Chapter 3
The following day, I woke up feeling oddly disoriented. As my eyes scanned the room, I realized something strange—my roommates were eerily familiar. Their appearances seemed identical to the memories of the previous owner of this body. Rabul, tall and dark, came from a business-minded family from the southern side of the country. Ajay, a good-looking guy with a medium build, hailed from a scholarly family in Kerala. Then there was Praven, medium height and brown-skinned, who came from a humble farming background. The uncanny resemblance to the people in the memory was almost unsettling, but I pushed the thought aside as I focused on the day ahead.
We quickly got ready for college. According to the memories of the previous life I had inherited, I was studying in the same field—computer science. The routine felt surprisingly familiar, like slipping into an old, comfortable pair of shoes. As we walked toward our college, I couldn't shake the odd feeling of being in a strange new world that still seemed to share a lot of traits with the old one.
When we entered our classroom, a wave of déjà vu hit me. The professor standing in front of the class looked exactly like the principal from the movie Nanban, a film I remembered so vividly from my previous life. The resemblance was uncanny—the same hairstyle, the same posture, even the same mannerisms. The shock made my head spin for a moment. Was I really in a world that blended the real and the fictional?
Unable to hold back my curiosity, I immediately turned to the system and asked, "What's going on here? Why does everything feel like it's taken from a movie?"
The system's calm voice echoed in my mind: Host, the world you are currently in is a mixed one, blending elements from movies.
I paused for a moment, trying to process this new information. "How many movies are there exactly in this world?"
Host, the system will notify you every time a new movie begins or you find yourself involved in one. However, you missed the notification yesterday.
I missed it? I thought to myself. "What notification?"
The system promptly answered, You fell asleep without checking your messages yesterday.
A small shiver ran down my spine. I quickly opened the system's message log, eager to see what I had missed. As the message appeared on my screen, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of excitement.
Congratulations, Host! You've been contacted for your first movie.
Task 1: Secure first place in the semester exams.
Reward: A tech item from any movie of your choosing.
I stared at the message, barely believing what I was reading. The idea that I could earn something from a movie in exchange for just getting good grades felt surreal, but the reward was enticing. I wondered what kind of tech I might get.
In that moment, I turned to a girl sitting near me, someone I didn't recognize, but who seemed oddly familiar in this strange new world. I couldn't remember her from any of the previous memories, but I needed to know something. I leaned over and asked, "Hey, when is the semester exam?"
She glared at me with a look that seemed almost theatrical, like something straight out of a drama. "It's in a week," she replied curtly, her voice carrying a hint of annoyance, as though my question was the most ridiculous thing she had heard all day.
I nodded, trying to absorb the new task ahead of me. A week to prepare for the exams and secure a first-place rank. The tech from a movie would be worth it, but I had to make sure I didn't get distracted. I was starting to realize just how much I had to adjust to this hybrid reality, where the line between fiction and reality blurred at every turn.