Retrieve My Amnesiac Mother

In the fifteenth year of the apocalypse, the acid rain began to fall again. Rain mixed with mud splattered against my pants, worn thin and faded white from countless washes. My name is Regina Vance, I am eighteen years old, and I work as a waitress at the Neon nightclub. Every night, I carry a tray as I weave through drunken patrons, enduring their spiteful gazes. The old pocket watch in my pocket presses against my waist; inside the cover is a photo of my mother Lyra Allen. The woman in the photo smiles with crescent eyes, holding five-year-old me, with the amusement park before the apocalypse as the backdrop. That is my last memory of her. When I was five, she disappeared outside the air-raid shelter, leaving no trace behind. And my father Victor Vance searched for her as if he had lost his mind. He sold off the last valuable belongings in the house, even overexerted his psychic abilities, and eventually became so broken that even zombies were too lazy to attack him. To support my father and myself, I dropped out of school at thirteen. The nightclub owner was a man with scars on his face. He always said, "Regina, with that face of yours, if you smiled more, you could earn three times as much." Each time, I just lowered my head to wipe the glass, not responding. I knew that in the apocalypse, beauty was a sin. On my eighteenth birthday, the rain fell especially hard. I finished work early, pocketed the thirty credit coins I had just earned, and headed down to the basement in the Slum. The basement was thick with the scent of mildew mixed with disinfectant. My father Victor was curled up in a corner, clutching Lyra's old coat, muttering, "Lyra, where are you... " I handed him the warm compressed biscuit. He took it, but didn't eat it—only stared blankly at the biscuit. Then, a mechanical voice suddenly echoed in my mind: "Host adulthood detected; Cross-world kinship system successfully bound." I was startled; the cup in my hand slipped and shattered into pieces on the floor. "Who are you?" I glanced around warily; in the basement, there was only my father and me. "This System is an affiliated agency of the Otherworld Management Bureau, tasked with assisting the host in retrieving the Otherworld's Strategist Lyra Allen." The mechanical voice spoke without emotion: "Lyra Allen is a resident of the Otherworld who entered the apocalypse fifteen years ago as a Strategist. After completing her mission, her memories were erased, and she returned to her original world." "Strategist? Memory erased?" I clenched my fists until my nails dug into my palms. "How could she just leave? She abandoned dad and me in the apocalypse, then went back to live a comfortable life?" Rage burned through me like a relentless flame. All the hardships and grievances I had endured over the years erupted at that moment. "System Task: Retrieve Lyra Allen back to the apocalypse to fulfill her responsibilities as a mother. Success grants the Host Healing Ability; failure results in the deletion of Host's world by the System." I didn't hesitate for a moment. "I accept. No matter which world she's in, I will bring her back and show her the life we've been living! The mechanical voice paused briefly. "Teleportation preparing, countdown ten minutes. Host, please get ready." I looked at my father Victor, unaware in the corner, and bent down to cover him with his coat. "Dad, wait for me. I will bring mom back." I whispered into his ear, my voice trembling in a way I hadn't even noticed. Ten minutes later, a white light enveloped me. The musty smell of the basement faded, replaced by fresh air and a faint fragrance of flowers.