The City of Peach Fire - (1) Turmoil in Puran Village
“Appearance points…” I muttered.
The heroine of the novel I’d read, a girl named Seira, had looks that no one could rival. I couldn’t remember her exact appearance points, but one thing was certain: the number had been enormous.
“Still, it wasn’t eight zeros…”
The original protagonist had possessed roughly a hundred million appearance points, if I recalled correctly. Yet here I was, holding a staggering four billion. Was that even possible?
“What the hell is wrong with me…”
I pressed a hand to my forehead and sighed. Just how much Aurora Sherbet had I shoveled down? The original heroine had been hounded to death by foreign powers and jealous rivals with only a hundred million points. I had forty times that amount.
“Surely… I won’t actually die if things go wrong?”
The old saying “beauty is a curse” flashed through my mind. Maybe this would end exactly like that proverb.
For a moment my resolve wavered. The instant the thought crossed my mind, the number “four billion” shimmered before my eyes.
Four billion… is more important than my life. Obviously.
I lifted my head. Far below, a vast landmass was steadily approaching.
“So this is what Planet Nirvana looks like.”
“So this is what Planet Nirvana looks like.”
The sight unfolding before me was overwhelming. Two enormous moons hung in the blue sky, and beyond them stretched an endless emerald sea. The landscape looked as though it had leapt straight out of a fantasy novel.
And on the ground where I was descending…
“What the—?! Hahahahahaha…!”
Finally—humans! Actual humans!
After twenty years trapped in the Aurora Tunnel with no human contact, I was seeing people again. This world was supposedly full of “girl-crazy” men who lost their minds at the sight of a pretty woman, but with my current appearance, I felt like I could enjoy any kind of attention.
“Humans… I wanted to see humans so badly! I craved human attention! Uheheheheh…!”
What kind of fate awaited me here?
…And then it hit me.
I suddenly remembered the plot of the novel I had been translating.
I’m about to get… get railed?!
The village of Puran sat quietly amid a dazzling display of nature. Fresh grass-scented air enveloped the entire settlement, and a beautiful turquoise landscape spread out before me. It felt like a peaceful Alpine pastoral scene.
Feeling as though I had arrived somewhere in Western Europe, I slowly descended toward the earth.
But I must never forget: the place I, who had been kidnapped to another world at age zero and spent twenty years alone in a dimensional tunnel, was landing… was a peaceful rural village. (Thankfully, it wasn’t somewhere I would die on impact.)
Even in this quiet village, however, there were eyes watching.
The eyes of the village youths—starved for the sight of a beautiful girl!
Whooooosh—
A sudden humming sound echoed from the sky, and a ring of light appeared. From within it emerged the head of an incomparably beautiful girl. Her hair cascaded in a perfect V-line. She tried to land as gracefully as a feather, but reality was not so kind.
“Shit…!”
How was I supposed to land elegantly when this was basically a bungee jump without a safety harness? In the end, I face-planted right there.
Thud!
I had tried not to fall, but apparently the novel had scripted my fall from the very beginning. Not that I’m making excuses. Ahem.
“Uwaaaah…!”
Before my vocal cords had even warmed up, a natural cry burst out—sounding exactly like a little girl’s, complete with a nasal tone.
Yeah. I really had become a woman. It was sinking in.
“What was that just now—a witch? A mage?”
“I don’t know, move! If it’s a witch, let me see too!”
The peaceful villagers, startled by the pillar of light that had appeared in the sky, came rushing over. They simply stared at it in wonder.
And then I appeared before them in all my glory—a girl with silver hair that shone from head to toe, skin so fair and translucent it was dazzling, and a face like an angel.
At the sight of me, the villagers swallowed their breath.
“Hrk…! Hrk…! Hrk!!!”
They trembled, yet could not look away. They were horrified, as though an angel had descended from the heavens.
The pillar of light slowly faded, revealing my body. In that instant, the people lost their voices and lowered their heads, unable to look any longer. Overwhelmed by my beauty, they staggered backward as if struck by lightning.
Their reaction was only natural.
After all, my appearance points totaled four billion!!
It was beauty beyond mere attractiveness—supernatural beauty itself. That was why they were bleeding from their noses and fainting.
“Whoa, is she royalty?!”
“C-could it be… the queen of some beautiful-girl kingdom…?!”
How could a person radiate such noble presence with nothing but flawless skin—enough to slap the cheeks of passing royalty? The onlookers were all bewildered. Even from her silhouette alone, they should have felt something was off.
Their legs shook so badly that even the young men needed walking sticks to stay upright. Most of the front-row spectators were men, and some among them were weeping wretchedly as they turned their heads away.
Because soon… the “face” would be revealed.
“Kkh… kkh. N-no…!”
*Even if the face is still hidden behind a thin veil of light, one thing is certain—she’s an otherworldly beauty. How stunning will that delicate jawline look once it’s fully revealed? Hehehehe.*
Each person was already imagining an incredible beauty based solely on the visible outline and flawless skin.
But if the revealed face turned out not to be that of a beautiful girl… their fantasies would melt away like spring snow.
So a few of them turned their heads and covered their eyes with their hands, refusing to look at the girl’s face.
Finally!! The pillars of light that had wrapped around the noble fairy’s body completely vanished.
At last, the fantastical curves of her figure and the contours of her face—previously hidden beneath the glowing veil—were laid bare in perfect detail.
The sight was so indescribably beautiful that no one could even form the word “beautiful.”
Because every single person present had already fainted before the word could leave their lips.
I glanced at the people sprawled in a fan-shaped heap before me.
Huh?
After so long, the sensation of gravity hit me all at once and my legs gave out. Now I was on all fours like a cat, forced to look up.
“Holy shit, what the—!!!!”
The ground around me had turned into a sea of blood. A nightmarish scene had unfolded, and I could only gape in horror.
They all passed out… and they’re all bleeding from their noses…!!
Even in the original story, the heroine’s overwhelming beauty had caused several villagers to panic at the beginning. They had felt dizzy, noses bleeding, and collapsed on the spot.
D-did I… succeed in knocking them all out…?!
Maybe this was a blessing in disguise. If this horrific bloodbath hadn’t occurred and every villager hadn’t fainted from nosebleeds… the one who would have been bleeding out right here would have been me.
I must never forget: this game was a dark, erotic game, and I was its most beautiful heroine. And not just that—I was forty times more beautiful than the original.
Even amid the gruesome scene, I noticed something strange.
“Why… did the women faint too?”
…
…
That was baffling. The men were one thing, but why had the young women and even the quiet village wives started spurting blood from their noses like fountains and passing out?
Did I possess the wrong class or something? Like a necromancer?!
Rise! Corpses. Corpses!!!!
I tried believing in the power of necromancy, but unfortunately, it seemed my only ability was the four billion appearance points I had been given.
Come to think of it…
A message popped up saying I could change jobs now that my appearance points had accumulated…
In this game, once a stat reached a certain threshold, you could change jobs or awaken.
…Right. The setting was medieval, yet the terminology was straight out of a modern game. Probably because the world itself was a game.
Still, there shouldn’t be any other “users” in this game besides me. There mustn’t be…! Otherwise the game would turn into a complete mess.
That said, this game was an erotic title. Even among users, there was no mercy. Other users could be… legally mated with…
Anyway, I finally pressed the job-change button I had been putting off.
Since no other options appeared even after landing, this must be the only choice.