1.2. Reborn a Demon

<Avner Cross>

Sentience came back to my senses, my consciousness flowed. I felt myself drop into some existence.

I opened my eyes. It was night. I rolled over and hugged my pillow as if it was the most natural thing I should do at this point. It's so comfy..

Pillow? That's familiar. What?

I jolted awake and pressed my hand to my forehead. I felt a little disoriented.

This.. isn't my body.

Then I noticed something at the corner of my vision. There were ominous purple outlines tracing the edges of my nails. I waved my hand around, the outline seemed to leave afterimages. That's sick but considering my situation, I shouldn't be playing.

I remember that my name is Shin Dew.

Or was.

I'm calm. Oddly enough. I'm not panicking. Was it because of this boy's constitution? I need to analyze what's going on.

Novelle died in an accident, in front of my very eyes. And somehow, because of her death, I died too? Did her death perhaps induce a cardiac arrest? That's not right.

I pondered for a moment.

And couldn't come up with anything so I did the next best thing.

I looked around.

This was an atypical room. It's got everything a teenager would want. Poster of some anime v-tubers, a lava lamp, and a good al' teddy bear. The place is quite clean.

The next question that came to mind was: is there a mirror? Apparently not, this wasn't a girl's room, so a mirror was a no go. I'm curious whose body I entered.

I got up from bed, and wore my glasses as if it were normal. I've never worn glasses. It's an odd feeling.

[Bzzt.. Master is awake?]

I turned to the 2D square thing on the top of the low cabinet. It was a cute file icon with a face, floating on the display of the glasses.

"Randell," that was the name this person gave the AI. Looks like I do have some of his memories.

Avner Cross. That's my new name.

[Master, what's wrong?]

From Avner's memories, he had programmed this AI to call him master. The factory setting was to just address the person by name.

"What's the time now?"

My voice sounded the same as I remembered it. Maybe it's to do with the: you sound different from how you actually do phenomenon.

[It's currently 4:44 am in the morning. Is there anything troubling you, master?]

Randell swam around in digital matter.

"It's nothing, I need to go to the washroom," I yawned even though I feel wide awake.

As I made my way out of the room, I went through Avner's memories.

A 15 year old junior high school student. Going to enter senior high school next year. Also aware that the world is entering a technological revolution, the industrial complex is going to die out soon, so Avner has been planning to make a living by becoming a NFT collector.

???

What kind of information was this kid exposed to– oh right.

This is the world of <Cookie Cult>, and this Avner guy isn't a mob character. He's actually one of the four male routes in this series. The real story starts in senior highschool. That would translate to next year.

It's otome, but here's the twist.

It's an otome set in the nearer future, where NFTs, blockchain, AR technology, cryptocurrency, and the crumbling of the middle class society are happening.

'The future now', was something Novelle had said.

Now I'm really glad I read the final draft for the third and half-written fourth volume before I arrived here.

I walked into the bathroom, the lights came on automatically. I saw Randell over at the light switch. Wow, so the entire house is rigged up to the AR network.

I looked at myself in the mirror.

I couldn't help but grimace.

Grey tuffy hair still messy from sleep, sharp blood red eyes. I'm a soon-to-be a protag shota.

No, sorry, I'm not short. So shota was a lie.

I took in a deep breath. My shoulders trembled.

[Master?]

"Randell, what date is today? And what are my school grades again?"

[Today's date is the 16th of October of 21XX, are you sure you want to bring up sad memories again, master?]

"Just tell me. All Fs right?"

[Master! At least you scored a C on English Literature!]

I held back from slapping the guy reflected in the mirror. Avner Cross, one of the four character routes you can take. Based on the concept of Novelle's story, he's the thug to the other 3 prince-charmings. Of course, that's just the base. The other twist is that the novel stars an MC who wakes up as a villain. So I have that to consider.

Rurita Nightingale, the original MC, the villain. Then she became a vampire.

Or at least, she contracted a vampire disease which was caused by an error in nanomachine technology. The basic gist of it revolves around the mutation of the pluripotent stem cells in the bone marrow, causing the creation of mutated stem cells that requires the nanomachine in the body to be kept alive.

Normal red blood cells last up to 120 days. And so the cells undergo a creation and destruction recycle process in the body. But for people infected with the nanovirus, it is said that hematopoiesis stops happening. Which is to put it simply, the cessation of the blood recycling process. On that note, the nanomachine, which was supposed to be for medical use, altered one's body in some unrealistic ways.

Improved recovery, alteration of the bone structures, and heightened physical ability.

I won't go too much into detail on the vampire disease. For now, just know that Novelle added a lot in detail.

The key plot here is the depiction of Rurita trying to hide the fact that she's a vampire. Though it was described in the prologue to catch the reader, the incident only happened after she had attended school for a week. By then, she had already regained her memories and was trying to change her fate.

Which turned against her favor.

Okay, what's next?

The possibility of the government wanting to wage war against the infected? The world enters an apocalyptic state? Vampires take over the world? Humans become livestock?

No. The disease is simply regarded as a dangerous pandemic that needed to be contained. That's all. It's a slice-of-life novel, mind you.

I looked at my hands one more time. The glowing lines on my finger tips only seem to grow brighter with each..

{REVITALIZATION OF SYSTEM}

{YOU ARE A DEMON}

{Length of service: 233rd reincarnation}

What the..

{AVNER CROSS_ DEMON_OF_THE_234TH_REINCARNATION}

{Memories of the previous life has been erased}

Memories of previous life? So the reason why Avner had all that crazy strength in the novel was because he has a system buff?

{Class Operative: FRIGATE}

{WARNING: PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE NEAREST DEMON ASSOCIATION TO BE OF SERVICE TO THE DEMON REALM}

{Karma: [CALCULATING..]}

What the hell.. you've got to be joking. I didn't know Avner had a backstory like this.

And here I thought reading up to the fourth volume would provide me enough information. I know there are a lot of red herrings spread across the initial three volumes about this character, but this? It's beyond the written story. Since I'm also Novelle's editor, I already know most of what to expect..

Hold on, what if Novelle's verbal ideas that hadn't been put into paper were also valid? If so then wouldn't it mean that Avner is involved in some angel-demon war?

[Master~?]

I let the automatic tap run and splashed water onto my face.

Avner is an enigmatic character that hasn't gotten his own arc in the story, yet.

Novelle was planning to give the reader a deeper dive into his world in the 5th Volume.

As such, I can only assume that most of what I know about Avner will not be from the written word, but from what Novelle has planned for the story.

"Novelle."

If you're in this world, I'll definitely come and find you.

{Karma: +254}

{You have contributed abundance to the well-being of human kind in your past life.}

Oh. That's nice to know. I wonder what benefits I would get.

{A penalty shall be granted.}

Fuck. That's right, I'm a demon.

{PENALTY A2sFFL9IA_a1)c$)_@(*)_7!1}

{Initializing interference system: PENALTY_CURSE_REMOVED}

Ah.. what? I recall Novell saying that Avner is afflicted with a curse. I just don't know what kind of curse.

{Find me, and call my name <Novelle>}

{I'm waiting}

I knew it.

{WARNING: PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE NEAREST DEMON ASSOCIATION TO ATONE FOR YOUR SINS}

"Looks like things aren't all hopeless after all.." I exhaled in relief.

Now I know, my prime objective is to find Novelle. Seriously, how did we end up in this world?

===

dotturndot: Oh, another one of these cliche moments. Ah, yep. The question now is will Avner be a passive recipient of what comes his way or will he be shitty obstinate? As the author, even I have no idea. There's the crazy phenomenon whereby the characters develop without my awareness. Hahaha– that's hella scary. Not.

What do you think? Aren't the AIs hella cute? A file icon you know? You should look at the illustration.