II was panicking.
Like, full-on meltdown mode.
One minute I was walking down the street, minding my own business—and the next? Boom. Explosion. Then poof. Nothing.
And now… now I was in the body of some random teenage kid?
What the actual hell?
Before I could even begin to process the sheer horror of not being me, I heard footsteps. Sharp ones. Approaching fast.
Panic: Level 2 unlocked.
What was that?!
I whipped my head around, heart thundering like a drumline on six shots of espresso. The room was dim, shadows curling in every corner like they had beef with me. Then—creak—the door swung open. Slowly. Like it was auditioning for a horror movie.
The door opened all the way now.
People stood in the doorway, blinking at me like I was the ghost here. Their expressions screamed "confusion overload." I didn't blame them—I probably looked like I'd just time-traveled out of a firecracker factory.
Then someone flicked on the lights and—holy crap.
The room lit up like a palace. No joke. Cream-colored walls with gold accents, a chandelier that definitely had a better credit score than I ever did, and a carpet so soft I was 85% sure it was made of unicorn fluff. Was this a luxury hotel? Did I die and get reincarnated as some billionaire's awkward teen son?
I just stood there like an idiot. Arms? Useless. Legs? Purely decorative. I was one panic wave away from becoming a permanent statue.
Then, bam—a man and a woman rushed in.
"Sweetheart! What happened? Are you okay?"
The woman pulled me into a hug so tight I'm pretty sure my internal organs filed for divorce. The man looked half-relieved, half-suspicious—as if debating whether to call a doctor or an exorcist.
I blinked. Multiple times.
Wait... are these his—I mean, my—parents?
Oh no. This just got weirder.
Before I could even mumble an awkward reply, it hit me.
HEADACHE. Not just any headache. I'm talking "lightning bolt to the brain" level pain. I stumbled, clutching my head, eyes blurring like someone smeared Vaseline on my vision.
"Get the doctor!" someone shouted.
The maybe-mom was doing something near my face, but everything was too fuzzy to tell. And just when I thought things couldn't get worse—
BAM.
A flood of memories crashed into my brain. Not mine. His. Mine? Ugh. I had no idea anymore.
Faces, names, emotions, moments—like binge-watching someone else's life on 10x speed with no pause button. My knees buckled. The pain surged. My brain felt like it was folding in on itself like a sad origami swan.
And then—black.
I passed out like a total drama queen.
---
When I came to, it felt… weird.
Like a fairytale prince waking up after a cursed nap—but with way more confusion and none of the charm.
I looked around. Yep. Still inside this guy's body.
And then the real horror set in.
I remembered everything. Not just random memories—everything that made him who he was.
And it messed with my head.
Was I still me? Or was I becoming him?
The memories blurred the line, pulling me in, making me question myself. I could feel his thoughts mixing with mine, his emotions weaving into mine like some twisted psychological smoothie.
But here's the kicker.
His name?
Rayan Aryan. Heir to the House of Aryan—one of the most powerful, elite ruling families in this entire world.
Yeah. No pressure.
He was sixteen now. Which, great—high school awkwardness AND identity crisis. Just what I needed.
And this world? It was like Earth, but with a twist.
A modern fantasy world, filled with cars, cities, smartphones… and something else.
Aether.
Yeah, like the mana or ki you see in anime and fantasy novels? Same deal. Aether is the energy source here. It powers the supernatural. The gifted. The terrifying.
But that's not even the weirdest part.
Because I realized something else. Something truly facepalm-worthy.
I've read this story before.
This entire world—it's from a novel I read back in my old life.
And not even a good one.
It was some second-rate webnovel with cringe-level writing, clichés stacked on clichés, and a hero who fought demonic forces to save the world like he was on some discount shonen arc.
So yeah. I got isekai'd…
Into a trash novel.