It ended exactly the way Amir expected it to.
Poorly.
He stared at the glowing screen of his phone in silence, thumb hovering near the comments section as if reading other people complain would somehow make the disappointment feel smaller.
It didn’t.
After three hundred and eighty-seven chapters, Extra’s Path to Ascension was finally over.
And somehow, the ending managed to be worse than the rest of the story.
Amir leaned back against his chair with a tired sigh, rubbing a hand through his dark hair as the final lines replayed in his mind.
No answers.
No proper conclusion.
Half the mysteries abandoned.
Characters forgotten.
Entire plotlines thrown away like the author had simply gotten bored and decided to end everything in the fastest way possible.
“Unbelievable…”
His voice was quiet inside the dim apartment.
Outside his window, rain tapped softly against the glass, the city lights beyond blurred beneath the storm.
He should have dropped the novel months ago.
Honestly, probably years ago.
The writing was inconsistent, the power scaling made no sense, and the protagonist possessed enough plot armor to survive the collapse of reality itself.
It was trash.
Complete trash.
And yet…
Amir had continued reading.
Maybe because beneath all the nonsense, the world itself had felt alive.
Azurelle.
A land of impossible powers, ancient ruins, divine beings, and monsters capable of erasing entire kingdoms overnight.
The novel failed its characters.
It failed its story.
But its world?
That part had always felt real.
Too real.
Amir exhaled slowly and locked his phone.
For a moment, the room fell completely silent.
Then the lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
He frowned.
The air suddenly felt… strange.
Heavy.
Amir looked toward the window.
The rain had stopped.
No—
Not stopped.
Frozen.
Every droplet hung motionless outside the glass.
His breath caught.
“…What?”
A blinding white light swallowed the room.
There was no sound.
No impact.
No time to react.
Only light.
Endless light.
Then—
Pain.
A violent pressure slammed into Amir’s body as consciousness returned all at once.
His lungs burned.
A sharp gasp tore from his throat as he collapsed onto damp earth, fingers digging instinctively into cold soil.
The scent of grass and moss filled the air.
Wind brushed against his skin.
Slowly, Amir forced his eyes open.
Trees.
Massive trees stretched toward the sky in every direction, their dark trunks towering high above him while pale sunlight filtered through the dense canopy overhead.
A forest.
Not a dream.
Not virtual reality.
A real forest.
Amir pushed himself upright unsteadily, pulse hammering inside his chest.
“…Where am I?”
No answer came.
The silence around him felt unnaturally deep, broken only by distant rustling leaves and the faint cry of something moving far away.
His thoughts raced.
The apartment.
The novel.
That light—
Amir froze.
His hands.
They weren’t his.
The fingers staring back at him were pale and slender, almost unnaturally flawless beneath the scattered sunlight.
Not the hands he had lived with for seventeen years.
A chill crawled down his spine.
“…No way.”
Then something cold spread through his mind.
Like static.
Like machinery awakening somewhere deep inside his skull.
A translucent blue screen materialized before his eyes.
[System Initialization Complete.]
Amir’s pupils contracted.
The floating text remained perfectly suspended in the air.
Impossible.
And yet undeniably real.
“…A System?”
The screen flickered.
[Status Panel Activated.]
[Name: Amir] [Race: ???]
[Rank: F-]
[Bloodline: ???] [Physique: ???]
[Title: None]
[Traits: None]
[Affinity: Star (Divine)]
[Strength: F-]
[Agility: F]
[Stamina: F]
[Mana: S]
[Charm: S+]
[Intelligence: S]
[Luck: B+]
[Defense: F]
[Will: S]
[Skills: None]
[Arts: None]
[Items: None
Amir stared at the screen for several long seconds.
Then one detail finally registered.
“…Amir?”
That was his name.
Not this body’s.
His.
The System responded instantly.
[Identity assigned to host vessel.]
A cold feeling settled in his stomach.
“Host vessel…?”
[Correct.]
Amir’s voice lowered.
“…Whose body is this?”
[This vessel was created for the host.]
Silence.
For the first time since waking up, genuine unease crept into Amir’s chest.
Created?
Not reincarnated.
Not possessed.
Created.
Before he could speak again, the System continued.
[Memory seal remains active.]
Amir frowned immediately.
“What memory seal?”
[Original memories inaccessible until required growth threshold is achieved.]
“…You sealed my memories?”
[Correct.]
“That’s insane.”
[Your survival probability is currently low.]
The screen flickered once more.
Then new words appeared.
[This world is dangerous.]
[Gods die here.]
Amir felt his heartbeat stop for half a second.
Slowly, he looked around the forest again.
The atmosphere had changed.
Or maybe he had.
“…What world is this?”
The answer came immediately.
[Azurelle.]
His breath caught.
The name echoed inside his mind like thunder.
Azurelle.
The world from Extra’s Path to Ascension.
A laugh escaped him suddenly.
Disbelieving.
Almost hysterical.
“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”
[Negative.]
A new screen appeared before him.
[Quest Issued.]
[Kill your first beast.]
[Reward: ???]
[Failure Penalty: Loss of essential biological function.]
Amir stared at the words.
“…Essential biological function?”
[Correct.]
“…That sounds extremely concerning.”
[It should.]
For a moment, Amir simply stood there beneath the towering trees, staring at the glowing screen floating before him.
Then he sighed.
“Well,” he muttered quietly, “getting isekai’d into a death world was probably inevitable at some point.”
The System did not respond.
The forest ahead remained dark and endless.
And somewhere within it—
Something moved.