The last thing I felt in that moment, which seemed eternal to me was shortness of breath. It was clear enough to make me place my hand on my chest without thinking, trying to inhale as much air as possible and force it into my lungs.
It wasn't a sharp pain, but rather like invisible weights placed on my chest, as if the air itself had become denser than any human could endure.
And in an instant, I was submerged in a massive flood of memories all at once a collection of images and sounds, as well as a large number of names that were present so strongly that neither my memory nor my eyes could ignore them.
I opened my eyes slowly and saw the walls and the furniture, and I also perceived an unnatural silence in the place that made me wonder: where am I now, I wonder? Then a single name echoed clearly and irresistibly in my mind at that moment: Kyle von Arkad.
I was not merely an ordinary person exhausted after a strange dream. I was inside the novel I had read a long time ago, back when I was still studying in high school.
It was a body I had not known moments ago, and a name I had never uttered in my real life, and none of this was good news and, because Kyle is not the protagonist of this story, but rather one of the most infamous secondary characters and one of the most hated in it, having ranked last in the poll conducted by the publishing house among the novel's readers regarding the best and worst characters in the work.
Kyle is a true example of a man who earns no respect, no love, and should not be loved, and who possesses no power worth mentioning.
As described in the novel, he was intelligent but cowardly, cunning yet weak, and he always relied on deception instead of direct confrontation.
Among all the possible characters in the novel, I woke up in the body of a third-rate secondary villain, the person everyone hates, in addition to the fact that he betrays the protagonist in chapter 47, and then, several chapters later, in chapter 213, he is killed by the protagonist Leon, dying while begging for mercy.
But no one cares. All the characters hate him, and no one is concerned about his fate—neither the heroes of the novel nor even the villains themselves.
I know this because I read the entire novel, which exceeds 1,500 chapters, following the path of the great hero Leon, whom I had always wished to be like.
But I ended up embodying the worst character: Kyle von Arkad. I looked at my hands, then at my arms, then at a body that had never fought a real battle in its life. Even his physical build appeared far weaker than I had imagined when I first read the novel's text.
I laughed bitterly to myself and said:
-«Even the author didn't respect him».
The place was a spacious bedroom inside a large palace, furnished with elegant furniture, silk curtains, and a luxurious carpet covering the floor, where everything indicated wealth, yet it lacked the warmth commonly found in all homes.
This was the Arkad family's palace, the clan that would face its downfall in the near future at the hands of the legendary hero and main character of the novel, Leon Valheim.
The palace's cold colors reflected the fate of this family in the novel's text: an end devoid of sympathy, an end without hope. At that moment, I felt it, and a sharp, rapid ringing echoed in my head, so intense that my eyes perceived something that could only be explained as an illusion or a hallucination were it not for my trust in my own eyes.
Words appeared before me, as if floating in the air, as though a magician had suspended them:
-«System activated: Plot Observer».
I had never read this before, because the original novel did not include such a system. Nevertheless, the words were clear.
Warning:
-You cannot kill the main character.
-You cannot explicitly reveal the future.
-You cannot forcibly change major events.
Permitted:
-Manipulating secondary events.
-Changing the fates of secondary characters.
-Creating logical deviations.
Then came the sentence that made my heart stop for a moment as I read it:
-«Any uncalculated deviation may lead to your complete deletion from the story and your immediate death».
I sat for a moment, thinking calmly, and told myself that this was not merely an ordinary narrative world, but in fact a survival system—a system that granted me no special power or unique ability, but instead placed limits on every step I would take from now on.
I tried to carefully organize my thoughts within the novel and recall all the important information.
If I remembered correctly, Kyle had tried hard to get close to Leon, and when he did, he later betrayed him at the right moment.
When his betrayal was exposed before the hero and his companions, his punishment was extremely harsh and devoid of any mercy. But I had been a smart reader in my previous world, a voracious reader of novels.
I knew who would betray whom, who would die early, and even which characters appeared kind while hiding other intentions.
Then a sudden knock was heard at the door a loud one, by the way that made my heart jump with fear and terror.
-«Lord Kyle? The hero Leon Valheim has arrived at the palace».
Those words were the beginning of the first chapter of the novel I used to read in my youth, when my classmates were dating girls and going out to play video games, while I was devouring this novel with intense obsession and, before I became part of it, or perhaps that was the point where everything began to change.
I grabbed the doorknob while repeating to myself:
-«Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. And now the real game begins for me, and there is no room for failure».
A voice from outside said:
-«Open the door».
I opened the door slowly, and the person I had hoped never to meet appeared before me.
It was Leon Valheim, exactly as described in the novel.
His hair was shining gold, his eyes clear blue, and his stance confident, as if the entire world moved according to his steps. He smiled at me with a calm, confident smile a smile that had remained etched in my memory since my first reading of the novel.
-«It is an honor to meet you, Lord Kyle».
I knew what he would say next, and I also knew the tone of his voice, the timing of his speech, and even the way he would interpret his smile.
But I was no longer that observing reader, because this time I was truly inside the text, and I knew my role, and I knew my ending.
I thought that perhaps there was a slim chance, if I played my cards carefully, that I might be able to change it and, after I stepped forward with full confidence and extended my hand to greet him.
Not a handshake of betrayal this time, but the greeting of someone who refuses to surrender easily.
«It is my honor, Hero Leon, and I hope this will be a different beginning.»
At that very moment, I noticed it. His eyes paused for a second just a brief moment but it was enough to register a slight deviation in the plot.
Then I heard him smile, but not with the same certainty described in the original novel, and in that moment, I felt that history had begun to change, even if only by a very small step.