I was going around in my room as my thoughts wandered. Now that I had a grasp of my situation, I needed to make sure of some things.
I picked up a white bracelet atop the drawer. It automatically attached itself on my wrist as if it were alive, even when that happened I didn't even flinch because Ray-I was already used to this.
The bracelet had a simple design, nothing special could be seen from a first glance but this thing isn't a simple accessory.
I twisted my wrist and a hologram appeared out of thin air.
It showed-
====
Labyrinth Year [59]
[*Ray's Profile Picture]
Identification: Ray Irisville
Age: 16
Sex: Male
Affiliation: Uvelia Academy
Class Program: Delver
Year: 1st-Entrant
Dive Record: N/A
Delver Rank: N/A
====
"I see.."
I nodded in response to the details displayed on my User ID. I already knew what was written on my ID based on my memories but I still wanted to make sure since my sense of disbelief hasn't completely disappeared yet.
'...1st year entrant..'
"So it's true that there's three weeks before I get admitted in Uvelia Academy"
Based on what I remember, I had already passed the entrance exam for one of the most prominent delver academies in the world which was Uvelia, named specifically after the first ever Labyrinth delver of the world and more exactly the nation of Durevellis.
"Well I couldn't have possibly passed that exam on my own....that old man obviously did something.."
I gritted my teeth in frustration as the annoying face of that old man appeared on my mind.
"...Sigh~..that's not important right now. Three weeks left huh"
I recollected myself as I began to fear for the future.
Uvelia Academy is the place where the main cast of the story will be going to, mostly because it's considered as the best out of the 15 other academies just like it.
In this version of Earth, there's 15 labyrinths and the focal point of the story is to conquer these things in order to bring an end to the apocalypse. Hence humanity alongside the other races banded together and decided to form organizations regarding diving inside to explore and conquer all of it.
As time passed and as the people figured out more about how the labyrinths worked, they became more adept and organized in tackling diving inside these hellholes. Eventually academies formed to educate and train the younger generations on how to explore and essentially improve and grow as heroes of the world which they gradually referred to as delvers.
That's the gist of how it came to be, if one wants to become a delver, one must first enter an academy of their nation as a trainee before they officially become a delver. Of course, they aren't considered as real delvers in the eyes of the professionals as it is mostly the job of guilds and the alliance to dive.
The academy just allows students to enter the upper layers as they want to essentially train them after all, the real action is way down below. Even if that is the case, students still die inside and outside of the labyrinths.
It's that dangerous to be in the academy but in my situation it becomes a literal minefield since death flags are all over that freaking school. As the supposed wingman of the story, I'm going to get dragged around to dangerous places and events as the story advances and this is all because I originally hanged around the protagonist and Co.
"But if I don't keep an eye on that fool, he'll fucking die"
It was dilemma that I needed to really address.
As far as I knew, at the start both me and the MC are literal trash, on top of that we were hated and mocked by the whole school although for entirely different reasons. It's the very definition of an uphill battle and that's also the reason why they became friends in the first place.
They helped each through the hard times as both of them grew stronger but that trend quickly became one sided as the MC became more and more powerful as the story went on.
He built up literal harems and had unreasonable power ups in my opinion.
'The author is an asspull for that nonsense. In addition to that, he got all those beautiful girls all over him and he doesn't even touch an inch of their skin. Hell dude! where's the follow up? Don't waste Ray's assist!'
"Lucky bastard..."
I tried reeling in my unfounded jealousy because all of that hadn't even happened yet, most of all that isn't the least of my problems.
The story ended up leaving Ray in the dark as a disposable character, he even died in the middle of the story for god's sake.
'...Well at least the protagonist ain't a backstabbing bastard..'
Although I was bitter of my supposed fate, I didn't hate the guy at all since he at least tried to save me in the end. I understood it was the story's fault if I end up like that and that my role was equally as important when this world became my reality.
"..." I clenched my hands as I sat down on a chair.
I looked at the goggles atop the table, something that Ray-that I held dear. His words replayed inside my head.
(Son, venture out and find your dream)
'..I will, this time for sure...' I swore
If I ever want to live freely and as I want, my first priority is to prevent the protagonist from dying up to the middle arcs of the novel.
'Which means I have to get close to him as originally narrated'
I knit my brows in annoyance as the thought of playing that role disgusted me to my core.
"Well I don't need to be his bestfriend technically. I just need to be at the right moment and at the right place to save his ass"
It wasn't every time that Ray was needed to save the protagonist from his doom, so I just needed to time it right. The problem was I had to get close to him if I need to be in that exact events. I didn't really want to do that but I just had to swallow my pride for just about the middle arcs.
Until then I'll play along on this arrangement. I already decided that I'm going to survive this story with my own power but many things were still unknown of how my actions would affect the future so I needed a back-up to ensure that I don't end up dooming the world.
That backup is the protagonist.
'Then the next one would be-'
The second priority would be powering myself up. I needed to really boost my strength and maximize my potential at all cost cause if I don't I'll be screwing myself all over again.
The problem was that this guy doesn't have that much to offer to begin with, in the novel, he did become stronger but that didn't amount to anything all because-
"He couldn't proceed beyond the middle arcs, if he did then..."
A grinned formed on my face as I relished the fact that I kept reading this novel all the way to the latest volume. The knowledge about the future really is a convenient thing to have, specially in my case.
I nodded in agreement to the overall plan as I finished changing from my pajamas. I wore a white t-shirt and black pants as I combed my slightly spiky pink hair. I had also put on my signature round black rimmed goggles on my head.
I looked intently at the man reflected in the mirror, a youth of above average height and having a typical lean body type. There I was, the wingman of Destiny's Play.
"Damn....I'm unnecessarily flashy for a disposable character though"
Ray's face could be described as handsome but in a flashy kind of way, which could be interpreted as either cute or annoying.
"Hell I wish I had this kind of mug in my previous life~"
This was the only thing that fans of the novel really liked about Ray, most of them were fangirls and yaoi fans though.
"Ughh!~"
I cringed as I imagined those cursed fanarts.
'I can't believe that I would have the leisure of thinking about being shipped at this point of my life, sigh'
"Now then-"
I faced the door of my room, it's been two hours since I got up and made sense of my situation so it may be about time I handled this next big thing.
I needed to grind and find some way to raise my survivability for my remaining time before the canon starts, so taking care of those pricks will come first.
*Knock knock
Someone knocked at the door repeatedly, rudely at that as if they intended to break the damn door.
"Young Master, breakfast is ready, please wake up. Your family is awaiting your presence"
A feminine voice came from behind the door
'Heh, family....'
I smirked in disgust as the thought of meeting them made my mood drop.
Alas I needed to deal with them first if I want freedom to move as I want.
"Tell them I'm coming"
"I shall young master"
I breathed out as I clutched the doorknob of my room.
"Let's do this"
The door to a new world opened as I stepped out, resolve reflected in my sky blue eyes.
I was going around in my room as my thoughts wandered. Now that I had a grasp of my situation, I needed to make sure of some things.
I picked up a white bracelet atop the drawer. It automatically attached itself on my wrist as if it were alive, even when that happened I didn't even flinch because Ray-I was already used to this.
The bracelet had a simple design, nothing special could be seen from a first glance but this thing isn't a simple accessory.
I twisted my wrist and a hologram appeared out of thin air.
It showed-
====
Labyrinth Year [59]
[*Ray's Profile Picture]
Identification: Ray Irisville
Age: 16
Sex: Male
Affiliation: Uvelia Academy
Class Program: Delver
Year: 1st-Entrant
Dive Record: N/A
Delver Rank: N/A
====
"I see.."
I nodded in response to the details displayed on my User ID. I already knew what was written on my ID based on my memories but I still wanted to make sure since my sense of disbelief hasn't completely disappeared yet.
'...1st year entrant..'
"So it's true that there's three weeks before I get admitted in Uvelia Academy"
Based on what I remember, I had already passed the entrance exam for one of the most prominent delver academies in the world which was Uvelia, named specifically after the first ever Labyrinth delver of the world and more exactly the nation of Durevellis.
"Well I couldn't have possibly passed that exam on my own....that old man obviously did something.."
I gritted my teeth in frustration as the annoying face of that old man appeared on my mind.
"...Sigh~..that's not important right now. Three weeks left huh"
I recollected myself as I began to fear for the future.
Uvelia Academy is the place where the main cast of the story will be going to, mostly because it's considered as the best out of the 15 other academies just like it.
In this version of Earth, there's 15 labyrinths and the focal point of the story is to conquer these things in order to bring an end to the apocalypse. Hence humanity alongside the other races banded together and decided to form organizations regarding diving inside to explore and conquer all of it.
As time passed and as the people figured out more about how the labyrinths worked, they became more adept and organized in tackling diving inside these hellholes. Eventually academies formed to educate and train the younger generations on how to explore and essentially improve and grow as heroes of the world which they gradually referred to as delvers.
That's the gist of how it came to be, if one wants to become a delver, one must first enter an academy of their nation as a trainee before they officially become a delver. Of course, they aren't considered as real delvers in the eyes of the professionals as it is mostly the job of guilds and the alliance to dive.
The academy just allows students to enter the upper layers as they want to essentially train them after all, the real action is way down below. Even if that is the case, students still die inside and outside of the labyrinths.
It's that dangerous to be in the academy but in my situation it becomes a literal minefield since death flags are all over that freaking school. As the supposed wingman of the story, I'm going to get dragged around to dangerous places and events as the story advances and this is all because I originally hanged around the protagonist and Co.
"But if I don't keep an eye on that fool, he'll fucking die"
It was dilemma that I needed to really address.
As far as I knew, at the start both me and the MC are literal trash, on top of that we were hated and mocked by the whole school although for entirely different reasons. It's the very definition of an uphill battle and that's also the reason why they became friends in the first place.
They helped each through the hard times as both of them grew stronger but that trend quickly became one sided as the MC became more and more powerful as the story went on.
He built up literal harems and had unreasonable power ups in my opinion.
'The author is an asspull for that nonsense. In addition to that, he got all those beautiful girls all over him and he doesn't even touch an inch of their skin. Hell dude! where's the follow up? Don't waste Ray's assist!'
"Lucky bastard..."
I tried reeling in my unfounded jealousy because all of that hadn't even happened yet, most of all that isn't the least of my problems.
The story ended up leaving Ray in the dark as a disposable character, he even died in the middle of the story for god's sake.
'...Well at least the protagonist ain't a backstabbing bastard..'
Although I was bitter of my supposed fate, I didn't hate the guy at all since he at least tried to save me in the end. I understood it was the story's fault if I end up like that and that my role was equally as important when this world became my reality.
"..." I clenched my hands as I sat down on a chair.
I looked at the goggles atop the table, something that Ray-that I held dear. His words replayed inside my head.
(Son, venture out and find your dream)
'..I will, this time for sure...' I swore
If I ever want to live freely and as I want, my first priority is to prevent the protagonist from dying up to the middle arcs of the novel.
'Which means I have to get close to him as originally narrated'
I knit my brows in annoyance as the thought of playing that role disgusted me to my core.
"Well I don't need to be his bestfriend technically. I just need to be at the right moment and at the right place to save his ass"
It wasn't every time that Ray was needed to save the protagonist from his doom, so I just needed to time it right. The problem was I had to get close to him if I need to be in that exact events. I didn't really want to do that but I just had to swallow my pride for just about the middle arcs.
Until then I'll play along on this arrangement. I already decided that I'm going to survive this story with my own power but many things were still unknown of how my actions would affect the future so I needed a back-up to ensure that I don't end up dooming the world.
That backup is the protagonist.
'Then the next one would be-'
The second priority would be powering myself up. I needed to really boost my strength and maximize my potential at all cost cause if I don't I'll be screwing myself all over again.
The problem was that this guy doesn't have that much to offer to begin with, in the novel, he did become stronger but that didn't amount to anything all because-
"He couldn't proceed beyond the middle arcs, if he did then..."
A grinned formed on my face as I relished the fact that I kept reading this novel all the way to the latest volume. The knowledge about the future really is a convenient thing to have, specially in my case.
I nodded in agreement to the overall plan as I finished changing from my pajamas. I wore a white t-shirt and black pants as I combed my slightly spiky pink hair. I had also put on my signature round black rimmed goggles on my head.
I looked intently at the man reflected in the mirror, a youth of above average height and having a typical lean body type. There I was, the wingman of Destiny's Play.
"Damn....I'm unnecessarily flashy for a disposable character though"
Ray's face could be described as handsome but in a flashy kind of way, which could be interpreted as either cute or annoying.
"Hell I wish I had this kind of mug in my previous life~"
This was the only thing that fans of the novel really liked about Ray, most of them were fangirls and yaoi fans though.
"Ughh!~"
I cringed as I imagined those cursed fanarts.
'I can't believe that I would have the leisure of thinking about being shipped at this point of my life, sigh'
"Now then-"
I faced the door of my room, it's been two hours since I got up and made sense of my situation so it may be about time I handled this next big thing.
I needed to grind and find some way to raise my survivability for my remaining time before the canon starts, so taking care of those pricks will come first.
*Knock knock
Someone knocked at the door repeatedly, rudely at that as if they intended to break the damn door.
"Young Master, breakfast is ready, please wake up. Your family is awaiting your presence"
A feminine voice came from behind the door
'Heh, family....'
I smirked in disgust as the thought of meeting them made my mood drop.
Alas I needed to deal with them first if I want freedom to move as I want.
"Tell them I'm coming"
"I shall young master"
I breathed out as I clutched the doorknob of my room.
"Let's do this"
The door to a new world opened as I stepped out, resolve reflected in my sky blue eyes.
