I opened my eyes, and the first thing I noticed was that the ceiling looked kind of unfamiliar. It wasn't the usual scene where spiders had made their home, their webs dangling all over the place, and my clothes and underwear hanging off the fan.
Instead, it was a plain ceiling with no webs in sight.
"What in Avada Kedavra has happened?"
I sat up in the bed, and that's when I realized it wasn't just the apartment. My whole body felt unfamiliar, like my hands looked too young and smooth. Also, there was no belly protruding from my stomach.
Moving toward the mirror, the appearance of a boy with blue hair and amber eyes came into view. He had a handsome appearance, which definitely wasn't mine, as I'd been ugly enough that kids around my neighborhood used to call me Uncle Muk, even though I didn't look a bit like that stupid sludge Pokémon.
First, I went ahead and splashed water on my face, checking if I was dreaming, which I wasn't. Then I stared and admired my handsome face.
Is this real? Did I win the genetic lottery or something?
Damn… I'm handsome. Like, really, really, handsome. Is this what attractive people feel every morning?
My ex would probably bite her tongue in jealousy if she saw this face.
Just then, a sharp ping snapped me out of my stupor. It came from the smartphone resting on the table. I picked it up. It was a group chat notification. But the screen was locked, and after several tries it finally slid open with the S-pattern.
The newest message was addressed to students who hadn't reached campus yet. A reminder to arrive as early as possible for the Orientation Tour.
The group name was Sera Hunter Academy. Oh.
And my name on the profile was Rowan. OH!
Shit! This is Hunter Academy Chronicles.
***
In my previous life, I was a novelist, and Hunter Academy Chronicles was one of the only works of mine that ever saw real success. Still, there was one problem, it was just a little bit cliché.
This was the story about the protagonist enrolling in Hunter Academy, with her high stats and an overpowered Class, stunning the entire school, battling monsters and villains, aura farming in dangerous situations, and rising through the ranks.
Okay, maybe it was very cliché. I'd basically copied the number one trending novel and just changed the protagonist's gender. But hey, it worked. The editor got what he wanted, and the audience got what they wanted.
But I still wasn't satisfied. Something annoyed me. I didn't want to be a third-rate copycat. I wanted to create something unique, something that would stand the test of time.
So I pulled the rug out from under everyone and killed them all—the protagonist, the heroines, the side characters, the entire world.
It was fine, honestly. Well... aside from the hate comments and the death threats. Whatever. I moved on.
"But is this a joke?"
Because somehow, impossibly, I had reincarnated into that very same novel, the one I'd doomed myself. And the funniest part was that the character whose body I now inhabited didn't even survive past chapter twelve. Let alone the first major event.
I laughed, hysterical, tears streaking down my face and a snort leaking from my nose. Then, after a few seconds, the laugh turned into pained noises.
Wiping the mess off with my sleeve, I muttered, "I can't ruin this handsome face. People will start calling me Snort Face."
I took a deep breath, steadying myself. Okay. Think this through.
This wasn't necessarily bad. Actually, it might be the best thing that has ever happened to me. Sure, I was stuck in a doomed timeline where everyone dies horribly, but I had one massive advantage.
I wrote this world.
I knew where every cheat item was hidden. I knew which characters would betray who, which dungeons held the best loot, and which events would spiral into disasters. I knew the entire damn script.
And more importantly, I knew exactly how to break it.
I pulled up the phone, checked my location, and the distance to Mount Fushi.
It was thirty kilometers north of here, it was kind of unregulated territory with no guilds around that place, filled with low-rank monsters and abandoned ruins. The kind of place hunters avoided because the risk-to-reward ratio was garbage.
But I knew better. Hidden at the mountain's peak was the Heart of Ascension, a divine artifact capable of forcing any class to evolve into its perfect form. In my novel, the protagonist found it much later and used it to push her already overpowered abilities into god-tier territory.
And that's the thing I was going for.
I slung the backpack over my shoulder and headed for the door. There was nobody at the reception counter. I stepped out in the cool night air. The city of Sera stretched out before me, streetlights flickering.
First, I headed for the train station. A grin spread across my face.
"Time to steal my own protagonist's cheat item."