The silence that followed her respawn into the same room where she started from was not the silence of panic, not the silence of just the absurdity of all of it… but the silence of understanding the opportunities that came with it.
The game she played is the game she lives in… and that game wasn't an empire-building game with the cozy warm feeling that you click one and it builds a village, you click two and suddenly democracy rises, everybody is happy… no, it was the straight opposite of it.
It was a complicated game, with political power moves, with true kingdom-building elements… a game where you can hold power with only two ways.
Be an empress who stands for the people, or be an empress who stands with the people.
The empress who stands for the people, ruling from above with the belief that she alone knows what is best for everyone, or the empress who stands with the people, walking beside them, listening to their struggles, sharing their victories and their burdens. These two paths seem close, almost identical, yet in reality they lead to entirely different destinies. One places you on a distant throne, admired but unreachable, while the other roots you among those you rule, turning you into a figure who breathes the same air and feels the same pain.
These two paths may begin from the same question, but they end in different worlds. One path leads to an empress who is honored yet isolated, a protector whose noble intentions sometimes drift far from the needs of those she guards. The other path creates an empress who feels the heartbeat of her empire as if it were her own, whose strength comes not from distance but from unity. And as history has shown again and again, the fate of an empire, its rise, its fall, its very soul depends entirely on which kind of empress sits upon the throne.
She had to choose between two paths, and one small comfort was that she came from a world with many empires and rulers. She had learned how they made decisions, what to accept and what to reject, what helped them survive and what caused them to fail. That knowledge gave her some guidance, but even with all that experience from the history books and lessons, there was still a huge problem that could ruin everything.
"They want to kill me… for my father's sins." Daisy whispered and that whisper was her answer.
The backstory of the game is the reason why there are traitors. Her father left the people of the empire to fight wars and protect its lands, but in doing so, he ignored their needs. He was a great leader in terms of holding and expanding the empire, but he cared little for the people themselves, chasing his own goals, his dream, but… when he returned from the wars… what awaited him?
An empire that was extremely poor, divided, and suffering… especially in the border regions. His father's sins, his father's ambitions and dreams, had pushed the entire Imperium to the brink of collapse.
"If they want to kill me… I kill them just like in the game." The mind of Daisy at that moment shifted to the mentality of the player who was on the leaderboard, who wasn't just ruling the empire… but ruled over the entire continent.
And to rule first you need to clean those who are against you and then… become a dictator of your people dressed as an empress and push your ideas, your reforms even if it need a bit of bloodshed.
[System: You don't seem shocked.]
"I would be shocked… but I know what a respawn is, I know this game." She said and it truly was a blessing, knowing what is this all about, knowing what is the game itself, what it respawn.
[System: Good, but now it's time to act, same scenario as before. Respawn left: Four.]
Silence… she didn't move, didn't even take a breath as she heard it… hard, what the System had just said to her. "What… did you say…?"
[System: There is nothing exciting if there isn't a cost. You have four more respawns, and after that the abyss awaits. So please try not to die, because if you do, I cease to exist as well.]
Now that completely shattered all of her plans and finally gave her the panic.
She built up everything in her mind, well it wasn't even a plan but she wanted to follow the same pattern she always did in the game… just seize power over the people and the military… just be reckless with it as she could have experience with every death… well no longer because the System just fucked her over.
"F-four respawns…?" She stuttered as asked and and just stared at the System window to see if she truly heard it right..
[System: Exactly, but it's better than one life, as you would have already been dead. Be happy Daisy.]
"Fuck!" A simple and very meaningful word left her mouth as she, just like before, grabbed a vase from the smoking table and threw that shit across the room.
There will be no experience gained from each death. No, she needs to hold on to every single life, because there is not a single ending to the game. She will not return to Earth if she becomes the sole ruler, even if she makes the empire much better… there is no ending, which also carries another meaning.
If she held onto her respawns until the end of her life from old age, she could easily live three lives to the fullest with the experience of just one… but that is almost an impossible task in an empire where many people want to kill her, where rebellion is always ready to erupt, and where illness can spread and kill everyone.
"What if… I just step down from the throne?" The question, which seemed like the easy way out, just live a life somewhere else, hidden, just enjoy life until death claims you.
[System: Automatic failure, which results in death. This is a game about an empress, a game about you. You need to play your role.]
No easy way out… but I just need to follow what I did in the old days and not care about anybody.
"Th—"
The knocks on the door, with the same power, with the same rhythm… it was Albert, which meant one thing.
Daisy's second life toward ultimate power and rule… had begun.