Diana was not a bad person. She paid her taxes when she was asked to, did her work when she needed to, and donated to charity every so often.
Did she get easily excited? Yes, but that didn't make her a bad person; she thought it was a nice trait, a quirk, one might say. So, when her favorite game decided to nerf her class, she wrote a lengthy review on why that was a terrible idea.
Was it so wrong to be passionate about something you love? If you asked her, she would say no. Ten thousand characters didn't seem so much at the time.
It was only fair. She supported the game, with her had earned cash as a small-time whale. Was it so much to ask for some loyalty?
So, when she woke up in a bed that wasn't hers, and a ceiling she didn't recognize, the first thing she thought about was why? She never smoked, never drank, went to school every day, and never got into fights.
It was her first time writing a review, and she felt quite passionate as someone with the title of founder. In truth, she probably should have only written a small paragraph; it wasn't like she wasn't aware of the trope about being transported into a novel after a lengthy review.
She let her emotions get the best of her and poured all her feelings into writing; at the time, it felt cathartic. Who would have thought the trope applied to games, much less a live service VR MMO.
But while circumstance led her to believe she was trapped in the very game she reviewed, there was only one way to confirm it.
She did what every newly transmigrated person did.
She hopped off her bed and, in a meek voice, spoke out loud.
"Status window"
Lo and behold, a window appeared in front of her very eyes, pale white text followed by a transparent blue window.
[Duchess Diana von Koenig Lvl.10]
[Occupation: Summoner Lvl.1]
[Summoned creature N/A]
[Party N/A]
[Sp.0]
The smile that started to rise on her face quickly faded.
"What type of system is this?" She loudly exclaimed while pulling on her hair. Where was her cheat? She stomped on the ground in anger before straightening up her clothes.
A soft breath escaped her lips as she accepted her fate.
While the status window was like the one from the game, it was different, her stat points were nowhere to be found.
That confirmed it, she was in New Frontier, an MMO RPG, that was top of its line VR. At the time when she was in her original world, it replaced every major sport. The game was set in a fantasy-like world, where anything was achievable. There were many branches in classes, and even player pioneered ones; the game had a high degree of freedom.
The game hardly felt like a game but more like a new life.
The story depended on the actions of the player but mostly consisted of resisting the invading forces of other planes, and a common enemy like hell. There were many enemies, like evil cults, monsters, and even featured an evil dragon as a boss. Even regular human forces could be enemies depending on where you spawn.
It was a chaotic world that she wanted no part of. Sure, playing the game was fun, but only having one life changed everything.
The only solace she found was in her newfound title. Even with a high degree of freedom, no player had an actual title of nobility. All the awarded titles were self-made, from player-run kingdoms.
The game also featured a wide arrange of important NPCS like the Sword Saint and King Leon. While she knew a lot about the game's lore, she had never heard of Diana Von Koenig.
But while the first name did not ring a bell, her last name did. It was the surname of the dukes of the north. Too high a noble, for any player to interact with, her only knowledge was from the upcoming DLC focused on the north.
Yet the DLC was only set to launch in two years, and while that was all fine and dandy, she had no idea if she was in a world parallel to the game or the game itself. Would other players show up?
It was important for Diana to find out the year she was in, so that she could prepare for other players to show up.
She started unconsciously biting on her fingernails.
It's okay, as far as she knew, nothing had happened to the north yet, but that wouldn't always be the case. She calmed down and walked towards a mirror.
"Beautiful," the words left her lips, as she stared in a daze at herself.
Long silver hair, red velvet eyes, curves where there had to be, and a proportion so perfect it made her envious.
Maybe even the word that slipped from her mouth didn't fit what she saw. She didn't think a word that existed would do her appearance justice.
She touched her cheeks and traced her jaw, as she stared in the mirror in a daze. She grabbed a strand of her hair, which was so silky smooth. After a while of self-admiration, she turned and looked around.
The room she was in was bigger than her studio apartment, but it seemed more like a dorm than a room in a mansion.
She started moving towards the window and looked outside.
Students were moving back and forth between locations, carrying books and bags; the occasional adult was spotted. All were wearing a pristine and luxurious uniform.
She quickly moved towards the closet and opened it, grabbing her uniform and quickly changing. She took a quick peek to look at what was in it, and various dresses and expensive-looking items filled her vision.
Shit, she thought to herself.
How unlucky could one be, transmigrated to her favorite game, and forced to attend an academy?
She pulled up her sleeves and patted her biceps. She was a 21st-century college student; how hard could a fantasy-esque school be?
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Why did she have to think such cursed thoughts? Diana cursed herself for being so unlucky. While getting to class was simple, everyone avoided her like the plague.
Almost everyone.
The other students of her small classroom hated her; you would think a Duchess would be the last person you would bully.
But as a member of high nobility, her class was filled with other high nobles. Even some imperial heirs from other kingdoms. That would be fine if the other nobles from her empire stuck up for her, but they also joined in on the bullying.
Apparently, this was the best summoner school on the continent, and she was notoriously bad at summoning. The Duchess had one more attempt to summon, or she would be expelled from the school.
What made it even worse for her was a certain announcement from the system.
[Quest: Summon your first creature.]
[Failure = Death]
[Reward = Status Window]
She was starting to think she was being pranked, her system was a total bust. If she knew she was going to get a life-threatening quest from stepping into the classroom, she would have stayed in her room.
"Diana." A voice coming from a woman at the front of the class knocked her out of her thoughts.
She tapped on the board and opened her mouth again.
"Do you have something more important to do?" She asked with a sweet voice, one that didn't match her mocking gaze.
"Or would you like to share with the class what you think is more important than this?" She pushed up her glasses as her hands moved towards her hips.
Her face was as unfriendly as her fellow students, her words made the other kids giggle and snicker.
"What could that loser have that is important?"
"Probably learning how to fail"
"Always so haughty but she sucks at everything she does"
"Maybe instead of trying to look good every morning, she should focus on learning."
They didn't even try to lower their voices, a balled-up paper ball flew from the back of the class, hitting her in the back of the head.
She flinched from the unexpected thing, eliciting more laughter from them.
The teacher was staring straight at her, pretending not to see what had just happened.
"No, Ma'am." She responded in the only way she knew how.
"Then please come up here and answer the question on the board." The blond middle-aged hag adjusted her glasses before pointing at the question with a stick.
Diana got up from her seat and awkwardly moved towards the board.
In bright red chalk, a question about what the best method to summon a Moon-Swallowing wolf was.
Joke's on her, Diana's lips quivered into a small smile, her hand moved on its own as she wrote the best solution. Summoner was the very class that she was so passionate about. She studied more about the game mechanics surrounding summoning than her actual college classes.
"Oh, so you were paying attention." She clapped her hands slowly. "Come on, class applaud her." The other students started to clap, while glaring at her. Hushed whispers of her getting lucky were traveling throughout the air.
"You should wipe that smile from your face, it's unsightly." The teacher leaned over and whispered in her ear.
Diana's smile became stiff, and her lips were pulled downward into a frown, before returning to her seat.
How much did these people hate her? And why?
The teacher stared intently at her, only deciding to speak when she sat down.
"As our Lovely Diana wrote, this is indeed the best method to summon a Moon-Swallowing wolf." She emphasized the word lovely, a disgusting smile on her face. The teacher then pulled a textbook from her drawer she placed the heavy thing with a thud on her desk.
"Do not forget, tomorrow will be the day we attempt to summon these wolves, it is the last chance before anyone who has no summons is expelled." She stared straight into Diana's eyes as she spoke.
Her gaze made Diana's skin crawl.
"Don't forget to read chapters 1-5. I will be testing you guys first thing in the morning."
The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day.
"That is all, you are dismissed." The teacher sat back on her chair as she watched the students attempting to leave.
Diana grabbed her bag and hurried back towards her room.
The short trek was not without problems, mostly small forms of bullying. Blocking her way, and other forms of ridicule.
When she finally made it to her room, she exhaled a large breath and flopped onto her bed. Diana was never bullied as a child or an adult; she was always just there. Never too good to be a target of jealousy and never too weird or bad to be treated as a laughingstock.
Her first experience as a victim of bullying was as a Duchess, how absurd was that?
There was also the problem that she had only one day to summon a creature.
If it were up to her, she would sneak out of the academy and go on an adventure to find some cheat items that would complement her summoning abilities, but with one day left, she had to put everything into summoning a wolf tomorrow.
It made her frown as she stared at the ceiling. A summoner's first summon was special, and now she had to waste it on a wolf.
She would much rather have a bad wolf than die, so she had no choice but to comply and prepare for tomorrow.
The problem was, she had no clue why her predecessor was so shit at summoning. Her status window told her no debuffs. So why had she failed to summon so many times?
As she thought of her misfortune, her eyes started to become heavy, and without much time passing, she drifted into the realm of sleep.