Life as an extra wasn't exactly what I thought it would be when I first got here.
I mean, sure, it was pretty cool to actually meet the main characters you read about in a novel and fight alongside them for the greater good.
But I constantly asked myself why I did it.
Why did I take myself and this whole world so seriously?
I was just supposed to be background character number four.
The guy who nods in the tavern and maybe swings a sword in the big army scenes to make the hero look good.
But I ground my skills day and night until my hands literally bled.
I pushed myself beyond every physical limit just to keep up with the chosen ones.
And for what, exactly?
I was lying low on the ruined battlefield, surrounded by the broken bodies of the army I had guided for the last ten years.
The sky above us was dark despite it being morning.
I guess I was just really tired of fighting a war that wasn't even mine to begin with.
"You are still standing, human?" the demon king asked me.
His name was Azrael.
He had six eyes and a massive forehead, with four huge, muscular arms hanging from his torso.
It was such a gruesome design for a final boss, and he stood about a hundred meters away from me across the ruined ground.
"This is the end, Azrael," I said while gripping my broken sword.
My voice was completely hoarse, and my lungs burned with every single breath.
I raised my sword so high that a bright golden light pierced the dark sky above us.
Then I brought it down with all the remaining force in my body, which was meant to split the world into two pieces.
[Dimensional Slash]
Azrael quickly tried to move out of the way to dodge it.
But the attack, which was supposed to be a single straight strike, suddenly spread into multiple glowing lines across the space between us.
It formed a massive grid of light and left absolutely no room for him to escape the impact.
"GAAAHHHHH!"
He screamed in agony as his huge body was turned into mince and then faded into absolutely nothing.
The demon king was finally dead.
My own body was completely drained of mana right after that final strike.
I dropped my sword and kneeled on the hard ground because my legs simply gave out beneath me.
'Is this it?' I thought to myself while looking at my shaking hands.
It was all because of those fuckass novels that I didn't live the way I actually wanted to.
I spent my entire second life training and fighting monsters in the mud.
Why did I care so much about becoming the strongest when this world already had a perfectly good protagonist to handle all the big threats?
I should have just opened a bakery or something simple and lived a quiet life.
My fingers slowly started turning to grey dust right in front of my eyes.
The mana exhaustion was erasing my physical form from existence.
I didn't even get to fuck anyone in this life because I was too busy saving the continent from destruction.
Oh, how I deeply wished the book I transmigrated into was a cheap smut novel instead of a serious dark fantasy epic.
With that final pathetic thought in my head, my body scattered completely into the wind.
Everything was silent for a few moments.
Gasps.
"Hah!" I woke up with a really loud breath and found myself sitting straight up in a soft bed.
My chest was moving up and down like I had just run a full marathon. I was looking all around the room, trying to deduce the current situation and figure out where the hell I was.
The walls were clean, and normal posters were hanging up.
It looked exactly like my old academy dorm room from years ago, before the war even started.
'What just happened?' I thought while touching my face and my chest. 'Did I die and move into another novel again?'
My skin was smooth, and there were no ugly battle scars anywhere. I felt light and healthy. I didn't feel the crushing weight of decades of war on my shoulders anymore.
"Status," I called out loud out of habit.
The familiar blue screen came out as usual and floated right in front of my face.
But the information written on it was completely different from what I expected to see.
Name: Shane Newman
Age: 18
Rank: S
Strength: 999 (Max)
Agility: 999 (Max)
Stamina: 999 (Max)
Intelligence: 999 (Max)
Mana: 999 (Max)
Charm: 999 (Max)
I stared at the numbers and rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
All of my stats were completely maxed out right from the very beginning.
I was only eighteen years old again, but I had the physical and magical power of a veteran hero who had just killed the demon king.
This was absolutely insane.
Then a series of golden text boxes popped up over my status window.
[The Goddess of Life has transferred your soul to your younger body.]
[This time, you don't have to change your will to match fate.]
[You have acquired the Infinite Skill Tree.]
[Using coins obtained from completing scenarios, you can buy as many skills as you want without any restrictions.]
'What? For real?' I thought while reading the golden letters over and over again.
This was all way too sudden to properly process.
The goddess actually listened to my final dying thoughts and sent me back in time with all my stats maxed out. She was basically telling me to just relax and do whatever I wanted this time around.
I didn't have to follow the main plot or worry about the protagonist's journey anymore. I could just buy skills with coins and live a totally overpowered and easy life.
I let out a long sigh of relief and fell back onto my pillows. Maybe things were actually going to be great this time. Maybe I could finally enjoy my youth and live out that peaceful life I dreamed about on the battlefield.
Ding!
A red notification window suddenly popped up and flashed right in front of my eyes.
The peaceful feeling vanished instantly.
[Scenario Created]
Category: Main
Difficulty: A
Time limit: 3 Days
OBJECTIVE: SEDUCE THE TRAINEE PROFESSOR
Penalty for failure: Death
I just stared at the red glowing letters for a very long time. I read the objective again just to make sure my eyes were working right.
It didn't ask me to defeat a monster or clear a dangerous dungeon.
It specifically asked me to seduce someone.
And not just anyone, but a trainee professor at the academy.
If I failed to do it in three days, I would die all over again.
'What the actual fuck?'