I was going to finish this damn book even if it killed me.
Spoiler: It did.
Meet me, Daniel Hayes, a 14-year-old writer with no parents, family, or real life, per se. Well, I earned a lot for a teen, at least.
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 emotional 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," 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. After getting the coffee, I walked across the street when I received a notification on my phone. It was from my best friend who rarely comes around these parts.
[Are you free today? I was wondering if we could talk, I'm in town.]
And then it hit me. A fucking truck, of all things, while I was returning from the stall, too busy thinking of what outfit I was gonna wear for the date to hear the blaring of horns. That's right, 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.
One moment, I was having a moment of mental joy and giddiness, 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, four 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 didn't get to see her one last time.
4. I'm gonna die at fourteen and a virgin. Damn.
"I want to live. I don't wanna die. Is anyone there?" 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---]
[...]
[....]
[...]
[---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 and 999 other characters, Akai included.
'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 flood of memories crashed into us both:
Me writing his death scene like it was some filler arc.
Him growing up with a family he actually loved. Me ripping it all away.
We screamed—he 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. Her red hair shone in the damp darkness of the room as she said "Get up. You promised to help with Nez's birthday."
I barely heard her.
Because inside my head, Akai was raging.
I staggered, heart pounding. His emotions—hot, sharp, unrelenting—burned inside me like molten lead.
"I didn't think—"
I fell against the wall, gasping for air.
«---REMINDER---»
[---Main Plot Event: "The Massacre" begins at 14:32.---]
I rubbed my eyes. Right. Today was the day.
The day everything went to hell.
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 bastard. This fraud. He'd written my life as a footnote. My death as a punchline. And now his memories burned behind my eyes—him hunched over his laptop, deleting my only good lines, shrugging as he typed "Akai dies here. Make it sad, I guess."
*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.
"Maybe," I croaked.
Alright, this was getting out of hand. My head felt like a dam had burst, and a flood of screaming chaos was raging through it. Yeah, I hijacked your body, sorry about that, but could he please just shut the hell up?!
First things first: I needed to put a cork in his lungs, mental lungs? Whatever. The headache was bubbling up like a volcano.
I knew the story. I wrote the damn thing. I knew this guy inside and out, and subtlety wasn't part of the package. He was smart, calm at most times, but when it came to immediate crises, he wasn't the type to pause, process, and accept existential crises with any sort of grace. Even existential dread gave him a wide berth. Honestly, that's part of the reason he died in the first place. Brutally, I might add.
Crap. I was spiraling. Again. Focus. I needed to calm him down.
Another mental banshee-scream rattled through my skull, and I swear I felt a vein physically pop. That was it.
"YOU INSOLENT LITTLE WORM! WHO GAVE YOU PERMISSION TO SPEAK?!"
I flung the words at him with the same psychic volume he'd been using on me. If I was going to reach this blockhead, I had to speak his native tongue: threats and intimidation. Lucky for me, I'd dabbled in a bit of improv acting (don't ask), so slipping into a domineering medieval demon role was... relatively easy.
"IF YOU DON'T SHUT YOUR FILTHY MOUTH THIS INSTANT, I'LL BANISH YOU TO HELL MYSELF!"
Silence. Blessed, blessed silence.
Because, well, Hell in this world? It was NOT a metaphor. It's a literal, flaming, contract-binding, infernal-infested place. And infernals? They can possess bodies. Everybody knows that. This guy, too.
Time to run with it.
"Ahhh, now that's the tone I prefer," I purred. "Call me an infernal if you must, though in Hell, they whisper a far more... reverent title."
For a second, I thought I'd short-circuited his brain. But then he found a little flicker of backbone.
< W-What do you want from me?>
Just then, a blur passed by the door. His siblings. Great.
"NO, NO! Don't come in here!" he shouted.
Yeah. Like they were going to hear him anymore.
I didn't miss a beat. "When did I say you could speak, human?" I growled. "Do you value your soul so little? Do you know how easy it would be for me to rip it out and yeet it into the infernal void?"
I cut him off, not that he was helping himself.
Now, I was absolutely bullshitting. But the next part... was kinda true.
This idiot was a mana prodigy. Like, god-tier potential. My mistake, honestly. So I compensated by giving him the IQ of an unsupervised toddler in a fireworks shop. And yes, he died in a way that could only be described as impressively dumb.
"It's because I see potential in you," I said, shrugging like this wasn't all part of an ongoing improv set. "Here's the deal: cooperate with me, and I'll get you a new body."
Technically not a lie. I could do it. Eventually. But that necromancer with the right skillset doesn't show up until the second arc. The only one I'd trust not to mess up something that delicate.
"I'm not like the other infernals who cause chaos just for the hell of it." I smiled inwardly at the pun. "I'm more of an inspector. Some infernals think they're clever, slipping past the laws that bind us. I track down those rule-breaking bastards and drag them back to where they belong."
"So, do you submit, human?"
Phew... just in time for Noel to scream at me to get down and get to work.
I went downstairs and was met with a bustling room, guests teemed all over the main floor, and I could swear that the decorations were too expensive for a simple birthday party, especially for one that was gonna end in chaos.
"Good morning, Akai." Nez asked, walking up with a grin.
I froze. Nez—his little brother. His entire world. The one I killed first.