"FUCKING TRASH! FUCK!!!"
Tany was seconds from throwing his phone away, which might make you wonder, what has gotten him this worked up.
"How is this guy the mc? Unbelievable," he grabbed his phone tighter, "so many people died because of you, so called 'hero'."
He stopped reading and tossed his phone on the bed, "man, fuck this author, what type of bs is this?"
Tany was reading a novel, but not just any novel, it was the lowest rated webnovel of all time. Three thousand chapters and every single person on the platform had dropped it because the writing was genuinely painful to read.
However, an idiot named Tany has been going at it for months, every single day, chapter after chapter, because even though the story was trash, the characters just felt to real that he had to see how things turned out for them.
"I honestly don't get why I care so much for them," he said, picking up his phone again. "Haaah, such an annoying story, if only the mc was a better person, why was that bastard chosen as the hero?"
"Whatever man, let's just continue," even as he said that, he could feel his head throbbing.
He read a lot of good webnovels in his life, way better than this trash for sure but, no story has ever made him get attached to characters this much. It was strange, no matter how good the author is, his/her writing of the characters was just something else.
The novel was called "Hero of Elyshard," a fantasy story about a world with ten great academies, demons invading through gates, and a chosen hero named Leon who was supposed to save everyone.
Sounds cool right? It would be, if Leon wasn't the most useless protagonist in the history of fiction.
"This man has the power, talent and charisma, literally everything handed to him on a silver platter," he muttered as he scrolled, "and he still can't protect a single person. How is that even possible?"
The thing about Leon was that people naturally followed him. He had this pull to him that made everyone want to be around him, going so far as to risk their lives for him.
Leon however took that for granted every single time. He never trained his allies or checked on them to see if they were doing alright, he simply collected them and left them to break.
So when the demons came through gates that opened across the world, Leon who was supposed to unite everyone, as that was the whole point of him being a hero, failed and millions of people died.
"I swear if one more person dies because of this clown," he said through his teeth, reading further down towards the end of the chapter, "I'm gonna lose it."
One more person died.
"BRO!"
More and more just kept dying, making him stop reading all together and stare up at his ceiling. 'I know it's story but even so, can someone really be dislikable? The author sure is good at rage baiting, it makes sense why no one committed to the story.'
He was at chapter 2998, which was crazy, 2 chapters left and the hero's body count was still going up.
"You know what man, it's fine," he said to himself, clearly not fine, "its just two more chapters, I have come too far to stop now, I at least need to see how it ends."
10 minutes later
"Pfft!! Serves you right you fucking asshole!" He could not hold back his laugh, reading that the hero died a gruesome death brought him so much joy.
'It's a shame though, in the end, humanity lost and everyone died.' He sighed, scratching his head. 'Now that it's over, I fee so hollow inside, such a waste of a vast world.'
He scrolled further down but nothing else was showing up, "well, guess that's it, time to-" he reached the bottom and saw a question, directed at the reader.
"Do you think you could have done better than the hero?"
'What kind of question is that?' He stared at it for a while, it was weird for a novel to end on something like this but, the answer came to him so easily it was almost funny.
"Yes," he said out loud, and he genuinely meant it. Any person with half a brain could've done better than Leon. "I would have treated them better and made sure they reached their full potential."
The moment those words left his mouth, his phone screen went full white, "eh? Did my phone just glitch?"
He shook it for a few seconds before he noticed that the white was spreading out of the screen, "what the hell-" it got on to his hands and continued spreading until his whole room turned white.
'Am I hallucinating right now?' He looked around but there was nothing to see, just white everywhere. 'Please tell me someone slipped something in my drink.'
"Hello, Tany."
"WHO'S THERE?!" He spun around so fast he almost tripped over himself. There was a tall woman standing behind him and she was glowing faintly, with long hair that moved on its own.
She looked... 'tired' was the word that came to mind, like she didn't slept in centuries.
'W-Wait, hold on.' He stared at her, with shocked eyes. 'Golden pupils with stars in them, white and gold robes, barefoot...'
The novel described a goddess like that, the one who watched over Elyshard. The writing was garbage but even that author managed to hammer those details in enough times that Tany could put it together.
"No way," his eyes went even wider, "Astra? The goddess from the novel?"
He thought for a second, realizing how stupid he sounds, "haha, what am I saying, this sure is one hell of a drea-"
"Yes, I am Astra and this is not a dream" she said with a small smile on her face.
He looked at her in silence, still trying to process what she just said. "Hahaha..." He was waiting for her to say sike or something but she didn't.
"W-Wait, you are being serious? You are really her?"
"Yes," she smiled nervously, "sorry for bringing you here like this, I-"
She noticed him walking towards her, "U-Uh, is something the matter?"
Without hesitation, he reached out and rapped his arms around her, giving her a gentle hug that she did not pull away from.
"I am sorry," he said softly, "if you are truly her, then that means Elyshard is real right?" He pulled back and looked at her tired face, "I am sure it has pained you so much watching your people die."
She looked at him, seeing the genuine look in his eyes, 'what's up with this human, why is he saying such things out of nowh-'
"Ah?" She touched her face and noticed she started crying without realizing it. "Why am I crying, haha, I am a goddess, I shouldn't show such a distasteful side of myself." She tried to wipe her tears away but more just kept coming out.
Tany clenched his hands and got on one knee like a knight, "goddess, I have read enough webnovels to know why you have brought me here."
She looked at him through teary eyes, seeing the determination in his eyes, "you do?"
"Yes, and I accept this responsibility, I will save your world," he said with absolute resolve on his face.