The Beginning

The grand auditorium stood empty after the entrance ceremony. In the middle of that vast space, where only silence lingered, I sat alone. A blue system window floated in the air before me. The cruel words inside it burned into my retinas like fire.

Everything was gone. The faith I had gained through death, the memories she had shared with me—everything. All I had left was this pathetic body stamped with the brand of F-class.

Resentment and rage surged up my throat. I had tried not to let them fall… but the tears I had been holding back finally spilled down my cheeks.

“……Kk, huuuk.”

The sound that escaped wasn’t a scream or a sob.

“Haha……”

Even as the tears dripped, I forced out a laugh. The joke this dog-like fate was playing on me, trying to make me submit, was simply too ridiculous.

“Fuck… You really thought I’d give up over something like this?”

I recalled my memories from Earth. The life I had lived as Lee Roon. On that hospital bed, hooked up to IV lines all over my body, fighting the terror of death that visited every single day—even in that hellish time when the doctors had shaken their heads and given up—I had stubbornly kept my eyes open.

“If I was going to die from pain… I would’ve died back on Earth, wouldn’t I…?”

Pain? Despair? How laughable. I had gone through so much of it that I was practically immune by now. If they thought a simple reset like this could break my will, they were sorely mistaken. God or system, they had chosen the wrong opponent.

I slowly lifted my hand, wet with tears, and swept back the frustrating bangs that had covered my forehead.

Swish.

As the sweat- and tear-soaked hair fell back, my hidden forehead and eyes were revealed. The innocent Roy from before was dead. From now on, I would move only with venom and the cold detachment of an observer capable of dissecting the entire world.

“Yeah. Let’s do this.”

I clenched my fist tightly. My nails dug in, drawing blood.

This pathetic system, the curse of those 999 regressions—I would chew them up, use them, trample them, and survive to the very end no matter what.

“Adelia. Just hold on a little longer.”

Even if I was being treated like F-class trash right now, even if you couldn’t recognize me… I would come for you.

“I will save you. I swear it.”

I dusted off my pants and stood up.

It was then that my cleared vision caught the Observer’s Eye floating in the air. A fundamental question suddenly flashed through my mind.

Wait… What exactly is the ‘Observer’s Eye’?

I sank into thought. Information no one else could see. Weaknesses. Future possibilities. Why had I been given this ability? It felt far too alien to simply call it a transmigrator’s perk.

I retraced my memories. The original novel, Pilgrim of the Eternal Night. The true protagonist of that story was Adelia—the tragic heroine who had failed to save the world after 999 regressions.

Then what was I? Roy? In the original story, I was nothing more than an extra who would commit suicide a month after the entrance ceremony.

But I didn’t die.

When Adelia took her own life at the end of her 999th despair, I had been right beside her. I had held her and cried. We had regressed together, died together, suffered mysterious deaths on entrance day, and died while resting on a lap pillow in our happiest moment…

The ‘ending (truth)’ that should have been reset with no one remembering it—only I had witnessed it.

……Ah.

Goosebumps crawled down my spine. The puzzle pieces clicked into place. Someone who should have died had survived and seen what must never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be seen.

The Observer wasn’t a blessing granted by the system. It was an ‘error’ born from the price of stealing a glimpse at the story’s true conclusion.

“Aha ha… Haha.” An absurd laugh bubbled out of me.

The reason the system had tried to kill me and initialize everything wasn’t simply because I was weak.

It was because I was this world’s ‘virus.’

An impurity that would ruin the predetermined tragic scenario. Naturally, the system (the vaccine) had desperately tried to delete me.

“So… that’s how it is.”

With a bitter smile, I stared down at my palm. Then I would test it. I would see how this world changed when I moved. How it affected the world lines—no, causality itself.

“Hoo… First things first… let’s grab that.”

I left the auditorium and headed toward the old school building. I had been too complacent. Drunk on the emotion of reuniting with Adelia, I had forgotten my greatest weapon: knowledge of the original story.

At the end of the dusty corridor, behind an old locker. An early-game item that Adelia would only stumble upon by chance several months later in the first round of the original novel.

“Found it.”

I slipped the ring onto my finger and let out a sigh of relief. That was when it happened.

“Are you a freshman?”

A sharp voice came from behind me. I turned to see a strict-looking man—the dormitory supervisor.

“You’re the one who’s supposed to enter the dormitory today… Roy, correct?”

“Ah, yes… sir.”

The supervisor’s gaze turned suspicious. This was the time when self-introductions and orientation should be taking place. There was no reason for a freshman to be inside the closed-off old school building during class hours.

“It’s currently class time… What are you doing here?”

“Ah, I got a little lost. I have a terrible sense of direction… Haha. Sorry about that.”

I scratched the back of my head, pretending to be embarrassed. The most idiotic, harmless act I could manage.

“……You don’t need to apologize to me.”

The supervisor eyed me suspiciously for a moment before pointing in a direction.

“If you go that way, you’ll reach the main building’s lecture hall. Head there.”

“Ah, thank you so much, sir!”

I bowed quickly and hurried away. I could feel his gaze on my back, but I didn’t turn around.

Whew… That was close.

Time to head to the lecture hall.

I froze. Who was it? The supervisor? Or someone else? There was no time to check right now. I hurried toward the main building.

Creak—

The moment I opened the back door of the lecture hall, a strange silence fell over the room.

“……”

The professor standing at the lectern glared at me over his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠glasses.

“Just what do you think you’re doing, Mr. Roy?”

“I’m sorry, Professor. I got lost.”

“Tsk, late on the very first day… Your attitude is hopeless. Go sit down immediately.”

Without another word, I headed for the very back corner seat. As I did, the students’ whispers pierced my ears.

“Hey, isn’t that the guy?” “Yeah. The crazy bastard who suddenly started screaming the Hero’s name during the entrance ceremony.” “They say he’s the Academy’s only F-class. Doesn’t even know his place……”

Barefaced insults that were practically backbiting. But I sat down as if I couldn’t care less. The reactions of these extras weren’t worth paying attention to.

My interest lay solely with the ‘major characters’ who held great influence over this novel. I needed to test how the world changed when I moved, how causality twisted.

My gaze drifted toward the window seat.

Holy… Wow……

There sat an elf, isolated in her own space as if cut off from everyone around her. Silver hair and skin so pale it looked translucent. Her beauty was on an entirely different level from the illustrations in the novel.

80%, huh…

That number was more precarious than I expected. She looked haughty on the surface, but 80% meant she was already showing early signs of anxiety. It was probably due to the sense of isolation she felt as the Academy’s only student of her race, just like in the original story…

She looked at me. It wasn’t contempt, but ‘curiosity’ toward an insolent F-class who dared to stare at her so boldly.

When our eyes met, I grinned and gave her a wink.

“……!”

Iris’s eyes widened into perfect circles. Then the number changed.

Huh?

The value had gone up. As expected… when I intervened, variables appeared.

That was when it happened.

“Hey, you bastard child, Roy.”

An unpleasant hand tapped my shoulder. When I turned, Kyle was sneering as he whispered.

“After class, come out back. You know what I mean? It’ll be better for you if you do.”

I looked away from Iris. Fighting here would only hurt me. I silently nodded at his words.

Behind the building, in an empty clearing where no one went.

Kyle and his gang surrounded me.

“Hey, you crazy bastard. I saw everything. During the entrance ceremony you were screaming the Hero’s name like a lunatic, right? Keek.”

“……”

“You know the Hero or something?”

At those words, my chest throbbed with pain. Know her? She had been my everything.

“No… Just let me go, will you?”

I answered weakly. I didn’t even want to deal with these small fries.

“Then… I’ll let you off later. I don’t have time to waste on you.”

“……What? Ha! This retarded fucker’s lost his mind.”

Kyle’s face flushed red then purple. C-class mana gathered in his fist.

Thud—!

“Kk…!”

The speed was impossible to dodge. The punch to my solar plexus knocked the breath out of me. But it hurt less than I expected.

Thankfully, the force that should have broken bones had been reduced to mere bruises.

“This bastard’s got quite the endurance, huh?”

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The merciless beating continued. I curled up, protecting my vital points, and simply endured until his anger subsided. I had to hold back for now. I would repay this debt later with interest.

“See you next time. It’s going to be real fun… Let’s go, guys! Kya ha ha ha.”

After stomping on me for a while, they spat and left.

Again. Someone was observing this situation. But I ignored it and stood up. My whole body ached, but it was bearable. There was somewhere I needed to go.

The abandoned greenhouse on the hill behind the school. In the original story, she was always there, as if by habit.

I clutched my side, limping as I walked. Even as I spat out blood-mixed saliva, my steps didn’t stop. I had to reach her.

When I opened the rusted door, a girl with platinum blonde hair stood inside the damp air. Adelia was trampling the small white flowers blooming on the floor with lifeless eyes. Mechanical destruction without a trace of emotion.

I took a deep breath and approached her.

“……Hello, Adelia.”

Whoosh—!

Overwhelming killing intent. The razor-sharp aura made my body tremble. But the Pilgrim’s Ring barely kept my mind intact.

“Get lost.”

She spoke without even looking at me.

“Before I kill you.”

“No, listen. Just for a second……”

Thud—!!!

Before I could finish, my vision flipped. Her kick slammed into my abdomen. Transcendent leg strength that tore through the ring’s barrier like paper.

“Kuhk…!”

It felt like my organs were ringing and my arm had cracked. I collapsed to the floor and coughed up a mouthful of blood. Yet I looked up at her and smiled brightly. With genuine feeling.

“Cough… Haha…”

Tears fell. Not from the pain. Because those empty eyes of hers hurt too much.

“You were lonely, weren’t you? All that long time… no one understanding you…”

“……”

“I think… I can understand that feeling a little now.”

The tears wouldn’t stop. Adelia’s eyes shook.

“Who the hell… are you?”

Her voice trembled.

“An extra who’s going to drop dead soon, spouting nonsense at me?”

“I had a dream.”

I staggered toward her.

“About how hard you fought as the Hero, how desperately you tried to save the world.”

“……!”

“How every time you returned to the beginning, no one remembered… how you suffered alone, were betrayed by those you trusted, died, fought the Demon King’s army and died again…”

My voice broke into sobs.

“How you died saving your comrades… How painful it must have been… How your heart and soul were worn away over 999 regressions?”

“Shut your mouth……”

Adelia’s killing intent thickened. No—it was closer to a scream than mere killing intent.

“What would you… what would you know… My faith… huh?”

A tear suddenly slid down from one of her eyes.

“My… Roy……”

Adelia touched her own face in confusion.

“What nonsense am I… saying to an extra like this… Haha… Uck…”

She clutched her head in agony. Fragments of memories were flowing in—‘my faith,’ ‘Roy.’ But the system was forcibly blocking them.

Drip—

Her eyes grew cold once more.

“You’re not looking at the current me, are you?”

“Adelia…!”

“You saw hope? So what?”

Killing intent pooled in her eyes.

“Nothing can be changed anyway. If even I couldn’t change it, what can an extra like you—an extra who’s going to die soon—possibly do?”

“No, that’s not true… I can change it…!”

“I told you to shut up!!”

Thud—!

Her final strike. Along with the sound of my consciousness snapping, my vision went dark.

*

“Mmm~ Hmm hmm~♪”

How much time had passed? The scent of lilac wafted over me in the darkness. And that sticky gaze.

As I thought… it was Yuriel.

I slowly opened my eyes. It wasn’t a hard floor. The soft, cushiony sensation of a thigh.

“Oh my, our junior is awake?”

Yuriel’s worried face filled my vision.

“Your wounds were severe… so I healed you.”

Lying down, I looked up at her. If I sat up, my face would be buried in her chest.

“Hello, I’m second-year Yuriel… Our junior has such a wonderful scent…”

She inhaled my scent with an ecstatic expression.

“It’s almost like Miss Adelia’s… No, it feels a little different? The scent of death… What… Kyaa! What am I saying… I only saw you today for the first time…”

She covered her mouth in surprise. As expected. The setting of Stigmata Empathy was supposed to be a noble ability to understand and heal others’ pain, but in reality, she was addicted to that ‘pain’ itself.

This is a gamble.

I wiped the blood from my split lip onto my finger and raised it before her eyes.

“Senior… do you like this kind of thing?”

“……!”

Her pupils shook wildly. I turned my head slightly and whispered into her ear.

“It’s free… It might taste good?”

“Huu… …”

She broke into a cold sweat, conflicted. Her instincts screamed that swallowing this would make things irreversible. Yet the temptation was impossible to refuse. Even so, she couldn’t tear her eyes away, like an addict staring at their drug.

“No, I… I am a Saintess…”

“I know. How about a secret just between us?”

At that moment.

Lick…

Her tongue touched my finger.

“Aah… Ah…!”

Her body trembled as if electrocuted.

“What is this… What is this, what is this, what is this… Junior… such a thick scent of death……”

The fragment of my 999th death, the pain from Earth engraved on my soul, struck her brain like lightning.

“I’m becoming strange… Aah, give me more… More……”

While she used my head as a lap pillow, her excitement and trembling transmitted directly to me. Pretending not to notice, I pressed my face closer into the gap of her skirt between her thighs and blew gently.

“Aang…!”

She convulsed and pulled my head tightly against her.

“Ah… Please… Please… I’m going crazy……”

Tears flowed from her eyes. I coated my finger with the saliva pooled in my mouth.

“Here you go, our Saintess…”

Chup!

Like a snake lunging at prey, the moment I offered my hand she swallowed my finger whole.

Slurp… Chup chup! Chuuup…!!

“Aah… Ah… Aah, my brain is trembling… Really, what is this……”

She sucked on my finger mindlessly. My soul, death on Earth, the Hero’s 999 regressions… All that ‘abyss’ paralyzed and addicted her stigmata. In the end, she was a broken Saintess.

“Junior… Please… Give me more… I’m going insane… I’ll do anything, so please, huu huu huu… Just a little more, okay? Please…”

I coated my finger with saliva once more and showed it to her. She pounced on it like a madwoman and sucked desperately.

“Aaaah… My, my god was so close… Ahk… It feels too good… My brain… My brain feels like it’s going to fly away……”

While she used my lap as a pillow, I felt her trembling and ecstasy with my entire body. Then I pulled my finger out.

Pop—!

“Mmm… Our junior… Just one more time… Can’t I?”

She begged. I smiled coldly.

“No.”

“Ah……”

“From now on, I’ll only give it when I want to, and only as a reward. Only when you behave… Understood?”

“Y-yes… Yes… I’ll do that… Command me, I’ll do anything……”

Yuriel licked her lips with regret and finally released my collar. Her face was flushed bright red, and her lips glistened with the saliva and blood I had given her.

Ah… I’m exhausted.

I forced myself to my feet with great effort.

“Well, I’ll be going now, Senior.”

“Ah… Already… You’re leaving already?”

Yuriel grabbed my sleeve with clear reluctance. I brought my face close to hers. She blushed and averted her gaze.

“Ah… Um… Why, why are you doing this?”

She had unconsciously switched to polite speech. I chuckled and turned away.

“See you later, Senior. Thank you so much for today.”

Leaving behind Yuriel, who stared at me in a daze, I exited the infirmary. I needed power if I was going to save Adelia. Now that Yuriel was on my side…

As I walked down the corridor, it happened.

I froze. What is it? Who? Someone was watching me. I slowly turned my head. My eyes met hers—the one who had been observing me.

“……How interesting.”