"Thi—This—This is too absurd!"
As the purple translucent screen hovered over Damon's eyes, he had a mental breakdown… really, a literal crashout.
"What the fuck is going on!"
Literally, his brain couldn't process the things... First transmigration, now inside a book—a novel, an MTL—as the main character itself? This was just too fucking much for one to digest.
Getting up from the bed, Damon reached out to the broken fridge near him. Taking out the half-filled bottle, he gulped down the cold water before slumping back on the bed, the bottle still in hand, looking over at the system screen that wasn't leaving his line of sight.
'How to turn it off now? System, turn off?'
Damon mentally commanded as he watched the screen vanish, clearing his line of sight.
"System?"
The purple screen once again appeared, taking its spot before vanishing and then appearing again with the same stats.
Turning the system on and off, Damon's mind slowly calmed down as he began to register the reality in its truest form... the world of a novel, and himself as the or a protagonist—the main character of a fiction.
"A world of a novel, literally?" A sigh of resignation escaped Damon as he fell back onto the bed, resigning to his fate.
"It's absurd to believe in completely..." Really, transmigration alone was too out-of-reality for Damon, and now a system and a world of novels? It was just too much for him to not freak out.
"You know what? Just fuck it."
Summoning his system, Damon just muttered as he looked over at his so-called life script, reading it over.
"Transmigration... in a novel world... or being the main character... just fuck it all."
He couldn't find any answers at present. His mind was overloaded with information and everything going on, making Damon come to the conclusion to just stop giving a fuck about it all.
None of his questions could be answered, and all of this was beyond the logic he was accustomed to. So why bother wasting time on these questions? Rather, just stop caring about them. The answers would reveal themselves with time—when the time was right.
"And even so... being a main character isn't anything bad at all," Damon said as optimism kicked in.
"This isn't like I'm Guts or something. I'm a main character in a novel—an overpowered main character with a system!" Yeah, looking at the brighter side, Damon saw the pros of this new identity of his.
First of all, the system.
Passerby's Life Script System!
The abilities of this system were quite clear, and it possessed only two functions. First, the main function of Life Script, as its name suggests.
Being someone familiar with novels, one might have heard of the Life Script Systems—a kind of big and interesting section, Damon must say.
It granted the ability to see the future and fate, in a sense, of all beings and their recent opportunities. It's like a foresight into the future and grants the host the ability to sneak a peek at someone's talents, his past, and his future—giving a chance to take away the target's opportunities and lucky encounters.
This trope was one Damon would rank highly on his list of interests, and it had a lot of potential, given its uses.
With this function alone, Damon could reach the peak of power. But this Life Script wasn't the only function of the system.
The system also had a second function, as shown in the novel—Plunder. Or more exactly: Plunderer of Cheats.
The system had the ability to plunder the systems and cheats of other protagonists!
Yup, other protagonists. Recalling the contents of the novel, Damon grinned.
This world wasn't just a simple novel world—it was a mixture of multiple novels.
Have you read those villain trope novels? The ones in which a person transmigrates as villains, extras, etc., and then deals with luck-protected protagonists?
Yeah, that shit. It was an era of its own. Too bad all the novels became cliché copy-pastes of each other, making it now one of the clichés too. Anyway, back to the topic.
"This world isn't as simple as one might think. Here, like those villain novels, there are multiple people blessed with luck who possess their own systems and cheats."
"And you know what? This system of mine can plunder those cheats—stealing them."
Plunder—the true power of the system, and the best, given the current world.
Possessing a system like this, along with the foresight of his own future via the novel... the transmigration might have been abrupt, but maybe it was the best thing that could've happened to Damon.
"I'm still not properly adapted to this transmigration cheat, but even then... this situation isn't as bad as it seemed."
Coming to terms with his new reality, Damon muttered to himself as he silently observed the purple screen with newfound joy—
Ding Dong!
As Damon caught up to his new reality, the sudden ring of his doorbell brought him out of his train of thought.
Ding Dong!
"Mr. Damon Crown! Your takeout is here!"
Looking at the door, Damon's eyes widen in realisation as he recalled the contents of the novel and looked at the door.
Ding Dong!
'Oh yeah! Here comes the first cheat!'