I Became A Side Character Fated To Suffer-Chapter 25:Is This Really A Side Character?

When I was on the stage, I noticed a gaze veering toward me. Unlike the others, the gaze was quite different and distinct.

I could feel déjà vu, but as I locked onto him, the gaze disappeared, so I decided to check.

Reed Thatcher.

A commoner who managed to enter the Nexus Academy through quite difficult means.

I don’t know if it’s normal, but my sixth sense screamed of ominousness, and I checked it out.

Moreover, my eyes.

They can clearly perceive it.

An unsettled soul.

There was nothing odd except for the fact that before enrolling, this kid toured around the place a bit, going here and there.

But something pricked my interest.

Reed had been admitted to the infirmary, seemingly passing out after looking at me.

I already sensed what was wrong with it.

So, I decided to sneak in and check.

.....

From the shadows behind the half-drawn curtains, I watched him.

CRUNG!

The door burst open, slamming against the wall hard enough to rattle the window panes. Reed Thatcher stepped in, white hair slightly disheveled, shoulders drooping with the exhausted dignity of someone who had just lost an argument with fate itself.

"Returning with nothing after so much effort feels useless.."

His voice was low, frustrated and not the voice of a confused freshman.

It was the voice of someone who expected results.

He shut the door and leaned against it for a brief second, eyes closed.

Not in relief rather in calculation.

So he remembers.

After a full day in the infirmary, he had been released. To the academy, it was just a fainting spell.

To me, it was a backlash.

His gaze had clashed with mine on the stage.

And his soul had trembled.

Complaining under his breath, he moved toward his suitcase and knelt down. His movements were cautious as he opened the bag,he pulled out something but for some reason I wasn’t able to perceive.

My eyes glowed and a small magic circle formed in the air.

A distortion in space and rectangular outline where light bent unnaturally.

He lifted something that wasn’t visible to me as if the world laws were blocking my vision.

"Thank God no one can perceive this, or else I would be in deep shit. After all, this world, though quite modern, still doesn’t have computers or smartphones."

Computers.

Smartphones.

Wait a minute?

Did I hear it right?

He placed the invisible object on the desk and sat down. From the outside, it looked like a lunatic positioning his hands over empty air.

But as a reincarnated person from the modern world,I could perceive it clearly.

Finger spacing.

Wrist posture.

Micro-movements consistent with typing.

He was opening a laptop.

Invisible to me

Interesting.

He leaned forward, eyes focused on something only he should be able to see — yet even his gaze looked slightly misaligned, as if the device did not truly exist within this world’s framework.

"Maybe because it wasn’t directly due to me... just a butterfly effect..." He scratched his head. "So I can accidentally ruin fate, but I don’t get paid unless I do it?"

Butterfly effect.

Ruin fate.

Paid.

My expression darkened.

"No... This is some serious shit.." He stood abruptly and began pacing.

The room suddenly felt smaller.

"Why is a character designed to suffer going around fucking everything up.."

He wasn’t speaking metaphorically.

He was analyzing.

As if this world was written.

As if someone had assigned roles.

As if I—

"Yes," I said, stepping out from the shadows. "I have the same question."

Slowly, he turned his head toward me, eyes widening not in simple fear—

But recognition.

"...You also have the same doubt.. Gre—"

He froze and every muscle of his locked mid-step.

The silence stretched thin.

I didn’t let him finish.

In one swift movement, I crossed the distance and my hand locking around his neck slammed him against the table.

"KYAAAAAAAAA—"

His scream tore through the room as my grip tightened.

"Now tell me... Why the fuck do I have to suffer... No, more than that— which fucking son of a bitch designed this shit.."

My eyes glowed faintly in the dim light.

My eyes stared into Reed’s eyes.

In them was a mix of fear, nervousness, yet at the same time I could perceive the calculation undergoing at that very moment.

It looked cold and detached.

Not because he wasn’t afraid but it was clearly telling that he believed that he would get out.

You see..that’s the problem of people like us when we reincarnate.

Just because we reborn we think ourselves as some cool super duper fucking chad for whom all of this was nothing but a book or a gameplay.

Even now, he was thinking.

And this was irking my ego

"I will say it once."

"Nod if you agree. Shake if you don’t."

"Anything other than that... I am going to dismember your body into pieces, but that’s not going to be the end, because I am going to drag your soul into the Royal Rumble of Hell."

"And believe me, I am not lying, because the character you know, Noel, is quite different from the real one, because I am a fucking menace."

....

[REED POV]

I swallowed hard, and my throat became dry as my eyes locked onto him.

Something was wrong.

No...something was terribly wrong.

I could see it.

A thin, creeping layer of shadow slipping out from beneath his skin... spreading... swallowing the entire room. It felt suffocating, like the air itself had turned against me.

What the fuck is this?

This can’t be a low level extra.

This... this wasn’t Noel.

There was no gentleness, no warmth, no kindness left in him.

Only something cold.

Something that felt... like an experienced.

Like a veteran who had been killed countless times and wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

My body trembled.

I didn’t understand why... but I knew.

I could feel it deep in my bones—

If I lied...

He would kill me.

There was no hesitation not mercy.

My head moved on its own, slowly shaking in denial.

Maybe... maybe I could still get out of this.

Maybe he was bluffing.

He stared at me in silence.

That silence was worse than anything.

It felt like he was peeling me apart, layer by layer, seeing everything.

"First, you spoke of a developer," he said calmly. "From everything you’ve said... I can only assume you are the developer of this game."

My heart skipped.

"And that you transmigrated here."

What should I do?

What if he’s bluffing?

Should I deny it... or just agree?

My thoughts spiraled, each option feeling like a dead end.

"I’ll give you three seconds."

The moment he said that, something inside me snapped.

I shook my head.

Denied it.

"No...You are mistaken..How can I?"

It had to be the right choice...

Right?

He sighed.

That sound... It felt like a death sentence.

Suddenly, the pressure around my neck disappeared.

I gasped, collapsing forward slightly as I dragged in air greedy, desperate, like I had been drowning.

I was alive.

Did I ....I made it?

I opened my mouth..

Maybe I could explain—

Maybe—

SWISH.

I didn’t even see it.

For a brief second... nothing happened.

Then—

Something hit the ground with a dull thud.

My eyes moved slowly towards the origin of the sound.

And then I saw it.

My hand.

My hand was... on the floor.

A beat passed and then pain exploded but my mind was too shocked to even make the head out of it when a cold shivering voice whispered into my ears.

"I expected better from you."