Anran groggily opened her eyes and found herself lying in an empty room. Everything she saw was white—so much so that it hurt her eyes if she looked too long. Confused, she wondered where she was. How could a hospital be decorated like this? And why wasn’t her father by her side? There wasn’t even a nurse around.
she thought.
Just as Anran was thinking about how to convince her father, a voice suddenly echoed above her head.
“Do you have any regrets from your life? Would you like to go back and complete them?”
“Huh?”
Anran was startled by the question.
Still dazed, Anran stammered, “Uh… am I dead? What did I die from?”
The voice above her responded definitively, “Yes, you died. Cause of death—cardiac arrest.”
“Cardiac arrest?”
Anran froze when she heard those words. She suddenly remembered the pharmacist’s warning when she bought the pills—Don’t take more than two or you might experience cardiac arrest.
, she thought,
Before she could ask more questions, the voice above her continued.
“It’s strange. You didn’t overdose, yet you still died.”
Shocked, Anran wondered,
The voice answered her unspoken question.
“I can’t read minds, but I can sense what your brain is thinking.”
Anran blurted out, “Isn’t that basically the same thing as reading minds? How is that not?”
The voice didn’t respond to her remark but instead repeated the earlier question.
“Do you want to go back and finish what you regret?”
Anran, now excited, asked, “Wait, I can come back to life? That’s amazing! But there’s gotta be a catch, right?”
The voice replied, “Of course. But first, you’ll have to complete a task.”
Anran thought for a moment.
She then asked, “What kind of task? How many do I need to complete? And after I finish, can I choose when I come back?”
The voice, unfazed by her string of questions, answered calmly, “The task is simple–fulfill the wishes of those who died. As for the number of tasks, complete 99,999 of them. And no, you can only return to the moment of your death.”
Anran’s eyes widened.
Still, she thought the number was oddly auspicious.
She asked again, “What happens if I don’t accept? Do I just die for good?”
The voice answered coldly, “Yes.”
Hearing this, Anran sighed and, with a resigned expression, said, “Well, what other choice do I have? I might as well accept. At least there’s still a slim chance for survival.”
As soon as Anran agreed, the voice began a countdown.
“Contract initiation in–19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”
After that, everything went black again, and Anran lost consciousness.
At that moment, a faint voice muttered, “Finally, I’ve tricked someone into becoming a tasker. Turns out the key is not to explain too much. I must’ve explained too much before, which is why nobody stayed. Good thing I didn’t this time. Otherwise, this one might have run away too.”
The voice continued, “I need to share this good news with Yuyu and the others. Let them know that I, too, can find someone to take on tasks.”