29. Shut in

As Paige lay in bed, she thought that maybe this was how it should be. She was already bored, and she couldn't read anymore because it felt wrong after entering a book herself. And all that was left now was emptiness.

She didn't want to go to school anymore and didn't want to work with the system anymore. Two days was her limit, apparently. She thought this time it would be different with a different body, and she could manage more in this world than a month passively and two days 'working' actively.

Without reading, she changed to watching TV on her mobile phone in bed. She didn't give a fuck anymore; this was really too damn hard. 

When she had gotten welfare in her original world, each moment she felt ashamed about it. She thought of the veterans, really impaired people who couldn't walk or were deaf—most of them would still go to work every day, and she felt like she was just the world's laziest and worst person. But now, she could openly and freely be lazy and depressed. Because her new parents gave her a bunch of money. It was a really good feeling, so she could openly give a damn.

At this moment, she even felt that it was just her heart stopping, so what? Or losing a finger or hand; did it make her unable to eat or sleep? No. And even if the system killed her, wasn't it better than going through boring scenes and having to play the villain, being stared at by a bunch of kids half as old as she was and making her the bad guy? 

Fuck this. Paige started a new page of her hikikomori life and resided in bed.

She quit showering more often than once a week when the caretaker came and cleaned her room. Seeing her freshly made bed, she couldn't bring herself to make it instantly dirty again with her unwashed body, so she reluctantly visited the bathroom.

She didn't know what was going on with Lance, and also felt that this short friendship period was nice as it was, and everyone should care now about themselves. What was really interesting was that the system was dead silent.

Sometimes she poked it in boredom, and it didn't speak up. So, she thought, 'Not bad; even the system can't stand me anymore.' Feeling satisfied, she lived like this for two months. 

Not going to school, no system, nanny caretaker, a ton of hazelnut ice cream. Perfect.

She didn't eat much more than anything that was available with hazelnuts—besides fresh hazelnuts themselves. Paige couldn't cook in her two lives, so 'fuck it'. However what she also ordered was a vape thing without nicotine, because her body was underaged; she urgently needed something to smoke at least if she was already not orderly eating. After two months, she slimmed down unhealthily fast; she lost her big breasts and had smaller ones, so no bra for her when going out in a big hoodie. What she didn't do anyway, but it was good to not need a bra; that was important for someone not wearing one at home since she started being a shut-in.

She didn't care about her eyebrows or tiny ladybeard, and her face was back to the unhealthy pale color with pimples, and a few of them were even infected.

That was the life she knew. 

This day was another day of watching TV; meanwhile, she had ordered a big flat-screen for her room. She heard someone coming into the apartment downstairs and a bunch of swearing. Paige recognized the voice instantly. 

"Oh, it's just Lance." She stood up and locked her room door before lying down again and turning the volume of the TV up. He apparently was not in a good mood, and she was too lazy to care. However, she could still hear the loud footsteps coming up the stairs, and as Lance tried to come in, he furiously pounded on her door. 

"Paige! Open the fucking door and get your goddamn system back! NOW!"