The time was the late Part 3 stage of Academy Lily Princess, barreling toward the ending.
At that point, the protagonist was chasing down the ten Divine Artifacts left behind by the Divine King, the creator of the world.
After gathering intel, he learned that one had been traded in the black market of Zerta Kingdom's slums—a place where anything could be bought or sold. He left the academy temporarily and headed there.
Zerta Kingdom's slums were a lawless zone where crime was daily life, essentially abandoned by the state.
Plunder and murder were normalized, and heinous crimes like human trafficking ran rampant.
The righteous protagonists punished the criminals while tracking clues to their target item, finally unearthing a lead.
And that's when he appeared.
"A clueless bitch dares to mess up my turf?"
Solis Auran.
A man with blond hair and tanned skin, sporting the look of a typical thug.
He carried severed heads strung together on a rope, combing his bloodstained hair back with a chilling smile.
As the leader of the Abyss Flame Organization, which ruled the back alleys, he confronted the protagonists for disrupting his carefully built business.
By then, the protagonist's party was on the verge of graduating from the academy, boasting near-peak power after substantial growth.
Readers naturally favored the protagonist, but against expectations, Solis matched him blow for blow.
"Not bad. You've got value. I'll specially rip off your limbs and display you as a collection in my room."
It was an interlude episode before the final boss fight, but one of the rare chapters where the battle-hardened protagonist struggled.
A mid-boss that had to be overcome before the climax.
'He was a side character and villain, but damn if he didn't leave an impact.'
One of the few male characters with magic power, by the setting.
That's about all that stuck in my memory.
'Who'd have thought I'd end up living as that psycho.'
Crunch!
I took a big bite of the apple.
Sweet juice filled my mouth.
It never got old, no matter how many I ate.
Maybe it tasted even sweeter after a workout.
Suddenly, I recalled my mom peeling apples for me after dinner.
After getting a job and moving out, we'd only exchange occasional texts checking in.
'I miss you, Mom.'
Are you doing well?
Your loving son is suffering in this otherworld right now.
"Life's a bitch."
The curse slipped out unconsciously.
Suddenly, memories of my first day in this world flashed by.
A person bound hand and foot, surrounded by people wielding surgical tools.
The surgery proceeded, kidneys, lungs, and other valuable organs extracted in real time.
Each removal drew muffled, agonized screams through the gag—utterly wretched.
To a modern person far removed from human trafficking, it was shocking enough to faint, but surprisingly, I took it calmly.
'Is this what they call a possession perk?'
The life Solis Auran had lived, the path he'd walked.
Upon possession, I'd absorbed his experiences and knowledge.
A convenient cliché by the author to handwave plausibility in a single line.
And I was the beneficiary of that cliché called possession.
When I entered this body, I was already Solis Auran himself.
Though at my core, I was just a loyal reader forcibly shoved into this novel.
'Thinking it's a blessing in disguise to become this trash. My life's been one hell of a ride.'
A psychopathic killer who tore people apart without a second thought, a rapist who treated women as mere onaholes.
No normal person could like a scumbag like that, but inwardly, I wasn't thrilled yet saw no better option.
In terms of skill, he was author-certified top-tier in the world.
Three years from now, he'd go toe-to-toe with the protagonist at peak strength, right before the final battle, with no room left to grow.
Though I wasn't at that described level yet, few could overpower me in raw combat.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙Do you like your new body?
"Gee, thanks a ton."
Ptooey!
I spat toward the system window that popped up before my eyes.
The sticky saliva sliced through the air, piercing the hologram.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙Why the anger? You should be bowing in gratitude. At least pretend to be happy.
"Would you thank the bastard who shoved you into a hellhole like this?"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙A hellhole?! Blassem is my homeland. You can't just trash-talk it like that.
"Shut up, I don't give a damn about your botched-ending novel!"
Boiling with rage, I flipped her the bird.
Expressing the full fury of a reader.
Directed at the author who'd sent me here!
"Dragging a loyal fan—who sent fanart consistently for three years—into this garbage world without a word?!"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙B-But... you sent me hate art too...
"If you're pissed, fire back with your own hate art."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙Y-You psycho! Who saves that crap?!
"Just make and send your own."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙I don't have that kind of filthy fetish!
Whoosh!
The text alone made the air around the hologram churn like an elephant's snort.
A god of this world, indeed.
Just expressing emotion carried this much presence.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙Ugh, you're driving me insane. To think this guy's my proxy...
"If you think that, send me home now and find someone else."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙Impossible. The moment I brought you here, my chance to intervene in this world ended.
A week ago, I possessed this world, and the author confessed via system window that she'd kidnapped me here.
She wanted to change the ending of her novel, Academy Lily Princess, and chose me as the means.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙Like I said before, I'm just an observer. I don't have the power to steer the story like the characters do.
"So you possess me in a character to create a turning point in the story. That's the fifth time I've heard it."
The author said rewriting the ending required starting from scratch.
But even restarting with the same stage and cast would just repeat past mistakes.
She'd inserted me to disrupt the inevitable flow—as a wildcard.
"Why not post online for volunteers? Why dump a reluctant guy like me here?"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙Even if you terrorized my eyes with Scott images, you're still the only one who can change this world's ending. Reading the novel twenty times, transcribing the setting bible repeatedly, memorizing every detail—that devotion. You're the messiah to save this world!
Calling a blacklisted hater a messiah in euphemisms.
If I'd known I'd become a character, I wouldn't have touched that novel.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙More importantly, stop whining. You promised to help me change this novel's ending.
"Anyone hearing that would think I joined your plan willingly."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙So, are you in? Or out?
"You can tell just by looking around."
Fierce flames licked at the hut's frame like a starving beast, reducing the bodies—who hadn't even screamed—to ashes beneath the blaze.
Like red paint bleeding across paper, the fire spread uncontrollably to the surrounding trees.
Transforming into a masterpiece painting the beauty of destruction.
A work I'd crafted with my own hands.
I'd taken this body just days ago, which was why the author was asking for an evaluation now.
A successful performance test.
"Why..."
"Hm?"
"Why the hell did you do this?!"
A whiny screech pierced my ears.
Turning toward the voice, I saw a man vomiting blood from his mouth.
A familiar face—from Solis's memories, precisely.
"It's Marten. That guy's somehow still alive."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙Didn't you finish him off properly?
I'd blasted a hole straight through his gut, but apparently that wasn't enough.
His wide eyes glared at me with pure venom.
"We were good to each other. Just recently, we were drinking and trading jokes."
"It was fun back then. Gotta say, your grilling skills were decent."
"So why?! Why do this to me?!"
Marten bellowed in fury, exposing his belly.
At its center gaped a fist-sized, gruesome hole.
Charred black edges smoked white— a mortal wound that begged why he was still alive.
"You killed me, our comrades—everyone!"
"Didn't want you lonely, so I sent a few to keep you company."
"You burned our hometown, the forest village."
"The fire spreading to the woods is a flaw, I suppose."
"We poured twenty years into reviving that village, and now this?!"
His eyes glistened with tears.
They reflected betrayal by a trusted comrade and terror of impending death.
His pitiful expression tugged at my heartstrings—I clapped a hand over my mouth without thinking.
"Whoa, what a piece of shit. Zero conscience."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙People who don't know what they did wrong always look like that.
Lord, is that even human?
His brazenness felt like Satan's spawn—I clicked my tongue.
"The guy who grilled people for food is pulling a melodrama now that it's his turn."
A man who'd made human trafficking and organ sales his business.
The villain who'd sickened the slums with drug production and distribution.
That was Marten.
Comrades? I'd never seen trash who gambled on slicing open pregnant women's bellies to guess the baby's sex as anything close to human, let alone comrades.
Village? It was a bandit stronghold from the root, now a drug lab—no innocents here.
Considering they'd grow into the Abyss guild and later threaten the academy in the original story, uprooting them now was the right call.
"Marten, hand on heart—reflect on your deeds. Don't you think dying cleanly helps society?"
"You...! What makes you so high and mighty to say that?! After doing every filthy thing with me, now you play the saint?!"
From Marten's view, it was unfair.
His lifelong best friend—more ruthless than him—suddenly acting virtuous and judging him? Mind-blowing.
"I don't know what changed your heart, but this won't erase your sins. Nothing changes!"
"Nah, it will. I'm cleaning house thoroughly."
"Cleaning? You dare call it...!"
"No evidence left. I burned it all."
Solis was irredeemable trash.
Hundreds had died by his hand.
Yet he'd never drawn suspicion.
Zerta's neglect of the slums helped, but his erasure skills were elite.
His power, the 'Sun' that incinerated all evidence to ash.
Only witnesses remained. Eliminate his accomplices, and it's a perfect crime.
"Once you're gone, everyone who knows the name Solis vanishes. That's when my new life begins."
It was a gamble, but I'd promised the author to change this world's ending.
To do that, I had to erase Solis's stains.
Bid farewell to one man's ugly past and open the stage with a new life.
"So don't get greedy, extra. Exit stage left."
With that, I raised my middle finger to the sky.
Space warped and tore. From the violently churning rift emerged a halo of pure white light behind my back.
A new sun descended over the shadowed earth, unleashing a dazzling golden shower that engulfed the area.
"Squeeeeal!"
Marten shrieked like a pig at slaughter.
His body melted like ice in scorching sun, vanishing without a trace.
"Cleanup done!"
As the light faded, nothing remained.
Bodies littering the ground, hut debris, even faint bloodstains—all gone.
As if nothing had happened from the start.
"Time to go."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙Where to?
"Why ask the obvious from someone who knows?"
I'd possessed a novel character and decided to twist the original plot.
To redirect the flow, trace it back to the source.
"Off to enroll in Purity Academy."
Heading to meet the protagonist in the flesh right now.