Chapter 1: Death and Rebirth (1)

The first sense to return was smell, and the first thing she smelled was a foul stench.

After regaining her hearing, Qiao Anni heard the dense patter of rain.

Blearily, she opened her eyes and saw a pitch-black night sky.

She let out a pained groan, feeling as if her head was splitting.

‘Where am I? Have I been unconscious for that long?’

‘Logically, the medical staff should have taken care of my hair and such…’

‘And why am I here? It can’t be that they dumped me because I didn’t pay the bill, right?’

She forced herself to stand up and looked around.

She seemed to be at the top of a mountain—if that mountain wasn’t made of garbage, it might have been somewhat picturesque.

“Ugh… this is disgusting. Doesn’t anyone take care of this?”

Cursing, Qiao Anni held out her hand to let the rain wash away the filth.

Only then did she notice that her arms seemed slimmer than before.

The rain kept falling nonstop; staying out in it wasn’t a solution.

Qiao Anni searched the garbage heap and finally found a red raincoat.

“Better than nothing, I guess.”

After putting on the raincoat, the feeling of wrongness grew stronger.

She had always been thin, but now it was even more extreme—like she had shrunk.

Feeling her way downward, she saw larger and stranger pieces of trash.

Bizarre car frames, metal devices of unknown purpose, and what looked like gun parts.

“I wasn’t dumped overseas, was I…”

As she came down from the garbage mountain, she slipped and fell into a furniture container.

After getting up, she found a vanity dresser with a mirror.

Qiao Anni walked over, wiped off the dust, and tried to see her reflection in the light of lightning.

Instead of a somewhat gloomy tall man, there was now a soft, delicate black-haired girl.

‘Wh-what’s going on?’

She blinked in confusion, rubbed her face repeatedly, and only after a long while accepted the truth.

‘So I’ve transmigrated? And turned into a girl?’

Looking down at herself, this body had graceful curves, slender but not frail—much healthier than before.

She took off the raincoat’s hood and gently pushed the container’s iron door, but it seemed locked from the outside and didn’t budge.

Just as she was worrying, she heard the sound of garbage being rustled outside.

‘There are other people in the dump?’

Qiao Anni didn’t care anymore and quickly shouted.

“Anyone there? Can you give me a hand?”

After a brief silence, there was murmuring outside the container, as if several people were discussing something.

Then, a series of knocks sounded on the iron door.

Qiao Anni couldn’t help but move closer to the door.

Soon, with a bang, the sound of metal falling came from outside.

The lock had finally been broken.

“I’m here!”

she shouted excitedly.

The iron door was then pulled open, and several figures entered the container.

“Thank you—huh?”

Just as Qiao Anni was about to thank them, she looked up and saw the figures, freezing in place.

Because their faces were flashing with multicolored lights.

Boom!

Lightning flashed, and by that light, she saw their faces clearly.

Each of them had strange metal embedded in their faces. Some had a couple of keyhole-like rings, others were densely covered like a beehive, making one’s skin crawl.

They each carried a bizarrely shaped tool, some with dark red bloodstains.

‘Is this some new kind of cosplay, or special effects makeup?’

It looked familiar… She remembered playing a game with a similar theme. These people seemed to have undergone cybernetic modifications.

‘Could it be… this is a cyberpunk world?’

‘I actually transmigrated into this damn kind of world?!’

As Qiao Anni was guessing inwardly, the other person spoke.

“Boss, I told you I wasn’t hearing things. There really is a chick in this godforsaken place!”

The leader chuckled.

“Alright, alright, you’re something. I’ll give you an extra ten percent of the cut.”

It seemed they were discussing something quite ominous.

“Um, I’m not a ‘chick’… Also, where is this?”

“Boss, this woman seems crazy, or maybe she’s high?”

“That’s troublesome… Crazy or dumb doesn’t sell for much. How about just ripping out her organs and selling them?”

Hearing these words, Qiao Anni couldn’t help but shiver.

“No way, at least let me have some fun first?”

“Suit yourself. Just pin her down first!”

At the leader’s command, two men stepped forward, one holding a syringe filled with an unknown liquid.

“Wait… what are you doing?”

“What are we doing?”

The man snickered.

“Just putting you to sleep, then showing you something good, little miss.”

Qiao Anni no longer cared to correct their mistaken impression; a more deadly danger was right in front of her.

“Don’t, don’t come closer…”

“You don’t get to decide.”

As the man reached out, Qiao Anni instinctively raised her hands to block, but that only played into his hands. Her wrists were locked tightly.

She struggled desperately, punching and kicking, but the man was unmoved.

“I’ve got her pinned. Hurry up and give her the shot!”

The rusted needle tip approached Qiao Anni’s neck.

She shook her head frantically to avoid it, but eventually her head was grabbed and slammed against the wall.

The needle tip was getting closer.

‘No. I don’t want this.’

Her breathing became more rapid, as if an electric current was running through her body.

The moment the needle touched her skin, Qiao Anni felt something snap inside her brain.

Crack!

An eerie sound rang out, followed by the sound of dripping liquid.

Qiao Anni opened her eyes, which she had instinctively squeezed shut, and saw the man with his mouth wide open.

One of his arms was missing, and there was a gaping, bowl-sized hole in his body.

Blood flowed more and more, starting as a trickle and then like rain.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”

The man screamed, clutching his stump.

Even his companions were frozen in shock at the sight.

‘Who did this? Did the police come to save me?’

‘No, in a cyberpunk world, the cops are all capitalist lapdogs. They wouldn’t come to a place like this…’

Qiao Anni was puzzled. She saw that the people’s expressions had changed to terror.

“Mon…ster…”

Qiao Anni looked down and finally realized the truth.

The man’s severed arm was firmly clutched in her hand.

The “monster” seemed to refer to her.