The last thing I remember clearly is laughing.
Twelve of us sat around a long table in a restaurant far too expensive for any of us back when we were kids. Now, it felt earned. Promotions. Doctorates. Political victories. Military honors. Every one of us had reached a milestone that night.
I raised my glass, smiling wider than I had in months.
"We actually did it," I said. "Preschool to this."
They laughed, glasses clinking together. Familiar voices. Familiar faces. People I trusted more than anyone in the world.
For a brief, perfect moment, life felt complete.
Then the lights flickered.
At first, I thought it was nothing—just a power issue. The hum of conversation dipped slightly, curiosity replacing celebration.
Then came the sound.
A deep, concussive roar, like the world itself tearing apart.
I didn't have time to scream.
The explosion hit with impossible force. Heat. Pressure. Shattering glass. The table lifted off the floor. My body followed, weightless for a fraction of a second before pain overwhelmed everything.
I remember thinking—not panicking, not praying—just a single, stunned thought:
So this is how it ends?
Darkness swallowed me whole.
I woke up gasping.
Air burned my lungs as if I'd never breathed before. My heart hammered violently, my body cold and strangely light. I sat up instinctively—and froze.
This wasn't the restaurant.
The ground beneath me was stone, smooth but ancient. Torchlight flickered along towering walls carved with symbols I didn't recognize yet somehow understood. My hands—my hands were different.
Slimmer. Stronger. Calloused in unfamiliar ways.
I stared down at myself, breath shaking.
"I'm… alive?"
My voice sounded different too. Deeper. Sharper. Commanding in a way I'd never been before.
Memories surged into me like a tidal wave.
A new life. A new name.
Shammuramat.
Queen. Ruler. Strategist. A woman who would be remembered by history as a legend—and twisted by myth into something else entirely.
But beneath all of that, beneath the crown and the blood and the ambition, I was still Luna.
A fantasy warfare specialist.A scientist.A woman who had just died in an explosion alongside the people she loved most.
My hands trembled.
"Guys?" I whispered. "This isn't funny."
Silence answered me.
Then—
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING…]
The words appeared before my eyes, glowing softly, impossible to ignore.
I stiffened instantly. Not fear—analysis.
A system, my mind supplied calmly, automatically. Classic reincarnation framework. RPG-style interface.
So this wasn't random.
[WELCOME, ADMINISTRATOR CANDIDATE.][SOUL: LUNA — CONFIRMED.][CURRENT IDENTITY: SHAMMURAMAT.]
My breath caught.
Administrator?
Before I could process that, another notification appeared.
[GROUP CHAT UNLOCKED.]
The air shimmered—and suddenly, text flooded my vision.
Julius:Luna. Please tell me you're seeing this too.
My heart slammed painfully against my ribs.
"Thank God," I breathed. "You're alive."
More messages followed, rapid, overlapping.
Cleopatra:Alive is a strong word, but yes. I remember dying.
Alexander:If this is a hallucination, it's very elaborate.
Qin Shi Huang:This environment is real. I've tested it.
Joan:Everyone… please stay calm.
One by one, all of them spoke. Different names. Different identities.
But the same people.
My friends.
All twelve of us.
I pressed a hand to my chest, emotion threatening to overwhelm me for the first time since I woke up.
We didn't die alone.
As if responding to that thought, the system chimed again.
[GLOBAL SYSTEM FUNCTIONS UNLOCKED.]
[1. Yearly SCP SUMMONING — ACTIVE.][2. PRIVATE GROUP COMMUNICATION — ACTIVE.][3. SYSTEM SHOP — LOCKED (REQUIRES FOUNDATION EXPANSION).]
I frowned.
"SCP?" I muttered. "As in… that SCP?"
Containment. Anomalies. Reality-breaking horrors.
Before I could finish that thought, the final message appeared—slow, deliberate, impossible to ignore.
[THIS WORLD WILL REQUIRE YOU.][SECURE. CONTAIN. NORMALIZE.][FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.]
The system faded.
The torchlight flickered.
I clenched my fists, feeling power coiled beneath my skin—untested, unknown, but undeniably real.
I had been Luna.
Now I was Shammuramat.
And whatever god had dragged us here had made one thing very clear:
This world wasn't a second chance.
It was a test.
And I had no intention of failing it.