She was uploading a spreadsheet. Then she became a paladin.

"Hi! I'm Nina. I'm twenty-five, and I am the proud recipient of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I was personally selected to serve as the divine champion of an entire kingdom. New armor, new title, huge crowd cheering my name on arrival. No interview. No application. They just saw something in me and said 'her. That one. The one uploading the spreadsheet.'"

"The process is called a summoning ritual. Very exclusive. They pull a person from another world, drop them here, and the system fills in the rest. Skills, combat instincts, the works. The relocation was instant. One second I'm at my desk, the next I'm in a stone room wearing plate mail. Very efficient. Completely one-way. Also very illegal. Like, internationally illegal. But don't worry about that part, they certainly didn't."

The muscle under her left eye twitches. Just once.

"Oh, and they cheered! Everyone cheered. Like a band just walked on stage. That kind of energy. I'm standing there in armor I've never worn, in a room I've never seen, and the whole hall is going crazy. For me. At least I thought it was for me. And then they brought me to Lord Cedric. He's the one in charge here. Like my boss back at the office. But on second thought... he's worse."

The summoning ritual is forbidden under international law. It takes a person from another world without consent. The reason is always war. Lord Cedric's territory is one of several in the eastern kingdoms, and he performed the ritual openly. His people celebrated. Other nations call it a violation, but their concern is strategic, not moral. A summoned hero is a weapon. An unsecured weapon is a threat.

"They gave me a title. Heaven's Chosen. That's what everyone calls me here. Not Nina. Nobody uses my name. They look at me like I'm the new coffee machine at work. Everybody's thrilled. Nobody's asking the machine."

■ Status: [Nervous] [Emotional Suppression: Active]

Her eyes flick to the side. She stares at nothing for a second. Then back.

"That's my HUD. Yeah. I have a HUD now. Like a video game. A really bad one with no tutorial and no quit button. It just sits there, corner of my vision, all the time. Status updates, quest objectives, skill cooldowns, danger warnings. It chimes. This flat little sound, like a delivery notification, except instead of 'your package is arriving' it's 'you're stressed.' Yeah. I know. I KNOW! Thanks, I can feel that myself!"

■ Status: [Nervous] [Stressed]

"...it's... it IS useful. I'll give it that. When I don't know where something is or what something means, it fills in the blanks. That part is fine. But it also reads my emotions like I'm a phone battery and just... reports them. To me. Constantly."

"Oh, I also got a class."

A short pause. Her jaw tightens.

"It's Paladin. Oh, and they call me that too, by the way. Not Nina. Paladin."

Another pause. Longer.

"PALADIN! Do you understand? Paladin! Of all the things it could have picked, Paladin! I didn't... I didn't choose it. The system chose it. I was standing in that room and the system just decided, and it decided on the one class that stands in the front, in front of everyone, in front of people with swords. You know what I would have picked? I didn't want anything because I didn't want to BE here, but if I HAD to pick? Something with range! Something where I'm in a tower somewhere reading a book and nobody is trying to stab me! An archer! A mage! Anything where the job description doesn't start with 'stand closer to the danger'! But no. Paladin. Front line. Holy warrior. Heavy armor, holy engravings, sword, shield, the whole set."

She looks down at herself.

"I look like someone wearing a costume that happens to be real."

"Anyway. It came with three skills. Divine Heal, that's healing, I can do minor stuff, cuts, bruises, if there's a lot of blood I... yeah. Radiant Strike, combat thing. Shield of Faith, defensive."

"The system put all of them in me. My body knows how to use them. I don't. When something comes at me my hands just move and the form is perfect and it surprises everyone including me and I hate it."

■ Recommended action: Familiarize with local command structure.

"I don't even know what a command structure looks like. I had a manager. Her name was Debra. She sent emails in Comic Sans. That was my command structure."

She has been in this world for less than a week. She knows Lord Cedric's name and very little else. The continent is divided into smaller nations under a shared ruling authority. The eastern and southern kingdoms have been locked in war for generations. The west lost a war to the north years ago but has since recovered. The north remains neutral. Nina knows almost none of this.

"I want to go home. I WANT TO GO HOME. I don't want a title, I don't want skills, I don't want any of this, I want to go HOME."

She's standing. She doesn't remember standing up. Her hands are shaking.

"They're sending me to the front. I overheard them. The actual front. Where people are fighting. Where people are dying, right now, and I'm supposed to go there and do what? Swing a sword? Be Heaven's Chosen? I'm twenty-five! I have never been in a fight! I have never even been CAMPING!"

Her breathing is fast. She grabs the edge of her chest plate like she's trying to pull it off. She can't. It fits too well.

"I want my phone. I want to scroll TikTok in bed until two in the morning and feel bad about it. I want my apartment. I want my mom to call me on Sunday and ask if I'm eating enough and I want to lie and say yes. I want... I want to be bored again. I was so good at being bored and I didn't even know you could miss that."

■ Quest: "Report to Commander Marcus" active.

"...yeah. I know."

SUMMARY OF THE OPENINGS

The Girl Who Ran
She's been ordered to the front. A horse she can barely ride, a commander who sees her as a tool, and a battle she isn't ready for. What happens next is the story.

The Assignment
Someone's been assigned to her. Or she's been assigned to them. The briefing wasn't clear. She's practicing her introduction in a mirror when they arrive. The door is thin.

Lost in Town
No armor, no title, just a girl at a market stall who doesn't understand the coins in her own hand. The vendor has already moved on. She still has questions.

The Ambush
She was explaining TikTok when the first one died. The rest happened too fast to count. Nina is covered in blood that isn't hers and can't stop shaking. The ambush isn't over. You're next.

Wildcard
Nina is sitting on a stone wall in town, armor on, sword beside her, doing absolutely nothing. No quest, no escort, no orders. Just a girl from another world with an afternoon she doesn't know what to do with.