Chapter Sixteen – Transferred from a Novel
Tokyo Eastern Forest Area, behind the poor neighborhoods.
(Tokito) understood what (The First Hand) meant. He wanted them to fight for no reason other than his amusement.
"Hah, this person is truly insane."
(Kanami) beside me said these words, but I did not listen.
My mind was working at its maximum possible capacity.
First, I am a person who transferred to this world only eight days ago. Therefore, in terms of abilities and combat arts, I am just an ordinary person.
The assessment was bleak. My combat power was essentially zero.
Beside me, Kanami possesses combat skills. In the end, he is a person who lived in the underworld, and in addition, he has the codename Specter, which, while not very famous, means he has dealt with some low-level criminals.
It might seem strange to ask him to fight a criminal who can use Spiritual Enhancement—the ability to raise body strength to non-human levels.
The main plan was to use flash grenades to confuse the ability (Stasis), and thereby defeat him because he has a weak body and relies heavily on his ability.
But at this moment, all that plan had gone down the drain.
Because this villain certainly possesses more than just one ability. He also has physical skills and superhuman reactions.
The game had changed. The cheat codes were outdated.
---
(Third-Person Perspective)
(Tokito) gives a subtle signal to Kanami and steps forward, emerging from the shrubs.
He moved slowly, pushing aside a low-hanging branch. The dry leaves rustled.
Swish. Crunch.
(The First Hand) looks at (Tokito) and says:
"It seems you have come out. What about your companion? Won't he come out as well?"
He looked at the shrubs close to the place from which (Tokito) had emerged, as if he could see Kanami. His tone was conversational.
Then he directed his speech towards (Tokito) with mockery.
"So, have you agreed to my offer? Will you kill the black-haired boy or not?"
It was an easy question, as if saying something taken for granted and not ordering them to kill someone.
But (Tokito)'s face did not change its calm features.
He raised his smartwatch and pointed to it.
"Do you know what this watch is? It is a GPS device and has a distress call device installed on it. I have pressed it."
He was explaining the features of this watch with all calmness, with details in his narration. His voice was steady, almost lecturing.
After that, he pointed to the subject.
"I have called for help, and they are certainly coming. Since you are a criminal, isn't that right, (The First Hand)?"
For the first time, even from under the mask, (The First Hand) seemed surprised.
Jolt. A subtle shift in his posture.
And said, genuinely interested:
"Oh? And how do you know my name, strange boy? I don't think we have met, because a face like yours certainly would not be unfamiliar to me or hard to remember, isn't that right?"
His curiosity was piqued. The mysterious knowledge was a hook.
"You have not known me before."
(Tokito) says while looking at (The First Hand), his mind working quickly.
"You master Spiritual Enhancement, isn't that right? I thought you were a criminal of Rank C. I still don't know how a low-level criminal could know such a method."
He was probing, testing his own theory, while also stalling for time.
At the same time, (Sasuke) was hearing this speech behind the tree and was astonished at how another student knew about Spiritual Enhancement.
This strange concept was still new to him, while the other student had said it as if he also mastered it.
(Tokito) was still speaking with all calmness, but (The First Hand) had raised his hand, and the knife was in it, and pointed at (Tokito).
Shink. The blade glinted.
"Alright, this is interesting. You not only know my rank as a villain, but you also know my name. This makes me suspicious, young man. You are more interesting than that boy who possesses multiple abilities."
And of course, (Tokito) realized he was referring to (Sasuke), but he didn't say anything and listened to the villain, who continued his speech while playing with the knife in one hand in a showy way.
He spun the knife around his fingers, the metal flashing.
"Who are you, little hero? You don't seem like that boy. You have a calmness I haven't seen before. In addition, I don't feel your heart beating at all. I even suspect you are dead from the start."
Spiritual Sensing is one of the spiritual abilities possessed by people who master Spiritual Enhancement. Through this technique, they can sense people from afar.
And this same technique is what allowed (The First Hand) to know that there were people behind the shrubs, and in addition, he was also able to know their number.
And now, as he looked at the young man in front of him, he felt that he didn't seem to be breathing at all, but was calm in a suspicious way.
"I am honestly breathing and breathing well. But I find that something interesting has happened now."
(Tokito) says this while seeming surprised, yet his face does not show any surprise, as if frozen.
My internal panic was a hurricane, but my face was a placid lake. Years of office politics had prepared me for this.
"And what is this thing that surprised you to this intense degree?"
(The First Hand) asked, of course, in a sarcastic and completely unserious style.
"You don't seem like the information I have. Your strength, speed, skills, and even your speech style are different from the information I collected. And this matter makes me feel as if things are increasingly strange."
I laid out the discrepancy, hoping to confuse him, to make him question his own reality as I was questioning mine.
(The First Hand) hummed.
Hmm.
But at the same time, he said:
"You have not only information, but you also know my style and my favorite things? What should I say, which of us is the villain here? Don't you know there is privacy among people?"
Like a person who is surprised that someone is crossing his privacy, (The First Hand)'s reaction. But at the same time, it was clear that he did not mean any of this; rather, he seemed uninterested in everything.
But his eyes behind the mask became sharper, and his voice became somewhat more serious.
(Tokito) felt that.
…
The next moment, (The First Hand) had disappeared from his place and became close, a distance of one meter from (Tokito).
There was no blur, no sound of movement. One moment he was leaning against the tree ten meters away, the next he was there, his torn suit not even rustling.
Shh-fwoom.
In the same moment, a flash grenade was thrown into the air.
Kanami, reacting to my subtle signal or his own instincts, had acted. The grenade materialized in the air between us and the villain.
Fwip.
It exploded at the same moment.
CRACK-BANG!
(The First Hand) reacted with a simple movement; he turned and avoided looking at the light.
His head turned away, his eyes averted, his body already pivoting to present his side to the blinding flash.
At the same time, (Tokito) used his special ability (Cloud Formation).
He thrust his hands forward, palms out. Not aiming for an attack, but for obscurement.
Forming a barrier of white fog in the area.
From his palms, not puffs, but a torrent of dense, white mist erupted. It wasn't a cloud; it was a localized, rapidly expanding fog bank. It billowed outwards with surprising speed and volume, fed by his panicked, inefficient dumping of spiritual energy.
That fog covered an area of 10 meters in counted seconds.
The world vanished into a swirling, opaque whiteness. The trees, the villain, the light from the fading flashbang—all were swallowed.
Fssssssshhhhh…
After that, (Tokito) activated the basics of controlling spiritual energy and activated Spiritual Enhancement.
After intensive training to understand the basics, especially since he understood some things regarding manipulating spiritual energy from the manga, he understood the foundation of strengthening the body.
It was crude, theoretical, practiced alone in his room for a few desperate hours. He had no idea if it would work.
He spread spiritual energy throughout his entire body.
He focused on that internal wellspring, that tingling reservoir, and instead of pushing it out to form clouds, he forced it inward, into his muscles, his bones, his nerves.
A warm, electric sensation coursed through him, unfamiliar and thrilling.
All his powers rose by 10% to 20% in one second.
It wasn't much, but it was something. His senses sharpened slightly. The fog seemed less disorienting. His limbs felt lighter, more responsive.
He accelerated his steps.
He didn't run at the villain. He ran away, towards the treeline where (Sasuke) and Kanami were.
He grabbed a rock and threw it towards (The First Hand).
A pathetic, desperate distraction. The rock, empowered by his slight enhancement, flew with more force than he could normally muster.
Whizz-THUD.
(The First Hand) sensed the movement of the air even if he couldn't see through the fog. He used the knife and struck the stone.
Clang!
The rock shattered into dust.
Then he used sensing to know the location of (Tokito).
His spiritual sense reached out, a sonar pulse in the white void. He would pinpoint me, freeze me, end this.
But in the next moment, while he was holding the knife, suddenly the knife disappeared from under his hand.
Kanami's work. The Thief ability, used with precision. A teleportation theft from within the fog.
(The First Hand)'s eyes widened from the surprise.
Jolt.
And after that, he smiled.
Even through the mask and the fog, the shift in his aura was palpable—amused delight.
But at the same time, another flash grenade became in the place of the knife.
Kanami hadn't just stolen the weapon; he had replaced it with one of his own flash grenades, primed and teleported into the villain's grip.
The swap was seamless.
Click-hum.
All of that had happened in less than a second.
With a boom sound, the light exploded directly in the face of (The First Hand).
CRACK-BANG!
The explosion was dazzling to the extent that it scattered the white fog that had spread.
The fog bank was torn apart by the shockwave and light, revealing the scene in strobing flashes.
But even so, after the light ended and the fog disappeared, (The First Hand) stood in the place.
He wasn't frozen or blinded. He had closed his eyes and turned his head at the last possible microsecond, the enhanced reflexes saving him from the full brunt.
His eyes became red.
A literal, glowing crimson light emanated from behind the ceramic fingers of his mask. It was a sign of activated power, of intense focus, or perhaps of rage.
And he said in an enjoying and disbelieving voice:
"These… they are terribly fun. The novel I transferred to… it really has a group of dangerous characters. That's why I agreed to transfer to it."
The words hung in the suddenly clear, smoke-tinged air.
Transferred.
Novel.
The words struck (Tokito) like physical blows.
His own internal screaming reached a fever pitch. What did he just say?
---
The sound of running belonging to three people seemed to be accelerating quickly.
The moment the fog cleared and the villain was momentarily disoriented, the signal had been given. (Tokito) had yelled a single, choked word: "RUN!"
In first place was the white-haired young man who was using Spiritual Enhancement, which increased his physical speed and strength.
His enhanced legs pumped, carrying him over roots and through bushes with a clumsy but desperate speed. The 10-20% boost was the difference between a jog and a sprint.
They were all accelerating over a short distance.
While the black-haired young man seemed to be panting, nevertheless, his wounds were bleeding, all superficial wounds, so he didn't find a problem keeping up with the runners.
(Sasuke) ran with a pained, limping gait, but the fear of death was a powerful motivator. He clutched his hatchet, his black eyes wide.
At the same time, the other young man was looking several times behind him with a sharp look before returning to running with great calm, maintaining his running pace, ready for any attack from behind.
(Kanami) was the rearguard, his head on a swivel, his green eyes scanning the forest behind them for pursuit.
In the end, they exited the forest because the distance was not far.
They burst from the treeline onto a cracked service road, the sudden sunlight blinding after the gloom of the woods and fog.
After entering the poor neighborhood, they went directly and hid inside one of the buildings.
It was a crumbling, two-story structure that looked like an old shop, half of it shattered long ago. The windows were boarded up, the sign illegible. They scrambled through a broken side door.
Crunch-scramble-thump.
The three had arrived there.
The black-haired young man, who was (Sasuke), had sat on the ground and leaned against the wall and began breathing calmly, trying to regain his normal breathing.
But even that was difficult because his face was red from exertion and pain.
Huff… huff… wheeze…
(Tokito) was the calmest. His body did not seem as if it was sweating.
A lie. Cold sweat plastered his shirt to his back. His palms were slick.
Nevertheless, his heart was beating with great strength.
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
He couldn't believe the information he had obtained from the system, which had made him astonished, but that was not reflected on his face.
While (Kanami) was looking from the direction of the door and waiting for anything unexpected.
At the same time, he was looking at (Tokito) several times, but in the end, he returned to monitoring the buildings outside.
His knife was back in his hand, retrieved after the fog dispersed.
(Sasuke Kiseki), who was trying to regain his breathing, said in a fragmented voice:
"Thank you. If not for your plan, I would be dead already. I am truly indebted to you."
He was looking at (Tokito) and after that at Kanami and saying that with seriousness.
At the same time, he meant that because moments before their escape, upon hearing the villain's demand, he had been afraid they would become his enemies. In that case, he would not have survived.
He felt that villain with the ability to make a person still in place meant what he said and wanted to kill him for a reason beyond (Sasuke)'s understanding.
But at that moment, a quick message had reached him. It came as if transferred from another place.
It had been written in it: Stay ready. When the fog descends, prepare to run. But before that, try to do anything to distract that man.
After reading the message, he could only feel that the two wanted to escape and wanted to help him as well.
Therefore, the moment the fog launched, he did not hesitate and threw his hatchet with all his strength towards the man with the ability to make people still.
He threw it using his ability Sharpening Enhancement, and in addition, he used another ability he had copied before, which was Visual Focus, which was the reason that allowed him to know the man's location accurately.
When he did his task, he started running in the direction that was indicated. In the end, he was able to escape from that danger, even if it seemed like a miracle.
But nevertheless, (Sasuke) was sincere in his thanks because he was sure he was going to die.
He looked at the two strangers—the unnervingly calm white-haired boy and the sharp-eyed, silent one with sky-blue hair—with a mixture of gratitude and intense curiosity.
Who were they? And how did they know so much?
---
(Tokito), still leaning against the opposite wall, trying to make his breathing look normal, met (Sasuke)'s gaze. His mind was reeling, not from the escape, but from the villain's final, world-shattering words.
The novel I transferred to.
The pieces, horrifying and absurd, began to click into place.
It wasn't just him. There was another. A transmigrator. But not a reader like him. A character? Transferred into a villain? Or… something else?
The world wasn't just a manga he had read. It was a novel someone else was reading? A story within a story? A nesting doll of narratives, and he was stuck in the middle layer?
The implications were terrifying, incomprehensible.
He looked at his hands, pale and trembling slightly. He had used Spiritual Enhancement. He had formed a fog bank. He had, however barely, survived an encounter with a villain who was not who he was supposed to be.
The safe, predictable script was ashes.
He was no longer a cheat-code user in a known game. He was a lost piece on a board where the rules were being rewritten by another player.
---
──────────────────────
End of Chapter.
──────────────────────
Author's Note:
Thank you for reading as the layers of reality peel back to reveal an even more terrifying meta-truth.Your steadfast readership is the only constant in this recursively fictional nightmare. ❤️ :)
──────────────────────