Today is the day I die.
No, not metaphorically, today is the day I actually die.
So why wasn't I trying to avoid it? It wasn't like I was chained and being dragged to my death, no, I was willingly walking towards it.
Again, why?
Well, it's because no matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried, fate always pushes me towards it.
After all, this was my destiny as an extra, to die for plot progression...
{??? Years ago}
"I hate weekdays," he let out a tired groan as he dragged his heavy feet through the city's sidewalk.
His coat reflected exactly how rough of a day he had. His buttons were out of place, only a part of his shirt was tucked in and his tie was nowhere to be seen.
One wouldn't be able to tell if he was at work or in a fight with the way he currently looked.
And honestly, it might as well be both.
He took out his phone to check for the time, though the screen was cracked from when he'd dropped it earlier, it still worked fine.
Failing to realize that he was crossing the street while the pedestrian signal was red, he was soon too far in the streets to go back or even get completely across.
And that's exactly when he was blinded by headlights.
HOONNKKK!
The honking successfully snapped him out of his distracted state, only to have him freeze as he was faced with a massive truck moving towards him at full speed.
'I'm going to die here, aren't I?' was the only thought that could form in his mind as his feet refused his command to move.
He saw his life flash before, one that wasn't even that interesting and honestly...sad.
As an orphan, he was sure no one would miss him and he had no meaningful circle of friends to morn him.
But there was one person.
Maybe she'd be the only one to miss him, or rather he hoped she would.
The only thing he regretted was not confessing his feelings, but she was way out of his league anyway.
He braced himself for the impact, slowly closing his eyes.
"HEY, WATCH IT, YOU IDIOT!" the driver screamed, veins bulging in his neck as he yanked the steering wheel violently to the left.
The massive truck swerved, leaning on two wheels as it moved past the frozen man before the suspended wheels slammed back into the tar.
A maneuver which was thought to be impossible.
The driver stuck his head out the window and yelled, "USE YOUR EYES, YOU DUMB ASS!"
"S-sorry man," the man said as he finally gained control of his limbs and he finally moved out of the streets.
His heart was stuck at his throat and his body was visibly shaking. Luckily, there was no one around to judge him.
Well, almost no one, except a black cat that seemed to be looking at him with... disappointment?
"I really need to stop daydreaming," he muttered, rubbing his forehead, "that's not how I want to die. I'd at least like a more… dignified one."
With that, he continued home and a few minutes later, he stood before a rundown excuse of an apartment building, his nerves had finally relaxed.
He walked inside and towards the elevator, which was out of order again, of course it was, because why not.
"This building is cursed," he grumbled as he started up the stairs, dragging himself up them.
Finally, after what felt like a full day's worth of climbing, he reached his door. His keys let out a jingle as he took them out and unlocked his door.
He was greeted by an apartment room...if you'd call it that. The place was so small that he could touch both walls if he stretched both hands far enough.
"Well, at least it's clean," he muttered as he walked in, dropping his bag on the floor, close to the bed and moved straight to the bathroom.
A few minutes later, he walked out of it, visibly refreshed before he crashed into the bed.
"Friday… please save me," he muttered, his voice sounding a bit muffled since his head was buried in a pillow.
Since he was so exhausted, the smart thing would be to sleep in preparation for the next day, right?
Right??
His phone let out a buzz as he plugged it to charge before turning the cracked screen on and he scrolled through the apps.
"Webnovel baby," he said with a smile as he opened the app.
"Let's see what's new," he as as he scrolled to the featured tab and all the way down to fresh stories.
Yes, it was mostly full of stories that… well… let's just say the authors were passionate enough to post them, there was the rare few gems and Elijah was determined to discover those rare few.
"'Reborn as the Overpowered Demon God's Pet Cat'… I… okay."
Scroll.
"'My Harem of 999 System Wives'… interesting title."
He sighed, dragging a hand down his face.
He wanted to say something but remembered, he had no room to judge. He read worse things on his bad days.
But just before he could give up and go back to the few in his library, a cover caught his eyes.
[The First Technomancer]
"Technomancy?" Elijah muttered as he clicked on it and read the synopsis, "that's a bit rare..."
The synopsis told him about a world of magic and the first person who happened to awaken the ability to create any tech he could think of.
"Sounds… cool," he said, already hooked.
He tapped on the first chapter.
It opened with a scene of a young apprentice engineer, Elias Ardent.
The chapter followed Elias through his daily routine and the lab where he worked at and the kingdom's greatest mystery, the Etherium Heart.
It was an ancient artifact that nothing was known about, all they knew was that it was inactive...well, until today.
Elijah continued reading as the engineers successfully activated. He read on as the author vividly described how happy they were until the energy readings from it spiked.
The novel described how Elias had tried to stabilize the energy spike in the heart.
"But no matter what he did, he already knew that he was meant to die," Elijah read that out loud before freezing and re-reading the paragraph again.
He frowned.
"Wait… die?"
He continued reading until the heart Elias was trying to stabilize suddenly cracked and with it, an explosion that engulfed half of the kingdom.
"That's… messed up," Elijah muttered, "I thought he was the protagonist, but he didn't even make it past the first chapter."
Unfortunately for him, the author seemed to have deleted three chapters with the excuse of a rewrite, so he had no choice but to just add it to his .
But Elijah knew that no matter the rewrite, Elias Ardent wasn't the main character, after all, the synopsis remained unchanged and the name written there wasn't of Elias.
"Well, I guess I'll just have to wait," he muttered as he switched off the phone and let out a sigh, "let's get a bit of rest."
With that he was taken into slumber's embrace.
That night Elijah had a dream, he dreamt he was falling in an endless well of stars, each burning brighter than the last as he passed by them.
He tried moving his hands to touch them, only to realize that he had none....and it wasn't just hands.
He didn't have a physical form either, rather, he was also an orb of light. With that realization came an increase in speed.
He felt himself moving faster and faster until he was approached a bigger, even brighter orb of light.
Elijah tried stopping but couldn't.
Though, the moment he was about to collide with this light, his eyes suddenly snapped open.