"Hey! Open this door right now, or things are going to get ugly!"
BAM!
A heavy blow rattled the cheap wood of the door. The pounding was deafening.
"Get out here before we break it down over your head!"
Inside the cramped bathroom stall, Adam Quartz sat holding a slightly tattered newspaper. His eyes moved slowly across the lines… as if the chaos outside had nothing to do with him.
Another strike. Harder this time.
"You son of a bitch! If you don't come out this instant, we're dragging you out by your hair!"
His eyes stopped. Slowly… he lifted his head toward the door. The wood shuddered with every blow. The voices grew louder, the rage outside intensified.
But Adam… didn't move.
One second. Two seconds.
Then, he went back to the newspaper. It was as if what was happening behind that door was less annoying than his life itself.
A violent strike nearly tore the door off its hinges. "Open up! This is the last time we're telling you!"
He didn't flinch. His gaze was locked onto a bold headline at the top of the page: "Accepted Candidates for the Royal Academy Scholarship – This Year"
His breath hitched for a second. Then, his eyes began to scan.
Slowly at first… "Lianne Forest… Jared Wilson… Mark Hill…"
He blinked. He read again. Faster this time. "Terrin Black… Sera Moon… Elliot Crown… Dalia Finn…"
His breathing quickened. "Where… where is her name…"
Another crash against the door. "Is this bastard deaf?!"
But the voices grew distant. Very distant. "Carlos Dean… Myra Luce… Henry Shaw…"
His hand tightened around the edge of the paper. "It can't be…"
He went back to the top of the page. He started over. This time… with a soul-crushing slowness. Word by word. Name by name. As if reading slower might conjure a name that wasn't there.
"Lianne Forest… Jared Wilson… Mark Hill…"
The same names. The same order. The same truth. Nothing had changed, even after checking a dozen times.
Her name… was not there.
He froze. "…No." The word escaped in a broken whisper.
"She said… she was accepted…"
The paper trembled in his hands. A final, violent blow shook the door.
"Open up now!"
But Adam just sat there, stunned. He wasn't in the stall anymore. He was trapped between the names—between the lines that failed to carry her name.
"Fine… you brought this on yourself. Don't expect any more mercy from us!"
Outside, the man stepped back to gain momentum. He lunged forward, slamming his shoulder into the door to breach the cabin.
When the others peered inside, they found nothing but a narrow gap in the back wall… two broken planks through which a faint light filtered.
"That bastard… I'll kill him!"
Outside, Adam clutched the newspaper, tearing it to shreds as he stormed through the dense woods, throwing the scraps behind him in a fit of rage. He clutched his head as a migraine throbbed, his mind drowning in thought.
Rustle. Footsteps.
Adam heard them coming. With two agile leaps, he sprang onto a tree, scaling the branches like an expert. He vanished behind the thick foliage just as the shadows of his pursuers moved beneath him.
Watching them, he couldn't help but feel a bitter constriction in his chest.
Adam Quartz was a "Transmigrator"—a soul from Earth brought to this world. After wasting away in a hospital bed, neglected by everyone until he died, his only wish had been for peace, far away from trouble.
Initially, it felt like his wish had come true. He woke up healthy, in the body of a son to a Baron—poor by noble standards, but they had land, a farm, and a loving family.
Even though this body lacked the ability to gather Mana, making him a target for bullies, Adam wanted nothing more than this simple life.
But then, the System appeared. And that was the beginning of everything going wrong.
His trip down memory lane was cut short. Their shadows shifted between the trunks, searching the area.
"He vanished?!"
"He was just here!"
Adam held his breath, watching through the leaves. His heart hammered against his ribs. His eyes flickered with a slight tremor as he fought to remain silent.
"Sir… we can't find him. It looks like he bolted through here."
The man who had broken the door earlier erupted in fury. "Search the whole forest! He owes the Master a fortune!"
The men moved out, but the leader remained standing right under Adam's tree. "Do I have to do everything myself?"
Just as the man was about to leave, a small twig snapped and fell from above, landing right beside him. The man froze. He narrowed his eyes, looking at the tree intently. He reached out, touching the bark, his gaze scanning upward.
Rustle.
"There he is!" one of the men shouted, pointing toward a shifting pile of tall grass.
The leader bolted away from the tree to join the chase. Adam remained paralyzed. His muscles were stiff; for a split second, he felt the man's gaze had pierced through his cover. If it hadn't been for that distraction, he would've been caught.
He wiped the sweat from his brow, making sure they were truly gone.
"Scumbag debt collectors…"
The Quartz Barony had collapsed a month and a half ago. Their father had taken out massive loans to bribe the scholarship board to accept Adam's sister into the Royal Academy. They lost their land, their property, and eventually, their noble title.
Adam blamed himself. He thought… if I could just go back six months, I wouldn't have been that stupid.
He dropped to the ground, scanning his surroundings before moving quickly through the trees to get back before sunset.
Hiss.
He heard footsteps nearby. He instinctively dove behind a tree, tense. When the sound faded, he exhaled.
"Phew… just a squirrel. AHHH!"
When Adam stepped out to continue his path, a girl was standing right in front of him—closer than she should have been. The fright sent him tumbling backward.
The girl looked down at the panicked Adam.
"What took you so long?"
Ana's sharp, suspicious eyes scanned Adam as he sat on the dirt, brushing leaves off his clothes.
"Thank God it's you, Ana."
Adam stood up, still dusting himself off.
"Are you still going to keep running like this? For how long?"
Adam felt a bitter taste in his mouth as he sighed.
"Everything that happened to my family was because of my stupidity. I have to compensate them."
Ana's expression soured as she looked at the "idiot" in front of her.
"My father offered you a job as his assistant hunter. You don't have Mana; it'll be hard for you to find work anywhere else."
Adam looked at her, offering a small smile to the girl with the beautiful brown hair and delicate features.
"It won't be enough. the debt is too high. Even if I worked for twenty years, I couldn't pay it back."
Ana was annoyed by his dismissive tone, seeing he was ready to leave. "Fine, you don't have another choice… unless…"
Her face flushed, and she looked away, thinking about the offer she had made before. Her father had a modest wealth saved from years of hunting. If Adam just agreed to marry her, that wealth would be his. Adam was hardworking and ambitious—he carried himself with the nobility of a knight.
"I have a solution… but it's a bit difficult,"
Adam said, cutting through her teenage daydreams.
Before she could respond, a transparent screen flickered in his vision:
[System: One Click to Call a Random Brilliant Girl]
"It's literally just… a dating app,"
Adam thought bitterly.
The confusion on Ana's face deepened as she stared at him.