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[Hidden Scenario Completed: Surviving Imminent Death.]
Against all odds, you have survived an unavoidable demise. Whether by skill, luck, or unseen intervention, fate has shifted in your favor.
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...
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[Achievement Unlocked: Death's Brush.]
You stood at the threshold of the abyss and returned. Few can claim such fortune.
Reward: [Passive Skill: Foresight (Lv.1)]
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....
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[New Passive Skill Acquired: Foresight (Can Evolve)]
Your perception has been heightened. When danger lurks nearby, your subconscious will react faster, and your instincts will sharpen. You may not always understand why, but you will feel when something is amiss.
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....
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[Hidden Scenario Completed: Gaining a Primordial Beast's Interest.]
A being from the Primordial Era, feared and revered alike, has taken an interest in you. Whether this is a blessing or a curse remains to be seen.
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.....
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[Reward: Blessing of Virion, the Winged Tyrant.]
- 30% resistance to all external effects (mind control, poisons, curses, illusions, etc.).
- Minor Passive Regeneration: Your body and mind recover at a slow but constant rate, even without rest.
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The voice fell silent.
The glowing translucent windows remained, hovering in the dimly lit room, their soft radiance casting faint shadows across the walls. No further messages appeared.
Only eerie stillness.
Time passed, clock ticking.
23:59
.....
....
05:50
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"Hmmm.."
I stirred, my body shifting beneath the covers. A deep, lingering drowsiness clung to my senses like mist.
"Haahh!"
I rubbed my eyes, my fingers pressing against my temples to shake off the remnants of sleep.
Just five more minutes…
I blinked.
And froze.
Floating in front of me—several glowing windows.
My mind stalled.
I blinked again. Slowly.
The windows did not disappear.
Hallucination? Sleep deprivation? Was I still dreaming?
I haven't done anything to trigger them so how? Except...
Something happened while I was asleep...
Squinting, I hesitantly focused on the first one. My eyes traced the words carefully. "Surviving Imminent Death."
"..."
…Huh?
My breath hitched slightly as I read it again, this time slower.
Imminent death?
My body tensed. A chill ran down my spine as countless possibilities flooded my mind. An assassination attempt? A curse? Poison? A freak accident I wasn't even aware of?
I had been sleeping just fine—no wounds, no pain. Nothing felt wrong. So… how did I almost die?
My gaze darted to the next message.
[Hidden Scenario Completed: Gaining a Primordial Beast's Interest.]
I stilled.
A primordial beast… took an interest in me?
My mind reeled.
So I was saved by something powerful.
Something beyond an ordinary person's comprehension.
The realization settled in like a stone sinking to the bottom of a lake.
This world… isn't just a romcom, is it?
"..."
"Hmm..."
I exhaled slowly.
The system windows remained in my vision, their glow unwavering, but I no longer stared at them. My mind was too busy processing.
First, I was definitely not in just a romcom.
That much was clear.
Well… I couldn't really be blamed for thinking I was.
Every single event I had gone through so far had been a romcom setting. The transfer student, the ball scenario, third rate vannabe villain, with cringe love-triangle situations.
There was no sign of magic, no dungeons, no beasts.
Even in classes, I hadn't picked up on anything that hinted at this world being a fantasy setting. Either those parts were incredibly subtle, or—knowing how I was—I skipped over them without realizing.
To be fair, I had a hunch.
The system or whatever it is, the weirdly fantasy-esque names of people and places, the sheer absurdity of certain things.
But it had remained just that—a hunch.
Until now.
Now, there was no doubt. This wasn't just a romcom. This was a high fantasy world.
And then there was the bigger issue.
Surviving imminent death.
I didn't know what exactly had almost killed me, but this one fact made everything crystal clear.
I was in danger.
More danger than I had anticipated for.
And considering my "background character" status… coupled with the fact that this world had gone from romcom to high fantasy in a single night…
…Things had just gotten a lot more troublesome.
Because if there was one absolute truth about fantasy worlds, it was this—
They were never peaceful.
Every fantasy setting, no matter how well-constructed or intricate, followed the same inevitable pattern. Wars, invasions, ancient prophecies, world-ending calamities, eldritch horrors, demon lords, foreign interventions—the list was endless.
And if that wasn't enough, there were the smaller, more personal-scale disasters. Academy attacks, monster outbreaks, assassination attempts, kingdom-wide conspiracies, rogue cults summoning forbidden beings.
The moment you existed in a fantasy world, you were at risk.
And protagonists? They were usually magnets for every single one of these catastrophic events. No matter where they went, the chaos would follow.
That wasn't even an exaggeration.
If I had been a protagonist(not that I want to), I wouldn't be panicking as much. Why? Because main characters, no matter how dire their situation, had the one thing I didn't—plot armor.
They were built to survive. Whether by miraculous last-minute power-ups, hidden bloodline awakenings, divine interventions, or sheer unkillable stubbornness, they always made it through.
The same couldn't be said for background characters.
Extras, side characters, nameless students, unlucky nobles, innocent bystanders—people like me—we were nothing but expendable casualties in the grand scheme of things.
Just scenery. Fodder.
Even if I somehow got a few lines in a story, at best, I'd be an early-game stepping stone for a protagonist to gain experience. At worst? A footnote in a tragedy.
And now, with the world revealing itself as high fantasy, my chances of living a peaceful, uneventful life had just plummeted to zero.
Which meant I had two options.
One: Run. Disappear. Vanish before I got dragged into anything major. Hide somewhere remote and live the rest of my life as an anonymous nobody.
Problem? That was just delaying my inevitable death. This was a fantasy world. No place was truly safe. Sooner or later, something would find me.
Two: Get strong.
Insanely strong.
Not just "respectable noble" strong. Not "top student" strong. Not even "best swordsman in the kingdom" strong.
No.
If I wanted to survive...