A Walking Namuwiki

"Haa..."

Marcus the professor suddenly grew serious, grabbed the cores from the training golems, and vanished somewhere. With the lecture abruptly turning into a free period, I was killing time in a daze on a bench near the academy building.

"Ah, there you are, Lerven."

"Oh, Evan?"

The blonde red-eyed girl—the protagonist herself, Evan—plopped down beside me. Caught off guard by her sudden visit, I glanced at her profile and noticed the look on her face, like she had something important to say.

"Something wrong?"

"It's not an immediate problem. I came to talk about future problems."

Future problems. She had to mean the main storyline of Triam Academy that was coming up.

"Ah, right. Definitely important."

I straightened up from where I'd been slouching against the bench. Evan clearly knew the Triam Academy storyline inside out, but all I knew was a handful of basics I'd overheard—the bare bones of this world's backstory. Across the continent from the Elumhult Empire stood a cursed land where all the demons from this continent had once been herded, and the Mithra Church's main temple, devoted to the empire's patron god, was stationed there to hold back the endless demons crawling out.

"...That's just prologue level. Nothing beyond that?"

"Skipped it, so no idea. My village was way out in the boonies on the opposite side—no news ever reached us."

"......"

Evan clutched her forehead, stunned by my pathetic knowledge level. More precisely, she seemed to be agonizing over where even to start so I'd get it.

"...Whew, alright. I think I know how to explain this now."

After about three to five minutes of mental sorting, Evan looked at me with a determined glint in her eyes.

"Explaining everything one by one would be too messy, so I'll give you a quick overview of the game Triam Academy."

Triam Academy is an RPG genre game—a classic hero-versus-demon-king storyline. The hero's side worships the goddess of life, Nona, while the demon king's side reveres the god of death, Morta. Just as life and death are eternally linked, heroes and demon kings keep appearing between the two factions, their endless battles dragging on until the timeline of this story. At the start of the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠main plot, the demon king's faction hatches a plan to summon their god Morta directly into the world to end the long war. The protagonist must grow stronger to stop it and awaken to her destiny as the hero.

"—That's the basic rundown."

"And the hero there is you, Evan?"

"Yep. In the original story, she awakens around mid-game, and players learn about it then... but."

She shrugged with a casual, I'm a possessor, after all.

Watching her, Lerven had one question pop up.

'Evan' was originally the protagonist character in the game Triam Academy. In other words, 'Evan' was a mirror image of the player themselves. So it made sense for 'Evan' to get possessed. But what about 'Lerven'?

"So, was 'Lerven' an original character in the game too?"

"Ah, I was just about to get to that."

Evan's face turned serious at my question.

"Not sure how to interpret it, but one thing's for sure: there's no character named 'Lerven' anywhere in Triam Academy. Obviously, no one named Lerven ever placed third in the entrance exam either."

"That means..."

"Yeah. From here on, anything could change, and it wouldn't be weird."

Lerven's very existence was like a walking bomb. A character absent from the entire game Triam Academy, paired with a unique skill even the academy's hardcore vet Evan didn't know about. The butterfly effect from that combo was beyond what either of them could imagine.

"The current situation proves it. Sidus using her unique skill in the entrance exam got some side characters eliminated, so they won't show up. And for some reason, the empire's Second Princess Amelia's gone completely off the grid. The story's already diverged in a ton of places."

"......"

Lerven bit his lower ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lip. The story had already changed, and so much more was likely to shift ahead. Knowing it all as a possessor lost its edge when the situation had spiraled irreversibly. Realizing he might be the kind of existence that could derail the completion of Triam Academy's tale left him feeling utterly bleak.

"...Is there a way to fix this situation—"

"Why would we fix it?"

"Huh...?"

But Evan—the one who knew ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠every story beat and stood to lose it all—grabbed my slumped shoulders with sparkling eyes.

"Lerven, do you know how many times I've seen this game's ending?"

"N... no idea...?"

"A hundred. Meaning I've gone through the story more than a hundred times."

"A hundred...?"

Feeling the subtle madness creeping into her gleaming red eyes, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lost my words and instinctively leaned back. But with my shoulders already in her grip, even attempting to flee was impossible.

"In all those hundred-plus playthroughs, was there ever a situation like this? Nope. Games are games—they stick to their rails no matter what you do. But here? Now? This is reality, and the story's been off the tracks for ages. Know what that means?"

"...No clue, and I don't wanna know."

"It means we can craft a totally new story with our own hands! Isn't that thrilling?!"

"Whoa... not even gonna listen..."

Evan, radiating the unhinged glee of a hardcore player discovering fresh content. That madness was far too thick and dark for me to handle. All I could do was huddle in terror, praying her storm-like fervor would die down soon.

For the five years since Triam Academy launched, she'd poured most of her time into it. With that level of attachment, possession was a dream come true.

—Entrance exams in three months? So until the demon king descends... whoa.

And with such deep knowledge—she'd even run her own online forum—she had every detail down pat. But she'd overlooked one thing: once inside the game world, she couldn't tell anyone about Triam Academy.

—Aigoo, buying holy water now would be a loss... the saintess shows up soon...

—Don't invest in the academy... it gets breached constantly later...

Three months into possession, Evan's hardcore urge to meddle had built up endlessly. Now, finally meeting Lerven as an outlet, all that pent-up desire erupted at once.

"Whoa. What was I just talking about?"

As the three months' worth of mania subsided and Evan's sanity returned, I cheered like a shipwrecked sailor finally past the storm, answering her question with my even more haggard face.

"Uh... you were on your 56th playthrough, praising Triam Academy's worldview."

While Evan was lost in her frenzy, I'd been pinned, forced to listen to nearly every playthrough she'd done—endless raves about the repeating worldview, character setups, and combat system. Thanks to that, I'd learned everything from the academy's full storyline to the Easter egg where jumping in place 135 times at the academy spire summons a bird to ring the bell.

Not that gaining Triam Academy intel was bad, but the cost was my mental health.

"Ah... sorry... I never had anyone to talk to about this stuff before, so I kinda..."

Snapping back, Evan hurriedly released my shoulders and bowed repeatedly in apology to my half-zonked, fish-eyed stare.

I started to snap back at her but stopped. We were both dropped from our original world into this one—surely she had her own struggles. Instead of chewing her out, I waved it off.

"...It's fine. I get the thrill of finally having someone to chat with after so long."

"R... really okay? My family always freaked when I brought up games..."

"Totally fine. I got something out of it too."

As I said, I'd traded mental fatigue for some solid info in her one-sided ramble. Hammering in the core Triam Academy plot, hidden pieces, and resource spots was a clear win for me, no matter what.

"Still, sorry. ...That was rude of me."

Evan apologized once more, then fidgeted, neatly folding her hands in her lap on the bench. Having embarrassed herself, even forgiveness couldn't erase the shame. Thinking how I'd pegged her evaluation straight to rock bottom made her want to crawl into a hole.

...Like a walking Namuwiki...?

Of course, Evan's rating in my head hadn't hit absolute bottom. But she might never know how close it was.