Dinging!! đź¤
[Author Cha!... Jin!... Sung! Welcome~ to the World of Aether. The goddess of stories who read your amazing tale has listened to your prayers. Please do your best to complete your story without regrets.]
'Huh? Wait, what? Prayers? Who the fuck is the goddess of stories?' Ji-sung's thoughts were frantic as he tried to grasp his situation and what the fuck was going on.
[Please, no further questions, dear author. The goddess of stories and the head of the Creation Department have given you a chance not many can get. Since she loved your story so much, she created a world identical to it. So please, survive your own plot and make the best out of your situation.]
Ji-sung's mind raced with different questions. Just a moment ago, his reply to the weird email had been shining on the screen, but now some system window was telling him a goddess who loved his story had made it into a world that he had to survive. Did that even make sense?
Although he enjoyed reading transmigration novels very, very much and often fantasized about experiencing one, he never genuinely believed such a thing was possible.
'Damn it, I merely answered with "Yes" for the sake of it. Who would ever believe that another world exists out there?'
"And for it to be my own novel." As the whisper escaped his lips, a fist no mundane human could react to crashed into his cheek, completely disorienting him. The force of the punch made it clear… the kids who stood in front of him were using mana.
"Oi, Alabaster, what the hell are you saying?" a boy with black hair asked, his brown eyes flickering with pent-up rage.
'How can they be so reckless?' he thought, struggling to hold in the feeling he could not understand rising within him.
His body burned uncontrollably, and a throbbing sensation engulfed his face.
His arm was twisted, his bones ached, and worst of all, the pain struck all at once. The reason was simple. A soul could not just enter a new body and instantly become one with it. Only now had his soul fully merged with that of his predecessor. However, through everything, he found himself grinning.
The moment one of the boys, wearing a white tracksuit like everyone else visible beyond the spotless white alley, saw his expression, he hoisted him up and locked his arm behind his back.
"Do you want it like this, Joshua?"
"Yeah, perfect," the boy with the raging brown eyes answered, looking at him.
Wriggling, he struggled to break free from the boy's iron grip, only to take another brutal blow to the gut. Pain surged through him, sharp and blinding, making it nearly impossible to stay conscious.
'Wow, that hurts. I figured a punch with mana would be different, but this could actually kill me?' he thought, trying to pull himself away from the river and the boat waiting in the mist.
You see, Ji-sung had always been a filial son, though he had his rebellious phase. He loved his family and friends without a doubt, and even now, as he came to terms with being in another world, he already had a goal in the back of his mind: to find his way back to them. But still… he was in another world… in the world he had created at that!
The barrage of Joshua's attacks only intensified as his mind wandered, trying to make sense of whose body he now inhabited.
It was not any known main or side character he created, that much was obvious, and without a mirror to look at, there was no way of knowing who it was. It was not like he could tell the bullies to stop and let him check.
However, as the attacks continued, a memory from two years ago jolted loose within him, back when Genius Swordsmaster first began. Back then, he was not quite in the right mind and used to bully people, even having an entire prefecture under his control.
That was when he witnessed a brutal act of bullying by a rival gang on his way home from school. That day, after saving the boy, he quit everything that had to do with gang fights and bullying.
But even that was not enough for him. He needed to show the world how brutal some high schoolers' lives were, so what did he do? Simply put, he rewrote that very scene into his novel, except in his novel nobody came to save the bullied boy.
Which could only mean… "I'm in the body of… Kaiser Vanguard?"
Joshua's face suddenly lit up at the sound of Ji-sung's, or rather Kaiser's, voice. "So you can speak now, huh, pretty boy?"
He tilted his head up to stare at him. 'Well, my situation's not as bad as I thought it was.'
Because of how guilty Kaiser felt about that kid, he decided to give him a bit of an upgrade when writing his character.
From average looks, he made him into a beauty inspired by Lachowski and V. He knew it was pretty unrealistic, considering he even increased his other beauty stats, but he took it as a form of compensation for the guy.
But he did not stop there. He had also increased his other manly traits down there to the absolute max and gave him a secret talent that could make him overpowered, but his predecessor never fully utilized it because he never wrote the entrance exam due to the bullying.
All of this had been on a whim, but he never expected it would actually help him in the future.
'W, past me,' he said with a small smile before scanning the alleyway just as the bullies took what seemed like a short break.
After a moment of searching, his blurring vision caught a glimpse of what looked like a professor. Kaiser knew it was just a parent walking by in a formal suit, but the three musketeers did not know that.
"Help! Mister, please help me!!"
"Oi, what do you think you are doing, Alabaster?"
"Josh, let's just leave first. I think he is calling a professor."
Upon seeing the direction of Kai's gaze, the three boys bolted the other way without sparing a second glance at the figure beyond the alley.
Why would they? They certainly did not want a teacher to identify them before the exam commenced.
A crooked grin crept across his lips. "Damn fools, look what you've done to little ol' me."
Collapsing to the ground, he inhaled deeply, attempting to regulate his erratic breathing. "Getting my ass kicked the moment I get transmigrated? Dad would definitely laugh his ass off."
Ding!
[User has survived the first stage of bullying. Because of this, you can successfully write the entrance exams.]
[User has diverged greatly from your original storyline.]
"That's right, I'm inside my novel now, aren't I?" Bracing his back against the wall, he asked, "System, do I have a stat window?"
[...Yes, user, you have a stat window. Do you wish to view it?]
Kaiser knew thinking up a strategy was his priority, but knowing his current self was more important.
"Yes."
Ding.
[SYSTEM]
Name: Kaiser Vanguard
Age: 17
Class: None
Affiliation: None
Rank: D-Rank
Core: Red
—
Archetype: Manipulator
Affinity (Singular Affinity): Shadow Strings
Mana Pool Grade: Bronze (Upgradeable)
—
Strength (STR): E+
Speed (SPE): D
Agility (AGI): D
Dexterity (DEX): D+
Intelligence (INT): ???
Charm (CHA): ???
Endurance (END): F
Stamina (STA): E
Luck (LUK): ???
—
[Talents & Techniques]
[Talent] — Threads of Dominion: Allows the user to extract and command shadows formed from a target's threads of existence.
Description: In this talent, two types of shadows exist: Shadow Saints, which are fragments of a target's true form created when 'conditions' are met, and Shadow Devils, who are real individuals that willingly swear loyalty to the user. Unlike Shadow Saints, Shadow Devils retain their human appearance, original soul, form, and free will.
Conditions for talent: The user must either overpower the target, disgrace them directly or indirectly, compel their loyalty, force surrender, or instill self-doubt.
[Current Shadow Devils: 0...]
[Current Shadow Saints: 1...]
[Saint Skills]
Alabaster Ice [Gobo]: A talent acquired from a Sequence Nine drifter, Goblin. Enables the user to reduce surrounding thermal heat. This ability grows stronger as you grow.
[VESTIGES]
Hunting Dagger [Weapon]
Description: Spirit. Just a normal dagger.
—
'Hmm... So I'm a D-Rank. Not too bad, I guess, considering the main cast are mostly C-Ranks, and the highest rank in their year was B-Rank, but…'
His focus shifted elsewhere, toward his base stats and his talent.
Even among D-Ranks, he was positioned at the lower end of the spectrum. Except for charm, luck, and intelligence, his other stats were shit, especially stamina, endurance, and strength, which were far behind what an academy prospect should have.
His talent, however, was something else entirely.
"Shadow Dominion," he whispered to himself.
It was not an overpowered, straightforward ability that would catapult him to the top, not because of the ability itself, but because its conditions were stringent. Once fulfilled, however, it could bypass the fundamental limitation of his novel's power system.
'Gaining multiple abilities.'
The only thing he did not find too compelling about it was that, to even get close to fulfilling the conditions, he had to constantly interact with people, though he could not deny the fact that he wanted to see his novel's characters in real life.
He was about to say something to the system when his next words were cut off by a loud announcement.
'It was already starting, huh.'
The academy entrance exam and the start of the main story.
"Well, let's rest for a moment."
[Attention. If user fails to pass the Academy's entrance exam: instant death. If, by an almost impossible chance, the user survives, my processing unit shall be upgraded.]
'I understand already. You've said it like twenty times while I was getting my ass handed to me. But isn't it unfair for you to be getting my rewards?'
[User, I'm more useful than a hundred of you.]
He shut his eyes, squeezing his face as if to hold in a laugh. Even he could not argue with what the system said. He was so weak that even the academy's small fries could harm him.
Sighing heavily, he waved away the status window. "It's just an entrance test. How hard could it be?"
He shut his eyes, partly to check if it was all a crazy dream and partly because he was simply too tired and his body hurt.
Though he was tired, his mind was still racing about what to do next. 'Before I officially enter the academy, I need to get that thing.'
Blood still smeared his knuckles as he eyed the plasters left behind by one of the three musketeers. He could not tell if it was an act of kindness or if he simply did not want to get in trouble. Either way, it was good for him.
Picking them up, he placed them over some of his bruises, then let mana flow through him.
It was better to get a feel for mana so he would not fumble on stage.
Because no matter what, he was going to pass the entrance exam and enter the academy.