My face tightened into a frown following Aika's reply. Tilting my head slightly, I searched her expression before asking with a bit of confusion, 'What makes you say that?'~

Aika calmly exhaled a plume of smoke, then tapped the ground beside her. 'Come sit…'~~

I walked over then dropped down beside her. She turned to face me and her beautiful blue eyes locked on mine. Then she began in a low, serious voice: "After reading that shit on the wall, I began to question a few things..."

"Like?"

"Well… like how and why you transmigrated."

"Huh?" I blurted, arching a brow. That was completely out of the blue. Why was she suddenly questioning that now?

Aika looked away from me and exhaled before continuing. "I've been thinking. Was it due to the power of a higher being or just… coincidence?"

That question struck me like a physical blow; for a second, my mind was left empty.

I looked away from her.

I had not thought about it before, but why and how did I transmigrate into a game I was playing?

While I was still stunned by this thought, Aika spoke again. "Take a look at this."

I lifted my gaze to her, and then to the direction she was looking at, and that was when I could see the transparent, glowing screen that was hovering in front of her. It was a map of a territory in the Grade Two region, far away. On the map, I could see a single blue dot slowly moving toward the border leading to the Grade One territory. The blue dot kept dimming on and off.

I turned my gaze from the map back to Aika. "What am I looking at?"

She turned to face me and replied, "You are looking at the protagonist."

Suddenly, my eyes widened in disbelief, and I looked back to the map.

"What?"

Then my expression sank as I suddenly realized why Aika had said what she said earlier about things being different from the game I knew.

When I played the game, Leon, the official protagonist, started from a Grade One territory after crossing the Veil. But according to the map now, he was currently in a Grade Two territory, many miles away from the Grade One territory where he should have been.

That… was a critical change to the script of the game.

Suddenly, I couldn't help but wonder: what else had changed?

'Hey, Gamer Privileges?'

[Activating Gamer Privileges…]

'Where is the red bridge located?'

[Retrieving Information…]

When I played the game, the red bridge had appeared in a Grade One territory at the edge of the region. If things remained the same as they were in the game, then… that should be where it is now, right?

I swallowed as I waited, and then the notification popped.

[Location of the red Bridge: Home of the Sculpted Ones.]

'What?!'

My jaw dropped and a cold dread seized my chest.

The Home of the Sculpted Ones was at the very edge of the Grade Two territory, bordering the Grade Three region. It was a terrifying, high-level zone that no first-year Cadet should attempt without having at least more than twenty people in their party.

What was the red bridge doing there?!

"This is bad…" Aika muttered, causing me to snap my frenzied gaze from the screen to her. "Things have changed, Ced. This is no longer the game you played."

***

Several minutes later…

——

Sitting on the ground, I leaned my head back on the wall, lost in thought.

I couldn't help but wonder why things had changed. But more than that, I couldn't help but wonder what else was going to change.

Strange people that I had not heard of before killing Dominants with mundane weapons; Leon waking up in a Grade Two territory, and the Red Bridge on the border between this and the Grade Three territory.

What caused these big changes? This wasn't how things were in the game, which meant the script had been changed.

Who changed it?

I raised my hands and looked at them. I was never supposed to be in this world, and Cedric was never supposed to be in this realm. We were both supposed to have died a while ago.

But I am alive, I am Cedric, and I am in this realm.

I couldn't help but dwell on the questions Aika raised: Why and how did I transmigrate? Was it really due to the power of a higher being or just… coincidence?

Could a higher being be influencing things? Could my presence here be influencing the entire reality? Or is it both?

My gaze shifted from my hands to Celeste, who was absorbing mana from the flames by the fireplace.

'She would have died many times now if not for me.'

But not just her…

My gaze shifted to Dion, who was sleeping on the bare floor.

Even he, too, would have been long dead by now. So in a way, I could say, I am actively influencing and changing a few things.

But are my actions and my very presence here causing the entire reality of the game to change?

'Aisshhhh!'

I ran a hand through my hair as the questions kept piling. Then I raised my head and turned to my side. Aika had finished smoking and was now dozing off. She clutched her katana, using it to support herself, and her head kept nodding forward.

I was about to look away from her, when her head suddenly fell onto my shoulder.

'She must be really tired,' I thought as I carefully shifted my shoulder to provide her a more comfortable rest.

Then I looked away and sighed, deciding to put the complex questions aside for now because there was something else that I urgently needed to do.

Since we finally managed to find a place to rest, It was time to check my progress, as well as all the numerous notifications I had been ignoring earlier.

'Gamer Privileges?'

[Activating Gamer Privileges…]

'Pull up my profile.'

~~~~~~~~ Character Profile ~~~~~~~~

Character Name: [Cedric Anele Martini]

Age: [17]

Level: [10]

Grade: [1]

Element: [Darkness]

Exclusive Class: [Gamer]

Exclusive Class Attribute: [Gamer Privileges]

Bond Name: [Aika Soryu]

Bonded Ability: [Chrysalis]

Exclusive Skill: [Flames of decay - Lv2]

EXP: [8,950 / 10,000]

Karma Points: [N 2,360 / P 550]

~~~~~~ ============== ~~~~~~

'Good lord…'

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