I thought I had seen bad endings before—but nothing prepared me for the garbage conclusion of The Hero’s Path. 

Years of investment, countless struggles, and for what? The protagonist failed. The villain won. Everyone else? Dead. Furious, I sent a message to the author, only to get a chilling response:

[Do you think you could do better?]

Before I could even blink, my phone exploded in a blinding light, and the next thing I knew—I was waking up in a completely different body.

Now, I’m Merlin Everhart, a fourteen-year-old with a 12-star talent, the kind of gift only the strongest should have.

But here’s the problem: I have no idea who I am supposed to be.

With nothing but a system and a first-day-of-school alarm ringing in my ears, I’m thrown into the world of The Hero’s Path.

Am I just another side character in a world that already ended once?

…Either way, I refuse to let this story beat me too.

The system's updates had stopped feeling foreign. They sat now like quiet facts behind his eyes, pulsing just under thought.


"Good," Reinhardt said. "Because this isn't staying hidden."


He reached behind his shoulder and unclipped the hilt of his blade. Still sheathed, but ready. The motion was clean. Too clean.


He looked at the vines again. Then at the cracks near the wall.


"This is containment breach behavior. Slow growth. Subtle pressure. Classic first-stage corruption, but wrapped in native biology."


"No," Merlin said before Reinhardt could.


"It means the gate hasn't opened yet. But it's scratching the walls."


"Stay close to your group," he said. "And if this spreads—"


Chapter 96 - Strange Vines