'—xing!'
Raven completed his words, but his voice cut off abruptly. Or rather, it didn't come out at all. His mouth had moved—he was sure of it—but there was no sound. Nothing.
Confusion struck him first.
'Wait... did I just lose my voice?!'
Panic started to creep in as he tried to move, but—
Nothing.
His body didn't respond. Not his fingers, arms, or even a twitch of his toes. Hell, he couldn't even tell if his eyes were open or shut, because all he could see was pure, inky darkness.
'What the hell is this?!'
A million thoughts raced through his mind, each more horrifying than the last.
'Did I get reincarnated as a freaking rock?! Oh god, what if I'm just a consciousness floating in the void?! No, no, no—this isn't how this is supposed to go! I was supposed to wake up in some poor kid's body with a traumatic backstory and tragic potential! Not... whatever the hell THIS is!'
As his internal screaming escalated, so did his resentment toward a certain glitched deity.
'That damn goddess! She didn't explain a single thing! Just "poof, go make my story better, lol" and threw me into the abyss! I didn't even get to argue! Where's my contract? My terms and conditions? Is there a customer service for reincarnation?!'
Just as he was about to mentally compose a novel-length complaint, something suddenly flashed before him.
Ding!
A blue screen materialized in the void, floating eerily with an unmistakable notification symbol—a small envelope with a blinking exclamation mark.
Raven nearly had a heart attack.
'I-IT'S HER, ISN'T IT?!'
His instincts kicked in before his logic could, and he immediately began apologizing in his head. 'I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean any of that! You're the best writer, and your book is amazing. Please don't smite me!'
Nothing happened.
The exclamation mark kept blinking, undisturbed.
'Wait... is she actually here?' he thought cautiously.
Deciding to test the waters, he hesitated before slowly forming another thought. 'Uh... Goddess? You there?'
Silence.
'...No response, huh?'
Not convinced, he decided to conduct one final test.
'Hey, you divine hack of an author! You write shitty books, and your plot twists suck!'
...
Nothing.
Raven sighed in relief. 'Alright, she's definitely not here. Thank god—I mean, not god—ah, whatever.'
Now that he was somewhat reassured, he turned his attention back to the floating blue screen in front of him.
There wasn't much to see aside from the message notification. There were no buttons, no status screens, no stats—none of the fancy game-like interface he was hoping for.
The only visible options were small arrow-like symbols at the edges, suggesting some kind of navigation system.
For now, though, he focused on the message.
'Okay... what do I do with this?' he mused. Then, recalling how these things usually worked in novels, he willed it to open.
And just like that, the message box expanded.
Three new messages appeared in front of him, all from the same sender: [The Best Author].
Raven scoffed. 'Oh, so now she wants to communicate, huh?'
What caught his attention, however, were the titles of the messages.
[Mission] [Note] [Gift]
He narrowed his eyes, his instincts screaming at him that the first one was going to be absolute bullshit. But... the goddess had said something about his life being on the line. So, with a deep breath, he mentally selected the [Mission] message.
The screen shifted, revealing the mission details:
[Objective: Make the story better than any other story out there.
Time Limit: ???
Reward: ???
Penalty: Death.]
Raven stared.
He stared some more.
Then, finally, he exploded.
'WHAT KIND OF SHITTY MISSION IS THIS?!'
If he had a body, he would've been flailing on the ground by now.
'No details?! Just a vague-ass objective?! What does "better" even mean?! Who decides that?! And why the hell is the reward just a bunch of question marks?! The penalty is crystal clear, but the reward is a damn mystery?!'
His frustration knew no bounds. 'Isn't this just pure extortion?! "Hey, go fix my story, and maybe—just maybe—you won't die!" How is this fair?!'
He took a deep breath—mentally, anyway—and tried to calm down.
'Okay, let's think about this logically. The time limit is blank, meaning there isn't a strict deadline... I hope. The penalty is obviously bad, but the reward is unknown. That could mean it depends on performance. Maybe the better I do, the better the reward?'
That was a comforting thought.
Until another, much worse thought hit him.
'Wait... does that mean if I don't do a good enough job, I get nothing?!'
Pure despair filled his soul.
'...I'm so screwed.'
Suppressing the rising dread, he forced himself to check the next message. He selected [Note], and the screen shifted again.
[Note:
Hmm... if you get the message, then we probably couldn't discuss everything within the time limit and you're probably freaking out—which is completely understandable.
So let me explain what's going on.
First of all, you aren't a rock. You are a human, but in your mother's womb, so you can't move yet.
Secondly, as you must've already read about it, your mission is to improve the story. After all, you were the one who said that it was shitty.
Now, before you start cursing me, let's talk about the third and last thing.
You wanted a cheat ability, right? I gave it to you. The phone that you broke before getting reincarnated. That phone would be your system, and before you judge it useless let me remind you that it is a divine artifact.
You couldn't use the phone to its full potential before, but now you would be.
That's all.
I hope that you will be able to successfully fulfill your objective and stay alive.
— The best author.]
Raven's eye twitched as he completed reading it.
'...fuck. All of this is happening because I read this fucked up book...' He wanted to cry now, but even that, he couldn't. '...and what? I'm in the womb? Fuck... there's no going back, is there?'
He had to improve the story when he didn't even know how the improvement was done.
Still, one sentence stood out to him: "Divine Artifact."
'So I have a system, huh? That... could be good or bad depending on its features.'
He had already accepted that there was no way out of the situation now. He had to do what he was asked to do. If he wanted to live that is.
Gritting his teeth, he finally selected [Gift], deciding to check the functions of the system later.
This was probably the gift from the 'divine artifact', so he hoped it was at least something good.
[Gift Received: [Randomized Ability!]
[Spinning... ]
A new screen popped up. A digital wheel spun rapidly, filled with different abilities and skills, flickering too fast for him to read.
'Wait—! It's a spinning wheel?! But my luck is shitty!' Raven realized to his horror that he might not get something good from this as well. Even the thing that's supposed to be a gift might turn out to be shitty.
'Please don't be something useless like 'Enhanced Breathing' or anything like that!' He hoped—wished and prayed with everything he had—to not get something useless.
And then—
Ding!
[Congratulations! You have received: Plot Armor.]
A brief description followed:
[Plot Armor: In a moment of danger, you can sacrifice all of your divinity to alter the plot in a way that could help you. The alteration, however, depends on the amount of divinity you have. If the amount is very low, the alteration might never happen.]
Raven blinked.
'...Damn. Did I just get an OP ability that could save my ass whenever I want?'
For the first time since waking up, a slow grin spread across his nonexistent face.
'...Okay. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.'