Ah, that doesn't matter…
What mattered now was that she was finally free from everything that once shackled her. To her, this so-called debuff wasn't a chain; it was liberation in disguise. No more pressure, no more people, no more drama.
She'd happily dodge the spotlight and chase what she truly craved all along. Knowledge.
Afterall, true happiness isn't found in knowing everything. It's in the act of pursuing it.
"Ah... but where do I even go?..." she sighed, glancing at the sky.
⬧︎[] System Notification []
⬧︎[] Main Objective Activated! []
⬧︎[] Welcome to your first mission, Background Extra! []
⬧︎[] Objective: Remain unseen. Unremarkable. Utterly forgettable.[]
⬧︎[] Reward: +1 EXP per day of successful invisibility. []
⬧︎[] Warning: Receiving attention will result in Negative EXP, system Decay, and other penalties. []
⬧︎[] Good luck, or better yet. Stay boring. []
"Yeah, yeah. You don't gotta tell me what to do like a goddamn toddler."
God, she hated systems. They always made it seem like characters only grew because some voice in their head told them how to. It was just a glorified self-insert fantasy for people desperate to be spoon-fed progress.
Like seriously, do you have to be that much of a loser to need a disembodied tutorial to tell you how to live?
But perhaps… just maybe, she should've paid a little more attention to the system. Because the moment she arrived at a nearby village, blissfully wandering wherever her feet felt like dragging her in this obviously medieval fantasy world with its wooden stalls, muddy roads, people with no dental care and lots of chickens—something incredibly stupid happened.
"I WON'T LOSE BECAUSE ALL MY FRIENDS BELIEVE IN ME!"
Right there in front of her was a man with shining grey eyes, windswept black hair, a scarf, and muscles. He wasn't even tall, but had the aura of a tall man.
Behind him stood a group of wide-eyed women, childhood friend, tsundere, priestess, probably a demon princess or two.
⬧︎[] SYSTEM ALERT []
⬧︎[] Protagonist Detected! []
⬧︎[] Distance: Too damn close. []
⬧︎[] Mission: AVOID. AVOID. AVOID. []
⬧︎[] You are advised to turn around immediately. []
Oh no… Don't tell me that's a…
Harem protagonist.
Of course it was. Any self-respecting anime nerd would spot the signs from a mile away.
In every painfully predictable isekai, there was always that one pure-hearted priestess, that one childhood friend who "believed in him all along," and naturally, the obligatory tsundere throwing shade and blushing at the same time.
And the guy himself? Black hair, a generic haircut you could find in a free character creator, boyish features, and zero personality beyond "I accidentally fell on her chest!" Classic. Absolutely textbook.
"Yeah, I would gladly—"
Abort! Abort!
She spun on her heel and bolted from the scene like the walking red flag she was avoiding just exploded because, well, it did. A burst of flashy magic erupted behind her a few seconds later. Classic protagonist moment.
Any minute now, those girls would be swooning, squealing, and possibly fainting from secondhand admiration.
She wasn't even wearing shoes.
Her soles screamed in agony with every step across the sun-scorched cobblestones, pushing through the crowd while running on pure exhaustion and pettiness.
⬧︎[] SYSTEM NOTIFICATION []
⬧︎[] Mission Update: Spotlight Avoidance []
⬧︎[] You have successfully escaped the protagonist's radius of cringe. []
"I'm so hungry and tired..." she muttered, stomach grumbling louder than her thoughts.
Everything around her felt utterly foreign from the people bustling by, to the strange rhythms of this world, to how exactly it all worked.
The body she now inhabited wasn't even hers, and when she glanced down, it was painfully obvious: malnourished and... well, missing anything decent below the cloak that was barely covering her.
No wonder she felt so exposed.
Exhaustion clawed at her after all that running, so she stumbled into a quiet alleyway and collapsed onto the cold stones, just grateful for a moment to catch her breath.
"System, I know I'm useless... but can you please just explain everything to me?" She gasped for breath. "What is Formancy? How does this world even work?"
⬧︎[] System Notification []
⬧︎[] Formancy: The metaphysical art of aligning with ideal Forms to draw power directly from their essence. Your abilities hinge on embodying these perfect concepts. Stray too far, and you risk 'Formfall'—a crippling loss of power. Welcome to a world where ideas aren't just thoughts; they're your lifeline. []
"And... how does my formancy work?"
⬧︎[] Formancy: Apatheia []
⬧︎[] The Ideal of Balanced Equanimity and Rational Detachment []
⬧︎[] Type of Form Magic: Emotional & Conceptual Form Magic (with a touch of Perceptual and Willpower magic) hecause it embodies emotional balance, detachment from passion, and a razor-sharp, undistracted intellect. []
⬧︎[] Apatheia embodies serene self-control, intellectual clarity, and emotional neutrality — neither cold nor numb, but perfectly balanced. They do not seek glory or chaos, instead valuing truth, knowledge, and subtle influence. []
So that explains why I'm in this role… though the 1 EXP per day part is quite cruel though understandable due to my role in this world. The lowest of the low.
There was still so much she didn't know, and at the moment, the only thing holding her upright was the cold, crumbling stone wall of the alley.
She tried to keep her eyes open, to stay alert, but exhaustion had other plans and eventually, sleep claimed her anyway.
...
...
"?!"
Screaming. Yelling. The world felt like it had caught fire, heat licked at her skin, subtle at first, but sharp enough to make her flinch. It had started as a distant echo, but as consciousness crept back in, the full volume of terror slammed into her all at once.
Around her, houses were charred and broken, burned down to blackened bones. Smoke curled into the orange-drenched sky as the sun sank low. She had no idea how long she'd been out.
"What…?"
⬧︎ []SYSTEM NOTIFICATION []
⬧︎ [] EMERGENCY ALERT: DEMON RAID IN PROGRESS []
⬧︎ [] The village is under siege by unknown demonic entities. []
⬧︎ [] Recommendation: Avoid all contact. Remain unseen. []
⬧︎ [] Visibility = EXP loss []
"A raid? Already?..." she muttered, as if the universe wasn't wasting any time screwing her over.
Stepping out of the alley, destruction immediately invited her.
Demons, vile, skeletal things with jagged limbs, obsidian skin, and mouths that stretched too wide, prowled the burning village like it was their playground. Their eyes glowed with violet light, and black smoke clung to their bodies like cloaks of death.
Corpses littered the streets. She gagged and looked away, but then she heard it. Crying.
A small girl knelt in the dirt, trembling beside the bodies of her parents.
Blood painted the cobblestones, and a demon was already stalking toward her, claws clicking against stone.
I shouldn't…
Her hand twitched. If she interfered, her EXP gain would crash. Worse, she might attract attention. A penalty.
But if she didn't…
The child would die.
"No..." she breathed.
And then she ran...
Towards the child.