Getting an ID Card

To get into the academy, I needed a student ID. That much was non-negotiable.

The problem was that I had gone and possessed some nobody NPC, which meant I had absolutely nothing to my name. I had toyed with the idea of stealing a student ID, but there was no way to pull it off. For starters, I did not even know where the academy was. I did not even know what this plaza I was standing in was supposed to be. I had nowhere to go back to, so all I could do was walk around and try to get a handle on the situation.

I knew the future. The catch was that future was at least a year away — which made it completely useless. Sure, I had every setting and description for the items and locations memorized, but what good did that do me? For any of that information to be worth a damn, I needed to actually be at those places, or have those items in hand. At the very least, I needed to see someone else holding something I recognized.

But this place was nothing but walking NPCs.

"H-hey..."

"Hi! What brings you here?"

"Where ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is this—"

"Hi! What brings you here?"

"No, just listen to—"

"Hi! What brings you here?"

I could not get through to them. Nothing but the same canned, macroed responses. I could not squeeze a single scrap of information out of anyone. I knew everything, and at the same time I knew nothing at all.

They were probably all like this because the game had not started yet. Once it did, they would talk like actual people. The problem was that the game had not even begun — and I had possessed a body inside it anyway.

I wondered if there might be another transmigrator besides me, so I wandered the plaza shouting my head off. Nobody answered. I just embarrassed myself.

This was a plaza you never needed to visit in the game. No supporting characters, not even a nameless extra who showed up for half a second. I had to get out of here. Physical training or whatever else could wait — if I stayed in this place I was going to lose my mind. No matter who I grabbed and talked to, I got the same answer, and then the same answer again. I was getting a painfully vivid taste of what it felt like to be the only real person stuck in the middle of a puppet show. If I stayed, I was going to give up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on living before anything else got the chance to kill me.

Morning came, and I walked as far as I could. There was nothing in this plaza worth a damn. No merchants, just NPCs packed in tight, and nothing to gain from any of them. A newspaper showed up now and then, but what was the point of information from before the game even started? I still read it in snatches, just in case. All of it was useless, granted — but elsewhere, at least, things seemed to be moving along just fine.

"Hi! What brings you here?"

"Shut up."

Not here, though. Obviously.

Anywhere but here would do. Time to try another town.

I found the plaza's exit and slipped out. Finally, I was getting away from these damned robots. But I was already short of breath. Ahead of me there was nothing but a vast stretch of mountains. A light wind stirred, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and the trees inside the forest swayed with it, just a little.

Nature's scenery is always beautiful. Looking at it, the fact that I had truly been dropped into this world sent a thrill racing through my entire body. The corners of my mouth lifted on their own as I eased my foot down onto the mountain earth. Then I started walking, slowly. I looked around and kept walking, and walking, until something — anything — turned up. Hoping for it. Waiting for it.

I drew in the fragrant forest air as deep as I could and tried to get my thoughts in order. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠If I wanted into the academy, I was going to have to spend at least a year adapting to this world. And to do any of that adapting, I absolutely needed identification. In the game, an ID was a blank card that you inscribed with information by pouring Spiritual Power into it. That meant I needed to get to The Core — the lobby of the game world. The Administrative Archives would be there, no question. If you lost your ID or wrecked it, that was where they handed you a blank card.

Why, of all things, did I have to possess an NPC and put myself through this kind of misery? It was infuriating — but sitting still and whining about how unfair it was would not change a single thing. Right now, even a second was too precious to waste.

I walked for a long time, heading for The Core. After about an hour, the strongest feeling I had was a single, crushing one.

Boring. So damn boring.

I tried playing rock-paper-scissors against myself. I tried singing as I walked. I even tried dancing. I did every weird thing I could think of on the road, and even that was starting to get old. I needed a phone. For a modern person like me it was a basic necessity. I wanted YouTube. I wanted webtoons. I wanted all of it. But what was I supposed to do? There was no way phones existed in this world. They delivered messages by letter, for God's sake. I was going to lose my mind. I was so stifled I could die.

The only fix I had was to zone out completely and just walk.

Two hours. Three hours. Four hours.

Four hours, fifty-two minutes, thirty-two seconds... no, wait. Four hours, fifty-two minutes, thirty-eight seconds...

I did not zone out at all. I counted every single second in my head and turned myself into a human clock. Six hours had gone by. Overhead, the clear blue of the sky was slowly beginning to slip out of sight.

In those six hours I had searched through more villages than I could count, and I had at least managed to roughly pin down where I was. The suffering was finally starting to pay off. Then that light went out just as miserably as it had appeared. Night was coming, and staying in the mountains after dark was suicide. I needed to be somewhere — anywhere.

The next village I reached was not running on macros. Which meant that here, I could actually get arrested. I had barely possessed this body and I was already looking at getting dragged off, treated like a lunatic, and dying like a dog. That, I would not allow.

Then, out of nowhere, I thought of a church. One of the heroines in the game had been raised in one. So why couldn't I walk into a church too?

Ah. Right. That church was in The Core as well.

Aagh! Nothing ever works!

It was fine. I would get the ID first, and if I still had nowhere to go, I would head to The Church. Either way, every last one of my plans required me to reach The Core.

I was running out of time. The beasts would be waking soon. I would hit The Core any minute now, and once I was inside I just had to find the academy. The academy was nearby, so there would not be any monsters. I ran before I could become a midnight snack for the local wildlife. I thought I could see lights, faint and scattered. I had to get there before the entrance to The Core closed.

Faster. Faster still.

My body was so weak that even a short sprint split my breathing into ragged pieces, but I drove it harder anyway. There — I could see it. A massive school and countless buildings pouring out light like a field of stars. I had run so hard that my vision blurred and began to flood with black, but I forced my feet to keep moving. I dragged those heavy steps forward one after another, and somehow, I made it inside The Core.

A voice in the back of my head told me to rest, to go in the morning — but I could not stop here. This was not like the plaza I had first possessed, packed with nothing but scripted NPCs. I could tell from the eyes on me as I walked the street. It was a little humiliating, but I swallowed those stares and pushed on toward the Administrative Archives.

I wrung out every scrap of memory I had of the place — a screen I had only ever glimpsed in passing — and tried to put the building back together in my head.

It was roughly this way... ah. There it is.

A squat building, maybe three stories tall. It looked pretty run-down. Nobody had been taking care of it, from the looks of things. A small mercy, all things considered.

I kept to the wall and tapped a first-floor window, lightly. The frame was definitely weak. Smash it, though, and I would get caught for sure, so I tried to force it open instead.

Thud. Thud.

A grinding rattle.

I wrenched the window open and stuck my head through. The corridor inside was empty. The lights were off. Everything was dark. I shoved my body through the gap and threw myself toward the hallway, landed clean, then looked around and started searching every room. Some were empty. In others, people were slumped over their desks, dead asleep.

When I opened the fourth door, I found a room packed with boxes. The blank cards had to be in here.

Not this one. Hmm... not this either.

I tore through the boxes, hunting for a card. I leaned my weight against crate after crate and searched, and searched again. It had to turn up eventually. After I had repeated the whole miserable process about ten times, it finally did. Nasty little thing.

Now I just had to pour my Spiritual Power into the card and the information would inscribe itself automatically.

Except I had no idea how to use Spiritual Power.

If I stayed any longer I might get caught. Every so often I could hear faint footsteps from outside. Fine. All or nothing. There had to be Spiritual Power in my blood too, right? If there wasn't, I would run. If there was, I would walk out of here with an ID.

I dragged my finger along the corner of the card and cut it. After a moment the slice rose into a visible line, and a single bead of red blood welled up. I let that drop fall onto the card.

An aura like a blue sandstorm began to coil around it. Then my face was carved into the surface. My age, too. My name. Origin, background, and every other field came back marked unknown. Because I was an NPC, I supposed.

I had the ID. Now I just had to get out. They would never notice a single missing card anyway. Fresh ones were supplied every day; nobody was going to care.

I went back to the window I had forced open, climbed the wall, and swung myself over. I hit the ground in a heap.

"Urgh... my back is killing me..."

I patted at the ache with one hand and pulled the window shut again. I had the ID now. All that was left was to go to The Church, get down on my knees, and beg them to let me sleep.

Once I was fully clear of the Archives, the street had gone silent. No more footsteps. Everyone had gone back to wherever they belonged. I made my way to a bench in a park and lay down on it, letting a little of the day's exhaustion bleed out of me.

I looked up. Unlike Earth, the Milky Way poured down across the sky, and the stars seemed to resonate with one another. I had been through every kind of misery today, and the moment my body loosened, my eyes slid shut.

Anyone who had seen what I did today would have called it insane. I was different, though. I had spent every day of my old life getting crushed by society, doing nothing but work — and some part of me had wanted this kind of madness all along.

I rewound the day, slowly. The unfairness was already welling up again, but so what. Carrying a sliver of enjoyment with me, I let the night grow deeper.