The role adaptation training took the longest time to complete. And by the time the entire training program was over, although she couldn't confirm it, she was fairly sure a couple of months had already passed.
The good thing was that she was finally ready.
"Are you done?" Dina asked Zero, who was a bit farther from her, surrounded by multiple floating holographic screens while typing on a holographic keyboard with superhuman speed.
"In a bit… and done." He waved his hand, and all the holographs disappeared. "You're quite the impatient one."
"Well, excuse me for being excited to finally do what I've been preparing for after so long," Dina rolled her eyes.
Zero huffed, his magnetic green eyes staring straight at her. "You should be grateful the new policy came along before your arrival. Otherwise, you'd have been the one to make all these reports. In that case, maybe me whining in your place wouldn't be that bad."
"...."
Maybe waiting wasn't so bad after all.
"Alright," Zero muttered, and with a tap of his finger, a new system interface popped up before Dina.
Yes No>
"...Did the tone change…?"
"I thought you'd like something more casual."
Dina felt a bit reluctant but waved it off. Either way was fine.
She tapped yes, and the interface blinked shut. Then it came back on with her transfer in progress!
---
Cosmic framework data is being retrieved…
Data retrieved and permanently stored for future transfers.
Creation of identity… Permission from the Empress granted.
Identity formation completed. Frameworks matched. AIT link stabilized.
All protocols duly observed!
The Transmigration will begin in…
5…>
—
"I'm really nervous," Dina whispered to Zero, who patted her shoulder.
"You'll be fine. And I'll be a good partner."
"Hopefully."
"...."
---
<…1>
---
A white flash blinded Dina's vision, and within that moment, her mind blanked out along with everything else.
***
<.... Stabilization process complete. The Transmigrator has been stabilized!>
As soon as Dina arrived in the mission world, she understood what the system meant by 'sting a bit'.
She rushed into the ridiculously tiny toilet and hurled her stomach out. Nothing except bile came out. This body had been starving before her arrival—wtf!
The toilet seat was closed before she reached out to flush, then she sat a bit away and leaned against the grimy wall.
Damn, even the walls were plain cement. At least the owner wasn't a nasty fella and had managed to keep the tiny toilet clean.
Someone once said online that if your legs could touch your toilet door while doing your business, then you'd have to be quite the miser… She, who had laughed heartily at the joke, had become a victim of it. Ironic.
It took a while before the pounding in her head stopped, and even then, she still felt like shit.
Wobbling out of the bathroom door, her eyes darted across the one-room apartment in desperate search for a place of rest, only to be greeted with a tattered mat and a pile of clothes on top, probably used as a makeshift pillow.
"...."
What even is this? The Dark Ages?
Accessing the identity's memory and world information would probably solve her problem, but Dina was already drained from arrival and so she decided to rest a bit…
The next time she awoke was from a loud banging on her door. She stood up drowsily, stretched her sore body, and staggered to the door.
She paused. She'd be damned if she opened the door to a madman, especially while still so disoriented.
"...Yes?"
"Jerry Springer, if I bang on this door one more time, you're leaving this place butt naked and half-dead!"
Since the door was plain wood, Dina couldn't peer out to see who it was, so all she could do was hold her ground until he settled down.
'I'm guessing… I'm Jerry…?'
"Sir, please have mercy!"
"Mercy?! It's been three months and you still haven't renewed your damn rent! So what if you're unemployed?! I've told you again and again what to do, but I guess you're too 'pure' for it! My patience is worn down, Jerry boy! Take your shit and fuck off!"
"...."
You're telling me he couldn't even afford this rundown shithole?! How fucked is this identity—this was the so-called beginner mission?!
'Fuck, once I've settled this, I'm having it out with Zero!'
"I'll leave, sir… just three more days—"
A loud bang snapped him back into place. "Jerry, just fuck off!!"
"Two, maximum! I swear, you can sell my organs if I stay longer than that!!"
The drastic promise seemed to calm the raging landlord, and after three seconds of holding her breath, the landlord's grumble finally came.
"Two days, Springer. And if I still meet you here—" the man's voice dipped to a fearful low, "I'll sell everything from your body to your soul!"
A loud huff followed, and Dina listened with bated breath as the landlord shuffled along. He seemed like a limper with how uneven his motion sounded, but boy, was he a scary one.
After staying still like a statue for a while, she confirmed the landlord had left before sighing in relief.
"...Zero, wtf was that?! Wtf is this? What is happening?? I thought I was the fucking maid of some rich kid?! I'm a miser??"
"No."
"Then what?"
"You're just an unemployed loser."
"...."
I'm gonna strangle him after this mission!
"You are a maid—or will be soon, with the arrival of an upcoming plot point. Quickly, retrieve this identity's memories and world info to begin!"
Dina was a bit unnerved. She still wanted to argue but decided to be logical.
The memory flood wasn't as painful as she had imagined. Unlike the world transfer that disoriented her entire system, this one merely gave her a light, persistent headache.
Jerry Springer, male, orphan, Normal who took some random surname. Living all on his own in a single-room apartment built more like an experimental facility than a residential area.
Despite that, the greedy fuck of a landlord charged like he was in some well-built apartment, and Jerry couldn't rebel because this was the only manageable place he could get his hands on.
Every other place, once they found out he was a Normal, either rejected him or raised the rent to irrational levels.
He had been working a few part-time jobs he could get his hands on, which he was lucky to get because of his good looks, until some rude high school student took his picture while he was doing his main job and posted it online.
He got famous overnight without even knowing it, and by the time he learned of his one-minute success, he was fired.
Somehow, it leaked that he was actually a Normal who just happened to be pretty, and suddenly, some faceless monsters he didn't even know concluded he had catfished them, called for him to be fired, even threatening to boycott his workplace—and he got fired from his main job, side jobs, and was permanently blacklisted.
Before Dina took over, he had been planning to use his last money to eat something nice, then make a livestream where he ruined his face with acid and pleaded for forgiveness as a final desperate attempt to make a living.
After digesting the entire memory, Dina had to sit for a full five minutes to ruminate on life.
All memories of Jerry, from childhood to adulthood, were filled with oppression and bullying simply because he was a Normal with an absurdly attractive face. He hid his features most of the time, and the one time he decided to unmask them to make a living, he ended up in serious trouble.
Dina only had one question—why this one?
Every identity possessed by the T was an individual who never existed but was integrated into the plot to do their mission.
Of course, the backstory of your identity mattered a lot, and it was always tied to your role.
Meaning, a critical hint on how to succeed in her mission was how the life of her identity and the target drew a parallel to each other.
Placing this hint at a critical part of her mind, she moved on to the next critical question.
What's a Normal?
The world information, which included the former plot she was to prevent from ever happening and the general overview of this world, was updated into her mind.
She learned a bit of the whole Beastman thing from Jerry's mind, but was mostly confused since they came in fragments. Thus, Dina felt quite grateful for the new information that clarified everything.
The world she was now in was like her original world, with the exception being that it was a bit more advanced, and instead of humans, Beastmen were the species that flourished—and they were very diverse.
Beastmen: a race of people who were faster, stronger, much better-looking—they were simply better.
They were divided into three major groups: Pures, Ancients, and Normals.
Pures were the peak of all Beastmen. They were known for being the best-looking and most powerful group, capable of accessing over 100% of their Beast power.
They were so special that they were the only group specially handled by the government due to the threat their power could cause if left unchecked.
There had been official peer-reviewed research confirming that a Pure could take on up to ten Ancients from any subgroup at their peaks and survive the encounter without so much as a scratch. And this was assuming the Pure didn't even use their Beast powers!
They were simply that good.
From what Dina got from Jerry's memories, he had been bullied viciously at a young age because his looks were on par with Pures, yet he was just a Normal.
Next were the Ancients, the most common group.
They were divided into Human-Oriented Ancients and Beast-Oriented Ancients.
Beast-Oriented Ancients could access their Beast power from a range of 45% to 55%, and in rarer cases, 56% to 80%.
They were usually born like Pures, with no visible beast features, but unlike Pures, who had absolute control over their beast traits, their features tended to emerge when stimulated by certain situations.
Human-Oriented Ancients could access 15% to 35% of their Beast power, and in rarer cases, 36% to 44%.
They were unlike Pures and Beast-Oriented Ancients, and were usually born with their beast features emerging from birth. The lower their percentage, the more beastlike they were.
And the last group of Beastmen—the Normals.
Simply put, they were like humans, having 0% Beast power, except that even they had the Beast gene and were hence superior to humans but completely inferior to the rest of the Beastmen.
Being a Normal wasn't all bad, especially since it spared you from the whole secondary gender drama. However, this society had somehow turned it into a sin worse than genocide.