Looking at the game console in her hand, which was somewhere between a Steam Deck and a Nintendo Switch, all the words of rejection Light had been building up within her colpsed. Following the instructions given by the apparent system, she had managed to summon the console with a single thought. The action was unnervingly natural, almost like breathing. Even while simply gazing at the console, she could feel some sort of connection.

  Watching the game dispyed on the screen switch to a different one with a single thought, Light could only admit that she may have indeed been reincarnated with a system, and that this ability was something unique to her.

  “Wait, that means this world will not have Bell. Well, not the canon Bell at least, just someone walking around in his skin,” Light muttered, recalling how the system had informed her that the protagonist of each world avaible to her had been repced. She had originally took it as nonsense, but now she forced to actually take her words seriously.

  “That sucks.”

  Truthfully, Light had mixed feelings about the original protagonist of this world. All her misgivings came down to one instance.

  Light was a proud member of Team Ryuu. Despite knowing her team was destined to lose, her ship would sail until the very end.

  However, that did not mean Light did not respect Bell’s conviction. Despite having literal goddesses throwing themselves at him, Bell would stick to his guns and only have eyes for Ais. If nothing else, his loyalty was mispce—commendable.

  Now that she had somehow ended up in his world, but he would not be here, she felt wronged.

  “What is the situation with him being repced anyway? How does someone just repce another person?”

  [Some people, after dying, have the privilege of meeting one of the True Gods or Goddesses. These gods will sometimes grant humans wishes. The worlds you have at your disposal are those where people have wished to take over the protagonist’s body.]

  “Isn’t that really messed up? These people and these gods essentially just murdered a young man in cold blood. A young man who only wanted to help, who only wanted to become a hero who could save people.”

  Although Bell had picked the wrong girl, and Light would not hear otherwise, he did not deserve to have his life stripped from him. That was something she wholeheartedly felt.

  [The people who make these wishes normally do not see what they are doing as murder. The ramifications of erasing an entire person’s existence are lost on them in their moment of glee.]

  Light could not help but frown, thinking about how Bell had been killed before she had the chance to meet him. The annoying part was that the person who repced him might not actually be a bad person. There was a chance they had simply been careless. Frustratingly, it would have been easier for Light to accept if the person had just been awful.

  Unsummoning the game console in her hand and scanning the forest around her, Light continued.

  “No matter if this new Bell is good or bad, they are undoubtedly still an idiot. Out of all the protagonists in fiction, Bell might be one of the worst ones to take over.”

  [How so?] the system asked, seemingly intrigued.

  “Well, yes, he has an undeniable charm that attracts many women, so on the surface, becoming a harem protagonist might seem appealing to some. But this world’s harem protagonist has cheats and opportunities that are entirely dependent on him being who he is. Without an unwavering heart, his Liaris Freese skill will not stick around. It might not even awaken if his love for Ais is not strong enough.

  “Without this skill, Bell is just another adventurer, like at the very start of the series. Hestia will not even feel pressured to get him the Hestia Knife without his fast growth rate either. Then there is Goddess Freya, who essentially paves the way for Bell to grow stronger. She is only attracted to his soul, which presumably has been switched out in this case.

  “All this person has accomplished is using a wish from a god to become a cute-faced shota.”

  The more Light thought about the situation, the more adamant she became that Bell had been killed for no reason. This person would have been better off asking to be reborn as King Ottar at the peak of his powers, or better yet, Bell at the end of his journey.

  Although it was possible they could turn the situation around using their ingenuity or any additional wishes they may have been granted, it would not change the fact that they had messed up.

  “Can you give me some information on this person?”

  [Most information on other reincarnators is restricted.]

  “Most, but not all, huh?” Light mumbled to herself. “Can you tell me when this person will take over Bell’s body?”

  [He already has control.]

  “So he is already here and has probably been for a while…” Light fell into silence, briefly contempting the ramifications of this information. “Can you tell me what changes this Bell has made to this world’s main plot?”

  [So far, none. The reincarnator seems to be following the pre-established plot step for step.]

  “So they have not realised their mistake yet and think they can just do everything Bell did and get the same result. Stealing his body and copying his actions… how tactless.”

  Afterwards, Light shook her head and redirected her attention. Instead of being caught up on someone else, her time would be better spent figuring out what she would do next.

  After a few back-and-forth exchanges, the system dispyed a map for Light, highlighting all the sign-in spots. Predictably, they were located in pces of significance to the main plot, with the dungeon alone containing over twenty spots. The further she descended through its one hundred floors, the better the rewards she would receive.

  As for the other sign-in locations, they included pces such as the pleasure district, Twilight Manor, the Hostess of Fertility, the alchemy shop run by God Miach’s Familia, a certain forge operated by the Hephaestus Familia, and many more.

  With the main plot of Danmachi taking pce in a single city, the sign-in locations were quite congested. Whoever had chosen this world as her starting location had seemingly done her a favour in that regard.

  Using the map, which dispyed her current position, Light began her journey. Her destination was none other than the City of Heroes, Orario. Fortunately, it did not seem too far from her current location, meaning she could reach it with about an hour’s walk.

  On the way, she decided to use her Fictional Exchange skill and py Final Fantasy XIII. She could have chosen any game from the franchise, as she had only one goal in mind. Something that, all things considered, was quite cheap and easy to obtain, so much so that she acquired it before even reaching the city.

  Checking her item list, she reached her hand into the screen and pulled out a vial filled with golden-red liquid.

  “Phoenix Down,” Light mumbled in disbelief.

  Within thirty minutes of having this new ability, she had already obtained a potion capable of reviving the dead, or at least that was how it worked in the game.

  Unfortunately, there was a high chance that the potion would not actually bring back the dead but instead merely awaken people who had been knocked unconscious. However, with that said, it got its name from the down feather of a phoenix, something that, according to myth, could bring the dead back to life. But Light had no way of knowing how her ability would interpret the potion’s effects.

  It all depended on whether her skill regarded a character’s health reaching zero as dying or merely fainting.

  Light even asked the system if it knew the answer, but it simply responded that she would need to conduct tests to figure it out. A rather unsatisfying answer, but one that did not exactly change anything.

  “Even if it does not bring them back, I can still throw it at any undead that comes my way.”

  Light shrugged, only then realising she had nowhere to store the potion. After patting down her clothes, a basic pair of bck trousers and a cheap brown tunic-like shirt, she turned her attention to her game console.

  “I wonder…”

  Testing her idea, she found that she could return items she had taken out by doing what she did previously in reverse. Watching the Phoenix Down disappear and the number in her item list increase by one, another thought struck her.

  “Maybe I can even transfer items between different games. I might even be able to use certain games as storage.”

  To test the feasibility of her theory, Light stepped off the dirt road and picked up a stray branch that had fallen from a nearby tree. Without hesitation, she attempted to see if her Final Fantasy XIII save could accept random items from the real world.

  “It actually worked,” she excimed happily, her face lighting up with excitement.

  Sitting in the item list was a rather out-of-pce entry: “Tree Branch”. With a single motion, she withdrew the branch just as easily as she had stored it and threw it aside, no longer needing such an item.

  With that confirmed, Light went ahead and started grinding for money in the game. Not only to stave off boredom but also because she felt like it would be necessary soon.

  “I wish I had my old save. This would be so much easier,” Light grumbled while skipping through cut scenes she had seen many times before.

  Eventually, she earned enough to purchase some potions. At the same time, she withdrew one thousand gil from her in-game wallet. In her hand was a circur golden coin, its front adorned with a majestic bird and the number one thousand inscribed on the back.

  Although she was unsure whether the city had an entry toll, she made sure to carry items that could be used for bartering. If the golden coins were not accepted, she could always try selling her potions.

  “I wonder how this potion compares to the ones in this world,” Light mused, pying with a small vial of blood-red liquid. “How much is fifty health to a normal person anyway?”

  Unfortunately, this world did not have a visible health bar like her game. Once again, she would need to rely on trial and error.

  She had a sneaking suspicion that this potion would either break the common sense of this world or be utterly useless, with no in-between. She was hoping for the tter, as it would attract less attention needlessly, but that was in the hands of fate, not hers.

  Before long, towering walls surrounding a city came into view. At the front gate, a long queue of people of differing races waited to enter. Seeing all these fantasy races for the first time, Light felt her second wave of excitement for the day.

  Everything from elves, amazons, beast people, and dwarves was here in all their glory.

  Light unconsciously found her gaze lingering on some of the female elves, their beauty momentarily captivating her. If elves are this beautiful, what about Freya and Ishtar?

  Ignoring the occasional curious gnce she was receiving, Light joined the line, keeping her head down and focusing on her game.

  “Next!”

  Finally, the guardswoman’s loud call snapped Light’s attention back to reality. As she stepped forward, the guard inexplicably blushed the moment their eyes met. Fortunately, she quickly composed herself.

  “Purpose of entry?”

  Although slightly confused by the woman’s reaction, Light chose to ignore it. Instead, her mind was racing about something else. Although the question asked was one she should have expected, she did not know how to answer. She had only come here because of the system and to leave the forest before a monster found her.

  It had been less than an hour since she was reborn, after all. She had no concrete goals. What would other people want to do if they found themselves in this world, she asked herself.

  “I am pnning to join a Familia,” Light answered after some hesitation.

  “An aspiring adventurer, is it? We get a lot of them here. That will be five hundred valis.”

  Pulling out her one thousand gil coin, Light asked, “Would this suffice?”

  The guardswoman took the golden coin, initially mistaking it for valis, but upon closer inspection, her brows furrowed.

  “A giant bird?” she asked, looking strangely at the rge chocobo.

  After testing the coin’s flexibility and gauging its toughness, she was confident that it was indeed gold. Unfortunately, whatever currency this was, it was not on the list of acceptable exchanges.

  “I do not think I can accept this… I will have to ask my superior—”

  Before she could finish, the guardswoman gnced at her superior, who was busy dealing with another person. The person was seemingly arguing that they should not need to pay the toll. Then she looked at the long queue behind Light. Finally, her gaze nded back on Light’s face, the same face that had made her blush.

  “…You can just enter, but do not tell anyone. Welcome to the great city of heroes, Orario. I hope you enjoy your stay.” Stepping aside, she tossed the coin back to Light.

  “Thank you.” Light gave the guardswoman an appreciative nod and entered, again opting to pretend she had not witnessed the clear corruption as the woman seemingly bent the rules for her.

  The moment she stepped through the walls, her system suddenly resounded in her head.

  [Sign-in location: City of Orario has been met. Reward: Newbie Package.]