April gasped! Again!

  Two times now! It had happened two times now!

  For one, she had woken up from a deep, induced slumber in a brief span, making her feel disoriented. She still had not adapted to the changes her body had gone through, and it made her feel icky—even if it was in a good way.

  For two, it was the second time April had awoken in a different world. The first one had been traumatic and had left deep scars that never truly healed. She shuddered, feeling the chilly air on her skin, reminding her of the simple fact—nothing but their bodies would be transferred to the new world humans would have to conquer.

  “Shit,” she struggled to open her eyes. Again! She had just done it just a few minutes ago! And the HUD was once again going through diagnostics, fshing in various colours, which were…

  Honestly new. It was usually just blue for updates, red for warnings, and white for everything else. The addition of a rainbow in her artificial right eye worried her, knowing she couldn’t fix it if it was damaged, making her half-blind.

  On the bright side, the eye was still there. It had to be deemed as an integral part of her body, as she hadn’t lost it in the transfer. The scientists had specuted it could be a possibility, which was the start of the project that had culminated with her as the final product.

  Pushing away the anger, she did an internal self-diagnosis while her HUD spasmed out. At least it was working, even if there was interference. The HUD was glitchy, indicating there had been an unexpected…

  …Something. It wasn’t exactly helpful to receive the continuous slew of [ERROR]s and [PENDING]s. But at least the integrated system seemed to be crunching through the issue wherever it was.

  More importantly, April opened her eyes and was greeted by light instead of darkness. A sun shone down on her, giving her naked body some reprieve from the biting air. It blinded her—less so in her right eye, which worked remarkably well, to her relief. The visual data was accepted smoothly and without any weird artefacts. It was just the HUD itself that still had issues.

  She found herself on top of a small, rocky pteau with a mountain rising behind her and a steep fall before her, which ended in a thick forest. Up in the air, she could spot faint outlines of the Overseer ships hidden between the clouds. They would soon vanish, but for now, they seemed to linger to finish the transfer of the popution from the previous world.

  The fresh air had the taste of bark and rocks and… Ash and death?

  That wasn’t supposed to be there. April tasted the passing breeze as her vision cleared up and travelled over the forest into the distance where…

  “What,” her jaw dropped. “The,” she tried to parse the information, refusing to believe what she was seeing was real. “Fuck!” Her mind gave up trying to rationalise it.

  Various rge beasts were smashing into rows and rows of what looked like human infantry holding melee weapons. From the back of the frontline, people were unching colourful lights at the incoming threat, while above them rge birds and lizard-like creatures were circling, battling it out for air superiority.

  From the side, another army approached, and April expected it to attack the beasts and their controllers, but no! This apparent human army unched an attack on both battling sides, quickly gaining an advantage due to the surprise factor.

  The lines fell into disarray as they tried to reform as a powerful voice travelled all the way to April, commanding the army to fall back and counterattack. The same happened with the force that controlled the beasts.

  It was chaos! And despite the surprise factor, the third army quickly found itself on the back foot as the previously battling forces seemed to unite at the moment and tried to punish the newest arrival.

  Even more fshing lights passed over everyone's heads, sometimes hitting force fields that sprang up from nowhere. Some fighters moved impossibly fast, cutting through the crowds with just swords in their hands only to be met by a match and begin duelling in the middle of the ongoing battle, killing everyone in the vicinity.

  April gasped, unable to form a coherent response to the sight. She was too far away to make out everything, but she was sure of one thing—it was magic! It looked like magic! And were those monsters? What about the race that controlled those monsters? Why were humans fighting humans? Were those wyverns fighting giant eagles in the sky? Had that mage floating above the battlefield just summoned a meteor shower, only to be shot down by an arrow?

  It all felt like an impossibility, and April realised she was entirely exposed to it on the pteau she was standing on. And she didn’t mean her naked state; she meant the powerful warriors who could gaze her way at any moment and take an interest in her.

  The situation was too difficult for her to understand. Clearly, these parties were all enemies of each other. April didn’t want to get involved in the mess before she had a chance to find out more.

  And-

  A groan grabbed April’s attention. “Oh!” she realised another thing as her eyes fell on a simirly naked figure not far away from the side.

  The newly discovered woman was waking up, and her presence reminded April she wasn’t the only one who had been dropped into this new expanse.

  When she looked around, she found several other bodies strewn across the mountainside in different states of awakening. None as close to her as the woman, though. From what April knew, people from the previous world would be scattered all over the new one. But the direct vicinity before the transfer still pyed a role. This woman had likely been quite close to her before being transferred.

  Which meant either the politicians or the soldiers would be the closest to her position. And hadn’t she held a woman she was using as a shield before falling unconscious?

  “Ah, shit…” April realised this woman was simirly built and the same height. “What do I do with you?” She muttered, still trying to orient herself and decide how to proceed.

  The soldiers had only followed orders. In the end, they hesitated to attack her, nudging April in the direction of sparing the woman with the long, bck hair. She took half a step forward before a new development yanked her attention away from the naked soldier.

  In the distance—kilometres away—a rge ball of energy shot out of the ground and travelled at an incredible speed, reaching for the clouds where the Overseer ships were finishing their operation.

  The shiny ball of psma reached one of the ships in an instant, leaving a fming trail in its path. Contrary to the explosive appearance, there was no boom. It simply sunk into the ship’s hull, melting it in the process—crumpling the vessel before burning it completely until nothing was left.

  After the first psma ball appeared, more followed. In various spots all across the horizon, April saw simir balls appear and shoot up to the sky. Each one found its target—erasing the enemy humanity had never even seen. The enemy they had never been able to do anything against.

  A part of her wondered if those sleek ships had finished dropping humans, and part of her was gd they had been destroyed so thoroughly. April felt awe at the dispy of power. It was another thing that had felt like an impossibility just moments ago.

  Then, she winced and covered her eyes as such a ball suddenly appeared nearby—not even a kilometre away from where she was standing. It slid out of a cave-like entrance at the side of the mountain she was standing on—destroying the thick trees and bushes that had hidden the spot before.

  It zily travelled upwards, gaining speed as it did so until it fshed, crumpling into non-existence another Overseer ship above her head. The heat reached April, leaving a tingling sensation on her skin as the previous coldness retreated in the face of the awesome power.

  And then the sky was clear. Even the clouds had evaporated. The gigantic balls of energy stopped appearing, leaving a deafening silence in their pce as the world seemed to stand still after spending much of its energy.

  Another grunt next to April reminded her of the woman. She tore her gaze away from the sky and, before looking down, she let her eyes slide over the battlefield in the distance. The armies had stopped fighting and were retreating. There was panic and disorder, and she noticed the wyverns and eagles were now circling away from each other, scouting the surroundings while the ground forces disengaged.

  “Ah,” she traced the flying pattern of one of these riders, finding it was flying towards her. April was aware she was the only one standing, catching the attention of those who would seek.

  Looking at it pragmatically, April doubted she could expin the situation to an unknown nation to a satisfying degree. And she didn’t want to be captured to satisfy someone's curiosity.

  “Fuck,” a soft voice cursed nearby. The soldier woman had finally woken up. “What…”

  April’s head snapped towards the green eyes, blinking her way. She didn’t hesitate, pressing her body to move. “We must leave!”

  Despite the continuous glitches, her artificial eye was sharp enough to see the rider on the eagle was brandishing a nasty-looking pike and preparing what looked like a shiny energy bolt aimed at her. Not to mention, more riders were now turning her way.

  Maybe she could take one of them… Frankly, she was tempted to fight the rider, but not when more followed. April didn’t understand this world and the power they had dispyed earlier. She had to learn more before indulging in her curiosity about how strong these people were.

  “S-stay away!” The woman realised who April was. She scrambled to her feet, raising her fists to defend herself.

  The soldier’s groggy stance did little to deter the advancing April. It was a whim, but she wanted to know more about what had left her in this state. It helped that the woman was rather to her taste, so instead of dodging, April received the wimpy punch with her shoulder, leaned down, and grabbed the woman, throwing her over her shoulder. “We are leaving.”

  “Yoooouuu—”

  What 'Yoooouuu' the woman meant, April didn’t know. Her instincts howled, pointing at the danger she was suddenly in. She gnced behind just to see the eagle rider release the energy bolt that now had fiery properties and unch it towards her.

  Ignoring the punches and kicks the woman over her shoulder sprinkled her with, April began running towards the ledge. She had to get down to the forest by using the protruding rocks and try to lose the raider there.

  Of course, just as April jumped off the ledge, the woman almost made her miss the nding location.

  “Don’t touch my ass!”

  April winced. It had been an accident caused because of the flickering HUD that seemed to have finally crunched through whatever issue it had. She simply had to readjust her grip! But she doubted the woman was in a condition to reason.

  “Shut up! Or we die!” April nded on the small protrusion and used her free arm to hold herself to the cliff wall by sticking it in a crevice. She didn’t spend even a second before letting go of the position and sliding lower, gritting her teeth as the friction burnt her skin.

  “Pervert!”

  Behind them, the ledge exploded in fire, swallowing the indignation she felt. At least the fmes seemed to shut up the woman as she froze in April’s arms, likely just now noticing the position they were in.

  Of course, it just meant the woman released a piercing scream, successfully increasing April’s headache. She was regretting grabbing the burden already, feeling more and more annoyed.

  The path down wasn’t exactly easy either. Her improved body managed just fine until she had to dodge another bolt by simply jumping off the cliff she was holding to.

  April did succeed in avoiding the attack, causing the fmes licking the cliff to stay behind. On the other hand, she was now free-falling towards the trees, and the burden had resumed screaming.

  At this point, the fall was just several meters long. It was risky, but she felt confident in her body weathering the fall—even if it would hurt.

  So April changed the way she held the bck-haired woman, letting her slide into her arms. She ignored the accusing, green-coloured gre and prepared herself for the impact.

  The treetop was already there, and the branches received her fall. April crashed into the canopy, shielding the annoyance in her hands with her body. It hurt as her back broke through branch after branch. She held in the pain-filled whine, resolute to not show she was suffering.

  She was blinded again as her artificial eye decided it was time to fre. The HUD rebooted and was fshing with new lines she had never seen before.

  But before she could read them, April felt the ground almost there. She broke the st branch before the ground and kicked out at the tree that had so gracefully broken her fall.

  The kick changed their trajectory and allowed April to reorient herself. She scanned the surroundings, finally nding in a soft moss, her knees bending from the impact, almost causing her to fall.

  They had survived. April breathed out in relief and felt the woman do the same. She blinked, finally checking the HUD, hoping it was functional and could give her the damage report.

  Only…

  [Name: April Forth Age: 542]

  [Strength: 21]

  [Dexterity: 25]

  [Intelligence: 6]

  [Endurance: 19]

  Equipped:

  Head—[NONE]

  Neck—[NONE]

  Torso—[NONE]

  Left arm—[NONE]

  Right arm—[NONE]

  Left leg—[NONE]

  Right leg—[NONE]

  The HUD had changed entirely, leaving April stunned. She tried to understand what she was reading, only to come up empty. “What?” She tilted her head, wondering what this was about.

  Enkiari