“You seem to have a lot on your mind, Keu-ssaem.”

“……!”

Before I could even calm my flustered thoughts, Narrow Eyes thrust his face right up to mine.

“This time, it would be best to swallow your pride. Otherwise, you’ll lose your life.”

And then—a blade cutting through the air.

‘Ugh!’

I stumbled backward almost on instinct, narrowly dodging.

What do I do?

‘Stay calm. I have options.’

First, this bone keyring! If I summon the bone horse and ride it, I can escape immediately. In other words, a tactical retreat.

[Bead: Are you confident you can sneak out without anyone from the Academy seeing you riding a monster??]

Ah, fuck. That thing made a *dakdurak* sound like crazy when I rode it.

But worry not! I have an excellent means of attack at my disposal.

‘The battered old sword with one use remaining.’

You’ve truly become my last resort, my sword.

As much as I’d love to swing it wildly, I need to be cautious.

My opponent is a professor-level mage. This is different from fighting a doppelganger with zero defensive capabilities or an immovable system window.

‘One failure, and it’s over.’

As I kept my eyes locked on him while retreating, something pressed against my back.

‘The door to the Old Student Dormitory.’

Nowhere left to retreat. It’s do or die now.

The dungeon that had been inside was gone, and for some reason, it had been firmly locked with a padlock, preventing anyone from entering….

‘Wait.’

The sensation against my hands behind my back felt wrong. There should have been an iron padlock right here. Now, all I could feel was wood.

‘Was it open? Since when?’

……Aha.

Now I understand.

“Professor Yujin.”

“Yes, Keu-ssaem.”

“What scheme are you pulling?”

A dagger was suddenly pointed at me. But there was no real sign he intended to stab or slash me.

‘If he’d genuinely wanted to threaten me, he could have just used magic. This is…….’

“Haha, I told you. I’d ‘send’ you.”

He’d been herding me. Toward this old dormitory building.

‘Why? Wasn’t there nothing left inside anymore?’

More importantly, he could have just asked me with words. Why resort to this kind of method? These people in this world really don’t understand nonviolence.

“I let it slide once, but twice would be difficult. Even ‘it’ learns, after all.”

Narrow Eyes spoke as if reading my thoughts. His phrasing was vague, but he was clearly referring to the System.

“So this time, it can’t be by Keu-ssaem’s own will. It has to look like you had no choice but to stumble in by accident because of me.”

In other words, he wanted plausible deniability. Narrow Eyes smiled and pressed his index finger to his lips with an empty hand.

“Remember, Keu-ssaem. I can send you there, but coming back is your responsibility. You’ll have to figure out for yourself what you need to find there.”

There? Find? What on earth was behind this door that he was talking like an NPC handing out quests…….

‘Give me more details, you bastard.’

The moment I reached out, genuinely intending to grab him by the collar this time.

Thunk.

“……!”

Narrow Eyes was faster.

My paper-thin body, with both agility and strength at F-Rank, toppled over the instant Narrow Eyes shoved me.

The sound of a door opening reached my ears.

My outstretched hand barely grazed the tip of Narrow Eyes’ nose before falling away.

“Goodbye, Chris. May fortune favor you.”

A farewell from a fading face.

As I plummeted into the endless void, I screamed.

“You damn scamming bastard!!!”

You didn’t explain a single thing properly! You think knowing everything yourself is enough?!

Just as my blood pressure spiked from sheer indignation, my consciousness faded. What surfaced instead was…….

A memory from long ago.

* * *

I’d been in a traffic accident.

I’d been crossing the street after receiving the final acceptance notice from the company I’d wanted to join.

‘Ah, damn it…….’

Just when I thought my life was finally turning around, it hurt like hell.

Just as my hazy vision was about to go completely black.

A system window straight out of a game appeared before my eyes.

[Main Quest ‘Request of the Earth God’ has arrived.]

[A new life…… from…… to…… bring power…… and save both worlds.]

[Do you accept?]

[Yes/No]

‘Life’.

Only that word seemed to shine.

It was probably just a dying brain conjuring illusions, but right now, I would have done anything to stay alive.

I can’t die. I’m still young.

I hadn’t even repaid my parents for everything they’d done, let alone been in a relationship, and I still hadn’t paid off my student loans. Dying like this would be too unfair.

With my last ounce of strength, I reached out with my bloodied hand and pressed ‘Yes’—and then, my consciousness went dark.

* * *

“Gasp.”

What? Am I actually alive? I’m breathing?

As I sat up in a daze, a woman with piercing eyes floated before me.

A translucent figure through which the scenery behind her was visible.

‘A ghost? Or a hologram?’

Wait, more importantly, that woman’s face looked familiar. Did I know her?

Not that it stopped me from screaming, of course. It burst from my throat as if on cue.

“Aagh?!”

[Awake, are you, Player Cheon Sae-ra?]

The woman furrowed her brow and tilted her head.

Cheon Sae-ra? That’s my name. How does she know that?

While I sat there dumbfounded, the woman let out an exasperated sigh and continued.

[Let me introduce myself first. I am the one assigned as your guide—]

At that moment, for some reason, I felt I knew what name would come from those lips.

And if I heard that name—

[I am Chris Dotton.]

……I would feel my heart sink. That much, I also knew.

‘What is this? This bizarre sense of dissonance.’

“Um…….”

[Do you have a question?]

“Have we met before, by any chance?”

The moment she heard my question, the woman’s face soured at an alarming rate.

“Ah, no, I’m not scheming anything! It just felt that way somehow…….”

[The face itself might be familiar. After all, you are currently possessing my body.]

“Wait, what?”

[It’s what they call possession. I’ll only explain once, so open your ears and listen.]

After a lengthy explanation, I was able to roughly grasp the current situation.

So I’d possessed someone like a novel protagonist, and I could use status windows and things like that?

“You’re the body’s owner and guide…… Chris Dotton? What should I call you? If you have the same name as me while I’m possessing you, it’ll get confusing.”

[Call me whatever you want.]

“Well, since you’re the real Chris, how about I shorten it to Real Chris? Wow, I’m a genius.”

[…….]

“……I apologize. Please show me the status window first.”

A blue window materialized over her goblin-like face. The familiar design displaying various stats and skills.

“Wow, Real Chris. Why is this body so trashy? Everything’s F-Rank.”

[Do you have a complaint?]

“B-but the skills! There are skills here, so it should totally compensate. Awesome! Chris’s body rocks!”

I added hastily, pointing at the skill panel with my finger.

Gasp. But wasn’t it clearly written here that ‘Illegal Players cannot use skills’…….?

Huh?

[Owned Skills

– Disaster of the Battlefield (S-Rank)

– God Mimicry (S-Rank)

– Infinite Growth (S-Rank)

– Coordinate Setting (A-Rank)

……

…….]

All of them were high-tier skills that would make anyone’s eyes pop.

Not a single mention of Illegal Player.

This couldn’t be right. If this had been the case, why would I have bothered putting on the ‘Chris’ act?

‘Wait, an act?’

That’s right. I had originally decided to start playing the character at this point.

Once I started recalling, realizations flooded in like a tide.

‘Narrow Eyes!’

Right. I’d been pushed by Narrow Eyes and fallen somewhere.

What if that destination was this world?

A beginning similar to when I first possessed a body.

But with a ‘Real Chris’ volunteering as my guide, and unrestricted skills to boot.

‘A world where I was given things that hadn’t been granted to me before.’

I had a feeling I shouldn’t stay here too long.

[Why do you have such a stupid look on your face, Cheon Sae-ra?]

Damn, did I let my agitation show too much?

“Oh, um, my stomach was just…….”

[Tch! Make that kind of expression with my face one more time and I’ll kill you.]

Hmm, she just didn’t like my expression, it seemed.

Real Chris, who had cleanly ignored my desperate excuse, soon brought up the quest window.

‘The first main quest.’

It was identical to my memory. Arriving at Bedallua Academy.

Except for one thing.

[Failure: Decreased trust from key characters, 1 random skill temporarily sealed]

Wasn’t this penalty incredibly light compared to before?

‘The overall difficulty has dropped too much.’

[First, take a carriage from around here.]

Real Chris’s tone was also clearly commanding, but she couldn’t be more helpful. Even when I deliberately walked in the wrong direction as a test…….

[What’s wrong with your eyes that makes this look like a place for a carriage to stop?]

[Looks like your legs need to be broken for you to feel any urgency.]

[For someone this stupid to end up in my body…… it’s humiliating.]

She only continued her barrage of insults. No monsters suddenly jumping out, no one going on a rampage.

‘After being jerked around by the System’s tyranny for so long, it almost feels empty.’

It didn’t feel real. Like having a pleasant dream.