Chapter 2: Transmigrated
Ryan stood in front of his mother's grave while his father sent away the few family members who came to offer condolences.
The sound of tears and crying faded away from his ears, and he looked at his baby sister, who was sucking his finger.
"..." The 11-year-old boy was stunned and slowly retracted his hand in shock.
"Poor children."
Someone made a comment filled with pity.
Ryan lowered his head and hugged his sister carefully out of view.
His mother was no longer there; she died giving birth to his baby sister.
His father aged significantly in just a single day.
And his cousins no longer paid him a visit anymore.
Life became difficult for the father-son pair as they tried to cope with the loss of their beloved mother and wife.
Within the three years that followed, Ryan had taken on the role of a parent, doing all the house chores and raising his baby sister.
Though it was hard, coping with the running plate of time was somehow manageable until his father had an accident at work that left him permanently confined to a wheelchair.
Ryan had to drop out of school and start working multiple part-time jobs. Yet life only seemed impossible as the burden of taking care of his family weighed him down.
When he turned 18, his golden spoon-born heir to a massive conglomerate friend, Andrew, offered him a job as his assistant.
Ryan didn't have a choice but to agree but was also grateful to his friend.
Now, at 28 years old, Ryan was the head assistant of the CEO and the future butler of the chairman.
His current position is something people would kill for.
Sitting on a squeaky sofa, his eyes were lined with exhaustion, further accentuated by his shaggy brown hair, slightly grayed by stress.
He was dressed in a white shirt, black pants, and leather brown boots— a stark contrast to his friend Andrew, who was dressed in a sharply tailored navy suit.
"How does this suit look on me?" Andrew asked.
Ryan looked at his boss and said with an exhausted voice, "Well, that's too formal for a date. Try wearing less formal but not too casual clothing. You said your girlfriend doesn't know you're a CEO."
"Yeah, that's right. She doesn't care about my mone_."
Ding-
Ryan heard a noise coming from his phone just in time to interrupt Andrew's words.
He ignored his boss's bragging about his girlfriend, treating it as background noise, and opened his novel app.
Ryan scrolled down to the link to his sister's novel. He had already read the original script and the edited version she was publishing.
He mainly liked to scroll through the comments and read the reactions of her readers and the various criticisms of her work.
He was surprised to see how many people had read and praised the novel. He was happy that his sister was gaining recognition, slightly bothered by comments calling her a trash writer.
But unfortunately, it was understandable.
After a few minutes of reading, he felt no sympathy toward the readers.
None of them knew that their favorite protagonist would be killed in the end.
"Let's go. You can drop me off near my date's place and go back," Andrew said, wearing mismatched clothing and a stupid grin plastered all over his face.
Ryan looked at the neon orange tie resting on his greenish outfit and shook his head.
"Alright," Grabbing his phone and putting it in his pocket, he continued with a bit of mild disdain, "Not my fault if you make a fool of yourself in front of your beloved girlfriend."
"..."
In the back seat of the car, Andrew wasn't at all happy as he sat in more presentable clothes that made him look even more handsome.
"Working for the rich is worth the effort." Ryan was driving the car with a smile. He had gotten a raise for simply helping his boss get all dressed up for his proposal date.
Andrew's mouth twitched slightly, seeing his smile, thinking, 'F*cking scammer. He was already earning as much as an executive but always wanted a raise.'
Uncaring of his boss' thoughts, Ryan drove to the restaurant.
"Be confident; you're the CEO." Andrew clenched his fist, filled with excitement and nervousness; a part of him felt like an excited teenager once again.
"Ahem," Conscious of people's gazes around them, he fixed his expression and looked at his haircut in the mirror, feeling smug about his handsome profile.
Ryan gave him the side-eye as he contacted the reserved family driver to stand by and pick up Andrew after the date in case he got rejected.
Before they parted ways, he wished him good luck, patting Andrew's back till he almost threw up and left with satisfaction.
On the highway, Ryan was on his way back to the company.
'I still need to take this car back to the garage.'
He couldn't just take it back home.
Although Andrew wouldn't mind if he took it back home, Ryan didn't want anything that could link his family to his job, as it came with its set of risks.
Such an antique design from modern times was sought after by many, and that alone was concerning.
He was driving when he suddenly witnessed a truck crash into a car ahead of him.
Before he could react and pull back, the force of the impact sent his car flipping a few times until it came to a stop on the side of the road.
_Crash!!!
The sound of metal making friction with the asphalt road reverberated silently on the busy highway.
Urrrgggghhh!
"Kurrkhhh!" When he regained consciousness, Ryan was in immense pain and could only let out a few moans of pure agony.
His skin was scorched, and he was struggling to breathe.
He felt the intense heat of the fire and heard the deafening sound of the explosion. But he couldn't move an inch.
The other car was a complete wreck, burning beside his own.
Sparks flew out of the car, and the smoke engulfed the entire area.
He could even smell the acrid scent of the burning fuel and rubber, making his eyes sting and his throat burn.
Ryan tried to call for help, but his cries were lost in the chaos.
Looking up with his bloody eyes, through his blurry vision, he was sure.
He saw the truck that hit them had stopped some distance away, relatively unharmed.
The truck driver got out, looking apathetically at the car beside him.
"Urrgh!" Ryan cursed his luck, but only blood came out.
It seemed like he was mixed up in someone else's assassination attempt.
Ryan could only watch helplessly as the car exploded, plunging him into unconsciousness once again.
Chapter 3: The antagonist
"..."
It's been a while since Ryan opened his eyes, staring into the darkness.
Taking a few quiet breaths to comprehend his situation, he was still quite confused as he held up his knees. The pain of being burned to death was all but gone in an instant.
Opening his eyes in the pitch-black darkness that greeted him for the nth time, the overwhelming sense of fear finally found itself in his heart as he woke up in a cramped space.
There was no way he was in a hospital.
Even the cheapest hospitals in the area wouldn't put their patients in a box.
And no one was daring enough to kidnap him in the middle of the city.
'Where am I?' He wondered to himself, his throat unable to make a sound.
He tried to scream, but only let out a low whimper.
Bu-dum! Ba-dam! Ba-dam!
His heart was pounding hard, and his breath shortened as the aftermath of pain assaulted him.
Panic slowly started to set in.
He opened his mouth, and his breathing became harsher and shorter.
Waiting a few more seconds until his heartbeat quieted down, he moved his hand forward, weakly, as if they were going to break at the slightest touch.
He managed to open the wooden door of a closet with zero effort and fell at someone's feet due to the momentum.
Baam!
"Urgh!!"
Ryan raised his head but still couldn't see anything.
A hand reached out immediately and grabbed him by the upper arm, pulling him up a few inches from the ground.
The man who held him spoke in a deep, tired voice: "Finally, stop trying to play hide and seek."
The man's voice sent shivers down his spine.
"Ahhhh!" Ryan was almost out of his wits for a reason he didn't understand. It felt more terrifying than being stuck under a burning car.
This was the first time he heard this voice, kind and gentle yet it was ominous in his ears; the sound alone made him feel dizzy, as his toes curled up unconsciously, the thought of struggling free didn't cross his mind due to the shock.
It was this body's natural reaction to the man before him.
The series of events took place way too fast for him to register what was happening.
The pain of burning at this point felt like a mere illusion compared to the fear inflicted on him by a few simple words.
A sharp sensation assaulted his head, and he felt his consciousness slipping away.
"Are you alright? Child?" He said in a low voice, as if worried about startling the child, but his words worked oppositely in wonders, further solidifying the fear taking over Ryan's heart.
The old man, now confused, held the youth in his arms, his face filled with questions at the sudden shift in attitude that left him at a loss.
The man looked around the room, which no longer had any remaining furniture intact, and shook his head in thought, wondering if it was the same lively guy whom he had brought a few hours ago.
He looked at the boy, who was now unconscious.
That seemed so different from before— so fragile and helpless— a contrast to the wild animal that fought as if his life was on the line.
The old man sighed and gently placed him in the newly brought bed, draping a blanket over the boy's small frame.
A strange look flashed in his eyes. He looked at him for a moment in thought and went out of the room.
An unconscious child wouldn't answer his questions.
A few seconds later,
Ryan slowly opened his eyes, not expecting the darkness that surrounded him.
He felt the unfamiliar, soft, fluffy bed underneath his body, but he didn't freak out and stayed calm.
From the bits and pieces of memories he received from the original body owner spanning a limited number of days but enough to grasp his situation, he concluded that he had transmigrated into his sister's novel.
'If I wasn't hallucinating about a random stranger's life, that is.'
"Haa..." Ryan sighed. He didn't know whether he was dreaming or whether he truly transmigrated.
He pinched his arm underneath the cover and felt the pain, which meant that what he was experiencing right now wasn't a dream. He hoped it was.
'Maybe a highly realistic virtual reality? That possibility was high... Status screen?' He called out in hope, after all, it wasn't uncommon for a patient's consciousness to be put in a virtual space to keep them in contact with the outside. This whole situation must have been a prank by his sister and Andrew but nothing happened for a long time, making him disappointed.
He was still in denial but he knew more than anyone that implanting someone else's memories in another's brain wasn't possible using a virtual screen. He simply didn't want to believe it, why would he of all people transmigrate into his sister's novel?
And to transmigrate into the novel's last boss, who would kill the protagonist in the future at the expense of his life.
Ryan suppressed a grimace.
'Dying once was already painful.'
He didn't want to die a second time, not even for a glorious feat such as saving the world and humanity from the villain's protagonist.
'Yeah... This novel, borrowing my sister's words, is an edgy novel where the protagonist is pure evil.' Ryan mused.
The words that described the main focus of her novel came clearly into his head as if he was reading directly from its pages.
'The protagonist in my sister's novel is a reincarnated demon king, someone with very little compassion for humanity, a mass homicidal maniac who, by this point in time, has already slaughtered thousands in his boredom.'
The protagonist's purpose was to open the gate to another world, facilitating the entry of demons into this world and gaining control over it.
If he wasn't killed by Hiro, the antagonist, he may have succeeded.
Humanity was saved, but Hiro was betrayed. Dying alone without a soul offering him a memorial, not even to curse his soul.
'And now I have become that antagonist.'
He became the boy that humanity turned its back on. Ryan lightly clenched and unclenched his fist in thought.
He had come from a chaotic world, albeit tamed in comparison, and had seen his fair share of people devouring each other for gains and pleasure.
However, since working for Andrew, he has never had to deal with the chaos himself, keeping his reputation and position clean.
His fighting prowess was limited as a result. He'd always figured it out using money but now? Even money wouldn't save him.
The protagonist was someone whose humanity's strongest banding together couldn't face.
And in the unfortunate case, he inherited this body owner's ability, history would repeat itself.
'I hope I wake up in a hospital bed by the time I open my eyes again.'
Still unable to speak, he closed his eyes, drifting back to sleep, feeling as though he was being forcefully pulled into dreamland.