I was some twenty-something woman dying of stage four cancer. 

I got obliterated by the "Truck-kun" you nerds are always joking about. Turns out it's a lot less funny when it's your guts splattered on the pavement. Crap.

Next thing I know, I'm floating in the dark and this thing pops up in my face.

[A choice is now available to you.]

[Option One: Fade.

Cease to exist.]

[Option Two: Reforge.

Begin anew.]

You think you can just erase me? Hah. As if. 

Fueled by pure, uncut spite, I slammed the reforge button. Turns out the universe has a totally sick sense of humor, though. 

I woke up as a male elf. A seriously hot elf —a mage, of all things. Let's just say I was working with some… unfamiliar hardware downstairs.

And Jonny? My best friend, my bro, my lifelong meat shield? The universe decided he'd look better as Yael—a stunningly beautiful elf chick with a charisma stat that was probably maxed out.

For a while, we weren't just getting by. We were crushing it. It was awesome.

Our new life was shattered by the arrival of Vex, an overpowered demigod who saw our world as a resource to be harvested. He was a cosmic-level threat.

My pride, the same stupid pride that always gets me into trouble, wouldn't let me kneel. So I told him where he could stick it.

Big mistake.

The price for my big mouth was paid in her blood. Vex decided to make an example of her. He didn't just defeat her; he shattered her legs into pulp right in front of me. 

After that, she just… erased me. Walled me off. I went from being her best friend to a ghost she looks right through. Her hatred isn’t loud; it's a permanent debuff, and the silence is a thousand times worse than her screaming would have been.

Broken by my failure and rage, the System offered me another choice.



I accepted. The System laid out the cost in cold, hard code:



The friendly blue "Overwhelming Pride"interface shattered, overwritten by a brutal, blood-red OS running one program: The 'Overlord Slayer'. My personality was stripped for parts. My charm and pride were forged into an 'Aura of Dread.' My guilt became a damage buff called 'Pain Eater.' My grief is now, literally, my mana pool.

My quest is no longer about survival. It is brutally simple: Kill Vex. Absorb his power. Fix what I broke.

But to become strong enough, I have to grind this new 'Slayer' class, and every level up feels like I'm deleting a piece of myself. 

The real question is, by the time I'm strong enough to squash him, will there be anything left of the person Yael knew?

And even if I can fix her legs… what's she going to think of the monster who comes back?

The stupid fight with Gandalf really messed things up.


Not in a "now I'm popular" kind of way.


More like a "now everyone thinks I'm a total weirdo" kind of way.


Before, I was just some Rank 3 loser who got lucky.


You know, the clumsy idiot who tripped his way into a couple of wins.


Now, I was the Rank 3 loser who somehow fought the legendary Captain Reynolds to a standstill.


The clumsy idiot who stared down a walking bonfire of grief and didn't even blink.


The looks I got in the hallways weren't just your standard "ew, look at the loser" sneers anymore.


Now they had a nice little sprinkle of "what the hell is wrong with that guy" suspicion.


So much for my brilliant plan of being a harmless scrub.


My Aura of Fear skill didn't help things.


It had definitely leveled up since that fight with Kazuki.


It wasn't just a vague "uh oh" feeling anymore.


Chapter 31 - Weirdo