I Became the Terminally Ill Character in My Friend’s Academy Novel – Chapter 3

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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When I opened my eyes, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling.

Oh? This felt like being in a novel.

“Ugh, shiiiit…!”

As if in retribution for my frivolous joke, a sharp pain shot through my body the moment I tried to get up.

I wanted to roll around, but I knew that would only bring me more pain, so I endured.

Honestly, I thought depleting my innate Qi would just result in severe fatigue, but this was just another level.

I could guarantee that even stubbing my pinky toe on a door frame and then stepping on a Lego brick wouldn’t hurt this much.

If it was just pain, I could have endured it somehow, but the dizziness and nausea made it the worst.

After writhing in pain for a while, I heard a strangely familiar voice as the pain seemed to subside.

-The Creator is displeased with you.-
-You have twisted the fate of this world.-
-The Creator has acknowledged the changes you have made in this world.-
-You must lead the world to a more complete ending.-

Hmm.

Honestly, if that Creator was really my friend, I thought he’d create more of a commotion, but he let it go rather quietly.

Or maybe there were some restrictions on him, preventing him from acting however he wanted.

If my friend had written those system messages himself, they would roughly translate to:

-Why are you messing with my novel?-
-You twisted the plot!-
-Fix it or do whatever you want.-
-If you’re so great, try making it more interesting than what I wrote.-

That brat. He was sulking.

Actually, I hadn’t planned on doing anything else, but since something as novel-like as entering a novel happened to me, I needed a goal.

“Hey, can I go back after seeing this through to the end?”

I asked the empty air wondering if I’d get a response, but nothing came back.

Figures.

That nasty personality of his wouldn’t just disappear.

Just as I thought I was out of things to do, the door opened and someone entered.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

The face was unfamiliar, but not entirely unknown to me.

She was definitely the female student who had been standing next to me in the auditorium before the terrorist attack.

She wore glasses and had her voluminous hair tied in two braids, giving her a quiet and demure appearance.

“Uh, so, you were next to me in the auditorium, right…?”

“Ah, my name is Chae Yoo-jin.”

“Right, I’m Kang So-hyun. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, yes, nice to meet you too. Do you remember what happened? You suddenly collapsed, and Mr. Lilac brought you to the infirmary.”

Lilac? As expected of the protagonist, he’s so kind.

It was questionable whether bringing an unconscious person to the infirmary was the normal thing to do, but well, I had no visible external injuries, and the academy infirmary was supposedly better than most hospitals, so it could be considered a reasonable judgment.

“He wanted to wait until you woke up, but he was called for an interview with a broadcasting station.”

Oh, a broadcasting station interview?

Well, it was a pretty cool scene.

I didn’t see it clearly because I was unconscious, but the image of a golden flash cleaving through the black flames and spreading light was enough to make anyone feel its holiness.

“Mr. Yoo-hak and Mr. Lilac are apparently receiving commendations. They’ve earned achievements even before officially starting their classes.”

“Oh, that’s amazing.”

“And also…”

Hmm, I tried to feign ignorance, but it seemed like she would bother me all day if I did.

Normally, I would have dealt with it appropriately, but I had a headache and wanted to be alone for now.

“Excuse me, Yoo-jin… It was Yoo-jin, right?”

“Yes…?”

“Do you have something to ask me? Or did the nurse ask you to check on me? I’m fine now, so you can go.”

“Ah, it’s nothing much, but can I ask one thing?”

“No, you can’t.”

“Okay, so… huh?”

“I just woke up after collapsing, so I’m feeling dizzy right now. I don’t think I can answer anything.”

“But you just said you were fine?”

Oh, she’s unexpectedly sharp.

“That’s because I felt bad making you wait. Anyway, thanks for waiting for me to wake up. I’ll definitely repay you when the semester starts.”

As if flustered by my stonewalling, she started fidgeting exaggeratedly.

Wow, as expected of a novel written by my friend, even the extras not in the original were over the top.

“Uh, no, wait! I can’t stand it when I have questions!”

“That’s your problem. You need to learn to hold back your curiosity in society.”

I know what you’re thinking. How can I be so dismissive when I don’t even know what the question is?

But listen.

My instincts as a veteran web novel reader of over 10 years were telling me that the first character to show interest in someone who had just been transmigrated is usually troublesome.

And I had no information on this character, presumably because she was supposed to die in the original?

It was clear that answering her question would just triple the trouble.

If anyone wanted to bet on this certain future, I could seriously wager Cheon Yoo-hak’s hand.

What? Cheon Yoo-hak was so talented he could probably live just fine with one hand.

“Excuse me.”

“Ah, not interested.”

“Please don’t treat me like a street vendor! Is it really that hard to answer one question!?”

“Yes, it is.”

Huh? What if I became known as a rude jerk?

That was better than having all sorts of people clinging to me.

At least until April when the academy classes officially start, I wouldn’t have the energy to be nice to anyone.

And it wasn’t entirely a lie that I was in pain.

“It was you, wasn’t it?!”

Oh, shit.

I struggled so hard not to hear it, but she just blurted out her question anyway.

My downfall was being deceived by her demure appearance and not covering my ears sooner.

I couldn’t pretend to be deaf now, could I?

From now on, I have to carry wireless earphones.

If I had wireless earphones, I could have just said, “Huh? What did you say? Sorry, I didn’t hear you~” and moved on.

But what? ‘It was you, wasn’t it?’

“I was right next to you, so I saw everything. Mr. Lilac suddenly became stronger the moment something flashed from your hand.”

Oh, shit.

I was sure I checked my surroundings before using it.

“And you’re lying down right now because of the backlash!”

“No, I’m not…?”

“If you don’t tell me the truth, I’ll spread rumors.”

“You’re a bad girl unlike how you look…”

“On the other hand, if you tell me the truth, I won’t tell anyone.”

Seriously, if she saw it with her own eyes, she should just accept it. Why did she need confirmation?

“Why did you do it?”

“…What?”

What? Was she a crazy psychopath? Did she mean I should have let everyone die?

As if reading my expression, she quickly waved her hands.

“No, I mean… it’s obviously a burdensome ability, so if you keep quiet about it, no one will know. On the other hand, Mr. Lilac became a hero thanks to you and even received a commendation. Isn’t that unfair? Half of the credit… Well, not half, but some of it belongs to you, So-hyun.”

Wasn’t I upset?

“No.”

I hadn’t thought about it that way.

I regretted it because it hurt like hell, but other than that, I had no desire for what might follow.

Maybe it was because it hadn’t sunk in yet that I was inside a novel, or maybe it was because I wasn’t interested in the protagonist’s position in this crappy, failed novel.

“Why? Are you the type to scheme behind the scenes? Or do you have some other ulterior motive? Or are you just a naive idiot?”

This girl seemed to have a pretty serious delusion.

However, telling a delusional person “You’re quite delusional, haha, think whatever you want!” wasn’t a good choice.

So, wouldn’t it be better to give her a plausible answer?

But when I tried to answer her, I couldn’t think of anything appropriate to say.

She wouldn’t be satisfied if I just answered with “Just because.”

And I couldn’t just tell her I got transmigrated into a novel. I wasn’t confident that I could handle the snowball effect that would follow such a statement.

“Hello?”

The reason I stayed quiet after helping Lilac.

I was probably the second person who knew this world best.

Except for my friend, the author and creator, I could confidently say I knew this world better than anyone else.

Therefore, I also knew the events the main characters would face in this novel.

I recalled the trials they faced that were too heavy for students to bear and the characters who were sacrificed for their growth.

When I encountered them as text, I only felt a slight discomfort, but now that this was the world I had to live in, it was a different story.

One of the reasons was selfishness and a desire to avoid seeing the world and its characters suffer— my friend had spent many sleepless nights creating them, after all.

Simply put, I didn’t like depressing stories.

I thought it was good to laugh when you could, and a happy ending, even if cheesy, was the best.

So, if I had the ability to make it happen, I would do my best to make it so.

Since I had received permission, albeit not explicitly, I might as well try to fix this world and make it a decent place.

So, to sum it up.

“He seemed like my friend’s son.”

“…Huh?”

“I helped him because he seemed like my friend’s son, and it looked like he was going to suffer. It’s not that strange, is it?”

“Excuse me, So-hyun, how old are you?”

“I’m the same age as you.”

My inner self was a bit older, but at least I wasn’t old enough to have a son like my friend.

“You’re seventeen, why are you acting like an old man?”

I wasn’t old enough to be called an old man yet.

…Was I really?

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“This is the security footage, Chairman.”

“Hmm, it’s a shame the quality isn’t very good. But it’s enough to make out what’s happening, so it’s fine. Good work. It must have been difficult.”

The woman called Chairman looked at the low-quality footage for a moment and smiled.

“Some very interesting students have entered the academy, don’t you think?”

It wasn’t perfect, but for a prospective student who hasn’t even officially enrolled yet, their response to the sudden terrorist attack was more than sufficient.

Well, of course, she already knew about the two who were currently being interviewed.

They were the protagonists of the unprecedented event of both achieving top scores simultaneously.

They were truly geniuses bestowed by the heavens.

However, that wasn’t what she found the most interesting about this footage.

A student, still just a rough gem, cutting Hellfire with a sword?

Even a passing dog would laugh at such a fantasy, but it was clearly recorded in the security footage.

However, it was also true that Lilac’s prowess up until that moment wasn’t at that level yet.

That meant either Lilac was hiding his power for some reason, or some other factor was at play. In her opinion, it was clearly the latter this time.

“Cathy, you erased the original footage completely, right?”

“Yes, no one else will have the same footage.”

“Good work.”

Lilac’s expression seemed surprised by the power he wielded.

And a little further away, a black-haired boy was watching Lilac.

Due to the poor quality of the footage, she couldn’t see him clearly, but his expression definitely wasn’t filled with fear.

Yet, she heard that he fainted from fear as soon as the incident was over.

“Did he really faint from fear?”

She considered Lilac and Cheon Yoo-hak treasures, but not a huge jackpot.

“Come to think of it, I heard he said something that sounded like he predicted the terrorist attack. I’m curious.”

Her philosophy was that an unpredictable gain, like an unexpected winning lottery ticket, was closer to a jackpot than a predictable treasure.

Of course, like most lottery tickets, the probability of winning was infinitely small, but this lottery ticket strangely made her anticipate something.

“Now, which one will this student be?”

Cathy, the woman standing like a secretary, offered a silent prayer for the unfortunate boy who had caught the Chairman’s eye.

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T/N – I laughed at the sudden tantrum the so-called “Creator” threw at the beginning. Also, I hope the MC gets over his aversion to changing the plot. The fact that he lived through the prologue already changes a lot of things, so there’s no point in clinging to the plot.

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.