The silence of the coffee shop that afternoon suddenly blurred. Kania still clearly remembered the clinking of cups and her friend's soft laughter when she invited her out for coffee. But then an unnatural wave of drowsiness struck her head like a hammer blow. Her body went limp, her vision dimmed, and then everything became pitch-black.
When her consciousness slowly returned, the first sensation Kania felt wasn't the fragrant aroma of coffee beans, but the fishy smell of blood and a searing agony throughout her entire body.
"Ugh..." Kania groaned, trying to move her fingers. Every inch of her skin felt as though it were burning.
She opened her eyes with great difficulty. Her vision was blurry, but she realized this place was nothing like the coffee shop where she'd been moments ago. The room was cramped, its walls made of rotting wood, and dust covered everything.
"Where... am I?" Kania whispered faintly. Her voice sounded hoarse and strange to her own ears.
She tried to sit up. The smell of cheap medicine and rust filled the air. When she glanced down, Kania recoiled in shock—most of her body was covered in dirty bandages wrapped in haphazard patterns. Numerous bruises and marks from beatings showed between the strips of cloth.
With great effort, Kania straightened her body until her eyes caught a dim reflection in the grimy windowpane in the corner of the room.
"Who... is she?"
The reflection in the glass wasn't her. It showed an unfamiliar girl with an ashen face, covered in scratch marks, her eyes dull and lifeless.
Slowly and fearfully, Kania felt her own face. It felt unfamiliar. She then raised both hands in front of her eyes. They were small, thin, and covered in hard calluses—nothing like the well-maintained fingers she was used to.
"These aren't my hands... what the hell happened?!"
Panic made Kania move too quickly. The sudden jerk triggered an excruciating pain in her chest and ribs.
"Awwwh, damn it! This hurts like hell!" Kania screamed while clutching her chest, her ragged breaths releasing waves of hot air. "What the hell happened to me? Was I kidnapped? But why is my body...?"
In the midst of the suffocating whirlwind of confusion and fear, a cold, clear mechanical voice suddenly echoed directly inside her head, cutting through all the noise in her thoughts.
【 Soul Identification Successful. 】 【 Kania Larasati. Age: 27. 】 【 Status: Died of cardiac arrest in her original world. 】 【 Your consciousness currently occupies the body of: Dewi. 】
Kania froze in place. Her eyes widened as she stared into the void, trying to process every word that had just reverberated through her mind.
"What? I died? N-No, no way!!!!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs.
"That's the reality! You have already died!"
Kania stood frozen. The white-walled room suddenly felt so quiet that even the fluttering of a fly's wings in the corner by the window sounded perfectly clear. The pain in her ribs hadn't completely faded, but the confusion creeping through her mind was far more agonizing.
"Who are you?!" Kania yelled, her voice trembling with fear and tension. She turned left and right, sweeping her gaze across every dusty corner of the room. "Why don't you have a form? Where are you?!" 【 I have no physical form. I am an intelligent entity directly connected to the waves of your consciousness. 】 The voice rang out again, perfectly clear, flat, and echoing right in the center of her mind—as though the speaker were standing inside Kania's own head. 【 I am the System that will give you a second life. You have been chosen to operate the Goddess Charm System. 】
Kania furrowed her brow tightly, enduring the throbbing pain in her temples. "The... Goddess Charm System? What is that?"
【 A system designed to reshape fate. A system that will turn you into someone admired, loved, and worshiped by countless people in this world. 】