2 What A Hassle

As I woke up from slumber with my fluttering eyes, I saw the ceiling.

I felt something comfortable, soft, really soft, I mean hella soft feeling behind my back.

No matter how I slice it...I am sleeping on a bed.

Hm? Weird, I think I took a small nap while sitting on my chair though...

Pulling my body up, I started checking out the room that is clearly not mine.

Whose room am I in?

Where the fuck am I?

Wait... It feels a bit weird.

There's something wrong with my physique. I don't know how to put it into words but there's definitely something wrong.

I removed my shirt to check my skin out and what greeted my sight was surely a marvel.

'For the love of all that's holy..'

Where do these muscles come from?

Seriously?

As far as I remember I didn't have any sort of muscles. I have never done any type of physical labor the heaviest thing I pulled is my freaking school bag.

'..I-I think I know the drill here.'

I rubbed my eyes and decided to look for a mirror in this place which belongs to who knows who. It's never good to harbor suspicions, one should confirm them as soon as possible.

Standing in front of the mirror I looked at my face...

'...Guess, what? I am handsome... I am right? It's not just me being delusional? Right?'

I shook my head purging myself of these thoughts, I need to focus.

I touched my face. I wasn't dreaming, the sensation felt too real to be a dream.

Black eyes with dark circles, black unkempt hair, and white pale skin. Same as my previous life. The difference between the person that stood in the mirror and I would be that this face has sharp features or should I say masculine features while mine were feminine... I resembled my mom.

Anyways, guess ...transmigration it is.

I have read enough novels not to fuss over it.

But...

Kidnapping and experimenting on how to put a brain in a different body? Well, if it's possible then immortality for humanity might not be out of reach. Ridiculous as it may be I can't throw the other possibility away.

One thing that I am certain about is that it's not my body and I am certain it's not because of the relic either.

For now, let's look for more clues.

Well then, I am in an unfamiliar room with no idea about what's going on.

As a gamer, it would be irresponsible of me to not inspect this place.

Shaking my head I walked towards the desk with lots of books. I picked the book up which has a weird title on it.

"Monsterology for Dummies Volume 1"

I looked at another book.

"Welcome to the world of Heroes: You can become one too"

That's one cringe-ass title we have got here.

I shook my head, just how many times have I shaken my head in the last few minutes?

I started to flip the pages of the book.

'Guess, the language isn't gonna be a problem..'

Imagine having a transmigration where you have no idea how to read or write.

That's not transmigration in another world, that's straight-up hell.

'I will read it later...'

Putting the book back in its place I started looking through other things on the desk.

A small card caught my eye.

Identification card? Student-id card?

I mused as I took a look at the card.

==========================================================

Heroes Nurturing Highschool

Id: 0412002303

Name: Noah 

Age: 16

Rank: G+

Grade - First-year Student

==========================================================

I rubbed my eyes and checked the ID again.

'Noah ..'

Guess, that's the name of this body.

What a damn coincidence if it is one.

Alright, we got the same age as well.

It's a bit unsettling.

Getting transmigrated into someone having the same age, same name, same eye color, same hair color, and same skin color. I was grateful at least our features were different.

But that's something to think about later for now I have other things to worry about.

I winced as I looked at the card again.

Reason?

There was no longer any reason to worry about the possibilities that might exist. It's transmigration. After reading the name of the academy, I became sure of it. Transmigration in a novel I never would want.

I take pride in the fact that I remember the plot of all the novels, comics, and web novels that I have read in my entire life. I may not remember the names of all the characters but I do remember their natures, the plot, and each arc of the story. I remember it so much that I would never confuse one story with another.

That's why after reading the academy name, I knew, I knew... I have been transmigrated into a dog-shit web novel!

Hell would be preferable to this bat-shit crazy novel!

Not really! I meant it metaphorically!

Let me read the synopsis of the novel for you all to understand.

'Crackle!

The thunderous sound of lightning rang.

On a stormy night, a boy barely 9 years old stood in front of a mutilated corpse. Its hands and feet twisted, chest ripped open, innards pulled apart. Eyes, ears, and teeth missing. If not for the necklace that hung off its neck then it would have been impossible to tell that this corpse belonged to the boy's mother.

Tears streamed down his face as he choked, unable to speak. Struck frozen, terrified to even move. He coughed every time he breathed the smell of iron that swirled in the air. He convulsed again and again, surrounded by corpses. Soon after, he lost consciousness.

..and that was the day his journey began.'

Reason for his mother's death? Demons.

Reason for all the corpses around him? Demons.

..Man, just what did demons ever do to these authors for them to be labeled antagonists all the time?

Regardless, it's a normal generic type of novel.

We got to read about the protagonist's struggles, how he overcomes them, and finally the fight between the demon king and protagonist.

Sounds simple and easy, right?

Now here is the twist, just as the fight between them was coming to an end.

BANG!

A certain being called observer appears as it gives the quest to the people regardless of one's race, as the so-called 'higher-beings' observe them.

The fucking novel changed its plotline!

It was like characters got thrown into some other plotline, like those crossover fanfics!

Just like how my transmigration could be considered ridiculous the plot change in the novel was the same and if that wasn't enough the power level got screwed all over as well.

Of course, I dropped the novel. It was after a year that I decided to pick it again. To my surprise, it has the tag 'complete' on it. I directly went to the last chapter, the epilogue of the story. I mean, what if the author changed the plotline again? So I decided to read the epilogue first and the comments there.

Oh man, that web novel definitely was one of a kind.

Why?

The epilogue starts with the world reaching peace. The protagonist with his friends goes and enjoys a peaceful day with everyone as everything finally comes to an end, then the day ends with the protagonist kissing his girlfriend.

Smooth ending, right?

But too bad, the author is bat-shit crazy.

When the protagonist finally prepares to go to sleep, he reminisces about how he spent his day with everyone and then he tries to remember the last quest he cleared.

That's where the problem comes in as he tries to remember what his last quest was and how he cleared it but he can't remember it. As he tries harder to remember it, the uneasiness in his heart grows, and boom!

The world starts to shatter as he finds himself standing in a void. He can't see anything in the darkness. His heartbeat kept slowing down, he felt his body becoming weaker with each passing second.

Then he hears a voice 'Hm? You woke up? How strange? It shouldn't be possible... you are interesting till the end.'

The protagonist remembered the voice, it belonged to an observer. So he asked the observer what was going on.

I still remember the answer the observer gave to the protagonist.

'You failed to clear the quests and so did everyone else on your team. You were only able to clear 30 quests successfully. For failing to clear your 31st quest everyone in your party has fallen into a slumber as they dream of the utopia they always wished to have while the reality is, their life force is being sucked as we speak and soon they will all die. They will die living in the utopia they always dreamt about except you, after all, you woke up. It is exceptional that you were able to wake up on your own. It wouldn't be fair to not reward you for obtaining such a feat ..well, I will let you watch. You may have failed but there might be someone else on your planet who might clear the quest. So, I will let you watch the end of your world with your own eyes.'

Our protagonist then watches, watches as everyone fails to clear the quests and dies on the planet.

No one was able to go past the 25th quest except the demon lord who also failed the 31st quest.

The world ends. The additional time the protagonist was given ends too.

Then the protagonist dies.

The novel ends.

Seriously, it was the end. There was no other volume, no regression for MC, no turning back the time, nothing. Plot armor abandoned the protagonist when he needed it the most.

This was the shitty end of the story and right now I am in this story.

Oh lord, what crime did I commit?

Actually, never mind. Wouldn't wanna be reminded.

Why do I have to be in such a shitty novel though?

I threw the ID card on the desk and went towards the kitchen to drink some water while massaging my temples.

Gulping down the water I wondered how this transmigration worked.

I mean, my body isn't mine but what about the brain? Everyone has different brain development, so does that mean I have either become dumb or my intellect has actually increased? Maybe this guy has the same brain development as mine...

No, actually what if I am just a copy of my real conscious, real memories? A copy that just got transmigrated into a novel...

Shit. If I go back to my world, would I even have a place there?

..Let's not think about it. I am real.

I am real. Real consciousness.

Yup, that's rig-

Wait?

Until now I thought fiction was just that, fiction, not reality but now I am in a world that is a novel.

I am in a world that was supposed to be a novel.

Supposed to be a novel...

For the characters of this novel, this world is real...

What if ..what if, the world I came from is also just a shit-ass novel written by someone?

What are the chances that I am just a character of a novel who is within a novel?

My mind went blank. Frozen for a moment.

If everything was pre-determined by someone else then ...

I slapped myself on my cheeks. Let's not think about it besides how am I supposed to confirm whether I am just a character or not?

Yeah, I will just go with I am not a character but a real guy, a real conscious not some copied one, a real one who got swept in some weird shit, that is, getting transmigrated into a web novel until proven otherwise.

..I don't want to be proven though I would rather live without getting any answers to those questions. Let's just forget about the matter and think about other things.

'Alright, Let's do it.'

The moment I realized I was in a novel, dog-shit it may be, I have been wanting to do this.

"System: Status"

The screen popped out in front of me as I started to read my status.

==========================================================

Name: Noah

Rank: G+

Strength: G

Stamina: G+

Agility: G

Perception: G+

Mana proficiency: F+

Luck: D+

Intelligence: B+

Charm: B-

==========================================================

Luck is one of the two stats that can decrease or increase, in a sense, it really was luck. No one has any control over luck, it doesn't matter how high-ranked you are. But with the help of the status window, one can definitely know when they might get screwed over. After reading my status I closed the system window.

Well, the other stat is the charm which can decrease or increase depending on how much care one takes of their body.

More importantly...

What's with that intelligence stat? B+? Goodness, gracious.

No matter how you look at it my intelligence stat is too high compared to my rank.

Holy crap. The guy's a genius.

And what's with the charm? I mean, even the protagonist's charm starts with a C rank, it does increase in the story as his rank increases which results in him getting a better body. I mean, when rank increases your body reconstructs itself, that's how your strength and other stats increase. It's a painful process.

Shit. I will have to go through that process too.

As a member of a normal, peaceful society, pain isn't something I am used to. A single cut would be enough to make me cry and we are talking about a whole reconstruction of the body here.

..Who in the world did I piss off to get such a fate?

I slowly sat down on the bed and looked around the room. I wondered about his parents so I took out his phone to check his contacts.

..Shit.

Is this how those old folks feel when they are given a smartphone?

How in the flying fu*k is this supposed to function? Damn, just how many generations of advanced tech does this world have?

After spending a few minutes, I finally figured it out.

Well, this guy is a loner. There are literally no contacts except some spam calls.

I need information about him... I mean about me.

The need for information about my situation as well as about this world should be my top priority. I mean, now that the world of the novel has become my reality, there's more to the world than just the protagonist's point of view and his struggles. Not to mention ..the protagonist fails, so I am not really betting anything on him.

I don't know much about the plot after the quest appears and knowing the plot before the quest... is there even a point in any of it? The whole plot line changes and so does the power level.

At any rate, there was only one thing for me to do.

That was to find a way back.

Maybe if I become strong, strong enough like whoever sent me here I might be able to go back.

One might think about how ridiculous it sounds about becoming strong like this unknown person who sent me here but the thought of transmigration into another world, a world of the novel is itself ridiculous. I need to throw some of my common sense out of the window if I want to have any hope of going back to my world.

Why do I want to go back? Why would I not!? Imagine following a manga for the last 2 years and just when it was about to come to an end you are thrown into another world! A shitty one at that! Imagine reading a chapter that ends on a cliffhanger! I need answers to all the questions!

Thus, I needed to go back home.

Haa~

A sigh escaped my lips.

"This is gonna be an absolute hassle"