[Rin's POV]
'Ouch!'
My head giving me lot off headache, The pain that comes from headache was like my head was going to explode.
In that moment, I closed my eyes and took few deep breaths.
I continue to do so for more than thirty seconds but that helps me lot.
The pain was quite less but still I was slight dizzy but it was not bad as before.
After confirming that I was feeling quite better, I opened my eyes and looked around myself.
'Where the fuck am I?'
All around me were guys and girls in some kind of uniform.
The last thing I remembered was being hit by truck...Then shouldn't I be dead or at hospital?
So what's this place?
Some kind of classic Iskai transmerigation?
No way! This has to be stupid Jock of the century!
A panic raises within me but with my will power I tried to remain calm and once more I looked at my surrounding.
After observing evry inch of the place, I have one guessed.
Was this an auditorium?
A strange sense of déjà vu washed over me as I saw numerous cadets gathered in one space, waiting for something.
It was definitely a place I was seeing for the first time, and these were people I was seeing for the first time too, but somehow, it felt like I knew what was going to happen next.
"[First Year Student Representatives, Joint Top Scorers. Ryen Miller of the Department of Hero Studies and Leo Taylor, please come up to the podium.]"
My premonition of disaster was proven true as two boys, strangers to me yet undeniably familiar, walked up to the podium.
The crowd buzzed with a strange sense of excitement, their gazes fixed on the two boys.
One boy wore a confident smile, while the other maintained a haughty and arrogant posture as if it was only natural for him to be called.
This was definitely a scene from my memory.
"[Originally, the tradition was for the highest scorer on the entrance exam to be the freshman representative, but this year, surprisingly, we have joint top scorers.]"
"[It's the first time this has happened since the academy's founding, but having many talented and outstanding students is something our school truly desires, so as an exception, we've asked both students to be freshman representatives.]"
Applause erupted around me, but I wasn't in the mood to clap along with them.
I felt my breath hitch. My fingers curled into a fist as I tried to suppress the shiver running down my spine.
There was no doubt about it.
This—this scene was straight out of World's Greatest Hero!
I swallowed hard, my gaze snapping toward the two boys standing at the podium. Ryen Miller and Leo Taylor. The two top scorers of the entrance exam. The so-called dual prodigies of this generation. The names, the setting, the sequence of events—it was all painfully familiar.
Because I had read this before.
Because this was my friend's novel.
A nervous chuckle slipped past my lips, barely audible against the sea of applause around me. Was I dreaming? Hallucinating? Had the truck hit me so hard that my brain decided to live in fiction?
I pinched my arm—hard.
Nope. The sharp sting was very, very real.
My heartbeat quickened. This wasn't just similar to World's Greatest Hero—this was World's Greatest Hero. And if that was the case… then I needed to figure out who the hell I was in this world.
Slowly, cautiously, I glanced down at my attire.
A neatly pressed uniform, the same as everyone else's. The insignia on my chest gleamed under the bright lights—an emblem I instantly recognized.
Velcrest Academy.
I gulped.
Velcrest Academy—the top training institution for aspiring heroes. The very place where the protagonist's journey began.
My hands felt clammy as I ran them through my hair, an anxious habit of mine. That's when I froze.
My hair… was long.
That wasn't right. I had short hair before.
A bad feeling settled in my gut. I needed confirmation. Right now.
Turning my head, I caught sight of a glass window near the side of the auditorium. Without wasting a second, I rushed toward it, ignoring the confused looks from the students around me.
And then—I saw my reflection.
Dark black hair. Piercing black eyes. Sharp, but androgynous features.
I think knew this face, but for some reasons who was it?
Think, I have to think!!!
But before I have chance to know the identity of myself, I suddenly filled dizzy and lot of pain in my head.
At that moment, few details of plots comes to my mind.
[ Many students dies opening ceremony of the Velcrest Academy due to Villain's terrorist attacks.]
The realization hit me like a second truck.
I know now for sure that I was in World's Greatest Hero Novel.
...And I was some minor character
A character who dies in the prologue.
"…Oh, fuck."
My mind went blank.
I was in the damn prologue—the part where students got massacred.
A cold shiver crawled down my spine.
I gripped the edge of the window, my breathing shallow. My reflection stared back at me—an unfamiliar yet vaguely recognizable face. Someone insignificant. Someone who didn't even live past the first few chapters.
I'm going to die.
That thought struck like lightning. The panic I had been desperately trying to suppress surged back tenfold. My stomach churned. My palms were drenched in sweat.
I wasn't the protagonist. I wasn't some hidden powerhouse.
I was just another nameless extra meant to be cannon fodder.
No. No, no, no—
I clenched my teeth. Hell no!
I refuse to die like this. Not in some stupid terrorist attack. Not because of some author's damn plot!
I forced myself to take deep breaths. Think, Rin, think!
In the novel, the villains struck during the Ryen's speech. Bombs went off. Blood spilled. And by the time the heroes arrived, half the first-year students were already dead.
If I didn't want to be one of them, I needed to move. Now.
I quickly scanned the auditorium. The podium was at the center, where the two so-called prodigies, Ryen Miller and Leo Taylor, stood under the spotlight. The staff and high-ranking heroes were seated near the front. And the students… the students were scattered across the massive hall, completely unaware of their impending doom.
I had minutes. Maybe even seconds.
Do I run? No—too obvious. The villains will surround the exits first. If I make a break for it, I'll be the first one dead.
Do I warn someone? Hah! Like anyone would believe me. If anything, I'd just get restrained for 'causing a panic.'
Then what? How do I survive?
As I was thinking how to ensure my own survival a sharp pain shot through my skull.
Memories—not mine, but his—flooded my mind.
The original owner of this body.
And along with his memories, a single horrifying realization hit me.
This body… wasn't supposed to exist past this moment.
Because in the original novel—
He was the first student to die.