Quick Wear: Child Bearing System

Chapter 1

Harriet never imagined her life would end under the weight of a speeding car. One moment she was guiding a student across the intersection, shouting warnings in Mandarin, and the next silence. Her body reacted faster than her mind, shoving the boy out of harm's way just in time. Pain bloomed in her back, then darkness swallowed everything whole.

But death was not the end.

She opened her eyes or perhaps she didn't. There was no light. No sound. No ground beneath her feet, no breeze against her skin. Only a boundless darkness that stretched in all directions, thick and suffocating, like the universe had forgotten her existence.

Before her untimely death, Harriet lived a fulfilling and modest life as a foreign English language teacher in a middle school in Beijing, China. She was an upright, principled woman with a deep sense of responsibility and a quiet pride in her role as an educator. Though the job was often stressful, she never let it weigh her down. Watching her students improve and hearing their hesitant, but earnest English brought her an irreplaceable sense of joy. She might be far from her homeland but here, she's happy and satisfied building her career and living her life in a new place.

Harriet had grown up in a warm, close-knit family of five as the middle child, and while her two siblings had long carved their own paths, she was just beginning to bloom in her own. Living abroad had always been a dream part of adventure, part career goal and China welcomed her with open arms. The children she taught reminded her of home: polite, curious, and full of promise. Surrounded by a culture she admired and students she adored, Harriet had been content. For the first time in her life, she felt like she was exactly where she was meant to be until fate, with cruel swiftness, pulled her away.

Harriet lost track of time how long she's been stuck like this in the dark without seeing and feeling anything around her.

She called, but even her voice didn't echo. Her throat worked. Her lips moved. Nothing came out.

[Hello. I am the Childbearing System.]

A disembodied mechanical voice broke the silence, crisp and emotionless. The sound echoed from nowhere and everywhere at once, resonating inside her skull more than her ears.

[This system is designed to guide the host across dimensions, ensuring the birth of heirs for the Sons of Heaven. Would you accept to form a contract?]

Harriet froze.

"...What?" she croaked, though she was unsure if she truly spoke aloud. Her voice felt like a whisper drifting through a vacuum. "Childbearing? Dimensions? Who are the Sons of Heaven?"

[The Sons of Heaven are individuals blessed by the divine rulers, emperors, immortals whose bloodlines must be preserved. Host is assigned to assist in this process by giving birth to their heirs.]

Her jaw slackened. "Wait, wait! Hold on! That's-what? No! I've never even dated anyone! How can I give birth for someone I don't know?!"

[Biological compatibility will be arranged by the system. Emotional involvement is optional. Rejection is not advised.]

The robotic voice remained calm, devoid of sympathy.

Harriet felt a cold sweat break out on her nonexistent skin. Was this some kind of punishment? A joke from the afterlife?

"What... What happens if I decline?" she asked, dreading the answer.

[Declining will result in immediate soul disintegration. You will cease to exist. Reincarnation privileges will be revoked.]

The words struck her like ice.

Her hands clenched into fists. "That's cruel! I died saving a person. I did something good. And this is the reward I get? Eternal nothingness or baby-making in strange worlds?!"