Everyone had that one game avatar they made into a small boy or girl and have them an absurd story line, that original character that was cute but also slightly useless.
Gold had one of those characters who he created in a game called Arcaniase Online where he gave her one of the most useless class known as a Card Maker, the class was hard to cope by and it was very hard to advance through and not to say all the skills were trash.
Gold made the character as a meme and named her Goldie of the Seven disaster stars which were a bunch of terrifying bosses who appeared in the endstory of the game. Basically he made her the vessel of those seven bosses, well storyline and after getting her to level 20 he didn't play her again for two more years.
Now at the age of seventeen, Gold was melancholic and decided to play her but the moment he tapped on her character, something happened.
His computer exploded and with it taking him to the after life...or so he thought. Gold has transmigrated into another world and there was twist, it was not Arcaniase Online and another twist he was not a boy and another twist he was no longer seventeen.
Just as he was about to react, foreign memories suddenly hit his mind and in a cold sweat, he raised both his small and pale hands and gently spoke in a light and cute tone. "I–I ran away from the eighth continent, away from my fami—Wait why the fuck am i Goldie, also why the fuck are card users in this world terrifying?!!."
In her memories, saw that card Makers are beings who are feared across the entire 8th continent which is an unknown ground to the other seven and she was in a lineage of card makers who were card fanatics and also family men and women.
"This is... not a good meme," Goldie muttered, her voice a tinkling soprano that made her want to wince. The foreign memories were already starting to integrate, a confusing deluge of names, places, and rules that governed this new, terrifying reality.
She was currently hiding behind a ridiculously oversized potted fern in a place that looked like a bustling but low-key medieval marketplace. The air smelled of woodsmoke, exotic spices, and something vaguely metallic. The memory fragments told her this was the capital city of a realm called Victorise, located on the First Continent. This entire setting was alien to the lore of Arcaniase Online.
The Eighth Continent. The Card Fanatics. Family
Goldie's original concept, the absurd backstory he had whipped up as a joke, was now a horrifying reality here. His original class, the Card Maker, which was D-tier garbage in Arcaniase Online, was, in this world, an S-Rank Legacy Class, whispered about in hushed tones. They weren't just 'terrifying'; they were practically legendary boogeymen.
Checking her new body's status was an instinctual gamer reaction. She didn't have a translucent blue menu hovering in front of her, but the memories provided an equivalent, an internal sense of her own power.
Name: Goldie (Gold, trapped)
Age: 10 (Mentally Fluctuating)
Class: Card Maker (Droyar Lineage.)
Level: 20.
Cards Owned:Teleport(1—10 metres per 1 to ten points of mana.), Disable.(Prevent someone from using a skill.), Explode (Just for the fun of it.), Inventory Card(Maintain Personal Space.).
Card Blueprints Owned:0
Skills: Create Card, Shuffle Deck, Build Deck, Play Card, Dismantle Card, Blank Card Creation, Card Makers Brand, Droyars Card Technique.
Title: Fledgling Disaster Star.
[Banner—Red Rust(First Disaster Star)—Disaster—Need 5 HiroGems for 1 pull, 50 Hirogems for ten pulls and 100 Hirogems for 20 pulls.]
In her mental space, then banner looked like her but she was wearing a dress that showed her back with the tattoo of a large star covered with chains and she had red hair and eyes.
"Is that the Red Rust version of me also why is there a gacha in my head?!!." The Disaster stars also seem to have changed since there was no such thing as the Red Rust but she was panicking because there was a gacha in the game and also because of the requirements to lift her level cap.
She had to imprint a permanent card onto her body and it was the whole reason she ran away from the eighth continent, her family wanted to tattoo a masculinity card into her body to make her look bulky.
Well no thanks because Goldie actually liked her original appearance and did not want to look like a mix between a muscular man and a delicate girl. She rather be cute but deadly.
Goldie was a girl who was obsessed with her appearance and also like her family, her cards so she definitely would not agree to be imprinted with such an ugly card for her first level cap unlocking ritual.
"But I'm not Goldie?!." Gold ir now Goldie was beginning to struggle with his identity as he could feel the girls obsessiveness overpowering her own will.
The internal struggle was a dizzying, sickening whirl. Gold's rational mind, screaming in denial over the gender change, the age regression, and the entire cosmic joke of it all, was fighting a losing battle against the powerful, deeply ingrained personality of Goldie Droyar.
Goldie's obsession wasn't just vanity; it was an ancestral trait, tied to the very essence of the Card Maker class in this new world. The Droyar lineage saw their physical bodies and their card imprints as the highest form of self-expression. A "Masculinity Card"—bulky and grotesque in Goldie's integrated memory—was an affront to her aesthetic and her lineage's reputation for refined, subtle power.
"No, no, my name is Gold," he/she whispered fiercely, trying to ground herself in his original identity. But the thought felt thin and reedy, immediately drowned out by Goldie's indignant, internal shriek: "That is a commoner's name! My name is Goldie, and I am a Droyar!"
The mental status window shimmered deep within her consciousness. The text next to her name flickered:
Name: Goldie (Gold, fully Fusing in ten minutes).
Gold has now realised it was impossible for him to avoid becoming Goldie or just fusing with her which would basically make no difference in him identifying himself as Gold.
"It's better, atheist you won't live a miserable life outside with no family or friends." Goldie said to herself with a defeated sigh.
The defeat was profound, a full-body slump that Goldie's new, small frame barely contained. The internal resistance crumbled, not out of acceptance, but exhaustion. Gold was losing the fight against a ten-year-old girl's sheer, hereditary force of will.
The mental timer was a countdown to a complete loss of self, yet it brought a perverse kind of peace.
No miserable life outside... Goldie's voice was right. Gold had been a melancholic seventeen-year-old with a dead-end social life. Goldie, however, was a feared S-Rank legacy-class inheritor with a powerful, if terrifying, family and a clear, albeit immediate, goal: Aesthetics over Strength.
I can live with that, a fading piece of Gold's mind conceded. At least I get to be cute and powerful. And I know the system is a gacha... which means I might have a cheat
.
He focused on the shimmering, headache-inducing banner within her mind:
[Banner—Red Rust(First Disaster Star)—Disaster—Need 5 HiroGems for 1 pull, 50 Hirogems for ten pulls and 100 Hirogems for 20 pulls.]
"OK then, before we fully fuse and Goldie regains herself with a but it my own personality, we have to get you out of this situation since bounty hunters are out for you by percieving some fragments of your memories" Golds weakening consciousness spoke with a revitalising tone. If he was going to become a new person, he might as well help himself escape from danger.
Goldie nodded internally. "Ok, let's get out of trouble."
It was weird, he or she didn't know if they were talking to each other or not.
The internal dialogue, though confusing in its origin, was startlingly effective. It was the fusion of two desperate minds, a final, collaborative push before the complete assimilation. The melancholic pragmatism of Gold, coupled with Goldie's intrinsic, powerful knowledge of her world and her class, created a laser focus.
"The bounty hunters. How bad?" Gold asked, the thought barely a whisper against the rising tide of Goldie's personality.
"Bad enough to hire an A-Rank adventurer party," Goldie's integrated memory supplied instantly, layering the information with a sense of cold, almost ancestral fear. "They're looking for a small, ten-year-old girl, Level 20 Card Maker, conspicuous by her lack of a Level Cap Imprint. My parents want me back for the ritual. The others... they want the lineage secret. But if i remove the cap myself, i can be independent and my family can't do anything to me and i can be in danger since i have become independent and do not have my familys protection "
So Goldies first priority was to remove her level cap so she wouldn't be forced to tattoo a masculinity card upon her body and also escape from bounty hunters and she knows the perfect way to do it.
She flipped her hands and a blank card appeared, using the skill [Create Card.] She began to create a temporary card, her current mana pool was at 500 which means she can get a bit creative with her cards. "Create Card: Disguise."
The blank card began to glow with a light blue light and a faint silhouette began to be drawn on it. The silhouette began to draw close to completion and when it was about to finished, a sound echoed through her mind.
[You have Created a card blueprint, as you have created a card blueprint by yourself, you have gained Hirogems, as it is not an original idea the rewards will be reduced, congratulations you have received 2 Hirogems.]
Goldies lips twitched, she internally complained about the reward for creating a blueprint, this is almost worse than actual scraps. But she was mature about it and decided not to throw a tantrum, courtesy to Golds personality melding into hers.
She looked down at the Disguise card with the intricate symbol and felt proud of herself.
[Disguise Card(Consumable).]
[50 Mana required to use.]
[It is in the form of a hunched back man.]
The internal voice—now distinctly Goldie's, though infused with a layer of Gold's pragmatic calculation—snapped her back to the present. The bounty hunters.
"Fifty mana for a consumable Disguise Card? That's steep for a temporary fix," Goldie thought, the old gamer's efficiency warring with the Droyar pride in her creation. But the hunched-back man silhouette was perfect. It was the antithesis of her current, recognizable form: small, delicate, and conspicuously Level 20 without an imprint.
She didn't hesitate. This is not the time for aesthetic refinement; this is the time for survival.
Goldie held the card, felt the distinct, cold energy of her own mana flowing into it, and then instantly played the skill.
[Play Card: Disguise]
A ripple of light blue energy, like shimmering heat, emanated from the card, washing over Goldie. For a moment, she felt a sickening, stretching sensation, a brief, internal distortion of her bones and muscles. The light dissipated as quickly as it came, leaving behind a figure drastically different from the small girl hidden behind the fern.
She was now a man—old, hunched, maybe five-and-a-half feet tall, clad in what looked like faded brown, travel-worn clothes. Her hands were now calloused and slightly wrinkled, and when she moved, her joints popped with an alarming but believable sound. The soprano was gone, replaced by a low, gravelly cough as she tentatively tested her voice.
"Well, that's… effective," she muttered, the sound startlingly masculine. The Disguise Card had not just changed her appearance; it had altered her body mass and height to fit the blueprint, making the initial 50 Mana cost seem entirely justified.
The status window updated instantly:
Active Effect: Disguise Card (Hunched Man).
Duration: 1 hour.
One hour. Enough time to get out of the city gates, or at least to a safer district.
She rose slowly, pushing the large fern leaves aside with her "new" arm. Her gait was stiff, the deliberate shuffling of an elderly person. She blended seamlessly into the crowd of merchants, laborers, and travelers. No one spared the hunched man a second glance; her small frame was now completely forgotten.