Chapter 2 – Arrival in the new world

Due to an unfortunate event, Sophia's life in her original world ended. Luckily, someone akin to a god, the overseer of worlds, saved her and let her continue it in another world instead. She just arrived and was naturally still confused.

"Yep, I'm definitely in a different world." Once Sophia was able to open her eyes again, there was no denying it that the place around her couldn't possibly be on Earth. She found herself in an open field covered in lush green grass almost as far as the eye could reach. Even further in the distance, she spotted a ridiculously large mountain range. Looking at the sky sealed the deal for her, though. Not only was the sun much more orange and slightly bigger, but Sophia was also able to see two planets with her bare eyes in perfect detail. One was light green, and the other one was wrapped in a violet hue, together with pinkish stripes. "It looks stunning, that's for sure…" It was too overwhelming, and she didn't know how to react adequately.

"H-Huh?!" Her eyes wandered around on the vast plain when something alarming entered her field of view. "Eh…? Wait a minute! You good for nothing god, or whatever you are! You can't drop a girl in a place full of slimes!" Indeed, Sophia found a group of slimy, semi-transparent globs with a diameter of 50cm to 1m, slowly wiggling towards her. "I knew you're a creep!" She sent a curse towards the heavens before focusing on the problem at hand again. "As if watching others without their permission wasn't enough!"

"W-What should I do? Fight…? Big nope! I don't have a weapon, and-" She glanced at the creepy wobbling of the slimes again. To make it even worse, she then noticed that a few of them even had something resembling tentacles growing out of their bodies. "I'm so not going touch them, let alone go near! Not going to happen! Nope! Never! What else…? Running away? Yeah, I think that's a good idea, I think. They don't seem fast at all. I'm more than fit enough to outrun them… Okay!" Having decided on a strategy, Sophia turned around and kicked the ground to sprint away.

"Mhmm…? Something's weird-" Not being sure what caused her to feel that way, she turned her head around and noticed what was off immediately. She only ran for a few seconds, but the starting point was already in the far distance. "I, uhh, wasn't always this fast, was I…? Nope, surely not. Alright, let's find a safe place and find out what the hell is going on!" The confused girl continued to run for a couple of minutes before reaching an idyllic-looking lake surrounded by a few trees. There, she sat down on a large boulder near the shore to catch her breath, or so she had planned.

"I'm not at all out of breath… despite having run for what it looks like, uh, some kilometers…? W-What kind of monster have I become, to be able to run this fast… and effortlessly? God guy, what have you done to me?!" She faced the sky again to get the retorts out of her system. "Oh, now that I think about it, he never told me his name, did he? Well, whatever… I'm still grateful that you saved my life… sort of, but I somehow can't feel happy! You way overdid it! How can I have a normal life when I'm like this?!" Her continuous complaints got no response, of course.

"Wait a moment-" After having finished voicing her frustrations, Sophia noticed something else. "I was kinda, let's say, busy up to now… but doesn't my entire body feel somewhat different?! My hands, too, don't seem like I remember them…" She looked at them for a good while. "Oi! D-Don't tell me that idiot actually-!" She began to panic once she recalled her conversation with the overseer. While she clearly denied wanting to receive a new body, he apparently had other plans. "Okay! If that's how he wants to play… I'll find a way to see him again, AND I'm going to tear him a new one!" In a flight of anger, she jumped off the boulder and kicked it with all her might. But, instead of feeling a sharp pain in her leg caused by the hard impact, the furious girl just heard a sound resembling an explosion.

"Uhh…" The remaining color left on her face also vanished. Moving like a broken robot, Sophia slowly looked downward, only to find a cloud of dust and pebbles being left. "Y-You can't be serious… That guy seriously turned me into a monster… but-" A smile appeared on her face. "Haha… Ahaha… With that kind of power, I actually can tear him a new one! That was your own mistake!"

"Okay, now that my goal is clear, let's find a way how I can reach him! Should I try to find a town and ask around? Yeah, asking people how to find a god to punch him is surely going to work out brilliantly… Haa~" Letting about a sigh, she stopped. "Wait, do I even want to meet people now? Especially guys…? No matter how big or slim the chance might be… W-What if my new body doesn't agree with what I want?" A shudder ran down her spine from just imagining the conflict.

"B-But what other choices do I have? Maybe I'm able to find a library in a town? I can look up stuff on my own, then. Ah, well... forget not wanting to talk to people right now. I'm not sure if I finally even can now… judging by my past experiences… With a library, the problem basically solves itself. Finding stuff like religious power spots or general places related to gods or h-higher beings should be well documented." She had trouble calling the overseer a higher being.

"Good, let's get operation 'rip him into shreds' going!" Sophia raised a fist in her newfound vigor and looked around to decide which way she should go to reach a town. Her eyes stopped at the sparkling, almost mirror-like water of the lake next to her, though. "Now that I'm stuck with this body for a while, I might as well…" Despite her evident and natural anger, Sophia still was a little curious about how her new body looks. Slowly, she walked towards the water to look at her reflection on the surface, taking a hesitant glance.

"Hmm…?" She blinked a few times. "Hmmmm…?" The girl wasn't sure what she had expected, but it definitely wasn't what she was currently seeing. "T-That's me. isn't it…? Well, not the me me… but me from a couple of years ago. I remember that look…" The person reflecting in the water was the younger version of herself. She was slightly smaller, not quite as well developed as she used, and liked to be in certain areas. The girl's hair also was a bit shorter, about the length to just below her shoulders. It was slightly unruly, with a few strands sticking out, and the color seemed to be lighter as well, more resembling an ash-blonde hue rather than her honey-blonde from before. Sophia's overall appearance appeared to be a bit more adolescent-looking. Even so, because her mind was still older, her experience showed up in her facial expressions. This made her seem slightly more mature than her body indicated.

Her clothes, too, had changed because she was currently wearing a lime green t-shirt with a pair of brown shorts. While those weren't precisely hot-pants, as they covered all the important parts with ease, Sophia didn't overly like how much of her thighs they showed. The finisher of her new wardrobe were the light-brown boots that went up to above her ankles. Overall, the clothes also felt somewhat rough to the touch, not quite comparable to the quality she was used to in her old world.

"15- maybe 16 years, I guess…? Haa~" A deep and relieved sigh escaped her lips. "What the hell! Don't scare me like that, you freaking idiot!" Yet another complaint flew towards the sky. "A-Ah!" Sophia suddenly froze up as she remembered something.

"I wouldn't mind being a couple of years younger, but-" A snippet of the earlier conversation with the overseer came to her mind.

"Ahaha…" A dry laugh echoed through the area. "I-It's my fault!" She sank to her knees. "He just went ahead with what I jokingly suggested! I didn't mean it! Everyone will say something like that on impulse when asked about your body... Well, that's fine, I guess…" Her anger was gone entirely. "Now that I know it's actually my body, just a couple of years younger… Ahh, I'm sooo glad~!" Sophia was finally able to have a calm moment after coming to this world. "Wow, so much fuss over nothing… If anything, being younger again is great! Though, it's cruel to see how much I changed in these couple of years… No, better not think about it."

Feeling the need to relax, Sophia took a few steps away from the lake and let herself fall on the nice and comfortable-looking grass of the plain. "Ahh, so comfy~." Closing her eyes, she spent around five to ten minutes like that. Still, before she fell asleep, the girl's eyes shot open again.

"Being younger again is all fine and nice, but he still turned me into a damn monster!" She looked back at how she easily broke several world records with ease while running away from the slimes or how she casually pulverized a massive boulder with just a kick. "D-Don't tell me he made me an overpowered cheat character like in all those novels! No way…" She didn't want to believe it.

"Also, I'm getting the feeling he messed with something else… like my personality? I never was this frank before, was I…? Him being an idiot aside, he's still something like a god, is he not? I don't think it's normal to be so casual with him? Actually, if he did that, I may have to thank him, after all… I might be able to talk to people now? But still, altering my character…? Scary!" Even though Sophia liked the possibilities, it still felt wrong to her. Not to mention it also caused her to be all over the place.

She stopped once more. "-boost." Remembering yet another snippet of their conversation, more and more things began to made sense. "Ah, I see now… that's what he meant by boosting? That guy took things like my strength and even personality traits and, uhh, modified, well… boosted them. I'm kinda scared by how much now, though. Strength-wise, I'm a total monster… I sincerely hope he was a little more cautious with the rest. Well, he's a god. I should have some faith in him making sensible decisions…" A minute in silence went by.

"… I'm doomed, aren't I?" She was unable to trust him. "Then again, I used to be good at sports because it was a good distraction from… less fun things in life, so… Could that mean because I already was above average when it came to my body, he accidentally turned up my strength all the way to monstrous? This would mean that my, well… way below average personality traits would be boosted to a normal level?" Sophia was trying to convince herself more than anyone else.

"Okay, let's go with that!" She came up with a conclusion that worked for her. "If I'm wrong, I can still resort to operation 'rip him into shreds' from earlier!" Plan B was also already taken care of. With her motivation on the high side again, Sophia pulled herself from the grass, pat the dirt off her clothes, and started walking towards the next city.

"Yeah, uhh-" She quickly stopped again while noticing the fatal flaw in her plan. "I still have not the slightest idea where I am. How am I supposed to find a city like that…? Depending on which way I choose, I could end walking in an entirely wrong direction, never reaching a city at all…" Being in a slight pinch, Sophia looked around, trying to find some signs of civilization. Unfortunately, there was only untouched nature all around her. "Okay, whatever, how about this way…?" She pointed in a random direction without thinking about it. "It's not like there's anything I can do here… Let's hope that guy also boosted my luck, making my guess right."

With her worries cast aside, Sophia began to walk on the path she had chosen on a whim.

Illustration of Sophia (More in the next chapter):