"Education is the key to success."
That's the line I grew up hearing most of the time, from very different people of different walks of life. Some were famous politicians who don't even have a high school diploma. Some were the very same teachers who taught me things that, now that I take a closer look every time I sit down, were useless things that I can't even count as knowledgeable.
But most of the people who used to sing that line—"education is the key to success"—weren't even my parents. And maybe somewhere along the way they may have told me the same thing, but I just didn't bother to care. Because apart from them, those people who sang it to me almost every single freaking day of my life… now this line has become my worst nightmare. And the worst part? I don't even need to sleep to have it.
Like I was saying, the very same people who always told me:
Make sure you do well in school. Make sure you get good grades. Make sure you get into one of the top colleges or universities. After that, I promise you you'll be working for a good pay, have a good home, and your life will be amazing.
And because I was stupid enough to believe them, I nodded my head and tip-toed to school every single day. And get this—the irony—I did everything they advised me to do.
I did get good grades.
I did study hard, to the point that I was one of the top students.
Everything was going amazing, and as the idiot that I am, I believed them and saw this perfect dream life.
It's safe to say that I was like a child who still believed in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny.
After studying and putting in work without even getting some well-deserved rest, trying to reach for that perfect beautiful illusion that I dared to call a dream, I gave my everything. Heck, to those who know me, they can say it's like I sold my life to the devil with the way I was going.
I missed out on a lot in life—from having good friends, experiencing a lot of things—and till this day, now that I'm a middle-aged man, I never had a relationship. I've never had my first kiss. I've never even seen how the opposite sex looks undressed. Meaning I'm a virgin.
And the only time I see those unrealistic supermodel girls is from the posters on my walls, or those corny sites that charge you an arm and a leg for a sensational feeling that only lasts a couple of minutes, and after you're done, you question your very existence.
After giving my all and getting the grades that were supposedly required to get into those universities, I applied everywhere… but no one really tells you that the only way you can be accepted is through a lot of things which, I presume, are illegal.
I even tricked myself into applying for a scholarship, but no. I wasn't the right candidate for those either. With rejection came desperation—the kind that, now that I think about it, crept around behind me and waited for me to be vulnerable… and I fell for it.
I may not have gotten that ideal scholarship, but at least I got the student loan that is now breathing down my neck with payments ten times bigger because of ridiculous interest rates. Because again—I was stupid enough to believe I could actually have that amazing dream job.
I enrolled in what may not be one of the top colleges, but decent ones. Since they didn't offer much, I had to go with getting my Psychology degree. Which, by the way, is now somewhere in the list of my useless trophies, certificates, and medals—now covered in dust and I'm sure home to hardworking spider parents trying to feed their thousand children.
Four whole years down the line, I graduated and earned my degree. But again—no one dared to warn us about the other problem that everyone is aware of but chooses to ignore because we're stupid enough to think we're "special."
We tell ourselves those who failed "didn't try hard enough."
Ha!
Just thinking about that makes me laugh.
I did everything. I tried everything. But the response was always the same. I got rejected because I couldn't pay off some higher greedy bastard to put me in a position. And the economy was on its way to the depths of the ocean—and still is.
Now here I am, working as a clerk in some godawful store where the boss is a godawful person. The worst part? The person I now call boss is a spoiled, arrogant little brat who is younger than me, ordering me around like I'm his servant. And as much as I don't want to admit it… I am one. After all, I run around doing everything he asks because I'm trying to get that paycheck at the end of the month.
And all that for the sake of "Education is the key to success."
Pure bullshit.
But I'm not trying to throw shade at the education system. I know it's doing the best it can… though they could do a little more.
So listen up, kids. Stay in school and give it your all.
Anyway, enough about that.
From my bad life, I had other things I used to do just to keep my head sane and my mind in one piece—and that was reading webnovels.
The ones where the protagonist lives an awful life and tries every single day to stand before even considering taking his own life. Then one day he plays hero and dives in front of a car to save a child from doom… only to be the one who kicks the bucket.
As much as he should be sad he lost his life, he turns out to be relieved because it means he won't have to face the cruel world anymore, despite being a nice guy who did everything he could to help people from his little town.
Then, just when he thinks it's all over, he finds himself reincarnated in a world with a long draggy-ass title like:
I Died Saving A Little Girl Who Won't Remember Me In The Future, And I Got Reincarnated In A World Full Of Magic As A Chef.
That title alone is awful, but then you take a chance reading it and it's one of the best webnovels ever written.
That's how I lived my life. I was a miserable forty-five-year-old man living in a one-room apartment with leakage everywhere. My everyday life was a nightmare. I was alone. I had no friends, no dog, not even a cat. I'm just… what you see is what you get.
My everyday life had the same boring schedule:
Wake up.
Wash up.
Dress up.
Eat if there was food.
Go to work.
Work who-knows-how-long and not get paid properly.
Go home.
Heat up stolen leftover food.
Sit on an old dead man's couch, prop my feet up, and read one of my favorite webnovels.
Webnovel title: Reincarnated As A Chivalrous Knight.
It was one of my favorites. Despite the insane magic system that the author may have oversold, what really hooked me was how the author used real-life premonitions. They were so accurate that the author had to remain anonymous because apparently he was spilling tea about secret government files and got threatened.
I've read a thousand webnovels, but this one was my favorite because it resonated with me. Before the main protagonist got reincarnated, he was unhappy and lived a boring life like mine. Then one day, in the wrong place at the wrong time, he gets killed.
Then he wakes up in a magic world not so different from his previous one—technology, style, the government's hierarchy. He finds himself in one of the poorest families ever, but he makes it up by having insane mana.
As he grows up, he becomes an unstoppable force—a kind of spy with a twist of magic. Think of a hitman fused with a king's style, but as a knight. He goes on dangerous missions, gets the girl, and eventually faces one of the baddest villains ever.
The webnovel was so popular that one of the biggest online streaming services considered making it an anime and even a live-action. But for some reason… that dream never came true. It all just died.
But the novel on its platform was doing great and generating a lot of money thanks to us fans.
Platform: Novel Reach
Webnovel Series: Reincarnated As A Chivalrous Knight
Views: 45.5M
Chapters: 2256
Rating: 4.8
Every single day I read that webnovel and spent my last dime unlocking chapters. Then out of nowhere, the author updated only one chapter per day. We didn't mind—we assumed he was busy with other stuff.
Then the schedule changed again. Now it was "one chapter sometimes." Then suddenly… he stopped uploading completely.
And that drove me insane. I was so mad at the author—how could he do this to me? I was hooked. Now I had caught up to the chapter where the protagonist was about to discover the real culprit who had been messing with both his timelines. The only thing I knew about the culprit was his name: The Governed.
And now the author stopped uploading. I was furious to the point that I wanted to write to him. So I opened my laptop, went to his Discord, looked at every update he'd ever posted—because that's where he used to communicate with us—but now there was nothing. His last message said that in Chapter 2257 and 2258 we were to expect a big reveal about The Governed.
But now? Radio silence. I spent hours going through every Discord chat group trying to see if anyone knew anything. But nothing.
Eventually the next day, I went to work. And, as always, I found my deadbeat boss waiting to bite my neck. But this time he looked angrier than usual—way uglier than the other days.
He was waiting for me in his office.
"I saw your text telling me you wanted to see me since it's my day off today. So what do you want?"
Already I was pissed off.
He was playing with those anxiety stress balls his therapist gave him. He may have been a twenty-six-year-old rich kid, but he still had unresolved issues to deal with.
"You need to work."