บท 1: The End of an Ordinary Life
I always thought my life was unremarkable. Every day felt like a repeat of the last, a monotonous loop that I trudged through without much thought. My name is Emily Summers, and I was an ordinary high school student with nothing special to my name.
Morning started like any other. The alarm blared its irritating tune at precisely 6:30 AM, jerking me awake. I groaned, slapping the snooze button, wishing for just a few more minutes of blissful sleep. But the world wasn't kind enough to grant me that small mercy.
"Emily, you're going to be late!" my mom's voice rang from downstairs.
"Coming!" I shouted back, dragging myself out of bed. I glanced around my room, filled with textbooks, posters of bands long past their prime, and a cluttered desk where my laptop sat. Nothing extraordinary, just the usual chaos of a teenager's life.
I dressed quickly, throwing on a pair of jeans and a hoodie, and ran a brush through my tangled hair. After a quick glance in the mirror, I decided it was the best I could do. No time for perfection when you're already running late.
Downstairs, the smell of toast and eggs greeted me. My mom was bustling around the kitchen, trying to get breakfast ready while simultaneously packing lunch for my younger brother.
"Morning, Mom," I mumbled, grabbing a piece of toast from the counter.
"Morning, honey. Did you finish your history paper?" she asked, glancing at me with that worried mom look she always wore.
"Yeah, I finished it last night," I lied. In truth, I'd barely started it. Procrastination was my specialty.
She sighed, not believing me for a second but too busy to argue. "Alright. Just make sure you get it done. You don't want to fall behind."
"Got it," I said, stuffing the toast into my mouth and grabbing my backpack. "See you later!"
The walk to school was uneventful, as usual. The same streets, the same houses, the same people going about their lives. I listened to music on my phone, trying to drown out the dullness with some upbeat tunes. School was just as predictable. Classes dragged on, and I struggled to stay awake through lectures that seemed designed to bore us to death.
"Hey, Emily, did you get the math homework done?" my friend Sarah whispered to me during English class.
I shook my head. "Not yet. I'll do it during lunch."
She rolled her eyes. "You say that every day. One of these days, you're gonna run out of time."
"I know, I know," I sighed. "I'll get it done."
Lunch was the usual affair—sitting with Sarah and a few other friends, chatting about nothing in particular. The cafeteria buzzed with the sound of hundreds of students, each lost in their own world. It was a comfort, in a way, to be part of the background noise.
After school, I had a shift at the local grocery store. It was a boring job, but it paid enough for me to buy the occasional treat and save up for college. I spent hours stocking shelves, ringing up customers, and dreaming of a life more exciting than this.
"Hey, Emily, can you cover for me tomorrow? I've got a thing," my coworker Jake asked as we were closing up.
"Sure, no problem," I replied. More hours meant more money, after all.
As I walked home that evening, the sky was already darkening, the streetlights flickering on one by one. I was tired, my feet aching from standing all day. All I could think about was collapsing into bed and escaping into sleep.
I cut through the park, like I always did, thinking about the history paper I still hadn't finished. I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice the banana peel lying on the path until it was too late. My foot slipped, and before I knew it, I was airborne, arms flailing wildly.
The ground rushed up to meet me, and my head struck the pavement with a sickening thud. Pain exploded behind my eyes, and darkness began to creep in at the edges of my vision. I lay there, stunned and confused, as the world faded away.
The next thing I knew, I was no longer in the park. The cold, hard ground beneath me was gone, replaced by something even more unsettling. I opened my eyes, blinking against the dim light. I was lying on rough stone, the scent of decay filling my nostrils.
"What the…?" I muttered, pushing myself up to a sitting position. My head throbbed, and I felt dizzy, disoriented.
I looked around, trying to make sense of my surroundings. I was in a vast, decrepit hall, the walls crumbling and the ceiling barely holding together. Broken furniture lay strewn about, and cobwebs hung in thick sheets from every corner. It looked like something out of a gothic horror novel.
"Where am I?" I whispered, fear creeping into my voice.
As if in answer, a soft glow appeared before me. I squinted at it, realizing it was some sort of translucent screen, like a hologram from a sci-fi movie. Words began to scroll across it, and I read them with growing disbelief.
Welcome to your new life, Demon Queen Emily.
SYSTEM ACTIVATED
Title: Demon Queen
Objective: Rebuild the Demon Kingdom and become the strongest ruler.
I stared at the screen, my mind struggling to process the information. Demon Queen? Rebuild a kingdom? I was just Emily Summers, an ordinary girl who'd lived a completely unremarkable life.
"Is this some kind of joke?" I said out loud, hoping for an answer. None came.
The screen blinked, and a new message appeared.
Initial Quest: Survey Your Domain
Rewards: Basic Resources, Skill Unlocks
I took a deep breath, trying to steady my racing heart. This had to be a dream, or maybe I'd hit my head harder than I thought. But everything felt too real—the cold air, the musty smell, the rough texture of the stone beneath my fingers.
"Okay, Emily, get it together," I told myself. "Just do what it says. Survey your domain."
I stood up, my legs shaky, and took my first steps into the unknown. The hall was vast, and every footstep echoed through the emptiness. I felt a chill run down my spine as I explored room after room, each one more decayed than the last. It was clear that this place had been abandoned for a long time.
Finally, I came to a pair of large, ornate doors at the end of a long corridor. I pushed them open, revealing a grand throne room. Or at least, it must have been grand once. Now, it was just another ruin, the throne itself cracked and covered in dust.
I approached the throne hesitantly, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu. As I placed my hand on the cold stone, the system chimed again.
Quest Completed: Survey Your Domain
Rewards: 100 Units of Stone, 50 Units of Wood, Basic Construction Skill Unlocked
Before my eyes, piles of stone and wood appeared out of thin air. I gasped, stumbling back in shock.
"This can't be real," I whispered. But the proof was right there in front of me.
I glanced at the new message on the screen, detailing the construction skills I had supposedly unlocked. Diagrams and instructions filled my mind, and I instinctively understood how to use the materials to start repairing the castle.
"Alright, system," I said, a new determination filling me. "If I'm really the Demon Queen, then I guess I have work to do."
And with that, I began my journey into the unknown, ready to rebuild the Demon Kingdom from the ground up.
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