｛Dear Bai Ya-chan, congratulations on becoming someone Fia values. Fia can grant you one of the following three wishes. Please choose~ The three wishes are: A. I want to go to the Otherworld B. I want to go to the Otherworld C. I want to go to the Otherworld. Important things are said three times, ehehe~｝
What the hell is this cute nonsense?
These words appeared on Bai Ya’s phone screen, prompting its owner to ponder.
Uh, the normal reaction at a moment like this should be… choose, choose your damn option!
More than a text message, it looked like a virus program. The phone displayed three options: A, B, and C.
A girl’s voice even rang out from the phone, shouting things like “Long live Fia-chan! Fia-chan is the strongest!” and so on.
The phone must have been infected with a virus, Bai Ya sighed internally, certain of this.
“Otherworld, huh…”
Keywords like Otherworld, Demon King, and Hero flooded Bai Ya’s mind: go to the Otherworld, become the Hero, defeat the Demon King, marry the princess.
A classic storyline, but there was no way he could pull it off. He was sure that if he went to the Otherworld, his life would be filled with misfortune.
So, Bai Ya had absolutely no desire to go to the Otherworld.
He just wanted to live an ordinary life. A life too exciting was totally unnecessary, or so he thought.
There were three options: A, B, and C.
On the phone screen, if he didn’t choose one, the interface seemed to remain stuck like that.
Bai Ya took out the battery and put it back in, but nothing changed.
A, B, C—those glaring options still reminded him to make a choice.
Being teleported to the Otherworld by selecting an option in the phone—he had seen that kind of setup in some Otherworld novel before.
Taking a deep breath, Bai Ya made up his mind and looked around. No one in the marketplace seemed to notice him.
Even if he suddenly disappeared, there wouldn’t be a big commotion, right?
Otherworld, huh…
According to that Otherworld novel’s premise, the slacker male lead made a choice, was teleported through the phone to the Otherworld, then started slaughtering enemies and gathering a harem and followers—living a perfect life.
Even a useless guy could turn things around. Going to the Otherworld seemed to have only benefits, no drawbacks. Bai Ya thought so, overlooking the difference between reality and novels.
The slacker male lead had once asked why he was chosen among thousands to be transported to the Otherworld. The wisest elder told him it was because his current world no longer suited him; he had already despaired of his world and his life. That was why he was chosen.
So, was Bai Ya like that slacker male lead? he wondered.
Despairing of his world and life—he seemed to fit those criteria pretty well.
Bai Ya, seventeen years old, male, ordinary-looking, average abilities—just an incredibly ordinary person.
After his parents died in a car accident during high school, he dropped out and now worked hard just to survive, still living a life of hunger and fullness.
Even dogs raised by wealthy families lived better than he did. He truly lived worse than a dog.
Was he one of those kinds of people? Despairing of life…
At this point, if he wasn’t despairing of life, it would be hard to explain.
Thinking carefully, living seemed meaningless, and he had no real attachment to this world.
Rather than wandering around here as a walking corpse, rotting away, it’d be better to start his own legend in the Otherworld!
Maybe this was fate’s arrangement.
If it’s the will of heaven, then there’s no helping it.
Bai Ya nodded firmly and swallowed hard, filled with nervousness and excitement about what was to come.
His finger slowly, gradually moved until it finally rested on the screen.
Pressure was released on this crossroads of his life.
A new life was about to begin—
“Life my ass!!”
Bai Ya snapped his phone shut like lightning, immediately threw it on the ground, and began stomping furiously.
Passersby glanced over, seeing a high school senior venting stress by stomping on his phone.
Poor senior, damn the college entrance exam. That’s probably what they thought.
The poor phone was utterly deformed, crushed, and twisted into a pitiful wreck under Bai Ya’s rage.
Having successfully destroyed the phone, Bai Ya wiped a sweat off his brow.
“You really think I’d do that? Idiots. Even if I live worse than a dog in the real world, I’m the globally recognized best player in the virtual world, the undisputed National Server Number One. I’m the man destined to become the world’s number one player. Who the hell wants to go to the Otherworld!”
Pointing at the utterly destroyed, dead phone, Bai Ya shouted, tears streaming down his cheeks without realizing it.
Believing in Otherworld novels was so dumb of me. Sacrificing my phone just in case was pure stupidity!
The thought that his phone might actually be infected with a virus stabbed at his heart like a knife.
He was way too deep into Otherworld novels. But well, better to believe it than not. Maybe he just avoided a crisis—thinking this made his heart feel a little better.
Besides, at least now he could finally get a new phone~
With his heart soaring, Bai Ya didn’t notice the green light flickering in the broken phone’s hardware, hidden beneath the cracked screen.
Unaware of the lurking danger in the shadows, Bai Ya was already thinking about gathering some friends to play games at the internet café, and maybe tomorrow he’d spend some pocket money on a new phone.
Just as Bai Ya turned to leave—
The green light locked onto him, shot out with a swift “whoosh,” and in the next instant, unsurprisingly hit Bai Ya’s unguarded back of the head.
—Screwed!
That was Bai Ya’s last thought before losing consciousness.
Bai Ya vanished.
His entire being evaporated into thin air—or more accurately, was deleted.
At the same time, all memories related to Bai Ya were erased from everyone’s minds.
In the sky, a faint, soft laugh sounded, unnoticed by all.
From that moment on, the world had no more best player.