Chapter 3

2. When I opened my eyes, it was an end-of-the-world ending.

My thoughts were cut off there.

The massive gate, resembling a city wall, opened, and men in armor and weapons, as if from the Middle Ages, surged in.

Before I could react, the soldiers surrounding me aimed their spears in unison.

"We are apprehending the mine that has invaded the sacred territory. If you resist, we are authorized to kill you on the spot."

Wait, what?

While I was doubting my ears, the spear tips advanced toward me.

With the menacing momentum that seemed ready to pierce and tear my body at any moment, I immediately raised my hands.

Blood from my hands and face, mixed with the blood from Ankara's corpse, dripped down.

My mind was sharp, and my judgment was quick.

If I had possessed this character, this was the inevitable conclusion.

"I will comply with the arrest."

I dropped the rock I was holding in one hand onto the ground.

* * *

Epic Seven is a quite special game to me.

Like most mobile games, some users might harshly criticize it, but it was different for me.

It was a game I enjoyed without missing a single day for four years after its release, and it even gave me a career as a streamer.

How else could I, who only read web novels with my eyes, have written fanfiction, even creating a dark history?

Anyway, it was a game I loved.

Of course, no matter how much I loved the game, I didn't enjoy being inside it.

Especially not when I was mistaken for a mine and ended up in jail.

My custody was transferred to the prison.

It was a dark and gloomy space, but paradoxically, it helped me clear my confused mind.

First. This is not a dream or the afterlife. That's obvious.

Second. This is not the Epic Seven game I knew. I memorized all the stories because I loved the PVE content as much as the PVP content, so I was certain.

Third. Russell Ashgreen is a character from a novel set in the Epic Seven game, not the original game.

"Master of the Academy's Armored Vehicles"

This was a work that gained considerable popularity due to its provocative nature among the many secondary creations of Epic Seven that emerged like mushrooms. If you were a fan of Epic Seven, you would have encountered this work at least once.

It was a terrible hybrid, reconstructed by combining the academy and armored vehicle settings I liked after thoroughly studying the original characters, background, and world.

To put it bluntly, it was a monstrosity I wrote.

Mysteriously, it was popular, but as an amateur's debut, it also received many malicious comments.

The episodes were too bland.

The plot was forced.

The plausibility was shattered.

The characters were too light novel-like.

I almost choked on a sweet potato.

The author had no knowledge of armored vehicles but forced the setting.

And so on.

I felt like a boneless chicken, shattered to pieces.

Because all of it was true.

The biggest problem was that my mental state was also shattered.

Even the game users who initially supported me with unwavering loyalty dropped out early, saying, "This isn't a fanfiction; it's a novel about a self-insert character."

I tried to explain that the playable characters were set as the world's strong ones and would rarely appear in the early stages, but it was too late.

In the end, due to my lack of ability, I continued the forced serialization and, in a fit of anger, ended it with an end-of-the-world ending in the middle of the series.

End-of-the-world ending.

Nuclear explosion ending.

Nuclear launch detected!

Literally, this damn novel has the protagonist, who entered a hero academy after four years, destroy the world in an instant by mobilizing all the villains in the world.

A tightly closed, end-of-the-world ending with no hope or dreams.

So, I was X'd.

No matter how I turned my head left, right, or did a front roll, I was X'd.

"Why the hell did I possess...?"

I planted so many possession flags, but why did I end up possessing "my end-of-the-world failed work"?

I could have just entered the original game world normally, or even one of the many mass-produced munchkin novels I criticized. The well-written ones, I mean.

Is it because I didn't send a 5,700-character letter?

Why did I have to end up in a four-year limited-life otherworld with no hope or dreams, written by an amateur?

Is this the result of the vengeful spirits of readers who said, "Clean up your own mess"?

To be reborn in the otherworld of a novel I wrote.

It's a situation that is both unrealistic and implausible.

Perhaps the otherworld rebirth is just my wish, and in reality, someone is looking at me in a morgue or ICU, saying, "Doctor, this guy is smiling."

If it weren't for the unrealistically realistic scene and the cold stone floor, I might have given up on thinking long ago.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the character I possessed, Russell Ashgreen, was not a third-rate villain who made a grand exit in the first episode or an unknown extra.

If I had to be precise, he was closer to a hidden munchkin OP character.

A character who, while trying to create a background that seemed plausible, ended up with a power balance so broken that he was given the setting of a legendary lazybones and made a decent appearance before being phased out due to some event.

I looked at my face in the toilet of the prison where human rights were not respected at all.

My status window appeared again, and I calmly read the descriptions of the powers given to me.

In non-combat situations, 'Piercing Eye' activates, and in combat situations, 'Capturing Eye' activates.

※ 'Piercing Eye (看破眼)': Grasps the essence of the target.

※ 'Capturing Eye (捕獲眼)': Identifies the critical weaknesses of the combat target.

The damage dealt increases, and the damage received decreases as the battle drags on. (3 stages unlocked)

The damage dealt to successfully hunted prey increases, and the damage received decreases.

You can view detailed information when you encounter changed settings.

Russell Ashgreen's powers.

In words, they are painfully overpowered skills.

First. 'Piercing Eye,' which grasps the essence of the target in non-combat situations.

This skill seems to be implemented in the form of a status window.

It means you can check all the information about someone's background, stats, and skills.

Second. A reactive genius who grows overwhelmingly as the battle drags on.

The damage dealt increases, and the damage received decreases as the battle time increases.

It means that while the opponent gets tired over time, I get stronger.

Moreover, 'Capturing Eye' activates at the start of combat, identifying critical weaknesses.

Third. 'Prey Registration,' which makes it harder to lose to an enemy once you have subdued them.

It means that the more you win, the easier it is to hunt, similar to a proficiency level.

Here, prey refers to one individual for humans or beastmen and one species for monsters.

"Even when I look at it again, it's overpowered."

These are still level 1 skills, so there are various limitations, but even considering that, they are sufficiently overpowered.

The letter 'S' represents the skill's grade, the filled star represents the current level, and the empty star represents the level that can be increased.

Since there is no character level, the value of a character is ultimately determined by the skills they possess.

This means that the body I possessed is a decent character from the start, with S, A, and B-grade combat skills.

The composition itself is also at the top tier of each grade.

'But what is this skill?'

You can view detailed information when you encounter changed settings.

It feels out of place, like a sheep among a pack of wolves.

A skill of the almost unused F grade.

It was a skill that the original character Russell did not have, and the description is so vague that I can't even figure out what it's for.

When I tried to use it, only the message "No settings to check" echoed in my mind.

Oh.