard something slightly concerning just now.

[Do you accept this job? Yes or yes?]

They weren't even giving me an option were they? I patted my nonexistent chest.

(Y-yes please.)

[Application for Temp Admin job listing sent.]

Wait Admin? As in administrator? Somehow I felt the truth had been omitted there.

[ Application being reviewed… ]

There was no way I'd pass for this, I was an idol in my past life! I'm not familiar with office management jobs like these!

[Job application has been approved.]

The screen began to vibrate.

All of a sudden a glowing woman emerged from the screen, like a scene from that one horror movie only instead of dead black hair, golden strands protruded out, covering the face of one with golden skin, four sets of wings unfurled from her back, that framed her tall and slender upper torso nicely.

Not to mention her chest was huge, if those existed, even I, who had always taken pride in my pretty features suddenly felt defeated.

I was reminded of my past rival who had the ideal voluptuous figure, the more parts I saw of this creature, the more my soul quaked in the re-realization of these insecurities.

In my old life, my target always went after women with boobs ranging from D and up.

The angel had pretty wide birthing hips too, similarly to that person as well.

How hateful! It only made me remember the words of praise his Grandmother had given to the bitch he was seeing.

She always compared me to that person in my presence. I had a petite body that had curves in all the right places and a nice set of B cups, but I suppose the elderly saw skinny girls as me unsuitable as a marriage candidate.

I had never considered myself lacking until I met him and that family of his. Nothing I did made him interested. And so I began to wonder, MaYbE aS a WoMaN I'm NoT very aTtRaCtIvE? Maybe all my suitors of the past were just attracted to FaThEr'S mOnEy?

{Are you finished?}

(Huh?!)

The angel was staring at me. Could it be she read my thoughts right now?

{Yes, I can. You are just a soul without a body, it makes no difference whether you think or speak, I can still hear you.}

How embarrassing… I covered my face with my hands.

Maybe it's because I'm dead, but I'm not as thick-skinned as I used to be.

I actually felt pretty vulnerable and emotional right now actually. It would make sense, strip me of all my flesh, my beauty and riches and all that would be left was just an insecure child.

{I understand this is all new to you, but please allow me to explain your job, you are free to reflect and contemplate the meaning of life after I leave.} The Angel was eager to get down to business.

For some reason that wounded me. She's pretty cold. (TT. TT) much so like my rival from my past life.

I was imagining my first encounter with a celestial being to be more. . .touching. You know? Angels are supposed to be nice and soothing, their presence overwhelming. . .actually that might be why I'm like this right now.

Her presence is so overwhelming I feel like I can't even compare. Or maybe God was testing me by having me face off with the physical embodiment of a woman I hate? He wants me to feel like dust. He means to liken me like an ant before a goddess.

Yeah, a speck of dust like me was never anything to begin with, but the false praises of my peers and the luxury I got to live. . .What's this? I suddenly felt as if I've been living a lie my whole life!

I could feel the angel's stare.

{. . .} she was waiting.

(. . .) Her appearance was sort of distracting and reminded me of the preferences of that person so I listened as I focused on my transparent fingernails.

{Temp admins are temporary guardians of the forbidden labyrinth, they find and eliminate any intruders trying to infiltrate the forbidden sections. You see the Labyrinth itself is like a factory that mass produces and disperses monsters and resources to various dungeons throughout the world. But sometimes adventurers clearing the dungeons get greedy and venture into the forbidden sections}

In other words, they were looting. But wow, the adventurers must be really hardcore if they are able to clear through the dungeons so easily. Or maybe the monsters are just that weak?

{Your job will be to oversee the security and progress of these forbidden sections.} The Seraphin finished her summarization of my new duty.

(Wait a second, all of them? Isn't that too much of a responsibility for someone like me?! I'm just a human, not an omniscient god!)

The Seraphin- I decided to just call her Seraphia, wrinkled her brow.

{That is odd, I've looked at your life history and I'm pretty sure you are most suited for this task… you will be using the Labyrinth system's interface to dispatch monsters and surveil the forbidden sections… if I'm not mistaken in your world this type of job was called "Dungeon defense?"}

My whole being quaked.

Was she referring to Rpgs? Indeed, back in my past life, I enjoyed playing dungeon defense games to relieve stress.

My favorite game, in particular, was a game called DungeonQueen where you get to play a sexy female boss monster who commands her own army of monsters to kill the cutesy heroine type adventurers trying to raid her tomb.

I stopped playing it after projecting my rival as the sexy boss monster and me as the cutesy character. The tomb had been mine, to begin with, but her sexy ass came and dethroned me...

I began to play later when they released a new dungeon boss character who had a smaller sized chest but still was able to pass as sexy.

Sexier tomb raiders were also released, it was as if the universe had heard my grievances and adjusted just for me. And for this reason, I became somewhat obsessed with DungeonQueen.

"Are you saying this will be like those games?" I looked up from my fingernails, curiosity overriding my jealousy.

{Though it can have that illusion, I advise you to take this seriously, the souls you kill will be added to your own soul points, imagine this as a dungeon raid game set on the highest difficulty level. You are up against powerful adventurers who can clear through 10,000 floors and more of this dungeon with ease.}

(10,000 floors and more?!) My whole being was quaking. That sounded insanely difficult, both my curiosity and interest were dipping and spiking like the readings of a seismograph.

{Thanks to the new law that was passed, to prevent the breach of the forbidden sections, a new floor must be added to the tower every day. However, you are not responsible for the creation of the new floors so please be at ease.}

Seraphia snapped her fingers and a chair and desk appeared. On the desktop was a screen showing various rooms and monsters wandering around. They looked so cute and tiny!!!

{Here.}

Seraphia handed me a stylus pen, it was a pen with a bejeweled feather on it.

I used it to tap on the screen and just like in a dungeon defense RPG a screen popped up identifying the names, race, and abilities of each monster as well as the traps placed on each space around them.

With Seraphia instructing me it was like a hands-on tutorial.

{Drag and drop monsters in the training department to strengthen, laboratory to fuse, and breeding chamber to breed a new species. You can also equip them with armor or customize their appearance, if you show your worth I might even let you create a new dungeon beast.}

Seriously?! I was excited. The games I played never gave me this option before.

{You can also customize the dungeon room, but this all requires currency. The labyrinth earns its money from the number of heroes they can kill. Every day your department will be funded based on the dungeons. The monsters that you raise will eventually migrate to the lower floors, you will no longer be able to train them once they reach maturity they will have to gain experience on their own. So please see to it that they become strong enough to fend for themselves.}

(I see. . .so it's more like monster raising than a dungeon defense.) I had mixed feelings about this, as I weighed it out in my mind my mood was like a see-saw.

{No. You must find a way to protect the babies somehow.}

Somehow? How should I know how to protect them if not even the heavens know? I liked challenges but this one seemed a bit unfair.

Though I suppose it's too soon for me to speak. I should see the conditions of the forbidden section first.

After answering a couple of more questions Seraphia ascended into the white void and disappeared. She left behind a tablet, inside it listed the rules and guidelines of the Archaven Labyrinth.

(Okay, let's get started. Oh! There are people entering?) I tapped the book open only to get distracted by the activity on the 10,000th level.

What the hell?! How can they just suddenly teleport in like that?

(How is that possible?)

I looked through the table of contents, there was a section discussing the dungeon floor rules and so I tapped on it with my finger and skimmed through until my eyes came upon a section.

[[When a player clears a dungeon floor they can teleport back to the end of the completed floor after defeating the boss, due to the xxxxx law passed. Monsters can also drop their own floor level pass that allows teleportation throughout the labyrinth. Due to the adventurers getting their hands on these items after the monsters death, a new law was passed issuing that these free passes would expire after one use on the 10,000th level and higher and that also the rate of items a monster is currently carrying will be dropped is 35%, the remaining loot will be redistributed throughout the floors to monsters on lower levels.]]

I see. . .since adventurers can teleport back to floor levels, that gives them an advantage, I should focus on securing the safety of the babies before they get too close. . . they still had a couple of hundred lvls to go before getting here but you never know when adventurers will enter.

Still, it's crazy, before this law was passed it must have been utter chaos. I'm thankful things were cooled down before this steaming hot potato was tossed to me.

Let's see the forbidden section was in shambles. There only seemed to be 5 different species of monsters left, and from the ruins of the building's remains, I could tell I had my work cut out for me.

Earlier, let's see. . . the monster I had enhanced during Seraphia's guidance was the giant bee monster, aside from the giant bee there were four different other monsters all located in different biomes on the map.