On a packed train, twenty-two-year-old Charles clutched tightly onto his smartphone, staring at the screen with wide eyes.

His eyes were focused on a single sentence.

「Hi guys, author here. Due to my worsening health conditions, I will unfortunately have to stop this webnovel here :(」

What?

Charles stared at the message for several seconds.

On Chapter 753?

You promised this novel would be thousands of Chapters long!

He tilted his head back and covered his face with one hand.

What was he supposed to do now? His favourite novel was being dropped.

The old man sitting beside him noticed his reaction.

"Bad news, lad?"

Charles let out a long sigh.

"You could say that."

The old man nodded knowingly.

"Girl troubles?"

Charles looked at him sideways and frowned.

You don’t get it, uncle. This isn’t that kind of heartbreak. In a way, it’s even worse.

Charles had followed the novel "The Fourth Apocalypse" since the day it first started releasing.

Since then, not a single day had gone by where he hadn’t read it on the way to work.

The author, 「FluffyCat」, released four Chapters every day.

Just enough for him to finish before the train reached his stop.

For the past six months, that had been his routine.

On the train, read.

At work, think about the novel.

Before sleep, engage with the novel’s community.

Now...

Bzzzzz

Charles immediately looked down.

His eyes widened, and a smile spread across his face.

This was because he only allowed one type of notification to vibrate his phone.

A new Chapter release.

As he quickly opened the novel site, the old man shook his head.

"Ah, young love. Always running back to each other."

Ignoring the muttering beside him, Charles opened the newest Chapter.

﹂Chapter 754: Transmigration ﹁

"Huh?"

Charles blinked a few times. The title didn’t make sense.

In seven hundred and fifty-three Chapters, the novel had never once mentioned transmigration.

It was one of the reasons he had fallen in love with it in the first place.

So many webnovel clichés simply didn’t exist in this story.

Yet there it was.

Transmigration.

Strange...

What’s even stranger is that this is the fifth Chapter today.

FluffyCat has never released five Chapters before. She follows a strict schedule.

With growing scepticism, Charles began reading.

Halfway through the Chapter, the train jolted hard.

Several passengers looked up in surprise.

A moment later, the driver’s voice echoed through the carriage.

"Apologies for the disturbance. We’ve hit a rough section of track. The rest of the journey should be smooth."

Most of the passengers relaxed, whilst Charles barely heard it.

His attention was focused on the more important matter at hand.

The novel.

By the time he neared the end of the Chapter, he found himself confused.

Everything about the story had suddenly changed.

The Chapter described the main character, a heroic adventurer named Abraham, being summoned to a strange room inside an unknown palace.

There, he met a mysterious woman.

A woman who didn’t have a name.

"I never planned for this. I didn’t want to drag any of you into my mess. But the ******* ****** is getting stronger. The story is rebelling. If I collapse here, everything ends," the woman said.

She went on to explain that a new villain had appeared.

One unknown to everyone living within the world.

A villain capable of destroying everything if the story continued as normal.

The entire thing felt strange, as though the author was breaking the fourth wall.

It felt like it belonged in a completely different novel.

Pfft...

Has FluffyCat fallen off?

Charles continued reading.

Near the end, the mysterious woman spoke of making a final stand.

She intended to fight this unknown enemy, but mentioned that she wasn’t in a condition to do it alone.

Then he reached the final paragraph.

「Charles.

You are reading this, aren’t you?

If so, then good.

That means I’m not too late.」

Charles froze.

His heart seemed to drop straight into his stomach.

That’s...

That’s my name.

Before he could process what he had just read, the train lurched violently.

The entire carriage shook, making the passengers scream.

Charles nearly fell from his seat as the train jumped again.

This time his phone flew from his hand.

No!

His eyes followed it as it skidded across the floor.

What did those words mean?

Why was my name there?!

He pushed through the panicking crowd and stumbled after it.

Every time he got close, another violent jolt sent the phone sliding further away.

It was as though someone was pulling it away on a string.

Then, just as his fingers were about to reach it, a businesswoman lost her balance.

Her heel came crashing down onto the device.

Crunch

The screen shattered instantly. A hole had been driven straight through it.

Charles stared in silence.

Seriously?

Am I the unluckiest man alive?

Then something impossible happened.

The screen lit up.

It should have been dead. The phone was completely destroyed.

Yet the cracked display flickered to life anyway.

Three words appeared beneath the final paragraph.

Three words that definitely hadn’t been there before.

「I need your help.」

Everything went black.

...

It was as though he had been thrown into the deepest of sleeps.

However, what was strange was that he still seemed to have his consciousness.

...

An unknown amount of time passed before he eventually heard words ringing in his head.

[Undergoing Transmigration...]

[Selecting Suitable Body...]

[...]

[!]

[Suitable Body Found: Charles Abraham]

[Transmigration Completed!]

The darkness slowly faded away, and Charles opened his eyes.

When he did, he found himself feeling... strange.

He was sitting on a chair placed beside a bed. This was in a bedroom more grand than anything he had ever seen.

The bed was large enough to fit four people in it. The walls were decorated with watercolour paintings, and the red carpet beneath his feet had golden designs woven into it.

Behind the bed was a window that was so high up that he started feeling sick. It seemed he was on the top floor of some sort of towering palace.

Then, Charles looked at the figure lying in the bed. It was a woman.

She had brilliant hair white as snow and a face that carried infinite beauty. Her eyes were silver, and her skin was pale.

She was dressed in a white sleeping gown, with the covers pulled over her body.

The beautiful woman suddenly opened her eyes and looked straight at Charles.

Her face remained cold, but there seemed to be a hint of hope in her eyes.

"Who... Who are you?" Charles stuttered.

He had a feeling he knew the answer to his question.

The woman sat herself up in the bed, which seemed to bring her a great amount of discomfort.

Then, she opened her mouth and croaked:

"Fl... FluffyCat."

It was as he had thought.

This was the author of his favourite novel.

~~~

If you are enjoying the story, power stones are very much appreciated! ~ BlessedPen