81
Chapter 81
Gu In-young met her death on Earth.
And she was born again in another world.
She had gone through what is known as Reincarnation.
Gu In-young realized the fact that she had experienced Reincarnation.
She wasn't confused.
She was only slightly flustered, but surprisingly calm.
She didn't know it, but it was thanks to the assistance of a skill called Helper.
The reincarnated Gu In-young gained consciousness inside her mother's womb.
At first, she was simply overjoyed by the fact of her Reincarnation.
A forced life reset.
It meant she was given a chance to end her failed life and start completely anew.
To her, Reincarnation was nothing short of a blessing.
She was also glad that she died prior to her Reincarnation.
Not only did she have zero lingering attachments to her previous life, but the hellish existence she lacked the courage to end herself had finally concluded.
Thump, thump.
She felt a flutter of excitement.
However, a wave of anxiety soon began to wash over her.
Would she really be able to live properly in this life?
She wouldn't end up living another failed life, right?
Would she be able to fix her hopelessly flawed personality from her past life?
What kind of people would her parents be?
Please, let them be better than the ones from before.
What about her gender?
She didn't care if she was a girl or a boy, as long as she wasn't ugly.
While all sorts of worries were crossing her mind.
Her mother gave birth, and Gu In-young came out into the world.
Her first encounter with the new world.
So this is the world I will be living in from now on...!
It couldn't possibly be Earth again, right?
.......
But something was strange.
Screams rang out all around her.
Her body, which had been held in someone's hands, dropped onto the bed.
The expressions of the people looking down at Gu In-young were highly unusual.
Gu In-young recognized those expressions.
They were the same looks filled with intense disgust that she had received countless times in her past life.
The mother who gave birth to her denied reality and fainted.
What in the world was going on?
Just what did she look like right now?
Was she terribly hideous or something?
Amidst her panic, Gu In-young noticed another strange detail.
Come to think of it, where did the umbilical cord go?
And why couldn't she move?
Why wouldn't her voice come out either?
Even though it was an obviously chaotic situation, she maintained her composure.
It was the assistance of Helper.
And she belatedly figured out the reason why everyone was appalled, and why her condition was so bizarre.
[Dirty Doll lv.1]
┗Pw.1
┗Rnk.Normal
[Skill]
[Helper lv.1], [Dungeon Creation lv.1]
Helper tactfully displayed Gu In-young's information.
Gu In-young was not born into the same race as her past life.
She, who used to be a Human, was given a new life as a monster belonging to the Doll Tribe.
Gu In-young stared blankly at her information for a moment.
It somehow looked like a game interface.
Could this be the Status Window she used to see in comics and novels?
If so, was this place not a normal world but a Fantasy World?
It was fascinating.
Her interest was piqued.
And soon after, she realized that something was terribly wrong.
Dirty Doll?
She wasn't a person, but a Doll?
Only then did she understand why the people had reacted that way, and why she couldn't make a single sound or move her body.
She wondered what kind of sudden disaster this was.
She was doomed.
There was over a 99 percent chance that this life wouldn't be smooth sailing either.
But Gu In-young quickly changed her mind.
Let's think positively.
No matter how doomed I am, could it be worse than my past life?
Let's not get discouraged right from the start.
At least I wasn't born as livestock or a bug.
Being a Doll is actually quite fortunate.
Seeing that I have skills, I must not be an ordinary Doll, but a special race that just looks like one.
Although the people seem to despise me,
And even though it looks like my parents will abandon me in this life too,
How this life turns out still depends on my determination!
I'm going to make it work somehow!
...But even that thought didn't last long.
Because not long after, she was in danger of being burned at the stake by the villagers.
In the end, she fell into despair.
I'm dying right after being born.
I had such terrible luck failing the Reincarnation lottery, what a mess.
She eventually accepted it.
I guess it can't be helped.
Let's just go through Reincarnation again.
I'll just hope to be born as a proper race next time.
I went through Reincarnation once, who says I can't do it twice?
If it doesn't work out, and this was my last chance, I'll just let go of everything and welcome eternal rest.
That wouldn't be too bad either.
It might even be better than struggling so hard to survive.
There was nothing she could do anyway.
Since she had a body that couldn't even move.
Gu In-young calmly stared at the Humans.
Kill it!
It's the spawn of a Demon!
The Humans shouted as they strung up the newborn Gu In-young.
.......
As she watched them, a belated sense of unfairness began to wash over her.
...I'm suddenly getting annoyed.
How did it end up like this?
Is it because I hated Humans?
Is it my punishment for not living diligently in my past life?
Or is my life just not meant to be blessed, even after going through Reincarnation?
Like I'm under some kind of curse or trapped in the cycle of hell?
If so, what did I even do wrong?
Did I commit some grave sin in a distant past life?
Hatred flared up inside Gu In-young, who had calmly accepted the situation.
She changed her mind.
To hell with eternal rest.
Please, just let me have one more chance at Reincarnation.
And let me be born as a real Demon who will annihilate Humans.
She glared at the Humans with eyes full of hatred.
She burned each of their faces into her memory.
Vowing that if she were born again in this world and got a chance for revenge, she would tear them apart and kill them first.
Whoosh-!
Right before her body caught fire like that.
"Wh-what the?!"
"Ailee! What are you doing right now! That is not your child! It's a Demon's child!"
"Snap out of it!"
"Ailee is running away with the Demon Doll!"
Gu In-young was narrowly rescued by her mother.
***
I wasn't abandoned.
I did have someone on my side.
When everyone tried to burn me, calling me the spawn of a Demon, my mother, who had fainted, appeared like a Hero and saved me.
My mother held me and ran far away.
Perhaps she felt sorry for fainting when she saw me after giving birth, but she cherished me dearly and took care of me with the utmost devotion without resting for a single moment.
Thanks to my mother, I absorbed something called a Mana Stone and even leveled up.
The moment I saw my mother's face full of affection, all my hatred faded away.
It was a gaze that seemed to truly love me.
I forgave my mother for fainting at first too.
It was completely understandable.
If it were me who gave birth to a Doll baby, I would have had a similar reaction. Even in a Fantasy World, it didn't seem normal for a Human to give birth to a Doll.
Since she was loving me now, I didn't resent her for what happened then.
My mother in this life looked different from the mother in my past life.
Even though we hadn't met for long, I felt like she would embrace me and never abandon me for the rest of my life.
Was my mother in my past life like this at first too?
I don't know. I can't remember those days.
Regardless, I decided to fully enjoy this love for now.
I decided to bask in my mother's maternal love.
While thanking my mother for letting me know for the first time just how sweet it is to have someone care for me with love.
"My baby, Mommy will protect you forever. Mommy doesn't care what you look like."
I'm so glad someone like her is my mother.
She seems like a really good person.
If it weren't for my mother, I would have burned to death already.
There was no father.
Hearing my mother talk to herself, it seemed he had passed away tragically.
He died in battle while hunting creatures called monsters.
It was a single-parent household in this life too, but it was fine.
Because the circumstances were different from my past life.
For one, my father didn't abandon me.
And because I'm receiving my mother's love.
***
I do have one thing I feel sorry to my mother about.
Because of me being born as a Doll, my mother became a fugitive.
But I liked being born as a Doll.
To be exact, I liked my current appearance.
It's a bit dirty, but it isn't ugly.
I wasn't even hoping to be pretty, but looking at it more, it seems a little pretty.
It could be a delusion, but this was enough to make me look forward to my future appearance.
Being a Doll means I won't grow normally like a Human, but I heard there's something called Evolution in this world, so I should be able to become an adult someday.
There is one disappointing thing, though.
It's the fact that I can't move.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't even twitch a single finger.
So I quickly gave up.
I only harbored a vague expectation that maybe going through Evolution would allow me to move.
***
I went through a lot in a short period of time.
After many twists and turns, we arrived at a place called the Unknown Continent.
I accidentally met a cute, kind, and amazing Teddy Bear.
My precious mother died....
My benefactor, a Vampire, brought my mother back to life, and my mother was no longer a Human, and I made monster friends, and I became able to move thanks to the Teddy Bear, and I created a Dungeon, and luckily achieved Evolution after receiving the Teddy Bear's gift, and through that gained the beautiful appearance I had longed for so much in my past life.......
Although I went through a very sad event in the middle,
I was highly satisfied with my current life so far.
Because happy days had been continuing ever since I started living with the Teddy Bear.
That Teddy Bear was nothing short of a ball of good luck.
I decided to live my life always feeling grateful to the Teddy Bear, who, just like the Vampire, was our benefactor.
While such days were continuing.
The Teddy Bear, who was always doing eccentric things, was striking various ridiculous poses without fail and firing off golden breaths.
While changing poses like that, it suddenly started dancing.
Seeing that dance, I couldn't help but be surprised.
Because the dance the Teddy Bear was doing was the Zero Two dance, which had once caused a syndrome on Earth.
How does it know that dance?
Is there a dance similar to the Zero Two in this world too?
Even if there is, there's no way the Teddy Bear, who had been living alone in solitude, would know it, right?
Then is it just an original dance that happens to look like the Zero Two by coincidence?
...That could be the case, but I suspected that maybe the Teddy Bear was also someone who went through Reincarnation like me.
Because for a coincidence, the dance was way too similar.
If it is someone who went through Reincarnation, what country were they from?
Seeing that it knows the Zero Two, it must be from Earth, right?
If the Teddy Bear really is someone from Earth who went through Reincarnation, how should I treat it from then on?
Will I trust and rely on it more because we are from the same place?
Or will it remind me of the nightmares from my past life and make me distance myself?
Even if I recall the nightmares, since the Teddy Bear is my benefactor, would my feelings remain unchanged?
...I don't know.
Let us think about that later.
There is no need to worry about it already.
Since I am not even sure if it actually experienced Reincarnation yet.
From then on, I observed the Teddy Bear frequently.
It was to look for evidence of Reincarnation in another Action.
Then, I sneaked up to the Teddy Bear and tried to converse through writing.
Since we could not speak to each other.
First, in English....
.......
I cannot write in English.
How do I write the alphabet again?
I do not know why I forgot this.
I decided to just try writing in Korean.
If I am lucky, it might be someone from South Korea, or someone who underwent Reincarnation and knows what Korean characters look like to some extent.
.......
...Huh.
How do I write Korean?
Ga-na-da-ra-ma-ba-sa.
It does come to mind.
But strangely, I have absolutely no idea how to express it physically.
...I give up on trying to converse in the language of my past life.
Changing tactics, I decided to do the Zero Two dance the Teddy Bear had shown off.
Thump, thump.
Sway, sway.
Clap, clap, clap, clap!
The Teddy Bear watched my dance and clapped in delight.
The meaning did not get across.
It just seemed to think I was copying its dance.
Then what about this?
How about this dance!
Next, I tried doing the once-popular Pikki Pikki dance.
But the Teddy Bear tilted its head as if it were a dance it had never seen before.
What, it does not know this dance?
But it knows the Zero Two?
Scratch, scratch.
I scratched my head and stepped back for now.
Of course, I did not conclude that the Teddy Bear had not experienced Reincarnation just from what happened.
My suspicion was still ongoing.
It might have experienced Reincarnation but just did not know the Pikki Pikki dance.
I figured it would know this dance if it knew the Zero Two, but thinking about it, Pikki Pikki was a relatively brief flash-in-the-pan trend compared to the Zero Two, so it did not make sense for everyone to know it.
Also, my dancing was clumsy.
I had seen the dance a lot in videos, but it was my first time actually doing it myself.
Well, I will find out the truth someday.
For now, I should continue to observe the Teddy Bear frequently.
***
Jump bear! Jump bear bear!
Flying bear bear bear!!
I happily bounced around on the soft floor for a while.
After playing with an empty mind for the first time in a while, my head felt refreshed.
And as my mind cleared, a forgotten memory from my past life suddenly popped up out of nowhere.
As time passed, I was slowly forgetting the memories of my past life, but it seemed there were also memories that came back to me.
Equivalent exchange or what.
Anyway.
What came to mind was my very own name.
The moment my name came to mind, I finally realized that I had completely forgotten my name from my past life.
But why did my name pop up so suddenly.
It was not even particularly important information anyway.
It was a useless memory that would not help my current life at all.
Let us just forget it.
Because I do not need it.
...was not a thought I could entertain.
Because once it came to mind, I could not possibly forget it.
Why, you ask?
That is because the pronunciation of the name from my past life is extremely similar to the word for Teddy Bear.
No, it was safe to say it was exactly the same.
Absurdly enough, the name I had in my past life was Go Min-hyung.