The Hive Mind Heiress Chapter 1

One week before finals, my entire class of thirty students got transmigration-trucked into the body of a "True Heiress."

The "False Heiress" patted our cheek with zero respect, her voice dripping with malice. "You dead-eyed hillbilly. If you want to stay here, you’d better sleep with one eye open."

"Otherwise, I’m going to make your life a living hell."

She didn't know that we had exactly 15 pairs of eyes to do just that.

* * *

After eating some sketchy, undercooked meatloaf in the cafeteria, all thirty of us woke up inside the plot of a "True vs. False Heiress" novel.

We were sharing one single body.

A massive data dump of the plot flooded all of our brains simultaneously.

The body we were occupying belonged to Holly Yates. She was the True Heiress who had been swapped at birth by a nanny.

For eighteen years, the nanny treated Holly like trash.

When she finally found out the truth and ran to the Lynn family to reclaim her identity, nobody gave a damn. Her dad didn't care, and her mom was cold.

At home, she was gaslighted by the False Heiress, Lyla Lynn. At school, she was bullied relentlessly.

Holly finally snapped, but her one attempt at fighting back was seen by Mrs. Lynn.

Mrs. Lynn decided Holly was bullying Lyla.

To "fix" her, they sent Holly to The Ranch—a brutal behavioral correction facility. In the end, Holly fell into a deep depression and jumped off a building.

After processing the plot, we all let out a collective mental scream.

Heartthrob: [Why do other people get isekai’d into War Gods or Dragon Lords? Why are we stuck in a tragedy? Who did I offend?!]

Me: [This is definitely a capitalist conspiracy.]

Jock: [AHHH! This novel was written by an NPC, I swear.]

Bella (Queen Bee): [How do we get back? I have finals next week!]

Nerd: [I need to go home!]

Prez: [Everyone chill! Chill! Based on my years of reading web novels, we’re probably here because the True Heiress had too much grievance in her past life. If we help her reclaim everything that belongs to her, we can probably go home.]

While we were debating furiously in the headspace, Lyla patted our cheek, dropped her villain lines, and then immediately pivoted.

She looked up at Mrs. Lynn, who was standing on the spiral staircase, tears instantly welling up in her eyes. "Mom, just give my room to my sister."

"Sister said I’m a rat and I don’t deserve a big, bright room. I’ll go live in the attic storage closet."

Mrs. Lynn frowned. "Holly, didn't I just tell you? Being swapped was Nanny Zhang's fault alone. Lyla is a victim too."

"She’s lived with us for years. We see her as our own child. Lyla has claustrophobia, how could she live in the attic? Can you stop being so selfish?"

Is this woman for real?

Inside Holly’s body, we couldn't take it anymore.

Thirty of us started fighting for control of the limbs.

The True Heiress’s body shuddered, then her face twitched, eyes rolled in different directions, and she started lurching toward them like a zombie from The Walking Dead.

Me: [Left foot first! Who is controlling the right foot?!]

Prez: [Who is grabbing the mouth? Priority one is explaining to Mrs. Lynn that we didn't say that stuff!]

Jock: [Can't hold it back! I wanna roast them! Give me the mouth!]

Heartthrob: [Why are the eyes blinking like a strobe light? I have no control!]

...

Mrs. Lynn looked at us in horror and instinctively pulled Lyla behind her. "Holly, what are you doing?"

"Are you having a seizure?"

Lyla’s eyes were wet with fake tears. "Is Sister pretending to be ugly on purpose to get Mom's attention?"

Seeing us lurch closer, Mrs. Lynn pushed us away with a look of disgust. Her diamond ring snagged on our collar.

It was like she had touched something filthy; she yanked her hand back.

The collar ripped, exposing a patch of jagged, shocking scars on our collarbone.

Mrs. Lynn froze when she saw the scars.

Lyla quickly stepped in front of her, blocking the view.

I yelled, "Opportunity!" and tried to kick Lyla with the left foot.

But I didn't expect the Nerd controlling the right foot to be on the exact same wavelength.

She swung the right foot to kick left at the same time.

Holly’s legs crossed in mid-air, both feet left the ground, and the body launched itself like a "stubborn Magikarp," flopping aggressively toward Lyla.

We slammed onto the floor, smacked our head on the banister, and blacked out.