I'll report you for kidnapping!

"Status! System profile! Characteristics…? Open transparent window with all my information!"

After a couple minutes, Damien shouted out every possible type of 'cheat' that existed to the fellow transmigrators.

Yet despite his pleas, he was met only by the silence of a dark room. 

Exhaling and overcoming the emotions of frustration that were ready to burst out of him at any moment, Damien took another look around the room with his bed. 

Maybe there's at least an old ring with a perverted grandfather inside? 

Even though it was an old trend, power is power. 

Damien walked around this pigsty that was his room, looking for it. 

Suddenly, he froze. He couldn't find the ring, but..... 

"Pfffft...haha...ahahaHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

A black rectangular object lying near the bed came into his field of vision.

What else could it be if it wasn't the smartphone he used every day? 

"Fuck the old trends! Modernity rules!"

Damien grabbed it and turned it on. 

In the instant between pressing the button and turning it on, he managed to pray to all the gods of transmigration, willing it to work. 

And it paid off. 

The bright light of the screen illuminated his face in the semi-darkness of the room. 

[03: 23 AM]

Except for the time, the first thing he noticed was a fresh unread message. 

Without hesitation, Damien clicked on it. 

— — —「28 minutes ago」— — —

<>

Hello, my beloved reader. 

I hope you enjoyed my gift. 

I'm pretty busy right now, so I'll just wish you luck!

P. S. Sending you rays of positivity!

ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉﾞ❀~⭐⭐⭐

— — — — — —

Veins swelled in his face. 

A gift? In half an hour in this world I've almost become someone's fucking dog, is that what they means by a gift? 

His hands moved almost instinctively, beginning to write a reply. 

All of his years of experience from his wars in the hottest of hot spots – comments – are fully embodied at his fingertips. 

If my provocation skill hadn't reached Divine Tier yet, then what could? 

Finally, the answer was ready.

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, he looked at the message.

Sure, answering a supposedly higher being like that was pretty dangerous... 

But hell, what could they do? Send me to another world? Damn, I'm already here. 

So he pressed the send button without hesitation. 

Blump~

With a distinctive sound, his message went off, crossing the world's barriers only to deliver his anger to some God... 

All that was left was to wait. 

"Damn, I hope there's no delay here? Otherwise this is going to be very..."

Flashhh! 

His words were interrupted by a flash of blinding light, turning everything around him completely white. 

All his senses were overwhelmed for a moment before he was able to come to his senses and discern the purest blob of light that floated right in front of him. 

"Welcome, Human."

The powerful voice didn't resound through space, instead it was directed directly at his head, shuddering his mind. 

Honestly, it was pretty overwhelming. But maybe because I was in this body...? 

"Turn off these cheap lights. I'm gonna go blind."

The words that came out of his mouth were unaffected by this. 

"..." 

After a couple moments of absolute silence, the lights around him disappeared, returning his room to its previous state. 

Same dirty floor, women's underwear strewn everywhere... and a supposed higher being sitting on his bed. 

Of course, instead of the shape of a flying blob of light(?) it appeared in the form of...

Woman...? Girl...? It was hard to say for sure. 

"Ahem, what was I saying? Ah, yes. Welcome, Human."

She repeated the same words, but in a normal voice. 

Did she really need to put on this show?

While Damien was wondering about this question, she answered in a carefree manner.

"No offense. It's just that the Gods have to hold the bar up too, you know?"

Could she read minds? It didn't matter. What's important now...

"...Why me?"

An unconscious question caused by his pure incomprehension. 

He've always purposely avoided novels with a only one reader, never left bad reviews or insulted authors, but 'it' caught up with him anyway. 

"Why? Of course because you're the biggest fan of Academy Slayer!"

Biggest fan? Me?

Unable to comprehend it, Damien stared at her blankly.

"Everyone else is just asking in the comments what I smoked to write this and asking me to share it with them..."

She rubbed her forehead, muttering, "But I don't even smoke?"

And in that moment, he realized.

So it's her. The pervert who created Damian and put him through endless circles of misery. 

Since he was the one who was now in Damien's body, he couldn't have positive feelings for her. 

"Anyway, you're different! You're the first to recognize and truly appreciate my hard work. Thank you for that."

He vaguely recalled actually leaving such a review. To be fair, it was a really good piece of work, if you don't count some of the twisted moments in it. 

But is that really the reason I'm here? 

"Almost. In fact, my novel will be officially published soon! But before that, the publisher has asked me to hire an editor and fix some things..."

"Wait, don't tell me that..." 

"Yes! It's you!"

Damien could distinctly feel his eye twitching. 

"I'll report you for kidnapping."

"Try it if you can, hehe."

"...Then I'm quitting. Ask your protagonist to do it." 

"Ah... You don't know yet?"

I don't know? Don't know what? 

Instead of answering, she simply pointed to one of the newspapers lying on the floor. 

Damien frowned as a bad feeling swept over him, but he walked over and picked it up anyway. 

It was an old issue. Old enough to have a layer of dust accumulated on it. 

Shaking it off, he read. 

—「XXth issue of the St. Luferia Herald」—

[Breaking News! The latest exploration of the Abyss.]

[Due to the Breakthrough, the following students bravely defending the Academy have died.]

[Mary Morsen. 

Misha Larchen.

Audrey Zarwein.

Lucas White.]

His breath caught and his eyes fixed on the last line. 

Lucas White. 

The protagonist of this world and the one who was supposed to bring it to a happy ending. 

Now was... dead. 

And that meant only one thing – the world had already entered a state of 'bad end'. 

Even if Damien decide to run away to the end of the world right now, at best in a couple years – at worst tomorrow – this world will meet its end. Including Damian. 

"Sad, isn't it?" 

As he stared dumbly at the paper in his hands, her melancholy voice brought him out of his thoughts. 

"My first creation met such a sad fate."

The protagonist, with all his advantages, lost? I guess I'm really dead now. 

"Ah, where are my manners? Though late, let me introduce myself. I am God." 

"...Congratulations."

"Thank you."

With that, the conversation stalled, causing silence between them. Finally, the girl who called herself God coughed and continued. 

"I really want to talk to my beloved reader at least a little longer... but I really don't have time during this period. Perhaps you have some request I can fulfill?"

"I want a cheat."

"Ugh, that's straight."

"..."

"Hmm... how about this one? Say any name and you'll get information about them."

"Name?"

Weren't these usually activated just by shouting the word 'status'? 

But I guess it's better than nothing. 

Even playing Academy Slayer he didn't know all the information from it, there was still a lot of stuff he hadn't gotten his hands on yet. 

"Okay, I got it. Anything else?" 

"You know, your body is also in some ways a cheat..."

Her eyes ran over Damien's body with strange emotion. 

"What do you mean?"

"Ahem-ahem, I should be going now. Goodbye, beloved reader!" 

She showed the star with her hand and eventually ran away. 

Once the traces of her presence had finally dissipated, Damien found himself alone in his room again. 

But now there was no more gloomy darkness here – the gentle light of dawn had already brought a new day.

It was so quiet all around that it seemed the previous events were nothing more than a mirage. 

And yet, this was reality. My new reality. 

He closed his eyes. 

"So the protagonist is dead?"

Damien squeezed his hands together a few times as the streams of thoughts in his head collided with each other, trying to decide the next course of action. 

Damien spent a couple minutes in that silence before finally opening his eyes. 

After that, he no longer stood still. 

Damien quickly took a refreshing shower and cleaned himself up. Then, among the pile of women's clothes, he found a nearly new set of his uniform and put it on. 

Blump~

As he was about to leave, the distinctive sound of his smartphone caught his attention. 

When he checked it, it turned out to be a message from a familiar address. 

— — —「 2 seconds ago」— — —

<>

And yes, keep your smartphone handy, you'll get what you wish for in the future. 

— — — — — —

Damian grinned at the ridiculous message, but still put his phone in his pocket. 

Habitually undoing a couple of top buttons of his shirt and unbuttoning his sleeves, he headed for the exit. 

"I guess it's time to meet my favorite classmates."

It's time to face the future of this world.