Chapter 1

  When I woke up, I was expecting to see my white ceiling—the one I'd spent my budget on last month because staring at beige while debugging code was slowly killing my soul.

  I didn't.

  Instead, it was the sun trying to fry my fucking eyeballs. I slammed my eyes shut, but it was too late - bright spots were dancing around like little assholes behind my eyelids.

  "What the fuck?" I croaked... Huh? That doesn’t sound right. My voice came out all wrong - deeper, smoother. My throat still felt like crap, all dry and scratchy.

  I tried to sit up real quick. Bad idea. My head felt like someone took a baseball bat to it.

  "Shit, shit, shit..." I grabbed my head with both hands, waiting for everything to stop spinning like crazy.

  Something was totally wrong here.

  Where the hell am I? This sure as shit wasn't my apartment with its good lighting and ergonomic setup that had taken me three years of freelance work to afford. Not the place where I'd finally splurged on blackout curtains because my sleep schedule was fucked from taking clients in different time zones.

  And were those actual birds making noise? The only shit that made noise by my place were car alarms and that annoying little rat-dog next door.

  As my vision cleared up, I could finally see where the hell I was. And let me tell you, I fucking froze like a deer in headlights.

  Where the hell am I?

  This wasn't anywhere near my shitty apartment.

  There were trees everywhere - not just regular trees, but these massive fucking giants that looked like they could crush a house. They stretched up so high I couldn't even see the tops, like green skyscrapers made of wood and leaves. The trunks were so thick I probably couldn't wrap my arms around them even if I tried.

  What the hell was going on here?

  For a split second, I thought maybe this was some kind of prank. But I could only laugh at the absurdity of it.

  Who the fuck would prank me?

  I had zero friends. Like, actually zero. The only person who ever talked to me was the pizza delivery guy, and even he looked at me like I was some kind of weirdo. Nobody gave enough of a shit about me to pull off something this elaborate.

  So if this wasn't a prank, then what the hell was it?

  “...”

  Then a thought.

  A possibility.

  Is it?

  No way!

  Damn.

  Did I get frickin isekai’d?

  Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!

  I jumped up, pumping my fists in the air like I'd just won the lottery. Which, let's be real, I basically had.

  This was it. This was actually fucking happening. Every anime I'd ever binged, every light novel I'd stayed up till 4 AM reading, every fantasy I'd had while staring at my water-stained ceiling - it was all coming true.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "I'm the goddamn protagonist!" I shouted at the trees, not giving a single fuck if anyone heard me. "Take that, you beautiful bastards!"

  If this is a dream, don't you dare wake me up, brain. Don't you fucking dare.

  I bounced around like an idiot for what felt like forever, whooping and hollering at the massive trees. My voice echoed back at me, sounding all wrong with that deeper tone I still wasn't used to. But I didn't give a shit - I was living the dream, baby!

  After I finally got tired of acting like a lunatic, reality started creeping back in. I mean, this was cool as hell and all, but I needed to figure out where I was.

  Okay, okay. Think. What do all those stories have in common?

  Systems. Status screens. All that RPG bullshit that made the protagonists overpowered as fuck. I felt like a total moron even thinking it, but... what if?

  "Status?" I said out loud, feeling my face heat up with embarrassment. Good thing nobody was around to see me talking to thin air like some kind of crazy person.

  Nothing happened.

  "Uh... menu? Player screen? Character sheet?" I tried again, throwing my hands around like I was casting some kind of spell. "Come on, work with me here..."

  Just when I was about to give up and accept that I was just some regular asshole who'd somehow ended up in Narnia or whatever, something flickered in front of me. Like when your computer screen glitches for just a second.

  Then BAM! A translucent blue screen popped up right in my face, floating there like it was the most natural thing in the world.

  [STATUS SCREEN]

  Name: ---

  Race: Human/Otherworlder

  Level: 1

  Skills: Monster Maker

  "Holy fucking shit!" I stumbled backward, nearly tripping over my own feet. The screen followed me, staying right there in my vision no matter where I looked. "It's real! It's actually real!"

  My hands were shaking as I reached out to touch it, but my fingers just passed right through. Of course they did - it was like a hologram or something. But it was there, clear as day, with actual information about me.

  "Monster Maker?" I read out loud, squinting at the skill name. "What the hell does that even mean?”

  But then something else caught my eye.

  Magic?

  Did magic exist here?

  I was practically vibrating with excitement. My inner child—the one who'd spent countless hours reading fantasy novels under my covers with a flashlight, the one who'd dreamed of casting spells and going on epic quests—was absolutely losing it. She was jumping up and down, screaming "MAGIC IS REAL! MAGIC IS ACTUALLY REAL!" at the top of her lungs.

  I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning like an idiot.

  Another thing,the name field was just sitting there, blank as hell. Three little dashes where my name should be.

  That's... weird.

  Did that mean my old name didn't matter anymore? Like, was I getting a complete do-over here? A fresh start in a brand new world where nobody knew what a loser I used to be?

  The thought made my chest feel all tight and weird. Back home, my name was just another reminder of all the ways I'd fucked up my life. Every time someone said it, I could hear the disappointment, the pity, the "oh, it's that girl again."

  I reached out to tap the name field.

  The moment my finger made contact - or whatever you'd call it when you touch a hologram - the screen changed. The dashes disappeared, replaced by a blinking cursor and some text that made my heart skip a beat.

  [PLEASE INPUT YOUR NAME]

  [THIS WILL BE YOUR IDENTITY IN THIS WORLD]

  [CHOOSE CAREFULLY - THIS CANNOT BE CHANGED]

  I was right.

  That was both terrifying and exciting as hell. This wasn't just picking a username for some stupid game - this was deciding who I was gonna be for the rest of my life here.

  But what the hell was I supposed to pick? I'd always been terrible at coming up with names. Hell, I still had files on my computer called "New Document 1" and "untitled folder" because I couldn't be bothered to think of anything better.

  Hmm..

  I wracked my brain, trying to think of something that didn't sound like complete garbage. Something strong, maybe? Or mysterious? Fuck, I didn't know. All those cool names from anime and games were running through my head, but they all felt wrong somehow. Like I'd be pretending to be someone I wasn't.

  Ahh perhaps that.

  [Vera Demecillo]

  Yeah. Vera Demecillo. It had a nice ring to it, didn't it?

  It was a character I'd been planning to write about back on Earth - some fanfic I'd been brainstorming where Vera Demecillo was gonna be the main character. I'd spent hours thinking up her backstory and personality, but never got around to actually writing the damn thing.

  Talk about perfect timing.

  The moment I confirmed it, the screen flashed bright enough to make me squint. When the light faded, my status had updated:

  [STATUS SCREEN]

  Name: Vera Demecillo

  Race: Human/Otherworlder

  Level: 1

  Skills: Monster Maker

  Vera Demecillo…Yeah, I can work with that.