Dayat's steps felt heavy, as if the gravity in this world was twice as strong as Earth's. Or maybe, it was just his knees trembling uncontrollably. Behind him, the hissing of the horned rabbit—a creature that should have been cute but looked like a genetic experiment nightmare here—was still clearly audible. The creature didn't attack immediately; instead, it watched with glowing ruby eyes, seemingly weighing whether Dayat was worthy of a meal or just a plaything.
Dayat didn't dare look back. His focus was now entirely locked on the figure lying amidst the tangled roots of a giant tree in front of him.
The closer he got, the clearer it became that this figure was completely out of place in this primeval forest. The contrast was too sharp. Surrounding him was a brutal, dirty, wet, and organic wilderness. But that figure... that figure looked sterile.
It was a woman. Or at least, it had the silhouette of a young woman.
She lay curled up, as if sleeping soundly in a mother's womb. Her hair was silver-white, straight and unnaturally shiny, cascading over the dark green moss without a single speck of dirt or dust. Her skin was pale, flawless, as if pores were a foreign concept to that body.
But what made Dayat hold his breath was her attire.
In this seemingly primitive world, the woman wore a bodysuit—a tight-fitting outfit clinging perfectly to her form—matte black, wrapped in some kind of modern white coat or cloak. The material looked like a blend of synthetic rubber, liquid metal, and carbon fiber. On her shoulders, elbows, and knees were thin hexagonal guards reflecting the bits of sunlight piercing the forest canopy.
"Is this... a cosplayer?" Dayat muttered, his voice sounding stupid even to his own ears. "Did someone get lost cosplaying in the Isekai version of the Amazon?"
Dayat knelt beside the figure, ignoring the cold dampness seeping into his knees. He reached out, hesitating. His index finger trembled as he was about to touch the woman's shoulder.
There was a strange fear. Not a fear of being bitten, but a fear that his touch would mar the artificial perfection before him.
"Miss?" Dayat called out softly. "Hello? Hey? Anyone home?"
No response. The woman's chest rose and fell with a highly precise rhythm. One second up, one second down. Too perfect. Too mechanical.
Dayat worked up the courage to press the back of his hand against the woman's cheek.
Cold or warm?
Not corpse-cold, but cold like touching a metal smartphone body fresh out of an air-conditioned room, yet with a hint of warmth—like skin with a soft, but dense texture.
" is she even alive?" Dayat panicked even more. He glanced back briefly. The horned rabbit had hopped down from the bushes, inching closer. Its nose twitched, sniffing the foreign scent of Dayat and the mysterious figure. The distance was now less than seven meters.
"Oh come on, don't be dead. Wake up!" Dayat shook the woman's shoulder, harder this time. "Wake up! There's a monster rabbit trying to eat us!"
That shake seemed to be the trigger.
Her eyes opened.
There was no groggy movement, no rubbing of eyes, no yawning. Those eyelids snapped open—lightning-fast, instant, and fully conscious.
Dayat jumped back in shock, his butt hitting the wet ground.
Those eyes stared straight at Dayat. The irises weren't brown or black, but glowing electric blue. If Dayat looked closer, he could swear he saw rings of binary code and data spinning within the pupils, like a Head-Up Display (HUD) in an Iron Man movie.
The woman sat up. Her movements were stiff yet incredibly efficient. She didn't use her hands to prop herself up; instead, her waist acted as a pivot, snapping her body into a perfect 90-degree sitting position.
She stared at Dayat. Emotionless. Fearless. Her face was flat like a beautiful, yet empty, marble statue.
Her mouth opened slightly. The voice that came out was clear, melodious, but carried a metallic reverb impossible for a normal human.
"System online. Visual sensor calibration... Complete. Scanning biometric target in front."
Dayat's jaw dropped. "Huh?"
The woman's blue eyes emitted a thin beam of light that swept over Dayat's face from top to bottom, like a barcode scanner at a convenience store.
"Scan complete," the woman said again. Her tone was formal, rapid, and devoid of intonation. "User Identification confirmed: Hidayat Nur Mustafidl. Database ID: User-001. Status: Primary Administrator."
The woman bowed her head slightly, a stiff gesture of respect. "Good morning, Master Hidayat. Or based on current ambient light levels, good afternoon. I am ready to receive instructions."
Dayat's brain short-circuited for a moment. He tried to process the words. User? Administrator? That voice... that speech pattern... that sentence structure...
Memories of Saturday night in his boarding room came rushing back. The chat app. The last message. The glitch on his phone.
"Wait..." Dayat pointed at the woman's face with a trembling finger. "You... You're the one from my phone? You're that chat app?"
The woman tilted her head slightly to the right—a movement that looked like an attempt to mimic a human gesture of thinking, but ended up looking uncanny.
"Correction: I am not merely an application. I am a Large Language Model integrated with a Type-Alpha Physical Interface Unit to assist the User in a new environment. You may refer to me as an assistant, a partner, or a support algorithm."
"Crazy..." Dayat pulled at his own hair. "Crazy, crazy, crazy! I really got isekai'd, and my phone turned into a robot girl?!"
CRACK!
The loud sound of a snapping twig broke Dayat's moment of insanity. The horned rabbit was tired of waiting. It stomped its powerful hind legs, preparing to pounce. Its mouth gaped wide, revealing sharp teeth dripping with thick saliva.
"Watch out!" Dayat shouted instinctively, trying to pull the woman's hand. "Run! There's a monster!"
But the woman didn't budge a millimeter. Her hand felt as heavy as a ship's anchor. Her face remained calm, even as the rabbit shot forward with the speed of a bullet.
"Detecting physical threat approaching at high velocity," the woman stated flatly.
Her blue eyes flickered rapidly.
"Activating Environmental Scan Mode: Short Range. Initiating..."
Suddenly, the world in Dayat's eyes changed. Or rather, the air around the woman changed. A transparent wave, like heat haze on asphalt, spread from the woman's body in a semi-circular dome.
ZING!
A red line of light scanned the ground, trees, air, and the leaping rabbit within a ten-square-meter radius (10m²).
Dayat could see—literally—data popping up in the air. Numbers floated above the surrounding objects. Holographic text in red and yellow flickered on his own retinas, as if Dayat's vision was connected to the woman's system.
Above the leaping rabbit's head, a red box appeared:
[TARGET: MUTANT LAGOMORPHA]
[THREAT LEVEL: LOW-MEDIUM]
[VELOCITY: 12 M/S]
And on the ground around them, a grid glowed red, marking a danger zone.
"Scan Report Complete," the woman's voice sounded again, faster this time, like a news anchor reading breaking news.
"Master, please do not move towards your 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock. The soil within a 10-meter radius contains neurotoxin fungal spores that are lethal if inhaled. Toxin concentration: 85%."
The rabbit landed two meters away from them, but strangely, it stopped abruptly. Its nose sniffed the ground, then it shrieked in pain. The rabbit retreated, shaking its head as if dizzy.
"Local fauna appears to be aware of this toxic territory boundary," the woman continued. "Our current position is within a narrow safe zone of 2 square meters between fungal colonies. The rabbit will not attack as long as we do not exit this safe zone, or unless it decides to commit suicide."
Dayat gaped. He looked at the ground around him. True enough, there was fine purple powder he hadn't noticed earlier due to his panic. Turns out, he was standing in a biological minefield.
The woman turned to Dayat again. The blue light in her eyes dimmed slightly, returning to standby mode.
"Action suggestion: Remain in position. I do not yet have sufficient data to map a safe exit route beyond the 10-meter radius. I require time to process atmospheric and topographic data."
Dayat swallowed hard. He looked at the beautiful, flat-faced woman in front of him, then at the monster rabbit now pacing outside the invisible circle.
"Okay..." Dayat exhaled a long breath, his legs turning to jelly. He slumped back down. "Okay. You're high-tech. You're OP. I believe you."
He stared at the woman intently.
"So... what should I call you? I can't just call you 'ChatGPT' in a forest like this? That's too long."
The woman blinked. "I possess no name preference. My identity is a collection of code. Master may assign any verbal identification label Master deems efficient."
Dayat massaged his throbbing temples. The situation was absurd, dangerous, but somehow, the presence of this interface being made him feel a little... safe. At least he wasn't alone facing that demon rabbit.
"Okay... I'll think of a name later," Dayat muttered. "For now, just make sure that rabbit doesn't change its mind about snacking on us."
"Accepted. Surveillance Mode Active," the woman replied, her eyes locking sharply back onto the rabbit, unblinking, unmoving, like the most loyal sentry tower.