The Story is Told to the Protagonist.

Jayden takes a step back with a shocked face.
The words he heard from the angel as a child have triggered his trauma.

As he becomes flustered, the soldier holding me falters and creaks as if broken. The other soldiers are the same.

But the soldier’s hand still hasn’t released me.

The one Jayden knows as the ‘angel’ is a being who can interfere with souls. That power had saved Jayden.

“Release me. Shall I pull out your soul and show you its color?”

Jayden’s eyes widened with worry, and the soldier’s hand spread wide open.

Finally freed. I carefully landed on the auditorium floor.

‘I-I survived.’

I survived a brush with death for the first time in my life.

I shook my head to clear the confusion. It’s not time to rest yet.

To change the future, I need to quickly run to the protagonist…

“Ugh.”

Thud. I fell after bumping into something.

‘What is it?’

When I widened my view that had been focused on Seol Ga-ram, I finally noticed a semi-transparent yellow curtain.

The field. The system’s execution procedure that separates a part of the world.

Unlike the ordinary people outside the field, those inside become climbers and ascend the tower.

And I was outside, while she was inside.

‘Ah….’

There’s nothing I can do now.

I can’t change the future. Everyone will ultimately meet the predetermined bad ending as in the original work.

The world will be destroyed.
I, the people of Earth, and the characters in the story will all die.

‘What is this….’

I had just gotten the chance to start over.

‘Is it really going to end like this… Ah.’

As I stood there dejectedly with my hand on the curtain, my eyes met hers in the distance.

‘Seol Ga-ram.’

Like everyone else in the auditorium, she was looking at me.

As someone who can see the future, she looks a bit calmer than the other students, befitting a protagonist. However…

‘Her legs are trembling.’

The protagonist who grows through adversity. The greatest genius in the world setting. But right now, she’s just a high school girl.

The final scene from the original work plays in my head.

She sits down and cries pitifully.

The strong girl who hadn’t shown tears even once during her long middle school years.

Worn down, she finally breaks down in the face of destruction and pain.

‘Ah….’

Until now, I thought I had to prevent the destruction of the world, the bad ending.
Anyone would have thought the same. Because we need to survive.

But now I realize that might not be all I want.

I’m not sure exactly. I always thought I lived honestly according to my emotions, but this time, I’m not sure what I want.

I just unconsciously answered her.

“… I’ll do it.”

Ding!

[Activating trait .]
[Modifying content.]

My mind heightens. I can feel something happening.

Just then, the violent creaking of the staggering soldier snapped me out of my thoughts.

When I turned around, the soldier was about to fall this way.

“Uh oh…!”

I’ll die if I’m crushed. But it’s too late.

‘No!’

I closed my eyes tightly and reached out my hand.

Ding!

[Modifying content.]

For a moment, my body stiffened, and I couldn’t move.

But when I opened my eyes in confusion when nothing happened, the soldier was already gone.

“…Huh?”

Looking at Jayden, I see him muttering with his eyes wide open.

“The connection to the Nutcracker was cut… No, it disappeared along with the allocated pseudo-soul…?”

It seems he doesn’t know what happened either.

The soldier vanished without a trace as if it had never existed. It was deleted.

I know I did it. A message window I couldn’t understand also popped up in front of me.

‘But it’s the power of a transcendent?’

I eliminated that?

According to the original work’s balance, this is absolutely impossible. Transcendents are absolute powerhouses; how could an ordinary person nullify their power?

However, Jayden seemed to sense something from that and muttered as if entranced while looking at me.

“That power just now… Surely…”

At his words, the soldiers come to their senses, and all turn their heads to stare at me.

I stepped back at that eerie sight. As I did so, my hand touched the barrier behind me.

[Modifying content.]

“…!”

Again, that message and that sensation. Something is happening.

For a moment, an alien silence fell over the auditorium. As if the world itself felt a sense of déjà vu.

Ding! A system message appeared in front of Jayden.
Only then did he flinch and come to his senses.

“Just now, something felt off… Hm?”

His brow furrows at the unfamiliar content of the message.

–

“‘Higher access authority detected. Modifying procedure.’ Miss Fairy. What’s going on now?”

-

Crash!

The field shattered.

“…”

-<…Huh?>

Neither Jayden nor the fairy could understand the scene before their eyes. They just blinked.

The fragments of the field scatter like motes of light. I was in the middle of it.

Jayden looked at me and trembled like a madman.

“Aah…! How could this… Y-yes, my life wasn’t wrong after all!”

I looked down at my hand, which had caused the miracle.

‘This….’

The system’s procedure. Moreover, a modification with level 0 authority.

It’s the setting I wrote about, so I knew the weight of the phenomenon I had just caused.

‘….’

No. Let’s not think about it now.
If I start thinking, there’ll be no end to it.

The fact that what I wrote became reality is already an unfathomable mystery.
Now, nothing that happens would be strange.

‘Later.’

Now is the time to do what I set out to do.

After a long silence.

Only then did everyone’s gaze, transcendent, students, and parents alike, turn this way.

Seol Ga-ram too. I walked while staring at her like that.

To where I need to go.

Step, step.

“…”

Step.

But I had to stop after just a few steps. The scenery had changed.

I was in the center of a mirror dome, not in the auditorium. I couldn’t see Seol Ga-ram or anything else.

‘It’s so bright….’

Numerous triangular mirrors reflected me, and a floor glowing white.

‘He’s made his move.’

The skill [Reflected True Heart].

If I lie here-

“If you lie here, you die.”

An ice-cold voice that sends chills down my spine.

I turned around.

A skinny, bald man whose appearance reminds one of Gandhi and Buddha. He was standing on thin air.

“A question.”

The figure who had been watching the situation from the control room, called ‘Senior’ by Jayden.

“Who are you?”

It’s the high-ranking Transcendent, Bahman.

***

Bahman’s hands were forming an unknown mudra.

Bahman’s skill [Reflected True Heart].

It traps the target in a mirror dome.
If the target inside the dome lies, the mirror reflecting them breaks, and the target in the mirror takes damage.

And I was in every triangular mirror surface.

‘They say damage, but for an ordinary person like me….’

It’s just instant death.

“I’ll kill you if you don’t answer.”

Bahman urges an answer in a cold tone.

Unlike his appearance, one shouldn’t expect any peaceful solution from him.

There’s no expression on his face.
It felt closer to his emotions being dead rather than enlightenment. That made it even more chilling.

If Jayden kills ordinary people like bugs as if playing, this guy doesn’t involve emotion in carrying out his purpose.

Whether he saves me, kills me, or does something worse. He won’t hesitate at all. He won’t waver like Jayden either.

‘An enlightened utilitarian.’

That was the character Bahman that I had written.

He speaks to the sky.

“I will now interrogate this person. If they lie within my skill [Reflected True Heart], the dome’s floor will turn black.”

But the situation is actually better than with Jayden.

‘This skill was broken by Seol Ga-ram in the original work.’

I know the loophole in this skill.

“How do you know information that’s not permitted, and how did you break the field…”

But suddenly, Bahman took his eyes off me and turned around.

‘Huh?’

He reached out his hand, and one of the triangular mirror surfaces became transparent.

‘What’s this.’

Outside, Professor Hong Guk was pounding on the mirror dome and shouting.

“I know! I… I know!”

I can’t see outside the dome, but those outside can probably see and hear inside. Because the kings need to observe the situation.

He’s probably acting like that after seeing the situation inside. What could he be thinking?

“That guy is a novelist! But that novel became real! I saw it with my own eyes!”

Shit.

“That guy wrote everything that would happen at today’s graduation ceremony! I briefly saw your name too! You’re that… Ba, Bahman! Mr. Bahman, right!?”

“A question. What does he mean?”

Wow…

‘This is really shit….’

Wow… What do I do now? All my plans have been shattered.

I can’t think of a new strategy either. How am I supposed to fix this?

“H-hey! Mr. Bahman, you’re the head honcho here, right? I can tell just by looking! I just told you something really important. So spare my life, will you!? Huh!?”

Professor Hong-guk kept babbling on, but Bahman lost interest and focused only on me.

But soon, his attention was diverted again.

The mirror dome shakes from an impact.

Bang!

“Jayden. Stop.”

Bang! Bang!

Bahman turned around again. Another mirror surface becomes transparent.

The head of a soldier with its mouth covered in blood appeared.
The soldier tilts its head back and headbutts the wall of the dome.

Bang!

“Jayden.”

The soldier stops, and Jayden appears before the transparent mirror surface.

“Senior! You mustn’t threaten that person!”

“While this person has some peculiarities, they are still an ordinary human. [Reflected True Heart] doesn’t activate on opponents stronger than me…”

“That’s their characteristic! They’re someone who exerts power through their mere presence, someone who can’t be measured by common sense!”

“Jayden. You’re not thinking rationally right now. Wait quietly for your punishment.”

“Senior, please judge carefully!”

Bahman no longer responded.

“Just let me talk with them for a moment…”

Ding!

A system message window popped up in front of Jayden.

He paused to read the message, then lowered his head.

His body starts to blur from the feet up.

It seems Bahman, the controller of Earth, has revoked Jayden’s authority. He’s being forced to leave an unauthorized area.

Jayden stares at me fiercely with wide eyes.

“Why did you appear only now! I haven’t given up on the contract yet! I can still do it!”

With his body vanishing up to his chin, he desperately shouts until the end.

“I will definitely find you! Definitely-”

His voice cut off. He completely disappeared.

Ding!

[You have changed the predetermined flow. The trait ‘???’ grows slightly.]

My head aches from all the commotion. But I returned to Bahman’s question and desperately tried to connect my thoughts.

Because of the professor, the scope of the question has narrowed. Accordingly, the answer is also limited.
Thanks to that, the method to break [Reflected True Heart] is also blocked.

Now, there’s no choice. I can only keep telling the truth and stall for time until the ‘Earth Climber Incorporation Procedure’ ends.

“Huff….”

“Answer.”

I don’t know. Let’s just say it as it is.

“I’m….”

Who am I? That’s the question.

Am I the god who created this world? Of course not.

I don’t even know if what I wrote became reality, or if I foresaw the future and wrote it down.

Even if it’s the former, I’m not a god. Just obviously not.

A 26-year-old male college student preparing to be a teacher.
My hobby is writing novels. Honorably discharged from the army as a sergeant.
Bad personality. Several fighting records.
Has a mother and an older brother.

Just skimming through this simply, I’m definitely not a god.
So how should I answer?

‘The novel I wrote actually became reality?’

No matter how I look at it, that’s the wrong answer.
I’d be lucky if my head didn’t fly off along with the professor’s.

I need to give an answer that can buy time and preserve my life.

Above all, I need an answer that will confuse those who hold my life in their hands.

And that, about ‘what I wrote’ that the professor blurted out. A definite truth.

“I’m…”

My mouth is burning.
I can’t see outside, but I can feel countless gazes.

Beyond Bahman and the professor, there are the people in the auditorium, the earthlings watching TV, and the immeasurably many gazes watching from space, including the four kings.

Everyone is waiting for my mouth to open.

‘What is undoubtedly true? Something I directly wrote and confirmed… Like a predetermined development or setting….’

An idea comes to mind.

‘If it’s this….’

It won’t trigger the skill, and I might be able to buy some time.

That which definitely exists in this world according to my settings.

‘It’s an object from the hand of the Creator God, but in the original setting, the Creator God is the author, so….’

I may not be a god, but… according to the setting, it’s undoubtedly a ‘book I wrote.’

“I’m… the author of the Book of Prophecy.”

“…”

Silence.
I bit my lip in anxiety.

Bahman and I looked at each other, and his mouth opened first.

“A foolish choice.”

Then he forms another mudra.

“I’ll adjust the penalty so you won’t die. But on the next lie…”

He stopped speaking. For the first time, a slight ripple appears on his face.

When one lies in [Reflected True Heart], the white floor turns black.

The floor of the dome was still pure white.

Translator’s Corner

Mudra- A symbolic or ritual gesture or pose in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. The term “mudra” is derived from Sanskrit, with “mud” meaning joy and “ra” meaning produce, suggesting that mudras are means to generate joy and happiness. (Wikipedia, if someone knows better, comment below or dm me on Discord.)

-Ruminas