I was going to finish this damn book even if it killed me.
Spoiler: It did.
My apartment was a disaster—empty energy drink cans, half-eaten takeout, and a laptop glowing with the cursed manuscript of Blue Ascendance. My editor's last email glared at me from the screen:
"Daniel, this draft is a mess. Akai's death feels cheap and unearned, Auren's arc is flat, and your emotion conveying skill has more holes than my grandma's knitting. Fix it. Deadline: TOMORROW."
I groaned, rubbing my temples. "Akai's supposed to die cheaply. He's a plot device."
But the guilt nagged at me. I'd gotten lazy. Akai's entire character was "calm orphan with a sword and great potential that never gets angry," and was just a recycled gimmick from my last novel. I already had the end of the novel, but for some reason, the editor wasn't willing to let me publish this book if I didn't fix Akai's death sequence.
Whatever… Maybe one last rewrite…
I tapped at the keyboard, adding a line to Akai's final scene:
As the blade pierced his heart, Akai laughed. "Joke's on you—I was never the main character."
"Genius," I muttered. "Deep and meta."
Then I went out for coffee, and then I died.
Not the cool, dramatic death I'd written for so many characters—no last stand against a demon king, no heroic sacrifice to save the world.
Just a truck. A fucking truck, of all things, while I was jaywalking across the street, too busy thinking about how much money I was gonna make off this novel to look both ways.
One moment, I was mentally arguing with my editor's latest email, and the next, there was the blare of a horn, the screech of brakes, and then—
PAIN. Darkness. I couldn't feel my legs, or my body even.
As I crumpled onto the asphalt, vision fading, three thoughts occurred to me:
1. Is this how it feels when your body goes cold?
2. Is this how Akai felt when he died?
3. I really hope isekai trucks send apology letters.
"I want to live. I don't wanna die." I weakly exhaled, looking at my once-prestigious body, now turned into a bloody pulp of organs, and then something happened. A red screen popped up in my face—
[---Daniel Hayes, Do You Wish To Live?---] [Y/N]
And so, doing the most logical thing any dying person would do, with my last breath, I said "yes."
Then it showed up.
«---GOD SYSTEM INITIALIZING---»
A blue screen appeared in the void, replacing the red one that popped up before it, a crisp and robotic voice read the words:
[---Welcome, User #02. Loading world: BLUE ASCENDANCE---]
'An isekai huh? Looks like I struck it rich… And it's my own novel, meaning that I have knowledge of any and all things that happen. Thank Goodness I ended the novel before I died. Hehehe, this is gonna be amazing.'
«---Error: Protagonist Slot Occupied. Assigning alternate role…---»
"Let it be a good one… Please let it be a good character," I internally begged, until another screen popped up in my face, the robotic voice speaking with what I swore was malicious glee:
[---Congratulations! You are now: AKAI VARN (SIDE CHARACTER).---]
My stomach dropped. No. No no no—
I recognized the name as quickly as I saw it. Akai. A throwaway character from my own damn story. A sentimental orphan used to tug heartstrings and then tossed aside by Chapter 35. My editor's words haunted me:
"Akai's death feels cheap and unearned."
He remembered the editor's note. Now it was a prophecy.
More screens followed, and as if to rub sand on an open wound, the system read it out with an impassive tone.
[---Skill: {WRITER'S KNOWLEDGE} has been obtained---]
[---Skill: {POSSESS} has been obtained---]
[---Skill: {WORLD OF TEXT} has been obtained---]
[---Skill: {CREATOR'S COMMAND} has been obtained---]
[---Skill: {DUAL SOUL} has been obtained---]
[---GOD SYSTEM(DORMANT) has been awakened]
[---I wish you luck in your new world, Daniel---]
I blinked, looking at the screen, and something inside me just clicked.
I had a System.
Not just any System—my System. The same one I'd given Kael, the protagonist who wasn't supposed to show up for another two years, if I was starting from the beginning.
'I need to find a way to work my head around this and survive, because Akai dies in Chapter 35, approximately 5 years from now.' I thought, before I was lurched into a body I could only imagine was Akai's.
*5631, Varn Household*
I gasped "awake" to Noel's screeching. "Rise and shine, maggot!"
«---SYSTEM ALERT---»
[---Welcome, User Daniel. Synchronization: 12%---]
[---Skill: {DUAL SOUL(PASSIVE MODE) has activated---]
Akai's voice exploded in my skull:
A tidal wave of memories flooded us both: My life as Daniel (his horror at my writing of his death), His life as Akai(my shock at his family's beauty and peace)
We screamed in unison.
A hand yanked the blankets off me, and I squinted up at Noel Varn—Piera's older sister, and according to my notes, one of the most terrifying characters in the early chapters, which doesn't say much, considering the fact that she dies in chapter 3 anyways.
"You promised you'd help with Nez's birthday," she snapped, hands on her hips. "Get up."
I rubbed my eyes. Right. Today was the day.
The day everything went to hell.
«---REMINDER---»
[---Main Plot Event: "The Massacre" begins at 14:32.---]
I swallowed hard.
Akai's voice echoed in my head,
"Shut up," I muttered, swinging my legs out of bed.
Noel raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"
"Nothing! I'm up, I'm up."
*Akai's POV*
This idiot had written me as "Generic Orphan #3 that sacrifices himself for the MC. I can't believe that my Creator treated me like trash." Now his memories burned behind my eyes: coffee-stained manuscripts, editor's notes ("Akai's death feels cheap"), even the damn truck.
*Daniel's POV*
I felt his rage through my bones. He knew. Knew I'd treated his life as disposable plot fuel. I collapsed against the wall, breathing hard.
«---WARNING---»
[---Soul Synchronization: 100%
Memory Synchronization: 5%
Side Effect: Emotional Bleedthrough---]
Akai's laugh was jagged. "So. You're here to fix your mistakes?"
"Maybe, maybe not. But you've seen everything, right?" I asked back at Akai.
And of course, the system had to pop up at the worst possible time, showing a very "targeted" message.
«---System Alert: First Quest Activated!---»
A translucent blue screen flickered in front of me, displaying:
[---Help Prepare Nez's Birthday Party (0/1)
Reward: 10 XP
Bonus: Avoid Noel's Wrath (Optional)---]
The next few hours were a blur of decorations, arguments, and me desperately trying to remember if I'd written any way to prevent what was coming.
I'd known this scene was coming, of course. It was the inciting incident—the moment Akai's family was slaughtered by Hao Jun, the First Vestige of the Morbid Insect. But reading about it and living it were two very different things.
"You're spacing out again," Noel said, smacking the back of my head as she passed. "Balloons. Now."
I grimaced, rubbing the back of my head.
«Quest Update»
[*Balloons Inflated: 12/20*
Bonus Objective: Avoid Noel's Wrath (Failed)]
Akai cackled in my head. "You had one job."
"I'm trying," I hissed under my breath.
"Trying what?" Nez asked, popping up beside me with a grin.
I froze. Nez, Akai's younger brother. The birthday boy. The first one to die.
"N-nothing," I stammered.
He tilted his head. "You're acting weird today."
"He's always weird," Noel called from across the room.
I forced a laugh, but my hands were shaking.
I had to do something.
The System taunted me, unwarrantedly:
«---ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED---»
[---Cooperative Existential Dread (Bronze)---]
«---REMINDER---»
[---Main Plot Event: "The Massacre" begins at 14:32.---]
Oh God. This was really happening.
Akai's voice, sharp and amused, chimed in my head:
Then, just like in my draft, it happened.
Smoke curled through the window, forming a gun, a sword… then a finger, beckoning me outside.
«---QUEST UPDATE---»
[---Follow the Smoke (Mandatory)---]
[---Reward: Unlock "Full System capabilities, Rael's Bargain(Platinum), Avoid Death"---]
[---Penalty: Death---]
I hesitated, but then I spoke back quickly "I'll follow it, but I'm gonna save your siblings, even if I can't save your parents."
I quickly ran to the kitchen and grabbed Nez and Noel's hands, quickly running after the smoke while dragging them with me
My mom called from the kitchen: "Akai! Cake's almost—"
"I'm okay mom, we're just going to buy some sweets."
The smoke quickly moved forward.
I stumbled after it, heart pounding, dragging my still-confused siblings, telling them that I'd explain later.