Spectral Threshold

The protagonist. The guy the whole world stops for. The one who defeats everyone and walks away with the cover girl. The kind of man even villains invite to dinner before dying. That… is not me. I was just an ordinary reader, lying in bed, flipping through the final chapter of my favorite web novel. The hero was about to make his epic entrance when sleep ambushed me. I blinked… and the next thing I saw was a strange sky, a city that smelled of iron, and a voice in my head saying: —〈Well, what a fragile little tenant〉—. I am not the protagonist. I’m the extra who’s supposed to die in chapter 4. And now I share a skull with a specter who has more sarcasm than patience. I’m no hero. I’m a side character with a ghost strapped to me and the humble goal of making sure the protagonists never, ever notice I exist. Spoiler: the world doesn’t usually honor my plans.