The smell of stale instant ramen and the blue glow of a monitor were the permanent fixtures of Ryu Hyuga's tiny Tokyo apartment. For two years, he had been a dedicated, if somewhat unsuccessful, professional gamer. His current obsession, and the source of his meager income, was the global fantasy MMORPG, Aethelgard: Chronicles of the Twin Moons.
Ryu, known online as 'VoidEdge,' was renowned for his skill with the blade. He was one of the top ten ranked Swordsmen on the global server. He didn't just play the game; he knew its lore, its mechanics, and its narrative paths better than its original developers, thanks to a deep dive into the official tie-in novel series.
His current target: the World Boss, the Obsidian Dragon, which only spawned every three months.
"Almost there," Ryu muttered, his fingers flying across the custom-built mechanical keyboard. The air was thick with tension. He was soloing a fight that most guilds attempted with twenty-five people.
His avatar, clad in gleaming black Void-Forged Armor, dodged a torrent of arcane fire. Ryu initiated his ultimate skill, the Shattering Star Strike.
\text{Damage Output} = ((\text{STR} \times 1.5) + \text{DEX}) \times \text{Critical Multiplier}
The dragon's health bar dropped to a critical 0.01%.
Victory.
Ryu let out a whoop of triumph, leaning back in his worn chair. The massive Game Over screen for the boss fight was about to appear—and then, everything went wrong.
The game didn't reward him. It didn't flash 'Victory.'
Instead, the screen blazed with a sickening, neon-red error message that transcended the game's aesthetic, an archaic, system-level command that Ryu had never seen before:
FATAL ERROR: KERNEL_FAILURE_1099
— REWIND PROTOCOL INITIATED —
TARGET INTEGRITY FAILED: RECALIBRATING HOST
HOST BODY SYNCHRONIZATION: PENDING
"What the hell?" Ryu blinked, rubbing his eyes. It was a complete system crash, but the message felt… personal.
A blinding, icy-cold white light erupted from the monitor, engulfing his vision. He didn't feel pain, just a profound, dizzying sense of being stretched and compressed at the same time, like being pulled through a straw made of light.
The last thing Ryu Hyuga thought was, 'I hope I saved my gear before that crash.'
When he woke up, the smell of ramen was gone. It was replaced by the faint, clean scent of polished wood, expensive soap, and fresh linen.
His eyes fluttered open to a canopy of fine silk. He was in a large, luxurious bed. The room was unfamiliar, decorated in an elegant, spartan style befitting nobility. Sunlight streamed through a tall, arched window, illuminating dust motes dancing in the air.
I must be dreaming.
He tried to sit up, but a strange weight was distributed across his chest. He looked down, and his heart instantly plummeted into his stomach.
Gone were his calloused, slightly thin, distinctly masculine hands. The hands resting on the duvet were slender, pale, and manicured. He flexed his fingers; they moved with a delicate grace he'd never possessed.
He scrambled out of the bed, his feet sinking into a thick rug. He rushed to a tall, floor-length mirror leaning against the wall.
Ryu stared at his reflection, but the person staring back was not him.
The face was flawless: soft, aristocratic features framed by long, silky strands of midnight-blue hair tied back with a simple silver ribbon. The eyes, which now held Ryu's horrified consciousness, were a sharp, striking violet.
He recognized this face instantly. The recognition was like a punch to the gut.
This was Shinika Hirosa, 'The Azure Blade,' the youngest and most powerful Master Swordswoman in the history of the Sylvan Empire. She was the deuteragonist of the Aethelgard novel series—a character Ryu knew intimately.
More importantly, she was a character destined for a horrific fate.
In the novel, Shinika Hirosa dies tragically at the end of Volume 3, betrayed by her closest mentor and used as a sacrifice to awaken the Demon King. Her death is the catalyst for the main protagonist's darkest phase.
Ryu stumbled back, knocking a small, ornate table, which clattered to the floor.
"No, no, no," he whispered, his voice thin, high-pitched, and definitively female. "This is impossible. I'm Ryu Hyuga. I'm a guy. I'm VoidEdge. I'm—"
He pressed his hands against the smooth, delicate skin of the new face. The reality was undeniable. He was in the body of a 17-year-old girl, the strongest swordswoman in the world of Aethelgard.
A voice, crisp and formal, called from the other side of the door.
"Lady Shinika? Are you awake? Your first training session with Sir Kael begins in one hour."
Ryu—or rather, Shinika—froze. Sir Kael. Kael was the very mentor who betrayed her.
He was inside the game world. He was the most powerful side character. And he was standing right on the precipice of her tragic narrative arc.
A cold, steely resolve replaced the initial panic. Ryu was a survivor, a top-tier player who thrived on impossible odds.
If I'm Shinika Hirosa, the strongest Swordswoman, then I have the power to change this story.
I will not die at the end of Volume 3. I will survive.
Shinika walked to the door, the luxurious silk nightgown rustling faintly. She opened it just a crack, revealing the polite face of a household attendant.
"Please inform Sir Kael," her new voice was steady, projecting an air of calm authority she didn't feel, "that I will be ten minutes late. I need to practice my stance."
She closed the door before the attendant could reply.
Practice her stance? She didn't need to practice. Ryu Hyuga's muscle memory was now the muscle memory of the strongest swordswoman alive.
She walked to the weapons rack and pulled a gleaming, slender rapier from its sheath. It was lighter than the massive greatsword Ryu favored, but the balance was perfect.
Shinika Hirosa was destined to be a tragic plot device. Ryu Hyuga was determined to become the protagonist of his own, new narrative.
He took a deep breath, the fresh air of Aethelgard filling his lungs.
"Alright, Aethelgard," he muttered, flexing the rapier. "Let's see the end-game from the inside."