Sage Mode?
Unable to sleep?
In truth, none of that mattered. There was only one reason the shell of this body, which was on the verge of a mental collapse, could endure until now.
He continued to look down at the personal information on the panel.
With a look that froze on a specific line of text, he stared for a long time.
That... is my only reason for existing here.
It is also the only boat I have left to cross this sea of bitterness.
[Main Quest: Road Home (In Progress)]
[Quest Objectives:
Obtain the highest total score in the province during the National Higher Education Entrance Examination and earn the title of Province Topper.Use this result to successfully gain admission to a top-tier institution like T-University or P-University and receive an official admission letter.
Quest Rewards:
Upon completion, gain the sole authority to return to the original world. The teleportation will execute automatically after the admission letter is confirmed. (Until then, the original world will remain frozen at the moment before the translocation.)Fundamental Severance: The talent Gift of the Grind King (Abnormality/Curse) will be completely removed from the host's soul, and all related physiological and mental abnormal states will be canceled.
Failure Penalty: Time will resume in the original world, and the host will be permanently stranded in the current world.
Quest Difficulty: Hellish]
...
With a simple description of about two hundred words, all of his chains and hopes were defined.
Memory is a rusty key.
When it is shoved into the keyhole and twisted violently, the contents deliberately sealed in the deepest parts of the mind are dragged out once more amidst the sound of grinding friction.
The beginning of everything did not involve the classic package of being sent away by a hundred-ton dump truck while saving someone, nor did it involve low-probability events like choking to death on instant noodles.
My start was as cliche as a third-rate web novel itself.
It originated on a boring late night.
At that time, I was a shut-in staying in a rented room, aimlessly moving the mouse while facing my monitor screen.
The browser was stuck on an obscure novel website.
With a crude interface and ridiculous pop-up ads, it was obvious the site had not paid for any copyrights.
A poorly made power fantasy was being serialized on the screen, and the writing was so trashy that it was no different from a middle schooler's diary.
The plot in particular was so idiotic that it made me wonder if the author was conducting some kind of sociological experiment.
Its greatest purpose seemed to be a simple and direct way to rouse the readers' desires.
After a cursory scan of the first few chapters, I had basically guessed the routine of how the protagonist would cheat, collect a harem, and slap the faces of the villains.
I truly could not stand to keep reading, so I habitually opened the comment section to see which brothers were acting crazy down there just to find some fun.
A comment that had been upvoted quite high caught my eye.
A heartly question: If you were given a superpower to enter the world of this novel, what would you choose?
The question was unremarkable, but dozens of replies had piled up beneath it.
Some said they wanted time stop, some wanted hypnosis, and others wanted infinite stamina. The various responses were like a massive wishing well.
With a disdainful curl of my lip, I scoffed.
Bro, are you really being picky?
Boring. I should go back to memorizing more vocabulary for the postgraduate entrance exam.
I lacked even the interest to participate in a discussion about such pure hormonal fantasies.
At the exact moment I pressed the left mouse button to close the page, a strong and irresistible sense of vertigo seized my brain, and the world began to spin.
The light from the computer screen suddenly twisted and stretched, turning into a piercing band of light before exploding into countless flying spots of light.
My body lost its sense of control, a buzzing hum filled my ears, and darkness gradually swallowed my vision.
...
When I regained consciousness, I was choked awake by the heavy smell of disinfectant.
I found myself lying on an unfamiliar bed, and with white walls and a ceiling surrounding me, I looked around.
That emotionless, cold voice rang in my head for the first time.
[World coordinates localized.]
[Identity information refreshed.]
[System binding successful. Newbie gift package has been issued.]
[Talent: Gift of the Grind King (Abnormality/Curse) activated.]
I initially thought it was just a lingering hallucination from my brain crashing, but then I saw my hospital information card.
The name written on it was indeed Luke Lin, which was fine.
But the age column had actually regressed to fifteen?
What was going on!
Had my account not only been stolen but also maliciously rolled back?
Immediately afterward, a massive amount of memories that did not belong to me were forced into my brain.
After a violent headache, I had to face a cruel reality.
I had transmigrated.
And I had transmigrated right into that trashy web novel I was mocking before I lost consciousness!
As a hardcore bookworm with over ten years of experience reading web novels, I completed an analysis of the situation almost instantly.
My mind began to frantically scavenge for memory fragments regarding that novel.
The technology tree of this world was similar to my original world.
It was essentially a parallel server of Earth.
However, certain social settings possessed a sense of absurdity unique to power fantasies.
The most representative example was the education system here.
Middle school inexplicably had five grades, from Grade 1 to Grade 5.
Nine-year compulsory education only covered up to the end of Grade 3.
The real watershed was the city-wide unified examination during the transition from Grade 3 to Grade 4.
Only those who passed the exam could enter Grade 4.
Once someone became a Grade 4 student, it was equivalent to getting a reserved ticket to high school, and they were almost guaranteed to advance.
Those who failed would be diverted to vocational technical schools.
After doing the math, the people preparing for the college entrance exams on the original Earth would only be starting their first year of high school in this strange novel world.
As for why, one could only say the author did it to make the plot easier to develop.
Back to the main topic.
What was the protagonist's name in the book?
It seemed his surname was Chu... right, Caspar.
Who was the first female character he conquered...
In an instant, the thought struck me like a bolt of lightning.
The childhood friend of some cannon fodder in the book…. Asha Vale.
This name made the blood in my entire body nearly freeze.
Because that cannon fodder was not only named Luke, but my current identity also had a childhood friend named Asha.
Damn it, the case is solved!
More memory fragments began to piece together one after another.
A charming young Auntie lived next door to the cannon fodder.
And the neighbor of the protagonist after he moved in the novel was a beautiful widowed landlady!
One familiar name and setting after another overlapped perfectly with the interpersonal network of this new identity that had been forced into my memory.
Luke Lin.
The cannon fodder who couldn't survive ten chapters in the novel.
A pathetic clown who was obsessed with his childhood friend but did something stupid out of jealousy toward the protagonist, only to be ruthlessly stepped on as a stepping stone.
His ending involved him trying to force himself on Asha, only for the protagonist to arrive just in time to break his arms and legs before throwing him into a river to drown.
I spent an entire day digesting this desperate fact.
No matter how I looked at it, this script seemed like a fast track to a game over.
I knew very well that in a power fantasy world ruled by plot and protagonist halos, any attempt to become an enemy of the protagonist was equivalent to suicide.
With years of experience immersed in web novels, I understood that even if I didn't provoke the protagonist, it would be useless.
The inertia and irresistible force of the plot would always subtly push me to the opposite side of the protagonist.
Perhaps Asha would come to me for help, and the protagonist would see it and have a misunderstanding.
Perhaps I would accidentally bump into one of the protagonist's women while walking on the street.
Perhaps I would just look at one of the women the protagonist had already claimed for his harem in a restaurant...
It sounds ridiculous, but that is exactly how things might go.
After all, logic exists only to serve the protagonist.
As long as the plot requires it, a butterfly flapping its wings will eventually lead to the protagonist crushing me under his foot.
As cannon fodder, my very existence was a sin.
So, what was the best solution?
It was... to hell with the plot!
To hell with the harem!
To hell with the protagonist!
In a short amount of time, I made a decision that would be considered the most rational and correct in any web novel world.
I would move.
Move out of this city.
Move out of this province entirely.
After figuring out most of the rules, the idea of running away grew wildly in my mind.
Since the world was generated by a power fantasy novel, many things that required tedious procedures in reality became exceptionally simple here.
It was as if there was a plot convenience filter.
At the age of fifteen, I took the large inheritance left behind by the original parents after they died in an accident and completed all the procedures alone without any obstacles.
I headed all the way south and resettled in a southern coastal city that was thousands of miles away from where the original plot took place.
After spending half a year recovering my health, I used money to pull strings and entered the best middle school in the area.
Every day, I looked at the main quest and set goals for myself.
I would complete that damn Road Home, become the Province Topper, and go home.
As for the absurd phenomena of this world and the women destined to become part of the protagonist's harem, they had nothing to do with me.
I am no savior; I am just an ordinary person.
Back home, I still have a father who fell into a slump after being abandoned by my ex-mother, and a seriously ill grandfather waiting for me to visit him.
So, I definitely, absolutely must go back!
...
With the tide of memory slowly receding, the stinging pain in his palm pulled his consciousness back to reality.
It had been three full years of burying my head in books to avoid that idiotic original plot.
It was also during these three years of study that I discovered just how much of a trap the hellish main quest was.
Why would a world clearly driven by hormones and impulse set up a hardcore puzzle game like the Entrance Exams?
Furthermore, the NPCs were not lacking in geniuses and top students who had cheated on their intelligence stats!
Me, competing for the top scorer spot against those naturally gifted monsters?
Are you serious?
No matter how desperate I felt, I had no way to retreat and could only grit my teeth and charge forward.
We'll cross that bridge when we come to it...
As long as I don't give up, there is always hope.
"Whew….."
With an aching back, I straightened up and looked around the new home I had thoroughly cleaned.
It was already late at night.
The hands of the clock on the wall were about to overlap at the number three.
The air remained sweltering, and the stickiness of the sweat was uncomfortable.
I had no intention of taking a shower to clean my body and simply lay back on the bed.
With the last of my strength, I rolled over and pressed my face deep into the pillow.
I need to sleep...
This was the final command transmitted by the brain through the central nervous system.
Perhaps only in the abyss of unconsciousness could I temporarily escape all of this.
My eyelids closed heavily, shutting that damn quest and this ridiculous world outside the gates of my consciousness.
...
[Information delivery complete]
The electronic voice made its final announcement without any fluctuation, echoing in the dim room.
[Goodnight, and good luck, distinguished Saint-level Virgin]