10 minutes later....
The battlefield around me before was nothing but chaos.
All I could see in this arena battelfield was corpse, human monster alike.
There were casuality, but in my cold logic sense this time at least results was better.
In the original novel, over half of the first year students dies but compared to that this is nothing.
Students were dead but I can't do anything, I can't save anyone else.
In fact, I bearly managed to stay alive.
My ribs are broken and I'm sure that there is some internal bleeding and my whole body was in pain, it's verge of unconscious but I manged to hold on.
Because I know that if I sleep, I sleep for forever and I don't want that happened.
After taking a deep breath I looked around me.
The air around us, thick with the stench of blood and mana, fell into a heavy silence. The echoes of the battle slowly died down, leaving only the sound of heavy breathing.
"Is it… is it really over?" someone asked, their voice shaky.
The troll's body, other monster lay still, its once-intimidating figure now just another corpse among the chaos. The cadets who had been too scared to move before were now standing, eyes wide and unsure, trying to process everything that had just happened.
Since all instructor and guards are still behind the beriar he takes the charges here, though clearly exhausted, surveyed the battlefield with a sharp, calculating gaze. His chest rose and fell in short bursts, but there was a glint in his eyes—a silent pride, perhaps.
But no one answered it, since no one what might come after this.
The battle had been very firce and hard but it was clear to anyone else to see that this time Leo outperform Ryen in slaying the monster.
Leo, the one who'd landed the critical blow, stood silently, his spear resting in his hand, blood trickling down the shaft from the troll's gory wound. His face was expressionless, his stance proud, but there was a trace of something—something deeper—that flashed in his eyes.
It wasn't the cocky, arrogant Leo I was used to seeing.
It was… quieter. Almost like he was reflecting on something. Maybe even learning.
The words hung in the air, heavy and cold.
I glanced back at Ryen.
His eyes met mine for a brief moment—those same, uncertain eyes from earlier. The weight of being a protagonist was heavy, and I could see it.
He didn't say anything, but I knew what was on his mind.
This wasn't the role he expected to play today.
The thing was, Ryen had power. We all knew that. But something had shifted in the battle. Something that Leo had been able to grasp. In the world they lived in, strength wasn't just about raw power—it was about adaptability. It was about the will to push beyond the limit.
And maybe, just maybe, that was the key to what made Leo special.
While Ryen was strong, Leo was already becoming something else. Something that could evolve with the flow of battle.
And as much as I hated to admit it, I wasn't sure who would come out on top anymore.
'I have survived.'
But a lingering doubt gnawed at the back of my mind.
I felt like I was forgotting something very important.
Something was wrong.
And a few moments later, I was proven right.
—There are too many unnecessary changes made to the world.—
What?
The words hung in the air, unnatural and jarring. I wasn't sure what it meant, but my instincts screamed that it wasn't good.
— Intervening to restore the intended course. —
I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up, a sense of dread creeping through me like an icy chill. Something was happening. Something bigger than the battle we had just fought, and it was far beyond our control.
— World stabilization in progress. —
The words were cold, mechanical. Detached. As if the world itself was an entity, something capable of recalibrating reality as it saw fit.
In that moment, it hit me: the world wasn't just changing. The system was actively rejecting everything that had just happened. Everything we had fought for. Every shift in the balance.
Something was trying to fix itself. Trying to force us back into the roles we were supposed to play, the paths we were supposed to follow.
I felt the pressure around me build, tightening with every passing second.
— The timeline must be restored. —
It was impossible to ignore. It was like hearing the voice of the world itself—no, the owner—demanding that things return to the way they were meant to be.
— The Owner will correct the timeline. —
Wait… did that mean I was supposed to die?
I stiffened. My gaze flickered across the room. No one else reacted. No signs of fear, no tension, nothing. Judging by their expressions, this ominous voice was for me alone.
Then, the word "Owner" sank in.
And just like that, his face flashed in my mind—my so-called friend.
What would he do if I kept meddling with his story? If I changed things without his permission?
Knowing him… he'd try to force everything back onto his original path.
He'd twist the plot into something even more catastrophic, just to watch me squirm.
Then another notification.
— You were not meant to survive this encounter. —
I swallowed hard.
That... that explained a lot.
The trolls and other monster weren't just a test. They were a checkpoint. A scene. A predetermined moment in the script of this world, meant to deliver growth for the protagonist. For Ryen.
And I?
I had just broken the narrative.
Leo had outshone Ryen. Guard had had helped in defeating other troll. And I—I had survived.
All three of those things were never supposed to happen.
— World Correction Protocol initialized. —
A new window appeared, spreading across my vision like an error log:
> [ALERT]
Discrepancy Detected:
• Survival of Unregistered Variable [You]
• Deviation from Event Chain [Troll Ambush – Chapter 4]
• Emotional Development Triggered for [Leo] instead of [Ryen]
Consequences:
• Character Arcs Misaligned
• Hero Progression Disrupted
• Narrative Threads Unstable
Initiating realignment…
And below it, in smaller, flickering letters:
> — "Interference Level: Unacceptable." —
— "Rollback Suggestion: Remove anomaly." —
I stared at the last line.
Remove anomaly.
Me.
Panic clawed at my throat. I looked down at my hands. Still trembling. Still real.
I didn't want to disappear. Not now. Not after everything I'd done to stay alive.
But if I ran, would that even help? If this world truly had an Owner—if it really was his world—then running was pointless.
Unless...
Unless I stopped playing by his rules altogether.
And right then, the system flared again.
— Override registered. —
— Counter-Command acknowledged: "Remain anomaly." —
— Danger level increased. —
— The Owner is watching. —
'Let him watch.'
I exhaled sharply . First, I needed to assess the situation.
Ryen and Leo were standing at the front, still basking in the aftermath of victory. The Guard, though visibly exhausted, was keeping an eye on the remaining cadets.
Everything looked normal.
But I knew better.
This moment—the supposed end of the conflict—felt too clean, too perfect. Like a breath before the plunge.
And sure enough, the system wasn't done yet.
—It Starts Now.—
Then it clicked me, what I was forgetting something was this.
I slowly looked upward, into the sky.
Fortress—hovered in the skies above Velcrest.
The same Fortress that had attacked the aren with his beam, the same that deployed many trolls and monster here.
My stomach dropped.
I couldn't help but gritted my teeth.
How could I forget this massive Fortress and it's that I wasn't the only one who were forgotten about this.
Ryen, Leo, Guard and along with rest of cadets were also ...staring up in stunned silence.
The massive shadow loomed overhead like a death sentence. Its hull, a dark steel monolith, gleamed under the blood-red sunset. Dozens of spires jutted out like cruel blades, humming with barely-contained mana. At the center—glowing ominously—was the cannon. The same cannon that had nearly obliterated the eastern quadrant of the arena just minutes ago.
The fortress hadn't left.
It had just been waiting.
"No… no, no, no…" I whispered, stumbling backward. "This isn't how it happened in the book…"
In the original novel, the fortress vanished after the troll ambush. A foreshadowing element, a future threat. Something to haunt the protagonist in later volumes.
It wasn't supposed to attack again.
Not now.
Not while we were this weak.
The sky flickered as runes flared across the fortress's underside.
Then came the roar.
A sound deeper than thunder. Older than logic. The kind of sound that said: You were never supposed to win.
A blinding light gathered at the cannon's core.
"Scatter!!" someone screamed—Leo, I think—but it was too late.
The beam fired.
Not at the cadets.
But at the arena's center—at the tower.
The same defense node I had just awakened.
It exploded on impact, blue light crashing against red. The force sent a shockwave tearing through the ground. Cadets were flung back like rag dolls. A wall collapsed. Dust and fire rained from the sky.
I hit the stone hard, air punched out of my lungs.
Pain flared. My vision blurred.
But I forced myself up, coughing blood, because I knew—
This wasn't about punishment anymore.
This was war.
The system wanted me gone.
The Owner—my friend wanted his narrative back.
But more than that… he was sending a message.
You don't get to rewrite my story.
And yet—
I rose.
Broken ribs, failing mana, no weapon.
But I rose.
Because the moment I didn't, the moment I gave in—that was when the story won.
My story?
It was just getting started.
Above, the fortress began to descend.
And something—someone—was emerging from its gates.
A figure draped in crimson robes, his face hidden behind a porcelain mask.