"Hello, my name is Asmit Biswas," a boy around Vivian's age introduced himself.
His appearance was rather ordinary, short black hair falling over his forehead and tanned skin.
Beside him stood another boy of the same age, with the same black hair but a fairer complexion.
Wearing a grin, he introduced himself cheerfully, "And I'm Subha Saad."
"Nice to meet you," Vivian replied with a polite smile.
They were his companions for this examination, both from the Spearmanship Department.
Despite their modest appearances, their greetings carried a sense of humility and respect.
Though Vivian didn't know exactly who they were, since he hadn't written these guys into his novel, he assumed they must be NPCs.
Still, despite being just NPCs, they seemed quite friendly.
They shook his hand warmly, and the way they carried themselves was the kind of behavior one would expect from true friends.
'This might be a chance to create my first real friends,' Vivian thought in exasperation.
In his previous life, he had lived for nineteen years, but half of it had been spent bedridden by illness.
The other half was even more miserable, his parents had died, and the little money they left behind was stolen by greedy relatives, forcing him to work from a young age just to survive.
Though he died early, he had carried no regrets; after all, his life had been filled with suffering from the very start.
But this life was different.
This life had everything he could have ever asked for: a loving mother, a responsible father who cherished him, a younger brother who respected and adored him, and even grandfathers who cared deeply for him.
In this life, he truly felt there was nothing more he could ask for.
'Though Charlotte can be a bit extreme, her love and attention… feels kind of nice,' he admitted to himself.
Charlotte had been by his side the entire time since their arrival at the academy, caring for him without fail.
She had even gone so far as to step down from her position as student council president, all for his sake.
Those feelings warmed him, yet at the same time, they weighed on him with guilt.
After all, wasn't he merely borrowing the body of the original Vivian? At times, it felt as though he was deceiving not only Charlotte but his entire family.
Yet no matter how heavy the guilt grew, he could never bring himself to reveal the truth to anyone.
The reason was simple—fear.
Fear of losing them. From the moment he had been transmigrated, aside from Charlotte, he had remembered everyone and felt a strange affection toward them.
He couldn't quite grasp why he felt this way; after all, he had known them for less than a week.
Yet, deep down, he felt as though he could do anything for them, even give up his own life if it came to that.
It was odd. In the transmigration novels he had read, the main characters never seemed to feel this way.
But he reassured himself with a quiet thought: those were just fiction. This… this was his reality.
"Vivian?" His train of thought was broken by Asmit's sudden, puzzled voice. "Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?" he asked, his brows knitting in confusion.
Subha also glanced at him, wearing the same questioning look.
"Ah, nothing. I was just… lost in thought," Vivian replied, rubbing his nose, which still tingled faintly from the weight of his reflections.
With a thoughtful hum, Asmit nodded. "Let's go, we should report to the professor," he said, glancing toward the man seated under a tree.
"Well then, let's go," Subha agreed, stepping forward.
"Okay," Vivian replied with a nod, taking the lead as the three of them made their way toward the professor.
As they walked toward the professor, Vivian's thoughts drifted back to his earlier contemplations about his family.
'If they found out I wasn't the original
Vivian, just an imposter, would they still love me the same way?' he wondered.
But was it even worth questioning? The answer felt obvious. They would hate him.
If the truth ever came out, the first person to despise him would probably be his mother.
Her love, as warm and unconditional as it seemed, was meant for the real Vivian, not for him.
'…Sigh. I wish I'd been born as the real Vivian,' he thought with quiet regret.
'But it can't be helped now, can it?' With that thought, Vivian pushed the worries from his mind as he stopped in front of the professor.
"Professor," Subha began respectfully, "we've found our teammates. Can we enter the dungeon?"
The professor studied them in silence for a moment before giving a small nod.
He scribbled something onto a sheet of paper clipped to a board, then said, "Yes, you may enter now." With a flick of his fingers, a gate materialized behind him.
It looked exactly like the dungeon entrances Vivian had seen in manga—except the glow wasn't blue, but a deep, ominous black.
Aside from the color, everything else was the same, just as if it had leapt straight from the pages of fiction into reality.
"There aren't any monsters above the intermediate level, so there won't be any real dangers," the professor warned, his tone firm. "But make sure you don't let your guard down."
"Yes, sir," the three of them replied in unison.
"And also—don't lose the numbers you were given. They're trackers." He gestured to the round, disk-like number plates in their hands.
The boys examined the strange items with curiosity before nodding. "Yes, sir."
"Good. Then you may enter now." With that, he granted them permission.
The three bowed in gratitude, then made their way toward the gate, stopping just before the swirling black entrance.
"You only need to step in," the professor called out, as if reading their unspoken hesitation. His words eased their silent worries.
After taking a deep breath, the three of them stepped forward together.
But as soon as they entered, they found themselves surrounded by complete darkness, it wasn't the dungeon itself yet.
They walked straight ahead, guided only by instinct and the faint glow of their trackers.
After a short while, the darkness lifted, and they finally stepped out of the gate.
"Whoa!" The exclamation escaped all three of them at once, their mouths agape as they took in the breathtaking view before them.