“What just happened here?”

  An authoritative voice boomed above her, resonating with the same question echoing inside her own head.

  'What the fuck actually happened?'

  Moments ago—at least, that’s what it felt like—Alice stood on the cusp of a discovery that would change everything.

  Her entire career, her dream, was built upon the idea of pushing humanity beyond Earth, beyond the constraints of slow-moving spacecraft, and ushering in a genuine era of interstellar exploration.

  She’d coined the process quantum displacement. Her research team, funded by a global coalition, had spent billions to get it working: to teleport living beings from one location to another in the blink of an eye.

  She’d been the one to figure out the final puzzle piece, the one that unlocked safe teleportation for humans. Or so she thought.

  Because in the last memory she could recall, there’d been a whirring hum that crescendoed into a deafening roar—followed by a brutal, explosive bang that left her ears ringing.

  Then everything went black, like someone had flipped off the lights on her consciousness.

  Now, bright sunlight scorched her eyes. She blinked hard, trying to will the dancing spots away. Somewhere above, a sun glared down at her, and something about it seemed off.

  Bigger, whiter, or maybe just… closer than the sun she knew. Slowly, shapes came into focus: silhouettes of people, all wearing long, flowing garments that looked like something out of a historical drama.

  Her heart throbbed. Adrenaline spiked in her veins, and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to calm herself.

  'Don’t panic,' she warned her own brain. 'First, figure out where you are.'

  she wondered, recalling the intricacies of her own design.

  she argued with herself.

  The entire principle of quantum displacement networks relied on disassembling matter at a molecular level and transmitting that information through an ultra-secure channel—one only the President had the clearance to manipulate.

  Then the system would reassemble the person or object at the chosen destination. Unless someone forcibly destroyed the channel mid-transit, the process was unstoppable.

  She’d designed it that way.

  Which led her to the next terrifying possibility: 'Could the President have shut it down?'

  But that made no sense. She’d literally gotten a signed contract from him guaranteeing a safe demonstration. Also failing of it make his position as president unstable.

  'No reason for sabotage,' she thought. 'He needs this technology as much as we do.'

  So that left… what, exactly? Some cosmic glitch?

  She tried to quell the trembling in her arms, only now noticing that the limbs she was looking at weren’t quite right. Her lab suit was gone, replaced by a loose-fitting shirt—or, well, more like a robe—that definitely did not belong in any modern Earth facility.

  Then there was that enormous sun again, blazing overhead, turning everyone’s faces into dark silhouettes.

  Despite everything, a thin laugh slipped out of her. 'I guess I succeeded… though I overshot my destination by an entire dimension? Possibly?'

  From behind her came the thunderous bark of a man’s voice again, “I asked you a question. What the hell just happened here?"

  The voice shattered her brief moment of introspection. Rubbing her temples, Alice turned—only to see the speaker was a massive, armour-clad figure with a curved sword strapped to his waist.

  The polished metal plating on his shoulders gleamed in the harsh sun. His thick arms crossed over his chest, the posture radiating intimidation.

  "I...I just succeeded," Alice said pushing herself from the ground. Something squeezed her chest so tight the breath she let out came in ragged. She lowered her head to stare at the flat surface on her upper body. Her clothes were also different, may be a bit manly.

  Her eyes darted around. A crowd had gathered, forming a loose circle around her. They all sported similarly archaic outfits: long robes, embroidered tunics, ornate belts. Some wore hats that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a medieval painting.

  'Swords?' She counted at least three people with them. 'No, wait, four.'

  'Could this be some kind of historical reenactment?,' she tried to push away panic of reaching an unknown place. But that didn’t explain the freakishly large sun, or why they were speaking a language she’d never heard—yet somehow understood perfectly.

  Her mind reeled. 'I’m in shock,' she told herself. 'Focus. May be it's just hallucination.'

  "You, succeeded?" a voice came somewhere, followed by a shrill shrieking, “You… you’re lying! I beat you up before you could kiss me!”

  Alice whirled around to see a teenage girl, maybe fifteen or sixteen, trembling with rage. The girl’s robe was bright green, offset by a golden sash cinched around her waist.

  She jabbed her finger at Alice like she was the scum of the earth. “My body and soul are only for Lord Crimson!”

  "What the hell?" The words tumbled out of Alice’s mouth before she could stop them. Her voice sounded… different, higher in pitch than usual, or was that the adrenaline messing with her ears?

  She barely got upright before realising something else: the distance between ground was alot less, like her growth reversed. And the language. She recognised absolutely none of the vocabulary, yet it was comprehensible as if it were spoken in her native tongue.

  “That’s what i'm asking. What the hell is happening?" the man lost all his patience as he spun her to him.

  "Put that fucking hand away,". For a second, she lost her composure. What she hated most in her life was, a man...a big man, reaching this closer to her.

  She glared up at him, "and shut that smelly mouth of y'er."

  “Y-You!” he spluttered, eyes narrowing. “I am the law enforcement officer in this sector. How dare you—eh, L-Lord Alic?” his face changed at the sight of her face.

  The sun casted it's gentle warmth on a face which could be called otherworldly reflecting the pair of crescent copper orbs. His/ her red hair curled behind ears, some unkeptly hiding forehead.

  Before Alice could piece that odd reaction together, the man—who had been so confident, so authoritarian—suddenly dropped to his knees with a resonating clang of armour.

  Several others in the crowd gasped, then followed suit, their metal weapons rattling on the packed earth.

  “Leader of Law Enforcement Unit, Sector 21, reporting to Lord Alic!” he exclaimed, bowing his head.

  'Lord Alic?,' She felt her brain do a cartwheel.

  This was beyond bizarre. It was a mind-scrambling fever dream. She opened her mouth to question him, but the words died in her throat as something bright and blue appeared in the air: a hovering screen, transparent yet luminous.

  Alice stared, too dumbfounded to even gasp. The screen flickered with lines of text:

  An anomaly found. System failing to access any details to construct a suitable path for the user.

  Higher authority needed. Connecting to Isekai Administrator.

  Access denied!

  Warning!

  Falling to spot the anomaly… forcefully deleting all data…

  Just as abruptly, the glowing panel disappeared. She felt her heart skip a beat. She was about to question her own sanity when her vision blurred.

  The kneeling officer, the entire crowd, the dusty street—everything vanished like a snuffed candle flame.

  Now she was floating, or standing—it was hard to tell—in a vast void that stretched endlessly in all directions, as dark and empty as deep space. Another glowing screen materialised, scrawled with text. A mechanical, almost digital voice echoed in her ears:

  [Path awakened]

  [The Absolute Path of Forging]

  Property: Extract, Amplify and Forge aspects.

  Status!

  Name: Alice Hong

  Path: Absolute Forging

  Cultivation: Mortal Realm (Basic Forging)

  Essense Capacity: 2

  Aspect Slot Unlocked: 2

  Next Stage: Qi Gathering, 1st Realm

  Way to Upgrade: Extract any fundamental aspects into soul. Forge this aspect into a metal.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  She blinked once. Twice. Alice Hong? She opened her mouth to speak, but the words lodged in her throat.

  Then, as if someone flipped yet another switch, the eerie void blinked out of existence, and she was back on the dusty street with the kneeling officer and curious onlookers.

  Her breath came in ragged bursts. She felt like she’d just run a marathon with a concussion. ' she repeated in her mind.

  Then came the strangest sensation, like her own memories were unspooling side by side with someone else’s. Images flared behind her eyes—visions of a life she’d never lived, but which felt vivid and real.

  It wasn’t a straightforward injection of memory; more like she was living another person’s experiences moment by moment. She saw scenes of a grand courtyard, towering red walls in the distance, a family crest emblazoned on ornate doors.

  She felt the hot flash of shame, heartbreak, and a constant need to hide who she was. She relived stolen evenings sneaking out to the city’s nightlife, indulging in alcohol, sometimes with questionable company.

  She glimpsed the face of a cold-eyed elder brother, distant yet renowned as some unstoppable genius. And in every single scene, that name repeated: Alic Hong —a boy, the young master of a place known as Crimson City.

  A boy… except some secret memory hinted that was actually a girl disguised from birth, forced to maintain this male facade for reasons that unclear even in the memory.

  Her own voice rasped out loud: “Alice Hong… or Alic Hong… I—” She swallowed, the dryness in her throat turning words into sandpaper.

  Her head pounded with a dull ache. The recollection of an entire alternative existence threatened to drown her.

  Alic Hong —the spoiled brat of the Hong Clan, side to side with Aidan Hong in popularity, while him widely revered as the mighty Lord Crimson, a cultivator so fearsome he could allegedly shatter mountains with a flick of his hand.

  Meanwhile, Alic was popular for exact opposite reasons, a known degenerate, publicly seen as the family’s worthless younger son, a spoiled brat who drowned his insecurities in cheap wine and fleeting pleasures.

  A hush had fallen over the crowd. They clearly expected something from her. The kneeling officer hadn’t budged, nor had the teenage girl who’d cried out earlier. Each second felt like an eternity, but at last, Alice found her voice again—even if it trembled slightly.

  “What’s going on?” she managed. Her tone wavered, half demanding, half pleading for clarity.

  “We are greeting you, Lord.” The man repeated, not daring to raise his head.

  “Shut up…” She rubbed her temples, more out of frustration than any real authority.

  “Of course, my Lord.” He lowered himself further, if that were even possible, letting his forehead press to the ground.

  Alice exhaled. 'So I succeeded in teleporting… but instead of landing in Texas, I ended up in some parallel world of cultivation?'

  The new swirl of recollections told her this wasn’t a mere medieval or ancient Earth. People here practiced something called essence energy.

  They talked about cultivation realms, filling Qi in their dantians, and learning aspects into their sould in the hopes of ascending to realms of power that defied human logic.

  'They seems more advanced, at the same time primitive,' she thought, an odd spark of excitement rising from beneath her panic. 'If I can merge their essence cultivation with my own scientific knowledge, what wonders could I create?'

  But first, she had a more pressing problem. The crowd’s eyes bored into her— she caught glimpses of the crowd’s expressions: underlying disgust, revulsion, or at best, uneasy acceptance.

  'They hate me… or him,' she realised. 'I guess I’m the city’s biggest embarrassment.' A fleeting pang of shame hit her. It was weird feeling guilty for someone else’s sins, but she couldn’t help it.

  Alice forced a grin she hoped looked cocky enough to pass as the old Alic Hong’s style.

  “This was just an experiment,” she said, tossing her hair—Wait, hair? She realised she had a topknot, pinned high with an ornate jade clasp.

  The movement felt foreign yet natural, like muscle memory. “I didn’t expect to end up… here. Where’s that nosy girl who said I tried to kiss her?”

  A tremor ran through the teenage girl in green. “I… you threatened me, you beast!” she snapped, then quickly bowed her head, as if forgetting whether she should fear the city’s ‘noble scum’ or lash out at him.

  “My loyalty is to Lord Crimson alone.”

  Lord Crimson. The name rang in Alice’s new memories. Aidan Hong—the older brother. Legendary. Terrifying. If the rumours were true, he was currently stationed at a fortress near the city’s frontier, dealing with demonic beasts that plagued the borders.

  A swirl of worry gripped Alice. If Aidan discovered that his precious little brother had somehow changed—or worse, died and been replaced by a random Earth engineer’s soul—would he be enraged?

  She might have an entire city’s wrath to deal with. Or perhaps the entire Hong Clan’s.

  She swallowed. “Well… you can rest assured, I’m not going to do anything to you right now,” she lied, hoping to maintain a veneer of the old Alic’s unpredictable brashness.

  “You can keep your soul and body for Crimson or whatever. I have more pressing concerns.”

  The teenage girl appeared torn between relief and offense, but she said nothing.

  Inwardly, Alice was already planning her next moves. She needed to test that new system screen—Absolute Path of Forging, was it?

  She also had to figure out how to navigate this city without blowing her cover. 'Alic is male on paper, but actually female. Meanwhile, I’m female from Earth, so it’s female inside a female who’s disguised as male?' The mental gymnastics were headache-inducing.

  The officer finally glanced up. “My Lord… do you need us to escort you back to the estate?” He sounded both terrified and reverential, which was weirdly unnerving.

  Her lip twitched. She needed time to think in private, to process the collision of two different sets of memories.

  “Yes,” she said curtly, trying to channel the cocky arrogance that Alic might’ve used. “Lead the way. All of you get back to whatever you were doing.”

  Murmurs swept through the crowd, but they bowed and dispersed. The officer barked orders at a couple of underlings to handle crowd control.

  Within moments, the street began to clear, though not without sideways glances and whispered themselves. She had no energy to care about it as her mind occupied with thoughts.

  Alice allowed the officer to guide her through winding alleys. The architecture around her became more apparent: tall, curved rooftops adorned with decorative eaves, richly painted with reds and golds.

  Stone pathways bustled with hawkers selling skewered meats, fruit, and bizarre potions. More swords. More cultivators. She passed by a half-naked man meditating on a street corner, Qi swirling around him like a faint shimmer in the midday heat.

  Her mind soared with questions. 'How can they do that? Could I measure their Qi? Could I replicate it or harness it in an engine?' The scientific part of her was already formulating a dozen potential experiments, ignoring the shock that had consumed her mere minutes ago.

  Eventually, they arrived at a sprawling complex of high walls, imposing gates, and carved pillars. At the top was a sigil: twin crimson dragons swirling around a stylised 'Hong' character.

  She felt a flutter of recognition—both from Alic’s memories and from her own sense of awe. This was the main estate of the Hong Clan, lords of Crimson City.

  “Lord Alic,” the officer said, voice echoing against the gate. “Should I have someone fetch a physician? You… look pale.”

  She mustered a scowl, trying to emulate that haughty jerk from her inherited memories. “I’m fine. Mind your own business.”

  He bowed and stepped aside. The gates opened, revealing a lavish courtyard with meticulously trimmed gardens and koi ponds. Servants in uniform hurried about, each pausing to bow as soon as they recognised Alic.

  Some frowned, likely recalling his infamous escapades. She glimpsed a tall woman with severe features near the entrance to the main hall. Her attire was more refined than the rest—a steward or manager, possibly. She wrinkled her nose at Alice but forced a polite tilt of her head.

  Alice glided past them, inwardly screaming at the awkwardness of it all.

  'I have to keep this up?' she lamented.

  'I don’t even know what half these customs are.' But she had no choice. The memory morsels from Alic should help her with daily interactions, but it would be an uphill battle to avoid suspicion.

  At last, the officer left her at the door to a spacious chamber. She nodded curtly, slipping inside. Once the door closed, she found herself alone in a bedroom that spanned more square footage than her entire apartment on Earth.

  Rich tapestries on the walls, a massive canopied bed, plush chairs, shelves of wine jars, and even a corner table stacked with half-finished calligraphy scrolls. The atmosphere screamed decadent wealth.

  As soon as she confirmed she was alone, she sank to the floor, leaning her back against the bed frame. Her head dropped into her hands, and for a moment, she just let the silent tension wash over her.

  'Holy shit, this is real. I’ve isekai’d myself into a rebellious teenage noble with a double identity.' A half-hysterical giggle bubbled out of her.

  “Congratulations, Alice. You’ve definitely discovered teleportation. Except you teleported yourself to a place you can’t possibly understand.”

  But as nerve-wracking as it was, a pulse of excitement thrummed in her veins. She touched her chest, remembering the system prompt:

  [Absolute Path of Forging].

  Her training as an engineer told her forging was about shaping and constructing—and if the mention of aspects was real, maybe she could shape the fundamental properties of reality in this world. That sort of power could dwarf even her greatest achievements on Earth.

  She rolled her shoulders back, forcing calm.

  “Alright,” she whispered. “One step at a time.” She might be a fish out of water, but that never stopped her back in the lab. Trial and error was the basis of progress, after all.

  If she could adapt to this realm of Qi, and figure out how to hide her new identity, maybe she could not only survive but thrive.

  Besides, this world had something Earth lacked: raw essence energy, apparently a power source for superhuman feats. If she harnessed it right, she could build technologies beyond Earth’s wildest dreams.

  'Imagine what I could do with a spiritual reactor,' she mused. 'Flying fortresses? Inter dimensional gates that actually land me in the right place next time?'

  Of course, she’d have to be careful not to tip off the local bigwigs. If Lord Crimson or any other high-level cultivator realised she was an imposter—and a total newbie in cultivation terms—she’d be crushed like an ant.

  For now, she’d use the excuse of being Alic Hong to explore.

  And, ironically, being forced to pretend she was a spoiled, worthless brat might be the perfect cover. No one expected greatness from Lord Alic.

  'If they think I’m incompetent, they won’t watch me too closely.'

  Her eyes drifted over to a tall standing mirror in the corner. Pushing herself up from the floor, she approached with hesitant curiosity.

  Her reflection came into view: dark red hair pinned in a topknot with that jade clasp, a face younger and softer than her own had been, with wide copper eyes that seemed to flicker with a mixture of fear and determination.

  She touched her cheek, then the corner of her mouth.

  “That’s me now,” she murmured. “Alic Hong, apparently.”

  The reflection blinked, matching her motion. Beneath the loose robe, she felt the distinct shape of her body—definitely female, albeit hidden behind layered wrappings that flattened her chest.

  She sighed, 'no wonder it's so suffocating to speak.'

  Then, in a moment of silent resolve, she turned away from the mirror, crossing to a small table where a half-empty bottle of wine sat next to a porcelain cup.

  She picked it up. 'Might as well see what passes for liquor in this realm.' A quick whiff burned her nostrils, but she downed a swallow anyway, choking at the harsh bitterness.

  "Ugh, it’s strong."

  Still, it calmed her nerves a touch, enough to gather her thoughts. She set the bottle down, quietly scanning the ornate bedroom again. Doors off to one side probably led to an attached bath or changing room.

  The other side opened onto a balcony with a view of a courtyard. Tomorrow, or maybe tonight if she was restless, she’d explore the city again. Possibly with fewer prying eyes.

  For now, she had a thousand questions and no single solution. But at least she was alive, in one piece, and ironically, in a more advanced state of existence than she’d ever dreamed.

  She touched a hand to her lower abdomen, recalling how cultivators stored Qi in their dantians. She felt nothing yet—but she’d bet good money that with a bit of practice, she’d sense something there.

  “Alright,” she said to the empty room, a shaky grin forming. “I guess it’s time to become the biggest troublemaker this place has ever seen.” Or maybe, she privately added, the greatest inventor.

  Because if Alic Hong was known for being a problem child, maybe she could channel that reputation into breakthroughs.

  'Everything could be wait, now what i want is a bath,'

  In that moment, a quiet knock echoed from the door. Alice froze, her pulse jumping. She had no idea who it could be. A servant, another guard, or maybe even a representative of her brother? The possibilities set her nerves alight.

  She glanced around, reflexively searching for a place to hide if she needed to. But the memory of Alic told her that humiliating or ignoring visitors was par for the course. So she steeled herself, clearing her throat.

  “Come in,” she called, trying to sound nonchalant.

  The door slid open a crack, and a timid-looking boy, perhaps fourteen, stepped inside. His hair was cropped short, and he wore a simple uniform denoting he was a low-ranking servant.

  He bowed stiffly. “My Lord, I—I brought you fresh towels and prepared a bath, as you requested.”

  Alice blinked. “Oh. Right.” She tried to recall if Alic had demanded a bath at some point earlier in the day. Possibly. “Thank you,” she said, forcing a dismissive wave of her hand. “Leave them and go.”

  He complied, setting the towels on a table, bowing again, and scurrying out as though the devil himself was breathing down his neck.

  Once he was gone, she exhaled a slow breath. “One crisis at a time, Alice,” she whispered to herself. Then she paused. “Or is it Alic?” A slow grin tugged at her lips. “Both, I guess.”

  Laugher of her echoed as she entered to bath, but stopped abruptly when she touched the water. Her vision shifted into multicoloured threads expanding from the water into her body.

  "This...." her eyes widened as a word came into her tongue, "aspects..."