In the novels and games I used to consume daily like oxygen, there was a pattern—almost like a law of nature. Characters who found themselves thrust into fictional worlds— whether through possessing someone or reincarnating as a newborn, getting golden fingers—inevitably crossed paths with the main characters, the Heroes, the Heroines, the Chosen Ones bathed in supreme luck and narrative importance.
These encounters weren't mere coincidence. They were opportunities wrapped in heavenly fortune, golden tickets to greatness that any sensible person would clutch with both hands at all cost.
To know the flow of the world before it unfolds—to understand the script of reality itself—was to possess a power beyond mortal comprehension. It was like having a map to all of creation, every twist and turn laid bare before you.
I used to think I stood on the opposite end of the spectrum from words like "fortune" or "luck." My life, both then and now, had been painted in shades of regret so dark they seemed permanent. Stains that wouldn't wash out no matter how hard I scrubbed.
And yet, against all odds, a once-in-a-lifetime chance arrived at my doorstep.
But this once-in-a-lifetime chance was not like what i had expected before.
The moment I opened my eyes as an infant, the moment I took my first stumbling steps as a toddler, I knew, that this wasn't just some random world. This was that world.
The realization hit me like a sledgehammer to the gut. I had been reincarnated into the world of a game I played obsessively in my previous life. The evidence was undeniable: my face, despite being attached to a newborn body, was the somewhat same face I had before, just babyfied. Same features, same structure, just… smaller.
The game was called Savior of Light, though everyone shortened it to SoL. It was based on a web novel of the same name, a story about a high school student from Earth who gets isekai'd into the body of a noble's son and proceeds to clean up every crisis and incident that threatens the prestigious Starcrest Academy.
The game title alone conveyed everything one needed to know: this was a world absolutely riddled with hidden pieces—secret treasures, powerful artifacts, rare elixirs—all strategically placed here and there all for the sole purpose of helping protagonist's meteoric rise to power.
But there was a very big problem that made me want to call names to whoever dropped me here.
I reincarnated perfectly, without any problem. I was extremely happy at that time, even made many plans to how I'll rise to the top with all the heroines. but I only found out the actual truth later, the bitter truth.
When I was born, the protagonist didn't exist yet. Neither did the heroines. None of the playable characters had even been born yet.
The game's story begins with new students, including our Hero and Heroines, entering the Starcrest Academy on the 100th year since the Academy established. I did the math, counting backward from the academy's enrollment age, factoring in gestation periods and developmental years.
"Haa…" I exhaled slowly, staring up at the cracked ceiling of the hut I'd been born into.
"There's no hope."
Twenty-five years. I had opened my eyes in this world a full twenty-five years before the story was supposed to begin.
A quarter of a century too early.
If this had been your typical isekai cliché, I might have at least been born as some third-rate villainous noble—someone with resources, connections, a name that meant something. Sure, I'd probably be destined for a bad ending, getting used as whetstone for protagonist's fame, but at least I'd have a comfortable bed to sleep in while I figured out how to avoid it.
Instead, for reasons that could only be attributed to cosmic mockery, I had been born into a peasant family.
Not just any peasant family, either. A dirt-poor farming family barely scraping by on the edges of starvation, with Father being a drunkard whenever he was home and Mother being the crying, abused damsel-in-distress, both didn't care for me at all as i was just a mistake born by accident.
Playing SoLfrom the perspective of a noble character, I'd never truly grasped what life was like for the lower classes. The game had rendered them as background NPCs, faceless masses that existed only to make the world feel realistic, useless characters that can die at any moment and no one will notice, not even the Hero.
The reality was just like what I imagined too.
It was hell.
Years went by,
Continuous bad harvests plagued our region. Crops withered in the fields, and what little did grow was barely enough to keep us alive. I watched my parents—strangers wearing the faces of family—grow gaunt and desperate.
Then one day, at midnight, while going to the bathroom, I accidentally heard my parents talking instead of sleeping. I leaned in to the wall sneakily and listened to them, my father was talking , "It can't go on like this anymore, the harvest is going worse year after year. I don't even know how we will eat till the next month. We have to sell him, there's no other choice"
the moment I heard that my body immediately shivered, It felt like the midnight air around me was getting colder by the second, but I still continued to listen to them. My mother replied, "but is it really okay to sell him to Lane? You know how that guy is."
I was only shivering until this moment but after hearing that name, it felt my legs almost giving up.
Who was Lane?
He was the only somewhat rich guy living near this area. He was a lecherous guy. But that wasn't the problem, the problem was THAT FUCKER LIKED BOYS!!! YOUNG BOYS!! NOT WOMEN!!
My father replied, "who cares? We just need the money, with that guy's taste, I'm sure he'll like our boy. Although he was born because of your damn mistake, he can be useful to his parents once in his life at least this way"
Hearing them talk, I touched my butt and thought inwardly, NO!! I can't let myself get sold and get my ass destroyed!! I finally been reincarnated! and you are telling me this is my fate?? BULLSHIT!!
That moment I decided, I didn't wait to see if they'd go through with their plan.
That night, I packed up some necessary things and ran away. I ran as fast as I could.
I fled into the darkness of night with nothing but the clothes on my back and a heart full of bitter rage. As I stumbled through the unfamiliar wilderness, dodging roots and rocks, a single thought echoed through my mind:
This isn't the fantasy world I dreamed of!!
The irony was suffocating. I knew what was going to happen in the future. I had knowledge of hidden pieces—legendary elixirs tucked away in forgotten corners, powerful artifacts waiting to be claimed. I possessed information that should have made me invincible.
So why? Why did I have to live like this?
Why was I alone, cold, and terrified in a forest I didn't recognize, running from a family that saw me as a mistake?