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"You… can see me?"
The eerie voice slithered into Rosen's ears, and in the next instant, a chill like falling into an ice cellar wrapped around his entire body.
The sound was broken, raspy—like an old bellows gasping its last—but Rosen could tell one thing for sure: death was getting closer.
Two seconds later, something came running down the street toward him. A twisted, human-shaped nightmare—like it had just crawled out of a horror flick—came sprinting his way.
The sight made Rosen's scalp prickle, sweat burst down his back, and his whole body lock up. His life flashed before his eyes like a cheap slideshow.
"Rosen, a male transmigrator, likes women and hates heavy-duty trucks."
Because before he got dumped into this world, he'd been flattened by a triple-overloaded, triple-speeding semi-trailer.
When he woke up here, he'd been reborn into a younger body, memories intact, and managed to live through sixteen years without dying again.
Back then, he hadn't had time to dream about being some overpowered "Dragon-AoTian" protagonist or pulling off some "Ye Liangchen" levels of swagger. The truth? He didn't have any of the perks transmigrators were supposed to get—no "goldfinger," no cheat skill, nothing.
During those first years in the orphanage, he even spent three full years running every test he could think of—trying to catch his "Schrödinger's Goldfinger" in the act. All it earned him was a local reputation as "that kid whose head's not screwed on right."
Eventually, he gave up on the dream. Fine. If there was no cheat, he'd just live his second life properly.
He'd make money. Build a future.
With an adult's memories and experience, things went pretty smoothly. His high school goal was to study hard, get into Todai, and land a respectable job as a teacher or lawyer. Marriage and kids? Sure, why not.
And even without a cheat, he knew plenty about certain names: Miyuki Shiba,Mai Sakurajima, Megumi Kato, Marin Kitagawa … familiar heroines, all walking the same high school hallways as him.
So he set his first target— Megumi Kato from Saekano. With his foreknowledge, he figured he could pull it off.
That was the plan… until he saw something he shouldn't have.
It happened one quiet evening. He was spacing out on the balcony, thinking about instant noodles for dinner, when he caught something in the corner of his eye.
It looked human—sort of—but shrouded in a black, rotting mist. Its face was grotesquely exaggerated, its body half-decayed. The kind of thing that would make the fainthearted scream and the brave wake up sweating.
At first, he thought it was a prop for some horror movie shoot nearby. But the moment he looked too long… the "prop" lowered its arms like a mindless giant and charged straight at him.
Its rotting mouth opened and closed, spitting words he could actually understand.
Rosen's chest tightened, a mouthful of blood threatening to choke him.
Who the hell expects this?!
He'd thought this was just a normal slice-of-life world. Now, just as he'd finally made peace with it, the universe had decided to play a cosmic prank.
It's over.
The monster was now less than three meters away. Oddly, Rosen felt less fear than a deep, bitter disappointment.
So this world did have supernatural horrors. He'd just been too normal to notice.
Two meters.
He could now clearly see the thing's torn flesh, jutting bones, and strange markings crawling across its body.
One meter.
The stench of rot and blood hit him, and a heavy shadow fell over his mind.
What the hell is this thing? And what's with this insane speedrun to the boss fight?
In a few seconds, the thing's jaws were opening wide—too wide—until it could swallow an entire adult whole. Its mouth was already over half his head.
And then—
The impossible happened.
The monster froze. The reek in the air stopped. The world stopped.
Something inside Rosen broke free.
After sixteen long years, the power he'd been waiting for finally stirred.
And then, a voice he'd dreamed of hearing chimed in his mind:
[Ding~~~]
[Tree of Life binding complete.]
…What the hell?
"..."
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