The letter was gone.
One second it had been in Rey's hands, old paper trembling between his fingers. The next, it crumbled into dust before it even touched the floor.
For a long moment, Rey stayed on the edge of the bed, staring at his empty hands.
Lucas Deroi.
That was the name of the body he had been given. He had been dropped into someone else's life without instructions and, above all, without the memories that should have made this body useful.
Rey pressed both palms against his face and dragged them down slowly.
"Okay," he muttered. "Let's review this nightmare."
He was dead in his original world. He had been reincarnated into his own terrible novel. His mission was to save the world, and the reward was one wish. His current body belonged to Lucas Deroi, an orphan, a Gift user, a top military student, and a future student of ROY.
"And I have no idea how to be him."
That was the real problem. Not the world-ending boss. Not the absurd mission. Not even the fact that he had been reincarnated into a book he'd written when he was younger and had no sense of restraint.
If someone who knew Lucas spoke to him for more than five minutes, Rey was dead.
Maybe not literally. Maybe they would suspect him, report him, or test him. But in a world of Gifts, military academies, holographic systems, and secret organizations he didn't even remember inventing, being suspected was probably just a slower way to die.
He stood up.
His legs were still weak, but the dizziness had faded into a heavy pressure behind his eyes.
"First rule," he said to himself. "Panic later."
He looked around the apartment again, this time with purpose.
The place was small, with only a desk, a bed, a bathroom, and a kitchenette. A gray coat hung by the door. A pair of black boots sat beneath it. Through the narrow window, he could see a city he didn't recognize but somehow had created.
Rey went to the desk first.
The books were mostly technical: Gift theory, combat formations, military ethics, Crest classification, and human defensive history. They were the kind of books Rey would have skimmed when worldbuilding before rushing back to the tournament arc.
He opened the first drawer and found Lucas's admission packet from ROY, a temporary student ID, several documents, and a few data chips.
The ID showed his current face.
Lucas Deroi stared back from the small holographic image. His black hair and pale skin made his eyes stand out. The rest of his face was ordinary enough to disappear in a crowd.
"So this is me now."
The hologram blinked once as the ID refreshed.
He nearly dropped it.
"Don't do that."
The ID did not respond.
Rey exhaled and kept searching.
In the second drawer, he found a small combat knife wrapped in cloth. Beside it were emergency flares, painkillers, a city map, and a handwritten note with only two words:
Don't answer.
"Great," Rey whispered. "Very comforting."
He opened the wardrobe next. Lucas owned uniforms, training clothes, and plain dark shirts. He dressed like someone who didn't want to be noticed.
At the bottom of the wardrobe sat a locked metal case.
Rey searched the room until he found a key taped beneath the desk.
The case clicked open.
Inside were a few photographs, a sealed envelope, a military middle school certificate, a broken watch, and a pendant shaped like a thin shard of ice.
Rey picked it up.
Pain exploded behind his eyes.
He doubled over, almost smashing his forehead into the case.
For one second, the apartment disappeared.
A child stood barefoot in the snow. Blood stained the white ground behind him. Someone was screaming, and a woman's voice cut through the cold.
Run, Lucas.
Then the vision snapped.
Rey fell backward onto the floor, gasping.
The pendant rolled from his hand and stopped beside the bed.
For several seconds, he couldn't breathe properly.
"What…" His voice came out thin. "What the hell was that?"
No answer came.
Rey wiped cold sweat from his neck.
It had not been a dream. It felt like a memory.
Lucas's memory.
He stared at the pendant.
"So you're not completely gone," he muttered.
That thought should have comforted him. It didn't.
If Lucas's memories were still buried inside this body, then Rey wasn't wearing an empty shell. He was standing in the middle of someone else's unfinished life.
He forced himself up and continued searching.
The photographs showed Lucas at different ages. Most were formal school pictures, but one photo caught Rey's attention. Four children in gray training uniforms stood outside a snow-covered facility. Lucas was among them, beside a red-haired boy, a silver-haired girl, and a tall boy with bandaged hands.
Someone had scratched out the face of the instructor standing behind them.
Rey turned the photo over.
Four names were written on the back.
Lucas. Evan. Mira. Kael.
The last two meant nothing to him. He didn't recall them.
Evan, though…
He frowned.
Evan Rell.
The name tugged at Rey's own memory. Evan had been a minor character in the academy section of The Hero's Rise, the kind of rival who existed for a few chapters before fading into the background. Rey had never made him important.
Rey placed it carefully on the desk.
The more he searched, the clearer it became that Lucas Deroi was not just an ordinary extra. He had a history Rey knew nothing about.
And Rey had been dropped into it blind.
He sat down and opened the ROY admission packet.
The first page congratulated Lucas Deroi on being accepted into the Royal Orion Youth Academy, the most prestigious human university and military training institution in the world. The packet mentioned orientation, rank evaluation, dormitory assignment, and Crest confirmation.
Rey rubbed his temples.
The email from earlier had mentioned the Crest too. Students would discover their rank and Crest during the opening ceremony.
In The Hero's Rise, Gifts were innate abilities such as fire, light, healing, or physical reinforcement. Crests went deeper. They represented compatibility with ancient forces, bloodlines, or world-level authorities.
At least, that was the explanation Rey had written before abandoning the details.
He hated his past self a little more every minute.
The smartwatch on his wrist suddenly beeped.
A translucent blue screen appeared above it.
[System activation in progress.]
[Time until activation: 29 days, 17 hours, 42 minutes.]
Then another message appeared beneath it.
[Main Quest Updated]
[Survive until ROY Opening Ceremony.]
[Failure condition: Death / Identity Exposure / Loss of ROY Admission.]
[Reward: Partial System Activation.]
[Penalty: Unknown.]
Rey stared at the words.
"Unknown penalty?"
The system did not elaborate.
He leaned back in the chair and looked at the ceiling.
Twenty-nine days.
He had twenty-nine days to become convincing enough to pass as Lucas Deroi. He had twenty-nine days to avoid whatever was chasing Lucas. He had twenty-nine days to enter ROY without being exposed.
He picked up the pendant again, this time with a cloth.
No vision came.
Good.
He placed it around his neck anyway.
It felt cold against his skin.
"Fine," Rey said quietly. "First objective: survive."