When he woke up, he found himself surrounded by darkness, his body stuck as if paralyzed.

Faint noises reached his ears, distant and unclear.

"Look at you, dying like the dog you are."

Was that directed at him? No, that didn't make sense. His name wasn't Valion. It was… what was his name again?

"And he won't be the first. Soon, Duke Azaris will know my wrath too. Just you wait."

The voice's owner turned and began walking away—or at least, that's what it sounded like from the fading footsteps.

Slowly, he forced his eyes open. A single sun hung low on the horizon, painting the sky in deep shades of orange and red. He sat up, his gaze settling on the boy standing nearby—a stranger. But judging from his monologue, he wasn't exactly a fan.

Damn it. He should have just stayed down until the guy was gone.

Or whatever. The boy didn't seem to notice anything anyway. This was his chance to run.

Moving carefully, he began to stand, making sure not to draw attention. But luck wasn't on his side. Just as he was about to make a break for it, a loud clicking sound reverberated through the forest. A heavy thunk followed as the chest in front of the boy suddenly snapped open.

The noise made the boy stiffen, and his head jerked in his direction. Their eyes met. Confusion flickered across the boy's face, but it was gone in an instant.

As if waking from a daze, the boy's gaze sharpened, his face twisting in shock. His eyes widened.

Before either of them could react, a snake rose from the chest, its fanged maw parting as it struck.

The boy saw the attack coming. His head snapped toward the chest, and a sword appeared in his hand as if by magic. He swung, trying to intercept the snake.

Too slow.

The blade sliced through the serpent's body, severing it in two. But the head still shot forward, its momentum carrying it straight to his neck.

Fangs sank deep into the flesh.

The boy screamed, ripping the snake's head off and hurling it away. But it was too late. Dark, vein-like streaks spread from the wound, creeping up his face and down his chest.

Another cry of agony tore from his throat before his body slumped against the nearest tree, unmoving.

Wha- What? Baffled, the boy didn't know what he was supposed to do. He… he just died.

Suddenly a speck of light shot out of the boy's body like a bullet. Before he could even react, it slammed straight into his body causing him to collapse on the ground unconscious.

 --

"Oi, the human you're carrying doesn't seem to be moving. You didn't kill him, did you?"

"What? Of course, I didn't kill him. He's probably still knocked out from before."

"I don't know… he looks a little too lifeless to be just knocked out. Turn around, let me check his heartbeat."

Vaelion slowly woke up, only to come face to face with an ogre wiggling its hand around his chest.

What the—? He immediately lurched backward and tried to draw on his mana, only for—nothing.

Looking down, he saw his hands cuffed with some sort of mana-dampening chains.

Wait… this, then those memories, no no no…

"Ha ha, look at that! I told you he wasn't dead."

One of the other ogres, his body covered in an oversized cloak, spoke while letting out a chuckle.

"You two, stop playing around with the sacrifices. If he's alive, put him in the cage. The humans should be on our trail already. We need to reach the tribe before the end of the week."

A gruff voice from behind caused the two ogres in front of Vaelion to stiffen up before they hurriedly carried him onto their shoulders and threw him into a nearby cage attached to a carriage. Inside the cage was another wounded student dressed in an academy uniform.

Vaelion, on the other hand, was more terrified than he had ever been. Those memories he had just received, were all real.

His name was Vaelion Avarice, second son of Azris Avarice—a duke of the Solarice empire—and a student of the Blackthorne Academy.

He was also one of the minor villains in the game he had been playing last night in his apartment.

The game was incredibly popular. He had just managed to get his hands on a copy while coming back from college. It followed the journey of eight protagonists, each armed with a unique system—such as a swordsmanship system or a beast-taming system.

The catch? A simple quest assigned by their systems: find and kill the other protagonists.

To play, you had to randomly select one of the protagonists. From there, you were supposed to uncover the identities of the other seven before fighting and eliminating them.

The hero he had selected was Soren, another academy student who had received the Extraction System. He had only played for two hours before going to sleep—right after killing one of the first minor villains, Vaelion Avarice.

Vaelion Avarice was your stereotypical minor villain. Born into an influential noble family, yet constantly overshadowed by his siblings.

Even now, he had lured Soren into searching for a treasure during the academy exams, planning to double-cross him. Unfortunately for him, Soren already had a vendetta against Vaelion and his family—and had been planning an ambush of his own.

Only Soren had succeeded in killing him first.

"I must have entered his body after that," Vaelion muttered under his breath. He had read way too many web novels to not know what this was.

Still, it was all so strange. He knew he had been transmigrated, yet he retained Vaelion's memories—or rather, it felt more accurate to say he had always been Vaelion. He had simply gained memories from a past life.

Argh, all of this was so confusing.

–

You have slain the wielder of The Harvest System.

You have received- SSS Grade Harvest System.

–

A series of glowing texts caused Vaelion to jump in surprise once again, only this time hitting his head on the cage.

The hell did it mean that he had received the system? Wait, if he had received the system, then wouldn't it mean?

--

Quest- Eliminate other (Seven) System users and absorb their system shards.

 Penalty for failing- Death

--

No no no.

"Oi, stop moving so much inside the cage. You're unsettling the mount."

One of the ogres from before slapped his cage, forcing him out of his thoughts.

Oh yeah, this. Forcing himself to calm down, Vaelion looked outside his cage.

Damn it, they must have taken him after he had passed out. Vaelion gritted his teeth.

The academy had taken him and his class to a different plane for the practical portion of their semester-end exams, where they were divided into groups of five and sent into the forest to hunt some low-level magical beasts.

The exam in itself was supposed to be an easy one too. Aside from the fact that he had been forced to group with his fiancée, he had been in a pretty good mood as well. Or at least that was until these guys had shown up.

Turns out, the neighboring ogre tribes in the forest had been conducting a ceremony to honor one of their gods, and young human mages made excellent sacrifices to the great ogre spirits.

He still remembered how they had ambushed him and his group, how everyone had tried to escape into the forest, and how his group had used him as bait to save their lives.

Vaelion unknowingly clenched his fists. Just thinking about the incident was enough to make his blood boil.

Anyway, the way he remembered it, they had been taken to the nearby ogre village, where the ogres had used a vat of burning oil for three continuous days to skin their bodies while continuously healing them to make sure they didn't die.

Three days. Three days he had to suffer through the pain before the academy had managed to locate and save them.

Vaelion unknowingly let out a sigh. The system thing was… troubling. Regardless, he needed to get out of this situation first.

He didn't know what had happened to him, but he knew one thing for sure: he wasn't going through the same fate. And there was only one way to escape from this situation.

–

Nexus has been rebooted.

–

Blessing of Extraction is online.

Name: Vaelion Avaris

Age: 18

Cultivation: Adept (2nd Grade)

Blessing: Extraction

Charges Left: 3 (3/day)

Time Left Until Next Beacon: 29 days, 23 hours, 40 minutes

Quests: Use the Blessing of Extraction on a corpse.

--

A corpse? Where was he going to find a corpse? Vaelion frowned, before whipping his head to his side. There huddled in the corner was a boy around his age, dressed in the same academy uniforms.