The Awakening Of The Shadows - Chapter 3: I Am Not Just Anyone

Kai was a 17-year-old dropout. A NEET. A background character in real life with nothing to his name but bitterness, novels, and guilt. After his parents died, he gave up on the world. People were fake. Dreams were pointless. And that one novel he kept reading? He hated it especially the main character, June. Perfect, noble, always standing tall. Everything Kai wasn’t.Then, one night, a voice asked: “What if you did meet June?”He said yes, half-asleep and half-mocking.Now he’s trapped in the novel. Isikeid. But he’s not June. He’s not a hero. He’s not even in the main cast.He’s an extra in the background of a world he knows too well and he’s had enough of watching things play out the same way. This time, he’s going to change everything. Whether the world likes it or not.

“Now you see?” she shouted in a mix of annoyance and disappointment. “You can't outsmart Scrients! They're the most intelligent beings across the two realms.”“You're right,” I muttered, averting my gaze with a heavy sigh. “I made a mistake. I was too arrogant to think that a mere human like me could fool them.”—BOOM!!“Heik! Wh-What was that?”“Hmm? I'm not sure. Maybe you should go and ask the most intelligent beings across the two realms. Oh wait, you can't. I killed them all.”______My name is Samael Kaizer Theosbane.On the last day of high school, I got into a fight with a kid I used to bully.It was a stupid, pointless scuffle, and in the middle of it, I tripped and hit my head on a rock.That’s when the memories came flooding in - the memories of another life, of a different world.Suddenly, everything made a twisted kind of sense. I realized two things.First, I was in a game I used to play in my past life.Second, I was a villain. A villain!Not the cool and mysterious kind, either.No, my destiny was to be manipulated and die a dog's death!I was the worst type of cliché: an ungrateful, privileged, insufferable young master. The sort you'd find in those poorly written fantasy stories.The kind everyone hates — a snobby brat from a powerful noble family who thinks he owns the world just because he was born with a silver spoon lodged in his mouth.You know the type. The one the hero beats to a pulp to prove his worth.Yeah, I was that guy.And the hero? The hero was the kid I’d been bullying all this time. The same one I got into a fight with.He was the supposed savior of this damned world.A world teetering on the edge of destruction, beset by wars, calamities, and a grim future that only I knew.And at the end of it all, the final antagonist of the game, the undefeatable boss… the Spirit King, was waiting.But could I even make it to the end?Could I conquer a game where defeat was the only certainty?A game that was now my reality!“Ah, fuck it.”I had no idea if I could, but I sure as hell was going to try.Extorting extras, manipulating main characters, twisting the story to my advantage, stealing the hero’s cheat items, killing villains before they could become threats - nothing was beneath me.Would the main characters be affected? Who cares!Would the story change? Even better!All I cared about was me—my survival, my life, my choices.“I will live this life with no regrets.”…But as I soon discovered, fate was not easily changed.And the price of altering one's destiny was steep.

“Stop following me!” Asher yelled, his patience running thin. He had let it slide for too long because she had done a lot for him. But now she was everywhere, suffocating him.“I’m only trying to protect you,” she responded.Asher sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I need some space, alright? I can take care of myself.”She didn’t budge, and just kept staring at him with that same obsessive look, like she had no intention of leaving.“Is it because you’re strong now? Are you going to leave me because I'm no use to you anymore?” Her voice had turned cold, sharp enough to cut through the silence.“Of course not, you know that’s not the reason…”“Then why do you want me to stop following you?”“I’m just going to the restroom, for God’s sake!” He massaged his temple, clearly at his wit’s end.“Oh, you should have said that earlier.” She giggled, the earlier tension melting away.“I did,” he sighed in defeat.

Cassian had lived his life in the most miserable way. He had scrubbed the floors and washed the clothes in the cold winter and done everything just to please his uncle’s family, but in return, they sold him to a merchant only for a pouch of coins.And the merchant decided to gift him to the king of Aetherlyn, a faraway kingdom from his small village to show his loyalty and curry favor from the king. And he was the lucky one from the group to be choosen by the king. Thus he got the position of palace servant.Cassian thought maybe his life in the palace would be different, but he was bound to be disappointed as the people in the palace were far more sinister and ruthless. Scheming ran in their blood.And can anyone tell him why his path always crossed with the notorious first prince of the kingdom? The seemingly cold prince had an unpredictable temper. And why was he always drawn to him like a moth to a light?Will Cassian be able to survive in the palace where the true faces are hidden behind masks, or will he become more entangled in their schemes and just become a mere pawn in their game?