Heavenly Moon Empire, Martial Institute!
It was lunchtime.
A large crowd was gathered in the cafeteria.
A group of teenagers sat around one of the tables.
Among them was an eighteen year old girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was dressed casually and had a slender figure with incredible curves at all the right places.
Sitting across from her was a young man who had recently gained fame among his peers for writing one masterpiece after another and selling them for cheap. He had a buzz cut going on, and there were dark circles under his eyes, indicating he hadn't been getting proper sleep lately.
She looked at him expectantly and spoke in a calm and pleasant voice.
"Ken, make our meal interesting. Tell us a story."
Ken stopped absentmindedly playing with his food and looked back at her.
"Sure, but it will cost you."
"How much?" She asked.
"500 gale coins," he replied.
An average person would hesitate to part with such an amount of money for a story, but the person Ken was dealing with came from an impressive background.
Nina.
She was the only daughter of the head of a small scale noble family.
500 gale coins meant nothing to her.
"No problem," she said without hesitation.
Ken nodded in satisfaction, then cleared his throat dramatically.
"Ahem! Today, I will tell you the story of an orphan who lost everything in the snap of a finger but gained the most precious gift in return. It goes like this.
The orphan was abandoned at birth. He grew up never knowing who his parents were. When he reached adulthood, he aged out of the system. That was when his real challenges began.
He lived in a capitalist society where money meant everything. If you had it, you could buy comfort, status, anything you desired. But if you didn't, you were one paycheck away from losing the roof over your head and begging on the streets.
He took whatever jobs he could find just to sustain himself and pay his bills. He worked a lot and spent little, so he started saving up on extra cash.
Then the pandemic struck.
A deadly virus spread throughout the world.
It had no vaccine or cure.
People were forced to stay indoors and quarantine.
Consumers spending plummeted.
The economy tanked.
Businessmen declared bankruptcy.
Businesses closed.
Many people lost their only source of income.
He was among the unlucky ones. He was mercilessly given a dismissal notice and laid off.
Without a stable income, his life became almost unbearable.
It was during that time that an online writing platform began aggressively promoting itself. They had launched a contest promising a life-changing opportunity. The winner of the contest would be awarded ten thousand dollars and a publishing contract that included a one-year guaranteed income, weekly editorial support, and full marketing push across all their channels. It was a deal designed to turn any new writer into a star.
The orphan's girlfriend knew he was good at storytelling, as she had read a few of his stories in the past, so she encouraged him to give it a try. With nothing better to do, he followed her advice and participated in the contest."
Ken paused, his hand reaching for a glass of water on the table. He brought it to his lips and took a sip.
A glint of impatience flashed in the eyes of the teenagers around him.
Ken placed his glass down and continued.
"He uploaded several thousand words a day on the online writing platform, desperate for money. In the end, his effort paid off, and he won the contest. A check for ten thousand dollars was guaranteed to him. He also received a contract that promised he could earn five hundred thousand over the next three years, as long as he remained consistent with his updates, even if the quality of his story dropped. For the first time, his future seemed bright. He couldn't help but beam. But then, as he was about to cross a road, he saw a child about to be run-over by a vechile. He pushed the child out of harm's way, but got hit instead."
"What?" Nina stood up in shock. "What happened then?"
The other teenagers were also interested in knowing the orphan's fate.
"What could happen? He died," Ken replied.
"That's it? That can't be!" Nina shook her head in disbelief.
Ken smiled.
"Naturally, there's more. He crossed over to our world."
He left out some crucial details.
He was none other than the orphan he'd just told them about.
When he crossed over to this world, he became an orphan of the same name, who was close to being evicted from his place of residence and didn't even have enough money left to afford a proper meal.
To make some cash quickly, he sold the plots of interesting movies that had been incredibly popular on Earth for ridiculously cheap prices.
This world's literature was severely underdeveloped—nothing compared to Earth's—so many people were easily enticed into buying his work at the listed price without haggling, which allowed him to rack up enough money to pay his bills, keep a roof over his head, and stop worrying about where his next meal would come from.
Since his transmigration, he had learned a great deal about this world.
It used to be ruled by humans until it wasn't.
One day, several rifts opened up in space, connecting it to countless realms across the firmaments. Beasts and warring races invaded through those rifts.
A great war was fought.
Humanity lost much to the invaders.
Just when it looked like all was lost, Force Masters emerged and began to push back the invaders. They came together and founded the Heavenly Moon Empire to resist them.
It had been a hundred years since then. Ken had transmigrated over to this world in the 100th year of the New Calendar!
The history of this world was similar to that of the most popular novel by his favorite author.
So it was clear to him.
He was in Immortal Demons and Warring Gods!
In this novel, some characters existed solely to highlight the severity of a situation through their demise.
They were called cannon fodder.
And he had become exactly one such cannon fodder.
In less than three year, the Heavenly Moon Empire would be destroyed.
He would perish with it.
So would everyone around him, including Nina and Gray.
'I won't allow it.'
Ken clenched his fist under the table.
'Before that day arrives, I must gain enough strength to foil the schemes of the invaders."
When he somehow possessed the body of this world's Ken sometime ago, he didn't just inherit his memories. He also absorbed his emotions. As a result, he felt the same way the original owner had about the people he knew.
He didn't want to lose them to the disaster that will destroy the Heavenly Moon Empire.
Suddenly.
From his peripheral vision, he caught side of a handsome young man with raven black hair and red eyes giving him a thumbs up.
It was Gray. His best friend.
Ken's expression eased
"Damn Ken, you are good at cooking up interesting shit." Gray said in praise.
Nina smiled while looking at Ken gently.
"I knew my money won't be wasted on you."
Besides Nina was her maid Amelia, but the former treated the latter more like a close friend than a maid.
Amelia looked at Ken condescendingly as she crossed her long slender legs.
"You can live off selling your stories to a publishing house when you fail the graduation exam tomorrow."
In the world of Immortal Demons and Warring Gods, the most sought-after profession was that of a Force Master.
Force Masters could produce primordial energy that was necessary to perform superhuman feats such as creating a miniature sun to vaporize an entire city, change terrain to divert the flow of natural disasters like floods, and so on.
They were the most elite combatants of the human race and also the reason why humanity had survived so far despite having their world invaded by races across the firmament many times.
However, only those who passed the graduation exam could become Force Masters.
Ken didn't have the aptitude nor the talent to pass it.
Amelia knew that so she was mocking him.
"That won't ever happen."
Ken didn't know how he was going to become a Force Master.
But he was ready to risk his life for it!
After all, only by becoming a Force Master could he gain the strength and freedom he needed to change his fate, protect his friends, and save the Heavenly Moon Empire from destruction.
"You are delusional. Your talent is so bad you haven't made visible progress since you joined the martial institute. You lack the strength to pass the graduation exam."
Amelia was part of the elite four, but Ken wasn't. Hence the reason for her disdain.
Elite Four.
A title given to the most promising students of the entire martial institute.
The Elite Four were guaranteed to pass the graduation exam and become Force Masters.
They were in a completely different league than Ken.
Ken's eye twitched upon hearing her words, but he didn't bother arguing.
Meanwhile, Nina looked at her disapprovingly.
That wasn't a nice thing to say!
Ding, ding, ding!
The bell rang.
Lunchtime was over.
Nina paid Ken what he was owed before they returned to the classroom, only to find that their homeroom teacher had prepared a special mock test for them.
It would determine their chances of passing the graduation exam tomorrow.
The Elite Four, consisting of Gray, Amelia, Nina, and another person, passed it excellently.
Ken, on the other hand, failed it miserably, meaning his chances of passing the graduation exam that would be held tomorrow were nonexistent!