Chapter 1

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It was an ordinary Sunday afternoon. The wealthy wives of the village were gathered at the market trying on jewelry and the farmers were attempting to make a living by selling their crops. In the darkest corner of a nearby ally a beggar girl sat nibbling on a moldy loaf of bread she had snatched from the baker's trash. Glaring at it angrily, she ripped it to shreds before shoveling the pieces in her mouth before the rats could get it. In a village as peaceful as this, it seemed strange for a young girl to be so resentful.

Though, the fact that she had been a beggar for two years after being kicked out of the orphanage at the age of five for being too old and taking up space might have been a factor. This, of course, was not unusual for children of poverty whose parents have long since passed away. This girl should have starved the first week that she was kicked out. As fate would have it, a kind older woman took pity on her and brought her home with her.

This didn't last for long. The woman was married and her husband barely tolerated the beggar girl's existence. A few months later the woman became pregnant and once again the beggar girl was kicked out to make room. She lived by herself, hiding from the local children and struggling to survive; with the loneliness and anger slowly building up inside of her. She decided to go back to that small house to visit the kind woman who had saved her. She learned that the woman had passed away shortly after giving birth to twins. The girl was alone once again.

She traveled on foot and by sneaking on the back of wagons to the small village of Nagon. Nagon was a coastal capital of trade, governed by the noble Light family who were descendants of angels. Their lineage led them to be very arrogant and their arrogance resulted in them ignoring the needs of the people they governed. One day while digging for scraps, the beggar girl attracted the attention of Aelin, the youngest daughter of the Light family.

-Excerpt from "The path of Ultimate Power

The hospital was deadly quiet, well that's if you ignore the frantic beeping of a machine trying to tell the whole world that Someone was dying. A patient's lungs were collapsing and her heart was failing. She was in so much pain and yet there was not one nurse coming to her room.

She sneered internally, 'I already knew that my family wanted me dead but to go as far as making sure no nurses came to my aid as I breathe my last labored breaths was just cruel.'

She chuckled lightly despite the blood starting to come up her throat from somewhere and choke her. She was determined to come back as an evil spirit and haunt them to death.

The patient's name is Isah and She is currently 22 years old. She was the president of Helheim; the largest gang in Eastern Boulevard. She had run the gang for over 8 years after she was kicked out of her house because of the violent tendencies her family could no longer handle. She was pansexual and polyamorous. Basically she was your average queer and mentally ill teenager. Unfortunately she did not come from your average supportive family.

Alas, she continued her education on her own and grew Helheim to be the underground tycoon that it is today. After building Helheim up to the top she destroyed her family's business and suppressed all opportunities for them to recover. She was the type of person who enjoyed the thrill of power and had no interest in the people around her. It was a good life but her excessively cruel actions and cold temperament led to karma coming in full circle. She was walking downtown when a truck swerved off of the road and hit her at full speed. There were rumors that it was planned by an ambitious member of the gang and her unsatisfied family. Regardless, she was sent to the hospital with punctured lungs, broken ribs and a failing heart.

She was going to die.

When the little machine started to sing a flat and lonely tune, She knew that her heart had stopped and in a couple minutes a cardiologist would come in and pronounce her dead. She closed her eyes, knowing that her soul was no longer connected to her body.

          

In her heart she cried out, 'If there is a devil out there or a goddess of vengeance I'm begging you, please make these people suffer and die terribly. If this is too much to ask for then give me the power to do it myself. I sell my soul, my chance at reincarnation, years of my life, whatever it is. I'll pay for it, so please!'

Isah received no response, not that she had expected one to begin with. She sighed, her heart heavy with hate and regret when suddenly she felt a tugging on her spirit. The scene of empty white walls and loud machinery faded and blurred into her surroundings as she fell through space .

...

She opened her eyes to find herself standing the center of a plain gray area and when she took a step forward, it transformed into a forest. The scene seemed to switch between visuals rapidly. For a second it would be full of green trees, moss, crows everywhere, mushrooms and fruits. Then, it would switch to a forest of dead trees, a dark gray sky, crows, and large rocks covered in blood. There were specks of light everywhere and it seemed as if she was standing in the center of the universe.

"Do you like it"?

A man stepped out from behind a glitching tree. He was tall, about 6'8 with loosely combed over black and blonde hair. He wore thin rectangular glasses with golden frames. He wore a large white T-shirt and baggy black pants with black high tops Vans.

Isah instinctively stepped back in suspicion. "And you are?"

He chuckled lightly and smiled, "Oh yeah, I haven't introduced myself yet have I? I'm sorry. I'm system 012, your system. My name is Tong Tian but you can call me Heaven.

Out of thin air a rolled paper appeared while a pen spawned in her hand. Befuddled, she opened the paper without question and began reading its contents.

System and Host Binding Contract

Tasks and Ultimate Task

Host will complete tasks assigned by system 012 in the task world "The Path to Ultimate Power".

Tasks will earn the host task points which can buy things from the system store to help complete the ultimate task.

When the ultimate task is completed the host will be allowed to return back to their original world with all the skills and powers they learned in the task world. (The ability to make their enemies "suffer and die terribly").

The details of the ultimate task will be agreed upon by both the system and host.

The Ultimate Task is: to change the character [Isah]'s storyline and make her significant to the overall plot.

What this means as well as how and when it should be completed is up to the host.

The host may be required to fix plot holes and complete secret events to complete tasks or ultimate task


OOC

The Host (with help from system 012) will become the Character [Isah] and cannot go OOC until she has either completed 100 tasks or accumulated 500 task points.

After meeting one of these requirements The host will be freed from the character's default setting and no longer be restricted.


Going OOC without these requirements being fulfilled will result in a deduction of points. The amount of points deducted will be decided by the system based on how OOC the host's action was.


Dying

If you die in the task world without your ultimate task being completed then the connection with your body in the original world will sever. You will die.

If your task points fall below -500 then the connection with your body in the original world will sever. You will die.

If the level of hate the protagonist has for the host reaches past 100 then the connection with your body in the original world will sever. You will die.

The first time it reaches past 100 the host will have a grace period of 1 year to bring it back down. The penalty will only be valid after the grace period ends.


Host sign here__________________

System sign here SO12 Tong Tian (Heaven)

Isah looked over what assumed was a contract of some sort, Host and system? Ultimate task? All of these unfamiliar words were making it difficult to understand what the hell she was reading. The name "The Ultimate Path to Power '' was familiar to her though. It was the name of a fantasy story she happened to come across after graduating middle school and becoming the head of Asgard, -a huge gang in the area at the time- and renaming it Helheim. It had been almost 7 years since she had read it but the mere thought of it pissed her off. The only reason she had decided to read it was because a character in it had the same name as her. At the time she was excited to see a character so similar to her find success and significance, but no. They just had to kill her off early instead of making her a main character or at least a main villain.

She tried weighing the pros and cons. The pros were that she would get to fix the story of Isah and live on. The cons being she had no idea what she was getting into. It didn't really seem like she had a choice though. If she didn't participate or if she participated and failed then she would die. She had no idea if she would get another chance at an afterlife or reincarnation other than this. After thinking hard, she clenched her teeth and signed her name. The scroll and pen dissipated into light, leaving her empty-handed.

She looked over to Heaven, "So what happens now?". He pulled out what looked like a phone and looked at it before putting it back in his pocket and holding out his hand.

"I guess we just get started. You're my first host since I died and joined the program so I'm not really experienced with this. Let's jump into the world and if you need me I'll be right there the whole time".

She immediately protested, "no, I'm not jumping in some other world without more information".

He stopped and scratched his neck, "Oh ok, that makes sense I guess. What do you want to know?

I thought about it for a minute, "Is the world going to be exactly the same as the book? Which point in the book will I be transported to? Can you affect what happens in the world? Can you stop me from getting hurt?" She took a deep breath and waited for his answers.

He took a moment to think before answering the questions in order, "The world will be slightly different due to you replacing [Isah] the character and will also contain plot patches that were not expanded on in the main story. The plot will further deviate from the original storyline depending on your actions. I can only assist you by helping you purchase items from the store and answering questions about set locations and plot from the original storyline. I can alert you to danger and assess wound damage but can not stop damage from happening without a purchased item. Which point you will be transported to, I can not confirm."

After speaking, he pulled out his "phone" again before looking at it briefly and putting it away. "Alright time to go". He waved away the rest of the questions preparing to come out of Isah's mouth and snapped his fingers.

Once again Isah felt a tugging sensation and her surroundings began to blur and fade away.

Onward, to become a new person, in a new world, about a book she hadn't read in years.

A book in which she dies.

Chapter 1 end

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