Iara

The moment Iara wakes up on the cold floor she throws up even what she hasn't eaten, her throat burning as a black thick liquid leaves her mouth, her eyes are bloodshot and her hands tremble as she tries to get up from the floor. If the woman could see herself in a mirror right now, she would feel nothing but confusion and despair. Her appearance is haggard, she looks like a walking corpse, even her eyes that before were a light tone of brown are now completely white, even her iris is of a pale tone of grey now.

She feels weird, almost as if she's not really there, her body feels light, her brain numb and she can't even feel the coldness of the floor properly, it's more as she assumes the floor is cold so it is, than actually feeling the cold.

She stares at her trembling hand, her skin is extremely pale, the brownish tone of her skin is practically grey, as if someone sprayed her with ashes.

Am I dead? Is this the afterlife? She wonders, trying to get up as her whole body trembles with the action. Her body that before was plump and healthy now feels like a bag of bones, her muscles gone, with how she’s at the moment she wouldn’t be able to lift the lightest of pots. Much less cook for hours in front of the blazing stove.

As she finally manages to remain standing, a transparent screen appears in front of her, the screen is grey in color and the words are written in a really strong tone of black, something about floor one and a maze, but her vision is too blurry to read it properly.

When she finally manages to stabilize her vision and her body stops trembling, another screen with a running timer is in front of her.

00:45:56

“What is happening?” She mumbles under her breath, shaking her hand in the air, trying to understand the situation, and the first screen appears again, “Is the afterlife some sort of video game?” She ponders with a hoarse sigh.

When she speaks her throat hurts, and she can feel her lips burning, as if she has several cuts in them, her trembling hands touch her lips to feel… nothing. 

“So weird”, she mumbles again, feeling a pang in her head when another screen appears in front of her, again. “System window?” She reads the first words out loud, before reading the rest silently.

Name: Iara Pereira Santos

Age: 26 years 10 months 10 days

Race: Undead Human

Class: Assassin (Lvl. 0)

Weapon: Not yet selected

Titles: Chef of the Dead

Affiliation: None

Water coins: 0 

Fire coins: 0

Again, Iara’s brain hurts, too much information at once. What does this mean by Undead Human? Did she actually die? She figured as much but why undead? And sure, she chose the assassin's class when that freaking weird pink figure talked about classes and whatnot, but she thought it all was just a hallucination.

Maybe it still is, she thinks with another sigh. Chef of the undead? She continues reading, frowning.

Stats:

STR: 22  INT: 12 DEX: 22  LUCK: 1 CHA: 4  CON: 22 MANA: 12

Skills:

Chef of The Dead (Lvl. Max / 100%)

Secret Message (Lvl. 0 / 0%)

She tries pressing the transparent screen like she would a cellphone, and it works, she reads the information of every single thing.

Chef of The Dead (Lvl. Max / 100%)

Just because they're dead doesn't mean they can't be hungry! As a stellar Chef your job is to sate the spirits hunger. The bigger their satisfaction the bigger the reward! This is an exclusive skill for the Player Iara Pereira Santos.

Skill requirements: Cooking equipment and ingredients (must be gathered by Player Iara Pereira Santos and cannot be System bought ingredients)

Skill activation condition: Interacting with a spirit of any species.

Reward of completion: Permanent increase of any Stat accordingly to spirit's satisfaction: 

0%-20% Satisfaction: 1 Stat Point

21%-45% Satisfaction: 2 Stat Points

46%-60% Satisfaction: 3 Stat Points

61%-89% Satisfaction: 4 Stat Points

90%-100% Satisfaction: 1 Random Skill or Equipment (Rank of Skill or Equipment depends on the Spirit Rank)

Negative Satisfaction: -1 Stat Point

So even after dying I still need to worry about customer satisfaction? She snorts reading the skill description. Iara was never one to play many games, so she is just vaguely familiar with the concepts, but not enough to be able to claim she understands every word being said there.

Secret Message (Lvl. 0 / 0%)

Every assassin must be able to be silent and deadly. Send messages to your allies and enemies from afar through telepathy. 

Mana Cost: 3.

Cooldown: 5 minutes.

That's a fine one, she sighs, scratching her head, feeling her dry and messy hair, trying to still process everything that is happening. Not noticing the few strands of her curly hair falling onto the ground with the action. She goes back to the mission screen, escape the maze, she only has half an hour left and no prospect to escape it. So she starts walking.

But it doesn't take long for her to realize that the maze is constantly shifting, not showing a real exit at all. Continuing to walk until the clock shifts to showcase only ten minutes left.

She stops, staring at the cold walls shifting in front of her. “What am I supposed to do? Break them with my bare hands?” A loud sigh leaves her lips as she touches the wall in front of her, solid and cold, just like the corpse of her loved ones. “Not that I ever managed to touch their corpses” she whispers leaning forward, her forehead touching the wall, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

In her mind all she can think of is her past, the memories with her parents, with her lover, even with her colleagues at the restaurant. Most especially that last night when they stared at her with fear and worry. 

I would kill for a drink right now, she thinks with a soft smile, at the back of her brain she keeps thinking about the ticking clock. A clock towards what she assumes it'll be her second death. Should I just give up? Embrace death? I don't have anything left anyway.

Yes, she could just wait until the clock hits zero and die. 

Maybe if heaven truly exists, she'll meet the ones she lost there. And be happy again.

I'll miss cooking, she ultimately thinks, opening her eyes.

A new screen shining in front of her.

Every proper Assassin must have a weapon of choice. According to our Fate Calculator choose your weapon:

Mana Gun

Dagger

Knife

Five minutes left. What's the point of choosing any of them? She already accepted her death.

But curiosity still gets the best of her so she chooses the Mana Gun. Although she dislikes any sort of gun, due to her parents death, maybe the irony of it all will bring a small chuckle to her lips.

Congratulations on acquiring:

1 Mana Handgun

10 Mana Bullets

Congratulations on acquiring:

Skill: Mana Bullet (Lvl. 0 / 0%)

Skill: Poison Bullet (Lvl. 0 / 0%)

Two minutes left, should I at least try? She thinks grabbing the gun, she can't feel the weapon properly on her hand, as if it's unreal. The format is similar to normal handguns, just smaller, almost cute. She points the gun at the wall.

How do I even use the skill? She ponders taking a deep breath before pulling the trigger.

Her ears ring and she falls back from the weapon’s recoil, her hand burning, as if it was even possible to feel this much pain after dying. Iara drops the gun and touches her head, feeling the tip of her fingers completely numb as she leans forward, groaning.

After the ringing stops and the pain slightly subsides, she finally looks up.

There were no more walls in front of her, only a ballroom at a distance, and a message claiming her floor completion.

But none of that is what catches her attention the most, but the red screen in front of all the others.

DANGER

You're experiencing Mana Poisoning, manage your mana properly to avoid suffering side effects and potential death.

She laughs, and laughs. Because even when she accepted her suffering and was ready to let go, the world seemed to mock her.

What was the point of being curious? She should've stayed still.

And now she must suffer more pain?

For what?

A survival she never asked for?

Should she just do it herself? No. She's too scared for that.

Maybe on the next floor, yes, she'll die in the next challenge.

That's the resolution in her head as she walks towards the ballroom, with her hand still burning and her whole body aching.

 ☘︎

IARA’S STATUS WINDOW

Name: Iara Pereira Santos

Age: 26 years 10 months 10 days

Race: Undead Human

Class: Assassin

Weapon: Mana Gun

Titles: Chef of the Dead

Affiliation: None

Water coins: 0 

Fire coins: 0

Gold: 8

TOL Ranking: 607

Stats:

STR: 22  INT: 12 DEX: 22  LUCK: 1 CHA: 4  CON: 22 MANA: 12

Skills:

Mana Bullet (Lvl. 0 / 40%)

Poison Bullet (Lvl. 0 / 0%)

Chef of The Dead (Lvl. Max / 100%)

Secret Message (Lvl. 0 / 0%)

Equipment:

Nothing yet acquired

Inventory:

Smartphone [LOCKED]

Well-cared for Wallet [LOCKED]

Restaurant's Key [LOCKED]

1 lukewarm water bottles [NORMAL]

2 almost rotten apples [NORMAL]