What would you do if you suddenly found yourself one day becoming a victim of the Isekai (Another World/Other World) tropes?
Would you rejoice?
To be given a new chance in life and a beginning...
Would you become angry?
To be taken away from your home and loved ones...
Or would you think that it is a pain and a bother?
Away from your familiar, safe space and the convenient life that you are living in a world filled with technology?
So which one is it?
What would you feel when you were taken away to another world?
Summoned to a world of magic and fantasy
Are you expecting to become a hero?
Saving the world from the demon lord?
What would you feel if you died and were reincarnated in a different world?
Would you become a once-in-a-thousand or hundred-year genius?
What would you feel if you found yourself in a world that you had previously played as a game or read as a novel?
Would you change the fate of someone? Would you change the destined conclusion from a selfish desire to a happy ending?
What is it?
What is your choice?
As for me...
Finding myself transmigrating in the novel that I read...
I wish that I had never chosen one of the cliches, Isekai Protagonist.
This world is a death trap.
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[Goetia Kingdom]
[5th layer, Stolas Domain]
[Tower Lords]
[Magic]
[Phenex Academy]
Bringing a hand to his head, a young man was experiencing a massive headache.
' No way... '
Massaging his head and willing the pain away, he was continuously assaulted by pain.
' It hurts. '
However, it was ineffective. Massaging his head with hands wouldn't do anything. The pain wasn't physical, but mental.
' ..Ah.. Are you kidding me? "
Breathing and groaning in pain silently, a continuous onslaught of memories that don't belong to the invader entered on his mind.
[Rumpel Stelzehaut]
[Failure]
[Excelsior]
[ Elite ]
[Strays]
'.... Is this it? Is it finally over? '
After a while, the metaphysical headache subsided. Sitting on the bed, the young man glances at the ceiling and the dimly lit room. Leaving the bed, the young man walks towards the curtain-covered window. Sighing, he moved the curtain to the side and opened the window.
Up above the black sky was the presence of the seven moons. The sight of the seven moons in the night sky is beautiful. But this stunning scenery fills him with nothing but dread.
He glances at his hands. This wasn't his body before. He was nothing but a stranger in this current skin.
' This is real... This is my new reality. '
Seeing the stunning but fake night sky filled with seven moons, the memories of a stranger he recently acquired, and himself in the body of a stranger, there's no doubt about it.
He was transmigrated to a new world. Not just a new world, but a fantasy world of swords and magic.
As an Isekai connoisseur who has read and watched countless Isekai stories out there, uncaring of the quality, whether it is a gem or a generic hot garbage, he should be relieved and happy.
Before he got here and was assaulted by Rumpel's memories, he remembered dying. However, there is no afterlife experience to remember or a goddess or god waiting in the afterlife to give him a cheat.
After realizing his death and the intense agonizing pain, he found himself instantly transported into a new body and assaulted by pain once again.
' It sucks. '
Now, he is in the body of a 15-year-old young man named Rumpel Stelzehaut. A young man who has a pair of loving parents and lives in Stolas Town, 5th Region of the Goetia Kingdom.
' I am Rumpel. '
He muttered inside his mind and squashed down the guilt of stealing Rumpel's life.
From now on, he was Rumpel Stelzehaut. He was dead back in his world, and this was a new chance given to him.
He would savor this new life, no matter how terrible it would become.
Death is a scary thing after all. He doesn't want to experience it so soon.
He would do his best to live and survive.
In this familiar and terrible world,.
This is a world from a story that he once read back on Earth. A recent one that he has also finished.
It was a good novel that he enjoyed reading, but he never dared to think about or fantasize about living in that world.
No readers of the story dared.
Even with how amazing the world crafted by that author and the lore of the story are, all of the readers are like dogs with tails tucked between their legs that one time in the forum when the author of the story asked where in the Goetia Kingdom they wanted to be transported.
Replying with various emojis, curses, and a very hard refusal and rejection of the offer. He was one of those readers who vehemently rejected the offer.
He may entertain the thought of living in other Isekai stories where he can gain OP cheats, defeat monsters, befriend nonhuman beings, become a hero, and kill the Demon Lord.
But not this one. Not in the story of the Noir Hero's Wrath, where living in this world is equivalent to living in Hell. The Noir Hero's Wrath is a world of dystopian fantasy.
In a world where the only remaining civilization is the Goetia Kingdom, living in that kingdom is hard and a struggle for the citizens of that kingdom.
A world of limited mana and magic.
A world that forbids the worship of a deity and where science is considered a Taboo subject.
Most important of all, the reason why no readers of this story entertained the thought of being in this world is that being in the Goetia Kingdom was the equivalent of a death sentence.
This is a world that hunts down stray animals.
The Strays are none other than being from another world.
Summoned Heroes, Reincarnated, and Transmigrated Individuals were nothing but a useful resource for most of the citizens of this Goetia Kingdom.
People who would be reduced to being categorized into mere types are treated both as monsters and as limited livestock.
This is that world.
Rumpel can already feel his body shaking in terror just thinking of the various scenarios that he would end up in if someone discovered that he is a stray.
He didn't want to end up in this hellish place.
He doesn't deserve to suffer an atrocious ending at the hands of the citizens of this kingdom, who thought nothing of the strays but mere commodities.
And the stray animals that have experienced and would experience atrocious fates by being in this world deserve an ending that prolongs their suffering and rejects them for a painless and merciful death.
Sighing once again, Rumpel closed the window and put the curtain back. Blocking the light coming from fake moons outside.
He sat back on the bed and glanced at the flickering lamp.
' Magic Lamps... Magic tools and artifacts. Scientific progress is equivalent to the medieval age; I better get to use it for these things. Adapt and survive. '
He would never experience using a computer or the internet again.
He would never see his friends and family.
There is no time for grieving and lamenting about his past life. If he wanted to survive, he is now Rumpel Stelzehaut. A normal 15-year-old young man was aspiring to become a mage of the Goetia Kingdom. The failure who failed Phenex Academy's test three times. Not a transmigrator who died back from Earth and suddenly found himself transmigrated in the body of a nonexistent character in the novel.
An affluent normal citizen of the Goethe Kingdom. Not a stray that could be used as a commodity.
'I'm normal... I'm just a normal citizen of the Goethe Kingdom who doesn't care about stray animals. I'm Rumpel Stelzehaut, an Elite. '
A few days later, this aspiring young man was planning once again to take the entrance test to Phenex Academy.
Lying in bed, Rumpel stared at the ceiling with one question on his mind. Even with his knowledge of the novel and the memories of the Rumpel, he was uncertain of the current timeline.
Should he even intervene? As a normal citizen of the Goetia Kingdom, he doubted that he could do something or contribute anything to the main plot.
As much as he loves the story and is endeared to the protagonist, supporting characters, and villains, he wants to stay as far away from them as possible.
He was a weakling. The protagonist and the main villains are a bunch of broken and overpowered individuals.
' Nope, it was better to not get involved with them. Just let them do their bunch of shit, and I would survive in the background. There is no need for me to endanger myself and kill myself. '
And most importantly, even though they are a bunch of good and cool characters, now that he is in this world, Rumpel's admiration for the characters was squashed immediately.
It was cool back in his world. But now that this is his new reality, most of the characters in the story Noir Hero's Wrath are a bunch of characters with a twisted and messed-up personality.
He would die if he interacted with any of those characters right now as a weakling.
Closing his eyes, he willed his new body to sleep. Tomorrow, he will talk to Rumpel's parents about his situation on trying to enter once again at Phenex Academy.