Rules are made to be broken.
‘Is this what they call a contrarian spirit?’
When someone says, “Don’t do it,” that’s precisely when you want to do it the most.
Anyone who’s played a game before would probably understand.
You never follow the creator’s intentions.
Instead, you find peculiar, unconventional answers to defy expectations.
After all, everyone has a bit of a rebellious streak in them.
Not that I particularly dislike clever exploits.
In my previous life, I was just an ordinary office worker.
As a gamer, though, I was more inclined to enjoy such out-of-the-box strategies.
***
At least, that’s what I thought.
But now, I found myself speechless, staring blankly at the scene before me.
What filled my mind wasn’t admiration, but a resounding thought: ‘This isn’t right.’
Carved into the gravestone in front of me was a riddle:
[In the morning, it walks on four legs; at noon, on two legs; and in the evening, on three. Tell me the name of this creature.]
A well-crafted puzzle. Simple enough for someone familiar with it to solve yet tricky for anyone else.
This space was clearly designed for those like Ciel, who had prepared it for conversation with others of her kind—or perhaps for the mysterious soul possessing me.
Only the two of us were meant to enter here.
But solving the riddle wasn’t even necessary.
The grandiose mage’s statue, the room’s atmosphere reminiscent of a sea of stars…
None of that mattered.
Because the lunatics I called students were swinging swords and maces wildly, heedless of their surroundings.
‘Breaking through walls?’ That was their chosen strategy.
“What’s in our way?”
“A wall!”
“Then destroy it!”
Their reasoning was astoundingly primitive.
The place was heavily enchanted, of course.
The suppression spells made it nearly impossible to exhibit even 1% of one’s normal strength.
This was essentially the creator saying, ‘Don’t use brute force. Solve the riddles to proceed.’
But my students weren’t normal.
They completely ignored such instructions and relied on their unique logic.
‘If it didn’t work with brute force, it must be because we didn’t use enough brute force!’
Thus, they came up with an absurd plan to rely on the saintess.
Using Cristiana’s power, they healed themselves after exhausting their limits with overwhelming magical enhancements.
Then they charged forward like berserkers.
It was as if every one of them had changed their class to a berserker.
All the hard work the sage had poured into designing these trials—
It was obliterated in an instant.
***
[First, confront your past.]
The spell was intricately crafted, impressive even to me.
The idea was to face your past flaws, acknowledge them, and grow mentally, enabling you to move forward.
A classic but meaningful trial awaited us.
Or at least it was supposed to.
Before the spell could even activate, they shattered the wall and walked straight through.
[Witness the impossible present.]
This trial was even more intriguing.
The enchantment would read the regrets of those who entered and fabricate an alternate future—a future that could have existed if they had chosen differently.
It made the illusion feel as real as if it were truly attainable, showing them how their mistakes had erased that happiness.
The condition for passing was to accept one’s choices, to acknowledge that while it might not have been the best choice, it was still the right one.
To decide not to dwell on regrets, but to move forward for the future.
But before the enchantment could activate, it was completely destroyed.
***
[Face the calamity that will one day come.]
This spell, though simpler than the others, held significant meaning.
It projected a vision of a ruined world to instill a sense of urgency and resolve in its audience.
After undergoing the previous trials, the protagonist and their party were supposed to find their resolve to prevent such a catastrophe.
At least, that’s how it was meant to go.
Instead, it was promptly obliterated with a single mace strike.
These efficiency-obsessed maniacs didn’t just skip the story—they crushed it.
‘How did such monsters come to exist?’
I paused for a moment, my thoughts catching on something.
Their obsession with shortcuts… Their extreme, single-minded behavior…
Their actions bore an uncanny resemblance to someone I knew.
A face formed clearly in my mind—the culprit responsible for ruining my students.
And yet, I deliberately chose to ignore it.
“…Don’t break that wall.”
***
[To those from my homeland, enter alone.]
Even this room, marked with a treasure symbol to kindly guide them, was about to face my students’ mindless destruction.
Surely, those children couldn’t have taken after me.
There’s no way the saying, “Like teacher, like student,” could apply here.
Refusing to accept reality, I pressed forward, step by step.
The sage was from the same origin as me.
In other words, they had prepared everything for a fellow Korean transmigrator.
What I had hoped for was perfect knowledge of the original story to solve all my problems.
But, to put it bluntly, the reality didn’t match my expectations.
Or maybe it was a match—just an ambiguous one.
Sure, there was information about the original story.
The problem was that it wasn’t helpful to me at all.
I frowned deeply, rereading the text carved into the wall.
***
[Transmigrated into a novel.
It’s something any web novel reader might have imagined at least once.
But as always, imagination and reality are different.
Of all things, I transmigrated into the story, but my memory of it is hazy.
Honestly, even I find this situation utterly pathetic.
But it’s not like I could do anything about it.
This is practically an act of God, isn’t it?
How many stories have I read? Across all genres?
Whether it’s premium, subscription-based, or parodies, I devoured them all.
I even resorted to translating overseas parody sites during the recent drought of good parody stories.
The fact that I could even identify the novel I’m in is nothing short of a miracle.
This is the one with that garbage ending.
The protagonist dies due to sheer bad luck.
The First Dragon uses up all its power to bring them back, falling into a deep slumber…
And during that gap, the final boss revives.
The final boss is absurdly strong, and the world ends.
I remembered the ending vividly, purely because it was so absurd.
Thanks to that, I realized this was the world of the novel.
At first, I wandered around, training and preparing for the future, worried I might get swept into the original plot.
But eventually, I realized the story starts hundreds of years after this point in time.
That gave me some peace of mind.
Still, I left advice in case another Korean transmigrator like me might stumble upon this place someday.
Just run away.
You can’t stop the final boss’s revival.
That thing can come back at any time—it’s just biding its time.
Frankly, there’s no chance of victory.
Your best bet is to get as far away from the Empire as possible.
Maybe build a bunker and focus on survival.
So don’t act recklessly—just run while you can.]
***
‘I already knew all of this.’
I had achieved my goal of acquiring knowledge about the original story.
‘The result?’
I had only confirmed how utterly screwed I was.
The sage had carefully planned everything, trying to raise the protagonist’s chances of achieving a happy ending, even offering secret advice to fellow transmigrators in Korean.
The sage’s arrangements were thoughtful, no doubt.
But they clearly hadn’t anticipated the unfortunate reincarnation of someone like me—someone who couldn’t run even if they wanted to.
Naturally, my face twisted in despair.
But for some reason, I felt a gaze on me.
I had entered this room alone, as instructed, yet I could sense someone watching me.
Before long, I spotted the source: a miniature pegasus.
A tiny, artificial spirit that looked like a mascot.
‘Could there still be something left? Could there still be hope for me?’
With those thoughts in mind, I looked at the spirit with anticipation.
***
[…In all my life, I’ve never seen such a lowly body. It seems annihilation is truly unavoidable.]
My hope was shattered in an instant.
The spirit’s first words were a sharp insult.
I turned back to the wall and noticed a small note left there.
[PS. I’ve left an artificial spirit here. It’s reliable, but its personality is tricky and temperamental, so I can’t guarantee you’ll manage to form a contract with it.]
***
[Cooperation is impossible. I’ll find my own way to survive. No offense, but… forming a contract with someone as incompetent as you would only make things worse.]
The spirit kept spouting rude remarks.
[A body so frail, it couldn’t become a swordsman even if it tried. A mana pool so pitiful that even a five-year-old girl would have more potential. Such a cursed physique.]
The spirit’s disdainful words poured out without pause.
[Forming a contract with you would only hold me back. There’s no mutual benefit here. Apologies for being blunt, but… you’re simply untalented. Don’t take it too personally.]
The spirit cringed and outright rejected me before I could even say anything.
Sure, it annoyed me, but it wasn’t a critical issue.
Given the situation, firing this thing was probably the best course of action.
There was no need to waste energy getting angry.
The correct course of action was straightforward.
I turned around and began walking away from the place.
Or rather, I tried to.
As I turned, my hand brushed against the spirit.
At that moment, it flared up, trembling as if in shock.
The expression on its tiny horse face was one of pure terror.
Cold sweat poured off its body like a waterfall.
[W-wait a moment!]
The spirit blocked my path desperately with its tiny hooves.
Its face was the picture of abject humiliation.
The small horse quivered and pleaded tearfully.
[P-please forget everything I just said! Can’t we start over and build a friendly relationship?]
The spirit’s voice was filled with desperation.
My next course of action was crystal clear.
I smiled faintly and kicked the little white horse.
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