Author's Notes: Hello! it's been a long time since I posted anything here so let me just... dust off a few cobwebs here and there. I've had this idea for a story for a while now and I didn't really have much courage to write anything until now. So yes, here I go! I hope y'all enjoy my story!

What would you do if you got a second chance in life? No seriously, what would you do? If in your first life you suddenly died at a young age from something you couldn't control, but then got an opportunity to get a fresh start, what would you do? You'd want to avoid making the same mistakes you made the first time around right? It sounds simple enough, but it's actually a lot harder than it sounds. Especially when there are forces out there that doesn't seem to have your best interests in mind.

Who am I you ask? My name is Alice, and I was just up until now just your typical normal adult trying to get by in the world. Well as normal as I can be until I got sick a few years ago. It still felt like yesterday when my life started going to hell. At first it started out small enough with the fevers, the fatigue and small wounds that refused to heal fast enough. Then I began losing far more weight than it was possible. Anything I ate I'd wind up vomiting it back out later and I always felt like I couldn't breathe. It wasn't until I started having violent seizures that I had found out that I had leukemia. Just my luck isn't it? I spend years crawling my way up the corporate ladder only to get struck down like this in my prime.

The chemotherapy and my hair falling out from it could deal with. Hair was just hair and it could always grow back once it was over and done with. It was the pitying stares I got from people around me that I couldn't stand. Look, I KNOW that I'm sick alright? And I KNOW that I'm not exactly the prettiest looking woman out there right now with my shiny bald head and my now sunken in face and emaciated body. You don't need to remind me of how ugly I look right now. The worse of it though was now hearing my parents and sister constantly arguing with each other. Some days I just wanted to just shrivel up and let the earth swallow me whole just to not hear them argue anymore. I guess I finally got my wish then.

After all those years of fighting tooth and nail to stay alive, my body decided to finally crap out on me in the midst of the corona virus outbreak here in Canada. It's kind of sad how after years of trying to tell people I'm okay and that I'll get through it, fate decides that I'll be wiped out by a deadly but preventable disease. I know I remember someone grasping my hand as I lay there taking my last breath. Who is it? My sister? Mom? Dad? It didn't really matter at this point. The last thing I remember as I blacked out was hearing all three of them crying their eyes out. It finally took MY DEATH of all things to finally get them on the same page and stop fighting.

You'd think my story would just end here with my death but oh no, it was just only the beginning of something unexpected. I've long expected that I was going to die some day. Everyone did eventually, but be struck down while I was still young was too much for me to handle. I still had too much to do and so much to say. I wanted to apologize to my parents and my sister for making them cry and suffer for my sake, apologize to that one friend I couldn't even protect, and curse myself for not trying hard enough in life.

"DO YOU WANT A SECOND CHANCE?" A male's voice called out

Wait who said that? And what did they mean by a second chance? It's almost like they read my mind or something. Could I really get a second chance? Could I start over and do the things I never got to do in life? It seemed too good to be true.

"DO YOU WANT A SECOND CHANCE? YES/NO"

I had nothing to lose. I was already dead and I've already wasted all my potential as a human being by not taking advantage of opportunities in front of me. If I did this now then, will I become the person I've always wanted to be? There was only one thing left to do

"Yes." I replied "I want a second chance in life"

PERMISSION GRANTED. ACCESSING MAINFRAME. RESETTING SKILLS TO 0. REBOOTING SYSTEM IN 5...4...3...2...1...

"Wait! What's going on? What are you doing to me?" I shouted.

Ever watched your own body shrink before? Yeah me neither. It was like something out of a horror movie. You've all heard of growing pains before but, no one ever tells you about shrinking pains either. It feels like your whole body collapsing in on yourself. I watched as my limbs shrank to half their original size and the whole world around me suddenly began to get bigger. My bones creaked and groaned as they began to re-configure themselves into a smaller and more compact form. Oh god, it hurt so much! What on earth have I done?! The last thing I remembered before blacking out from the pain was seeing a pair of deep golden eyes looking back at me.

Now, I don't know what your idea of heaven is like, but I'm pretty sure heaven has lots of fluffy black clouds, golden gates and lots of cute chubby angels that looked like those babies you'd see in toilet paper commercials. Instead when I woke up, I found myself lying in a darkened forest. The sound of crickets filled the air as the trees and the bushes rattled with the sound of local wildlife scurrying back and forth through its branches. This wasn't heaven at all! Why on earth would I be in a forest of all places? Wait, was I not actually dead but instead in a coma? Or had I been kidnapped and dumped here by a serial killer? No, I distinctly remember my life flashing before my eyes and my family being in my room with me. A male voice in my head suddenly spoke up.

"SYSTEM START UP. ACCESSING DATABASE, DO NOT TURN OFF. WELCOME TO THE START OF YOUR NEW LIFE. OBJECTIVE: FIND YOUR WAY OUT OF THE FOREST. CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: 50% ACCEPT? YES/NO"

Wait, I had tasks to finish? Was I trapped in a game? In that case, I picked yes and began to scan my surroundings. A digital map of the forest popped up in front of me, showing a blinking blue triangle where I was currently standing. There seemed to be a village nearby west of here. There was no use in worrying about how I ended up here; I might as well try to find my way out of here. I wasn't risking running into a wolf, a bear or a mountain lion out here. I got up and began to brush off any stray leaves and twigs that may have gotten stuck to my hospital gown. Wait, when did my gown get so loose and baggy? How much weight have I lost since I was in the hospital? I had a million questions running through my head but, right now I had to focus on getting out of here first.

I silently cursed myself for not having shoes on my person as my feet were cut up by random rocks and twigs. The mud didn't make things any better as they only seemed to make the pain even worse. I was never really much for going out late at night, let alone out in a forest. To wind up here of all places was just bad luck on my part. I knew nothing about the great outdoors, let alone hiking and knowing where to go when you got lost. I must have been walking for an hour or so before I stopped to readjust and pull my gown a bit closer to my body, shivering as a particularly strong gust of wind sent a shower of damp red, yellow, and orange maple leaves raining down on me. I inwardly cursed myself once again for not dying with a sweater or a coat. A flimsy paper hospital gown did nothing to keep the cold out, and no thanks to chemotherapy I had barely any body fat keep myself warm.

Eventually I found myself in the middle of a clearing, only stopping to realize what kind of fauna I was looking at. Was that...bamboo I was looking at? I was not only in a dark spooky forest all by myself, but a dark and spooky Chinese or Japanese forest from the looks of things. Of all the places I had to wind up in, why here? I had no time to think about the implications or the reasoning behind it all when I heard a twig snapping in half, followed by a long drawn out moan behind me.

"H-hello?" I called out behind me nervously.

"I-i-is there anyone there?" I asked

I didn't get an answer back at first so I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me. Then there was another loud moan coming from the bushes. I whipped my head around to see someone in tattered and filthy robes stumbling out from behind me. It was a man but, at the same time something was very off about him. His complexion was a pale sickly gray, almost as though they hadn't seen sunlight in days. There were chunks of flesh missing from his face as well as from his arms, chest and legs. Long greasy and matted black hair hung loosely around his shoulders while dark angry black veins crawled up this neck like some sort of twisted parody of ivy. A set of blank milky white and empty eyes looked back at me, surveying me like I was a hunk of meat. It didn't take a genius to know that I was looking at a zombie.

I stumbled backwards as even more of them came out from the bushes, all of them staring at me with the same kind of empty eyes as they snarled and grunted incoherent things. I did the only thing I could think to do: I screamed as loudly as I could and ran as fast as these thin, stubby and emaciated legs would let me. I wasn't much of an athlete so I couldn't run as fast as I wanted to. I winced each time something would cut into my bare and muddy feet, but I didn't care. I had a hoard of undead zombies chasing me right now and I was not looking to become zombie chow after resurrecting from being dead. That same familiar male voice rang in my head again with a new mission. Could his timing be any worse?

"OBJECTIVE: ESCAPE THE HOARDS OF FIERCE CORPSES. CHANCES OF SUCCESS 25% ACCEPT? YES/NO"

A twenty-five percent chance of outrunning them? What bullshit was this? Did this system think that my life was just another thing for it to toy with? Begrudgingly, I picked yes as a digital map of the area lit up my vision. There was a shortcut on my left through patch of bushes and ivy that could buy me some time. I hissed as branches and thorns snagged and tore at the hems of my clothes, exposing more of my body than I'd like while leaving shallow cuts and scrapes along my legs. Despite what The Walking Dead and popular media might tell you, these zombies, or rather, fierce corpses were a lot faster than I gave them credit for.

In my panic, I didn't see where I was going and tripped over an exposed root that was jutting out of the ground, crying out in surprise as I was sent sprawling onto the floor. Tears began to well up in my eyes as I got back up, fresh blood beginning to dribble out of my nose and staining my gown with bright red splotches. One of fierce corpses grabbed my ankle as I tried to scramble back up. I tried grabbing at anything I could to slow them down but, they were so much stronger than me.

"Noooo! I don't want to die..." I thought as I was being hoisted upside down.

I cried out in pain as dirty fingernails dug into my skin, leaving angry little crescent moon shaped marks on my leg. I was being held upside down by what must have been an elderly male with thin scraggly white hair. He held me mere inches away from his face, hot rancid breath blowing into my face as he sniffed me. I wanted to throw up from a combination of blood from my nose now dribbling down the back of my throat, the head rush I felt from being held upside down AND this fierce corpse now invading my personal space.

"Someone... please help me!" I sobbed. "Please! Anyone! Help me!"

I didn't care how gross or undignified I looked right now. I knew I was going to die once more, and there wasn't anything I could do about it. At least dying from leukemia and the corona virus had granted me a peaceful death and an opportunity to say goodbye to my family. Now, I was going to get torn to shreds by a hoard of reanimated corpses. Just when I thought I was going to become food for the living undead, I heard the unmistakable sound of a blade slicing through flesh followed by a surprised groan. I looked downwards to see the thin blade of a straight double edged sword piercing the chest of my captor. He let out a pained, gurgling grunt before flinging me away from him and attempting to remove the blade from his chest.

I thudded painfully against a nearby tree, crying out as the bark served to tear open more wounds in my back. Propping myself up on my elbows, I watched in awe as two boys dressed in white and light blue robes began hacking away and dismembering these zombies like they were made of putty. How old were they anyways? 15-18 at the oldest perhaps? What were they doing out here in the first place? And why on earth would they be out killing zombies? Teenage boys like them would either be at home playing video games, drooling over girls or studying for exams back where I'm from.

This wasn't the time for pondering the intricacies of what teenage boys did in their free time though. Right now, I had to get out of here. I felt bad for leaving them to fight off those zombies by themselves but, I couldn't really do much of anything in my current state. I wasn't a warrior that could help fight beside them out nor was I armed with any weapons. I was just an ordinary and emaciated civilian. I got up, dusted off what remained of my gown and proceeded to run further down the path.

I must have ran for must have been hours, my heart pounding angrily against my ribcage as I slowed down to catch my breath. My nose was still bleeding profusely from when I landed on my face and my ankle ached from being gripped so strongly. A ring of ugly purple bruises were beginning to form on my leg and I was drenched head to toe in sweat, blood and mud, causing my gown to stick uncomfortably to my body. I could feel the bile and the acid rising in my throat as a wave of nausea began to overtake me. I braced myself against a tree and began to retch and vomit violently onto the floor. What came out was mostly stomach acid mixed with blood from the back of my throat. I wiped the corners of my mouth with the back of my hand after I was done, a gross sour taste lingering in the back of my mouth and my voice hoarse from all the screaming I did back there.

"OBJECTIVE CLEARED. TOTAL POINTS EARNED: 40. GOAL FOR COMPLETE REINCARNATION: 40/1000 POINTS"

I was going to kill that AI for putting me through that kind of hell. I was nearly torn to shreds by ZOMBIES and they have the gall to just carry on like that without even asking me if I was alright? A glass of water and some ginger to chew on would have been nice! Though I had to wonder what they meant by complete reincarnation. Was this body I was in now just temporary and was going to fall apart at any given moment? And did I have to keep doing dangerous missions like this to earn more points?

Tearing off a strip of my now dirty gown, I pinched the bridge of my nose and leaned forward to let the blood flow out and stop the bleeding. After it had stopped, I mopped up what I could from my face and brushed off flecks of dried blood from around my nostrils and upper lip. I found myself in yet another clearing overlooking a mountain range. The sky sparkled with dozens of glittering stars and a white glowing moon that illuminated my surroundings. Back at home, it was rare to see a sight like this. Not when light pollution was so rampant. Sure I could see the moon sometimes but, that meant nothing if I couldn't see the stars too. You had to either drive all the way out into the countryside to see them or you had to wait for a city wide blackout to shut all the lights off. In any case, to just stop and drink in the beauty of them was something to behold. When had been the last time I've ever seen something so breathtaking? Not since my illness had left me bedridden in my final months. You couldn't really do much of anything when you're fighting to stay alive. I vowed that as soon as I get out of this forest, I'll start planning all the things I intended to do.

As I was pulling my map back out, a deep ominous growl rippled through the air behind me. I whipped around and instantly froze where I stood, blood turning to ice in my veins. Was there yet ANOTHER hoard of zombies I should be worrying about? How many of these things are hiding in this forest?! No sooner had I pondered this, I found myself looking at a pair of large glowing yellow eyes. From out behind the trees stepped out a fox that seemed way too large to be a normal animal. It had to be at least several stories tall with silvery blood soaked fur that seemed to glow in the moonlight. I could make out what looked like gore and viscera dripping out from an open maw filled to the brim with a set of razor sharp canines while it angrily flicked nine long fluffy tails behind it. Despite vomiting a few minutes ago, I found myself screaming in horror once again as it lunged towards me with killing intent. I barely managed to escape by scrambling to the side and bolting in the opposite direction.

"OBJECTIVE: AVOID BEING KILLED BY THE GIANT NINE TAILED FOX DEMON. CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: 15% ACCEPT? YES/NO?"

Could this stupid AI have any worse timing? And just when I'm this time about to get eaten by a giant demonic fox no less! A 15% survival rate didn't really sound like something to be optimistic about but, I wasn't going to stick around and let myself become fox kibble either. Begrudgingly, I picked yes and began looking for an escape route. I didn't care which direction I went in, I just didn't want to get eaten. I could hear it let out a demonic howl as it chased after me, its feet thundering against the ground as it started gaining more speed. The sound of trees being snapped in half and getting knocked to the ground and terrified animals fleeing the area only served to remind me of what fate awaited me should I even stop to catch my breath.

My legs were killing me, and I could once more feel the nausea rising in me as my heart pounded in my chest again. I made a sharp right this time and found myself running downhill on a slope. Running down a hill with bare cut up and sore feet while having a giant demon fox chasing you was not one of my brighter moments, and here's why: You need something to cushion your feet and keep you from slipping while you're barrelling downwards. When you're hopped up on adrenaline though, none of that stuff seems to matter, which is where I made a nearly fatal mistake here. I don't know if it was a root or a rock that caused me to lose my footing here but, the next thing I knew, I felt my right ankle twist and bend at such an unnatural angle that I was now half rolling and half bouncing off of every bump and cranny along the way.

I didn't know how long I'd been rolling down that hill for but, all I knew that in the next moment, I felt a sudden weightlessness and emptiness in my gut. No longer could I feel the sensation of the forest floor below me but the feeling of my stomach now in my throat and the wind whistling loudly in my ears. The sight of the moon seems to be slowly getting further and further away from me as I realized what was happening to me; I was falling to my death. I tried reaching upward to grab at anything, but it was futile as I realized what was happening. I've only been alive now for what? a few hours? And this was how I was going to die again? I didn't have much time to regret my life choices nor string together a few choice words for my asshole of an AI system for endangering me again as when I tried to flip myself over, I could see the ground getting closer and closer. I didn't want to risk splitting my head open on some rocks so, I covered my head with both my arms and braced for impact.

The pain of feeling my shoulder popping out of it's socket was unbearable as I bounced of a ledge. I felt my body being cut up and scratched by sharp rocks as I continued to tumble deeper and deeper into the darkness. I finally skidded to a stop when I felt my body colliding with an outcropping of rocks. Shakily, I pulled myself off of the ground, wincing as waves of pain radiated from my shoulder and up my neck. A familiar ominous growl echoed off of the ravine I was trapped in. Oh no, that stupid fox had followed me down here! I blinked back tears as I attempted to get up, only to yell out in pain as to my horror, I realized that I had twisted my ankle while I was running down that hill.

As it inched closer and closer towards me, I closed my eyes and began to pray. I was never a religious person but, all I could do was pray for a quick and painless death. Who would be brave and stupid enough to come down here and save me from a giant fox demon? Who would be willing to risk their life to save someone as frail and sickly as I was? Was I even worth saving at all? As I thought these things, I heard the raw guttural noise of an animal howling in pain followed by the sound of several blades slicing through flesh and fur. I opened my eyes to see those two teenage boys in white from earlier throwing yellow paper talismans at it. A third boy in yellow robes and a vermillion mark on his forehead had joined them, firing several arrows into it's back.

"你還好嗎？你能站起來嗎？"Asked a deep male voice.

I turned around to see a tall, broad shouldered man with a mane of waist length black hair in a half topknot and light yellow eyes crouching down on one knee with an extended hand. He wore robes of white embroidered with intricate swirling light blue clouds over a white and light blue hanfu. A long, thin white ribbon with cloud patterns was tied around his forehead fluttering dramatically in the wind. My face began heat up as I realized how ethereally handsome he was, almost like he was finely sculpted statue come to life. I quickly snapped out of my hazy awestruck wonder to realize that I now had a new problem on my hands now: I didn't speak a lick of Mandarin at all.

Translation Notes:

"你還好嗎？你能站起來嗎？"means "Are you okay? Can you stand up?" in Chinese

Thank you again once more for reading! Please a review and tell me how I did!