I woke up to a splitting headache, like someone had cracked my skull with a sledgehammer. The room was wrong—stone walls, crystal lanterns pulsing like tiny stars, not my cluttered apartment with its eternal taco-bloat vibe. I was on a hard cot, not my saggy couch. My body felt off, too—gangly, weak, like I'd been stretched into someone else's skin.
I fumbled for a tablet on the desk, its surface shimmering with runes. A tap, and a holographic screen flickered to life, projecting a 3D figure that looked like me, but… not. Scrawny, messy black hair, eyes too big for the face. The stats didn't lie:
User ID: Joren Vale
Rank: E
Strength: E
Agility: E
Stamina: E
Intelligence: E
Mana Capacity: E
Luck: D
Charm: E-
Profession: Crystal Scribe, lvl. 1
Academy: Emberhold
Rank in Year: 1823/2100
"E-rank across the board," I muttered, rubbing my temples. "And Charm E-minus? Universe, you didn't have to do me like that."
It hit me like a freight train—I was in Veil of Vaeloria, my half-baked Webnovel draft. Not as Sira Kade, the overpowered protagonist, but Joren Vale, a mob who dies in Chapter 23, gutted by a Veilspawn during a surge. I'd written this world: a post-cataclysm mess where humanity clung to cliffside cities like Vaeloria, funded by the High Council's iron grip, fighting shadow beasts with Crystal Weaves—rune-based magic that made swords look pedestrian.
I wasn't Sira. She'd blaze through Emberhold, top academy in human territory, while I'd be lucky to survive orientation. My only shot was cheating. I knew every exploit, every hidden relic. First up: the Veil Shard, a cheat item buried in Dusk Ridge's caves. It'd break my E-rank cap, let me train past human limits. Sira never got it—her rival did, in a throwaway scene I barely outlined.
I grabbed my bag, stuffed with E-rank gear, and checked my ID: "Joren Vale, Emberhold Year 1." The High Council's seal glowed on it, proof I was in their system. Time to move. An air-tram to Dusk Ridge was leaving soon, and I wasn't about to miss it. Screw being the protagonist—I'd write my own survival arc.
~~
The dorm's crystal-lit halls buzzed with students, all sharper, stronger, better. I kept my head down, weaving through to the tram station. Vaeloria's skyline glittered outside—spires of stone and crystal over a chasm of shadow. Two cataclysms had smashed continents together, birthing this city and its threats. I flashed my ID, got a student ticket, and boarded the tram, heart pounding. Step one: grab the Veil Shard. Step two: don't die.