When Anastasia opened her eyes again, she found herself in the back of an old, rusty vehicle, her right leg shackled to the floor by a thick metal chain.
The air reeked of oil, sweat, and something sour. Around her, several others — children and teenagers alike — were bound the same way, chained in tight rows along the walls of the truck.
The first thing that struck her was their appearance.
Bright orange. Crimson red. Deep violet. Even icy blue. Hair colors straight out of an anime or comic book. Their eyes were just as striking with glowing irises and unnatural hues.
They were all so beautiful.
But despite their fantastic features, one thing couldn't be overlooked. They all looked filthy with torn clothes clinging to their malnourished frames. Only a few looked decent.
From the state of things, it wasn't hard to guess they'd been abducted.
Traffickers.
What did they want with them?
She didn't know.
In fact, she didn't know much about anything.
One minute she was crossing an intersection in Oxford. The next, she was in a place called Veloria, the last surviving city after an apocalyptic collapse.
The memories inside this body, Kiah's body, came in scattered fragments. It was barely enough to form a full picture.
.
This planet, Novaris, was an once an elegant, slightly archaic world that was by powerful noble houses. Commoners and labourers served the ruling elite like slaves, which caused revolts to simmer.
After a mass of natural catastrophes resulting from asteroids, order collapsed due to infighting, unstable resources, and their failure to adapt to rising mutation.
Dangerous toxins polluted the air and water. Human's mutated into man-eating monsters. The commoners were mainly affected by these disasters, reducing the standard of living drastically but the nobles didn't care, only focused on their own survival.
The world was at the brink of extinction when a man, the Overseer, came and rose the world from ashes.
No one knew where he came from, only that he brought their salvation. He built humanity to be stronger, faster, and able to survive the toxins. The monsters were wiped out, and peace returned.
But that peace didn't last long.
The Overseer wanted a perfect world, free from revolts and violence so he built a city. Those people whose genetics didn't meet the standard were cast out to the wastelands.
The world was divided into two. The perfect city within the wall, and the savage land which contained sixty percent population of people.
The savages hated the elites and anyone from those noble households who didn't make it into the city were frowned on… even hunted and killed.
In the savage land, the Overseer was either worshipped or cursed.
.
Kiah was an orphan born into one of the fallen noble houses. She was raised in isolation on the cleaner side of this raggedy mess of a city. She rarely left the market district due to insecurity and her identity as a fallen noble, and knew almost nothing about the outside world.
As for the woman that Kiah met on the street and what she was doing in the middle of the road, she had no idea.
Anastasia or rather, Kiah exhaled, long and slow.
'Just my rotten luck.'
Her thoughts drifted.
'What about Mom? How was she doing? Was she worried about me?'
A lump formed in her throat.
Anastasia already accepted the insane reality. Somehow, she had transmigrated into another universe and she was Kiah now.
But she didn't believe she was dead in her original world. The car never hit her. Someone had shoved her out of the way at the last minute.
So… there must be a way back.
They had to be.
'But how? How does this work again? Do I need to clear a mission?'
She was an avid webnovel reader who had read a lot about transmigrations. All transmigrated protagonists always got a cheat to survive in their strange worlds.
If that was the case, wasn't she supposed to get a 'system interface' or at least some kind of ghostly guidance from an ancient god?
Why was hers yet to arrive? Is she supposed to activate it somehow?
She thought of some words.
'Activate.'
Nothing.
'Information.'
Nothing.
'System.'
Nada.
'God of guidance.'
Silence.
'Oh for fuck's sake.'
Before she could spiral further, the truck jolted to a stop, shaking everyone inside.
The prisoners stirred in alarm, including her.
"Calm down, you mutts. The truck just needs a recharge!" A gnarly voice barked from outside, followed by a hard pound at the sides of the truck.
'Recharge?'
Kiah leaned toward a tiny crack in the back panel. Outside, it was already night. They had stopped at an old fueling station, and the truck was now plugged into a bulky charging machine. Despite the rundown surroundings, the tech looked surprisingly advanced.
'Was this all the Overseer's doing from her memories?'
*Click*
Her ears perked at the sound. A girl across from her, cloaked in shadows, was fiddling with her chain. Kiah barely caught the faint smirk on her lips before — click — the shackle popped open.
The girl raised a finger to her lips, her face barely visible under the hood on her head.
Silently, she moved down the line, unlocking everyone's chains with practiced ease, including hers.
"When I kick the door open, run as fast as you can away from this place." She whispered, her voice soft and low. "Don't look back."
"What about you?" a boy asked.
"Worry about yourself, kid."
With that, she turned, and without hesitation, slammed her foot into the back doors.
Light from the street lamps flooded in.
"Hey! What the—!"
The men outside shouted in confusion.
The kids didn't wait.
One by one, they bolted into the night.
Kiah was the last to jump out. She turned just in time to see the cloaked girl flinging her hood aside.
Moonlight hit her skin. It was dark and seemed to glow underneath the starlight. It was hypnotizing.
A massive sword was strapped to her waist, gleaming with menace.
The guards were armed, also drawing out their weapons. Kiah even sighted one of them with a gun.
She ducked behind a dumpster, having nowhere else to go. There was nowhere to run to.
Instead, she peeked from behind the trash, watching the impending battle between the girl and the three traffickers expecting the worst.
'Would she be alright?'
The girl didn't hesitate.
"You wretched men pollute our lands. I will be ridding it of three filths today."
In a blur, she disarmed one man, slitting his throat clean before he could swing his weapon.
Kiah stomach turned at the bloody scene. The man's body dropped to the floor like a sac of rice, eyes still open.
She recognized him as the one who swung a bat at her head.
She wanted to throw up.
The other two men attacked, one firing a gun.
Kiah clutched her mouth to stifle a scream. Bullets ricochet off metal. She expected the girl to fall. But she didn't.
She moved like the wind, agile and swift, a ghost with a blade.
The men swung aimlessly and emptied their clips into the night.
"Shit—where is she?!"
"She killed Rodger!"
"Fucking rebels!"
As they panicked, a shadow rose behind them.
One swing.
Two heads rolled.
Blood painted the cracked pavement.
Kiah's heart pounded in her ears.
The girl's precision with a blade was something she had never seen before. She'd only seen things like this in movies. Never in real life.
But no matter how gruesome the scene was, Kiah didn't feel pity for the men.
Whatever fate they had planned for her and the other kids, death was mercy compared to that.
This strange girl saved their lives.
Kiah watched keenly as the girl wiped her blade and sheathed it. She took out a device from her pocket and an holographic screen appeared in the air. It scanned the corpses before vanishing.
The girl retreated and bolted into the darkness.
Anastasia scrambled to her feet and followed her, legs pumping. To her shock, she was fast. Faster than she'd ever been.
She hated sports. Hated running. Never trained. Yet now, she moved like her body was built for it. It was a strange occurense.
She had also noticed the same trait with the girl and the men during the altercation. Their speed was beyond human. Or at least the version of humans she was familiar with.
'Was this normal in this world?'
Kiah watched in awe as the girl leaped from rooftop to rooftop effortlessly with unnatural grace, landing with ease. She could only follow pathetically from the ground, trying not to lose her.
But soon the chase ended.
Kiah found herself alone in a silent and empty street.
'Where did she go?'
She turned in a slow circle.
That's when she felt it.
A cold blade pressed against her throat.
"Who are you?"