SYSTEM ACTIVATED
For a while I believed I was still dreaming. The words in front of me, floating in mid air, could very well have been a figment of my imagination. I stared at it until the lit up words were burning my eyes. Noticing that it was not fading even a little, I hesitatingly reached out to touch the small arrow beneath it. It was peculiar, touching something immaterial but feeling something akin to static shooting through the finger that made contact. The words changed.
DOWNLOADING RESOURCES FOR I'm the Hero of this World.
I stopped in my tracks, afraid to press the arrow again. I'm the Hero of this World. A title as unremarkable as any other, one that you would expect a teenager to read. Except I wasn't a teenager. When university classes were too much and I was losing the will to continue, I found comfort in light-hearted webnovels. There was something enjoyable about reverting back to my childhood when everything was simple, when books didn't use big words that made me spend more time thinking about and researching definitions than I spent enjoying the story.
Those kinds of stories always sold well. Everyone wanted to get lost in a world where they felt that they were the hero. For most people, life was mundane. The repetitiveness of daily life slowly sucked away at our souls and only got worse the older we got, draining us of any energy we had. We wanted to chase something far away and separate from the greyness of reality, and a lot of authors capitalised on that. It was a win-win situation. We could finally feel like the main characters that we had always hoped to be, while the authors made money on our temporary happiness.
But the past was the past. I no longer have any interest in that kind of life. With that resolution in mind, I pressed the arrow.
INITIALISING RESOURCES...
PREPARING ARCHIVES...
OPENING ARCHIVES...
I flipped through the first few pages of the archives with passion I could've sworn I'd lost. It was a story I could vaguely recall reading but nothing specifically stood out. I couldn't remember any key events or characters that could help me, if I even wanted that. Just as I was about to close it, uninterested in the words before me, my eyes fell on one name. Klaus.
Klaus was the main character of the story. It was the typical story. Klaus died in his world and woke up in another. This world was unlike one he was accustomed to, filled with magic and people with unnatural hair colours (apparently that stood out to him). He also found that his new body could wield powers but he had no idea how to control or make actual use of. Thus, Klaus began the journey towards strengthening his magical abilities.
SAVING BOOKMARK...
I couldn't bring myself to read any more. It was almost laughable how pathetic I felt, and how only a few pages could reduce me to this state. In a matter of minutes, I had changed from someone who chose to have a simple life, to a weakling who could not even attempt to defy fate.
How is it that we both had such similar circumstances and yet are so vastly different? Klaus was different even before I knew anything about him. His demeanor spoke volumes about his strength, resilience evident in every step he took. Envy couldn't begin to cover what I felt. What I felt could not be reduced to a single word. I had found solace in knowing that even if I resigned to fate, no one could understand me. I had it harder than everyone. This was a trial that was mine and mine alone, so even if I failed I was the only one in the running. Who was he to come in and outdo me without so much as trying and why did I have to become aware of it?
This intense feeling within me quickly made room for rage, because no emotion was more fitting. It doesn't matter that he only did his best for himself, what matters is that he did better than I could. I hate him for his past, his present and his future. What an easy life it must be, being able to settle into an entirely different life and still excel in every field. How great life must be when you have the mental capacity to take on any challenge life throws at you. No part of him was mediocre and that was the worst part. I could understand if he had some clear flaw but no, life was not so fair.
I was faced with injustice that I could not challenge. How much authority would I need to challenge destiny? If only it was a physical being that I could duel, then I could get it over and done with. Win or lose, I would know I stood my own. In these circumstances however, am I supposed to fight the entirety of my life to win? Dying early would mean losing but I have no will to live. Life is too brutal for me but not for others.
Would I feel satisfied if I could best Klaus? Would I be content with life if my name held enough weight to suffocate the next few generations? What must I do to feel at ease? What if I outlived him? Maybe I could wring his neck - that would probably get the authors blood boiling. They could feel what I feel, knowing that their hard work had been reduced to nothing. If Klaus was their favourite, I could become their most hated. How much worse could my life get anyway? I have nothing to lose to begin with.
There was just one problem. Where Klaus had no flaws, I was full of them. I was part of the problem but that isn't my fault. It's normal for someone in my situation to have difficulty adjusting to an entirely different world. It's Klaus that is unnatural. Yes, he was the issue.