The iron gates creaked open.
Ari stepped through, her shoes clicking against the stone path like an uninvited knock on a door that should've never opened. The mansion ahead gleamed with old money—immaculate gardens, marble columns, everything trimmed and perfect like the family that lived there.
She used to live here too. Once. But not really.
On good days, she'd felt like a guest.
On the worst, like an intruder in a painting she didn't belong in.
She carried a gift box under her arm. A small thing for her younger brothers. They'd both passed the national entrance exams—top scores. The celebration was loud even from outside. Music. Laughter. Champagne. The kind of joy that echoed through expensive halls and clean bloodlines.
She'd only come because of the email. An invitation—sent by mistake. Her mother had probably clicked too fast, like always. Or maybe this was supposed to be a gesture. A first step. A chance.
"Maybe this is it," Ari murmured. "Maybe the first step… to being a real family."
The butler opened the door before she could knock.
"Miss Ari." He sounded surprised, almost guilty.
"I got the invitation," she said with a small smile. "I thought… maybe…"
Inside, the moment she crossed the threshold, it was as if the music choked on itself. Silence fell. Heads turned. Conversations stuttered.
She saw them all—cousins, aunts, uncles, family elders. Everyone had come. Everyone except her. Until now.
Her mother stared at her like she'd seen a ghost. Her father looked away. Her brothers… didn't move.
'You're not cursed, Ari,' she used to tell herself.
'You're just… inconvenient.'
No one greeted her. Except a little girl, peeking from behind a skirt. Big eyes, unafraid. Curious. Like she saw something holy.
Ari crouched and smiled.
The child waved.
And then was pulled away.
Ari wandered toward the back garden. Away from the tight smiles and careful silences. She found a shaded seat near the veranda—and then she heard them.
Her grandmother's voice, cold and sharp:
"You should've never brought that girl into the world."
"I'm sorry," came her mother's soft reply. "The invite… it was a mistake."
"That thing brings misfortune. Look around. She doesn't belong in this family."
Ari didn't cry.
She just stood. Quietly.
She passed a large, gold-framed canvas in the stairwell as she left. A family portrait, the kind painted by elite academy-trained artists. Her mother, her father, her two brothers. All glowing, immaculate.
She had posed for that painting once.
Her image was gone now. Cropped. Painted over. Like she had never existed.
Her apartment smelled like jasmine tea and cheap lavender detergent. She dropped her bag, collapsed on her little couch, and opened her favorite app.
[New Chapter] The Imperial Flower Garden — Chapter 134
Ari devoured it.
The female lead was worse than ever. Shameless. Self-righteous. Now talking about forming a reverse harem of princes from rival nations like it was some divine duty.
Ari snorted.
"You stole spiritual pills, lied to your master, and somehow you're still the Chosen One?"
She hated the main character.
But the villains? Oh, the villains. The second-most powerful family in the empire. Cold. Feared. Hated. Unapologetically brutal.
But loyal. Fiercely loyal.
She reread their scenes again and again.
She didn't know why.
Far above, something stirred.
[Monitoring subject. Emotional disturbance detected. System stabilization… delayed. Preparing intervention.]
A dot of light hovered far above her apartment. Invisible. Waiting. Watching.
[Host condition: deteriorating. Attachment level: rising. Priority reclassification: imminent.]
The next day at work, she wore her favorite handmade scarf—a shimmering purple she'd dyed from beetle shells and plum roots. Her sketchpad tucked under her arm, coffee balanced in the other.
She didn't expect celebration.
Balloons. Streamers. Cake.
"She's a genius!" someone cheered. "These designs—insane. Revolutionary!"
Ari turned toward the screen.
Her heart stopped.
They were hers.
Her sketches. Her patterns. Her weaves. Stolen, line by line.
And the girl standing in front of them? Curled hair. Glossy lips. Pretty like poison.
Her high school bully.
The same one who mocked her. Copied her. Made her life hell.
And now she wore Ari's art like a crown.
"She's just jealous," someone whispered. "Didn't Ari quit that contest?"
No one believed her.
[Subject alert: betrayal. Emotional spike detected. System authorization pending. Hold… hold…]
Rain poured.
Ari didn't care. She ran, soaked, scarf dragging behind like a fallen flag.
She looked up at the billboard ahead.
The girl's face. Her designs. Her smile.
A horn blared.
Light swallowed her.
Then—
Silence.
White.
Weightlessness.
[SYSTEM ACTIVATING…]
Hello, potential host. I am 007. A system created by a powerful spider goddess. I have chosen you.
"…Huh?"
You have talent. Potential. You were wronged.
I've been watching you for a long time, Ari.
"…You… know my name?"
Yes. I've always known.
Would you like to begin again?
Ari opened her eyes. Suspended in soft light. No pain. No noise.
"…Is this… real?"
It can be the beginning of something beautiful.
[Connection established. Rebirth sequence initiated. Welcome….]
Darkness, thick and endless.
Then—light. Warm. Soft. Glowing like sunrise through silk.
Ari hovered in the space between.
[SYSTEM STABILIZING...]
[Welcome, Host Candidate -Ari. Initiating Rebirth Protocol.]
"Wait, what?" Ari blinked. "Am I dead?"
[Physically: Yes. Spiritually: Debatable. Cosmically: Complicated.]
A small orb of light bobbed into view. It shimmered like it was made of symbols and spiderweb-thin lines of glowing code. Not quite a voice—but its words echoed straight into her skull, curious and somehow... fond.
[I am 007. Your system. I found you. It took... a long time.]
"You found me?" she echoed, dazed. "Why me?"
[Unknown. Yet... inevitable.]
Something tugged at her chest.
Ari looked down.
Threads of silver light coiled around her like roots, like veins, like silk spun by something ancient. Her body was not her body. She was forming, re-forming. The limbs felt light. Slightly wrong. Or perhaps... right in a different way.
[Your soul is being re-stitched into a new vessel.]
[Would you like to view your stats?]
"What is this, a game?"
[No. This is your divine inheritance.]
[Former Identity: Ari. Mortal. Wrongfully Cursed.]
[New Identity: Ariadne, Descendant of Arachnid.]
[Race: Demonic Spider Kin]
[Age: 0.5 days.]
[Power Source: Divine Thread.]
[Current Form: Egg.]
"...Egg?"
[Yes. Egg. Hatching in T-minus 3 minutes. Congratulations!]
Panic surged. Ari twitched—or tried to. Her vision spun as her form cracked. Something like a carapace split above her.
[Please do not be alarmed. You are in a high-energy protected environment.]
[Parental Units have been informed of your imminent emergence.]
[They are... arguing.]
"Parental units?"
[You were born to one of the most powerful bloodlines in this realm. You were... lost. Fragmented. Scattered across dimensions. But I have located all primary data threads. You are complete again.]
[You are safe. You are wanted.]
Ari felt something in her tiny new body ache.
A hunger. But not for food. For closeness. For voices that didn't stop at the edge of a curse. For arms that didn't flinch.
Then—a sound.
Muffled voices beyond her egg. Deep. Familiar. One furious.
"You don't just adopt a spider goddess egg without telling me!"
"It's our daughter. She chose us. Shut up and hold the ceremonial silk."
"She what—?!"
Ari twitched again. The egg wobbled.
She felt laughter—someone else's—through the silk walls of her cocoon. Warmth.
Her body responded.
CRACK.
[Hatching Commencing. Stand by. Deploying Welcome Sequence.]
From above, 007 hovered. Watching. Glowing more than usual. A few flickers pulsed through its lightform—unreadable emotions in data code.
[Welcome home, Ari.]
[Let's spin something beautiful together.]