The library doors clicked shut behind me as I stepped into the evening air.
My mind buzzed with plans—how to nudge Zephyr and Luna closer without triggering their respective brands of social disaster. Maybe if I—
Ding-!
The sound pierced my skull like a needle. I froze mid-step.
Ding-! Ding-! Ding-!
There's more?
Windows of translucent blue text exploded across my vision, scrolling rapidly.
I calmly turned my head around to check my surroundings—a group of students laughed nearby, oblivious. Good. At least the system still had the decency to be invisible to others. Though I still haven't checked it with powerful individuals like Virion...
And I think I will postpone it till I'm sure it's safe.
Ding-!
And, I wasn't about to stand here gaping at empty air. I veered sharply toward the dormitories.
____ ___
After entering my room, I tossed my borrowed book onto the desk, now officially checked out under my new library account—and collapsed into the chair.
Finally, I let my focus snap to the messages.
The first one dominated my vision, pulsing in a green light:
━━━━━━━━◆━━━━━━━━
[UPDATE SUCCESSFUL]
━━━━━━━━◆━━━━━━━━
"So I was right," I muttered, swiping it aside. "You were down for maintenance."
The next window unfurled with a faint chime:
━━━━━━━━◆━━━━━━━━
[HIDDEN CONDITION ACHIEVED: "Boundary Walker"]
"You have simultaneously participated and influenced two distinct storylines."
▸ Stories Encountered:
1st Story. "My Sword Skills Are OP, But My Love Life is a Disaster!"
- Saved the Emberwing eggs and gained affection of (???)
- Participated in saving Vivienne and her family
2nd Story. "The Merchant Queen System: From Ruin to Riches"
- Unwittingly handed her the evidence to crush her engagement
- Became a trusted employee
Rewards Granted:
- "Narrative Glimpse Lv1"
- "Character Insight Lv1"
━━━━━━━━◆━━━━━━━━
"..."
I blinked.
Once.
Twice.
"...Am I in some kind of stories-merged world or something?" The words slipped out before I could stop them.
The system's message couldn't be clearer.
Two stories.
Two protagonists.
Aeron's ridiculous romcom and Cassandra's... whatever that was. And I couldn't forget about Zephyr either - that guy practically screamed "main character" vibes with his mysterious aura and socially awkward intensity.
Memories of similar stories surfaced in my mind - tales of people getting tangled in merged novel worlds. Most were about becoming villains or tragic side characters. But me? I am just a background character.
I shook my head slightly.
This is the best. Being a background character is thousand times better than being a villain or even a protagonist.
The question is, are there more protagonists out there? More stories? How many exactly? And who exactly am I? A transmigrator? A time traveler?
Another shake of my head.
I shouldn't dig deep into the abyss. I only waste my time by doing that. Answers will come in due time. I need to focus on the present while preparing for the future.
Yeah...
My attention returned to the glowing text. As I reread the first title—"My Sword Skills Are OP, But My Love Life is a Disaster!"—my lips twitched involuntarily.
I was completely right. Aeron really is a romcom protagonist. A fantasy one at that. The title couldn't be more obvious if it tried. And Vivienne must be one of his love interests.
Well, not that it matters to me.
Then my gaze dropped to the second title: "The Merchant Queen System: From Ruin to Riches."
A beat of complete silence.
She has a system too, huh...
The realization settled like cold mercury.
Then... is she some kind of reborn or transmigrator individual?
I recalled her personality and way of speaking and acting.
She was truly one of a kind.
She didn't fit this world's mold at all—her logic, her courage, her entire worldview stood out like a polished diamond in rough stone.
She must be really that kind of individual...
"..."
I fell silent again, the memory of my conversation with Cassandra replaying in sharp detail. The way her eyes had gleamed with unnatural understanding, the precision of her questions...
She must have suspicions about me.
The thought sent a cold trickle down my spine.
Someone that sharp wouldn't miss the inconsistencies in my behavior. But then again—my fingers tightened around the chair's armrest—if she confronted me directly, she'd risk exposing her own otherworldly nature too.
Unless...
My breath caught as I remembered her exact words: "How would you rate your guide?"
And I answered her subconsciously... Giving her a 4 star review....
She knew stars rating thing.
Eyes widening, I sat bolt upright.
This world probably doesn't have this system, right?
If so, did she test me back then? Confirming her suspicions through my answer and reaction? The way I'd instinctively understood the reference might have given me away completely.
A dull throbbing began behind my temples. I pressed my fingers against them, exhaling slowly.
Enough. Stop obsessing.
The answers wouldn't come from speculation. For now, I needed to focus on the tangible advantages before me—these new skills that might help navigate this increasingly complex world.
I turned my attention to the next set of messages:
━━━━━━━━◆━━━━━━━━
[Narrative Glimpse - Lv1 (Active)]
Effects:
- View key information about active story scenarios
Uses: 3/week
Restrictions:
∟ Cannot reveal future plot developments
∟ Limited to scenarios you're already involved in
━━━━━━━━◆━━━━━━━━
My eyebrows rose.
This... is better than I expected.
The ability to check story contexts could prevent disastrous missteps. Though the limitations were there—no peeking at future events, and only for situations I'd already entered.
Still, I mused, knowing whether I'm walking into a romance subplot or political intrigue could be lifesaving.
The weekly limit meant careful timing would be essential.
Who knows if an ordinary event would turn into a dangerous life-threatening scenario...
The next window appeared with a soft chime:
━━━━━━━━◆━━━━━━━━
[Character Insight - Lv1 (Active)]
Effects:
View basic character profiles:
∟ Name/Primary Alias
∟ Current Story Affiliation
∟ Immediate Goal
Activation: Visual contact required
Uses: 1/day
Range: 10 meters
━━━━━━━━◆━━━━━━━━
A slow smile spread across my face.
Now this is useful.
Being able to identify someone's story role and objectives at a glance? That could help immeasurably in deciding who to avoid and who to... carefully utilize.
My mind immediately went to Virion. Would this skill reveal his true nature? Or would a primordial beast's status block it?
Only one way to find out... though perhaps not right away. I am not so stupid to use it on a powerful entity.
The throbbing in my temples had subsided, replaced by cautious optimism. These tools changed everything. No more stumbling blindly through narratives—I could now navigate them with more information.
First test: I focused on activating "Character Insight," directing it at myself through the room's small mirror. The response appeared instantly:
━━━━━━━━◇━━━━━━━━
Name: Amaniel von Luthaire
Affiliation: A Background Character
Present Goal: "Skill assessment"
━━━━━━━━◇━━━━━━━━
"..."
Well, it's working. Pretty accurate too.
Closing the window, I shifted my focus to the next message.
Oh, but isn't this a bit late?
[Hidden Scenario Completed -"The Merchant Queen's First Counterattack"]