I, Seo Ajun, died. No, did I die? I’m not certain whether I died or lived in the world I used to inhabit. The only thing I was certain of was that this place I’m in now is the world inside a novel.
The reason I believe this is possession rather than reincarnation, despite not knowing whether I died or lived, is because I wasn’t reborn with memories of my past life.
When I possessed this body, I was already ten years old.
In any case, I had possessed someone.
And it happened right after I’d finished all the rough patches of life – graduating from teacher’s college, completing military service, passing the teacher certification exam, and working three years as a new teacher. Just when I was about to enjoy a stable life, pursue hobbies, and finally relax a bit, I ended up possessing someone in a trashy novel.
I couldn’t be more unfairly treated than this.
If only I had held back just a little longer back then…
I sighed as I recalled the memory of the day I possessed this body.
***
“Look at that attitude. He’s insane. As expected of a mad tyrant. Ugh. Kids like this especially need proper education from a young age. They grow up spoiled and become like this because they lack discipline. Tsk tsk.”
I clicked my tongue while reading the novel <How to Survive as the Obsessive Tyrant’s Omega>. I couldn’t believe such a story existed in this world.
The Alpha protagonist was an emperor who was obsessively possessive for no reason, and the Omega protagonist secretly liked the emperor but said he hated the obsession, which made the emperor angry. The emperor’s anger accumulated layer by layer, making only the innocent retainers and servants suffer.
Eventually, when the emperor went berserk and imprisoned the Omega, the protagonist Omega, who had been raised preciously, couldn’t stand it anymore and ran away.
They like each other, so why does it have to be like this? There’s no logic to it, no logic…
Despite the story being so illogical and repetitive with frustrating developments, I couldn’t put the book down because I was curious about what would happen next, and it had been a while since I’d read a BL novel.
What would happen if the parents at my school found out about this? They’d probably grab me by the scruff of my neck, saying I’d been deceiving them all this time.
And rightfully so, because despite the characteristic of public education where homeroom teachers can’t be chosen freely, the parents at my school hoped to have their children placed in the class I was in charge of. That’s how popular I was among the parents. And here I was, secretly reading 19+ BL novels. Suddenly, reality hit me hard.
“Sigh… Anyway, you two leads – no, author… How long are you going to keep feeding people sweet potatoes?”
Irritation surged through me. But I still didn’t stop reading.
The characteristic of sweet potatoes* is that they’re frustratingly suffocating, but you can’t put the book down until you get to drink the refreshing soda. I was crying out for soda, soda as I rapidly flipped through the pages, when I stopped at a certain scene. Profanity automatically came out.
“Is he insane? Damn it… You really need to get a beating from me.”
As an elementary school teacher, I absolutely couldn’t stand to watch the emperor’s atrocities in the novel any longer.
I mean, fine, he’s angry because his partner Omega ran away. But why take it out on another poor Omega? Even a ten-year-old would know that’s wrong…
Setting aside the tantrum, he even killed some Omegas. The poor Omega who was so insignificant that he wasn’t even 1st or 2nd, but had to be labeled as 9th.
“Really, 9th Omega, your luck is incredibly rotten too. Why did you have to go in at that time?”
Up to the 8th Omega, they entered before the emperor’s partner Omega ran away, so while they got beaten, they didn’t die. However, the 9th Omega entered right after the emperor’s partner Omega escaped. The emperor’s rage had reached its peak, and he couldn’t control his anger anymore, ultimately resulting in death.
Honestly, when reading BL novels, you might think the death of a supporting character isn’t that important and just skip over it, but I couldn’t do that. Strangely, from the point where the 9th Omega was unfairly killed by the emperor, I lost interest in the rest of the story.
So I closed the reading app and lay down on my bed.
Lately, there had been a lot of stressful things like teacher evaluations and whatnot, and after all the urgent matters were finished, the book I read for the first time in a while had to be this kind of content…
It just ruined my mood for nothing.
“Sigh… I can’t even sleep. I should have quit BL long ago.”
Actually, since becoming a teacher, reading such novels secretly had been weighing on my conscience, so I’d repeatedly deleted and reinstalled the reading app several times. I held back and held back before opening it today, but I should have held back just a little longer.
Far from relieving my desires, I only got stressed, so I felt dejected and boldly deleted the reading app.
Then I fell asleep and when I woke up…
***
A house falling apart, clothes that could barely cover my body, extreme poverty where I couldn’t even manage one meal a day…
So this is the world inside the book?
When I realized that everything I saw and heard was exactly the same as the setting of the book I’d been reading before falling asleep, I thought I was still dreaming.
I’m having quite a long dream. And it seems so vivid too…
However, even after several days passed, my current state as a nine-year-old child without parents didn’t change, and I kept sleeping and waking up even within the dream, which started to frighten me.
I felt like I needed to wake up from the dream quickly, but I didn’t know how to wake up from a dream, so I just worried. Only when I reached a point where I couldn’t bear it anymore did I realize that I wasn’t dreaming but had possessed someone.
My goodness, possession.
I was someone who prided myself on being more logical and rational than anyone else. So even with evidence that forced me to acknowledge that I had possessed someone, I couldn’t easily accept it.
But now it seemed like it was time to accept the facts. No matter how many times I slept and woke up, this child’s body wouldn’t change into an adult’s body, so I had no choice but to adapt to this body.
But while I understood that this place was the world inside the book I was reading before falling asleep, who exactly had I possessed?
According to the possession stories I’d read so far, women possess female protagonists… Huh? Wait? Then since I’m the BL uke, I possessed the partner Omega? That can’t be right. That guy gets imprisoned later, runs away, gets caught, and suffers terribly…
I looked around my surroundings with concern.
There were more than a few strange things for me to think I had possessed the protagonist. The partner Omega in the book was born with a golden spoon and was nobility, but everything around me was just rags.
I looked at myself in front of the only piece of glass in this house.
I looked like I’d gotten over 20 years younger, and when I pinched my cheek, it just hurt. Doubting my reflection in the glass, I waved both hands alternately, but my image was reflected just as it was in the glass. After standing there dazed for a moment, I came to my senses and examined myself more carefully.
I had a small stature and was skinny from not eating well, but I was a beautiful boy with white skin and brown eyes that suited each other well.
Because of my cute and pretty appearance, I wondered if I had possessed the protagonist Omega, but the partner Omega was nobility. My current appearance was far from nobility.
Ha, I’m glad I’m not the protagonist Omega. At least I won’t suffer. But is it really fortunate? I mean, if I’m not the protagonist, then who did I possess?
No… could it be?
For a moment, an ominous feeling completely enveloped my entire body, but I shook my head thinking it couldn’t be. No. It can’t be. It can’t be the 9th Omega.
I clung to a thread of hope and began frantically searching for information about myself. After rummaging through the odds and ends and every corner of clothes in this shabby house that barely qualified as having furniture, the first thing I found was citizenship papers from the Stamili Empire, which serves as the setting for this novel.
[Name: Daniel Lambert
Status: Lower-class Omega]
“Ah…”
The moment I saw the words “lower-class Omega,” a sigh of despair escaped me. In the original work, several lower-class Omegas appeared as extras, and among them, the one whose name was mentioned in the work was Daniel Lambert, the 9th Omega.
Lower-class Omega was quite a ridiculous status in the Stamili Empire.
It was a status where you were born the most humble yet dared to enter the emperor’s bedroom to scent the bedding.
The number assigned in front was based on the strength of their scent. Numbers were assigned in order from the strongest scent among lower-class Omegas, and Daniel Lambert was 9th because he was not only a lower-class Omega of humble status but also had the weakest scent.
I denied reality and shook my head vigorously.
If you’re entering the emperor’s bedroom, why would your status be humble? Does that make sense?
However, this question of mine was gradually resolved as I recalled the contents of the book.
Only dominant Omegas born as the highest nobility could become the emperor’s partners. Their duty was to bear heirs, so the scent they emitted made the emperor more aroused.
In contrast, the scent of lower-class Omegas couldn’t arouse the emperor, making it difficult to produce heirs. Therefore, they were used to prevent the occasional rampage that Alphas might have before meeting their partner Omegas – this was the worldview of the book.
If a lower-class Omega had outstanding looks or had a dominant Alpha parent, they could be promoted to regular Omega status, but this was extremely rare.
In any case, no matter how I thought about it, the unchanging conclusion was that I had possessed Daniel Lambert, who would later become the 9th Omega.
In the original work, when the lower-class Omega is selected to prevent the rampage of the emperor, who is a dominant Alpha, they post announcements and hold examinations when the crown prince shows signs of going berserk.
‘Daniel Lambert’ was the only name that appeared in the book, but it didn’t explain how he was selected. I could only know that because the 1st Omega with the strongest scent was injured after being beaten by the tyrant emperor, the opportunity came to the 9th Omega with the weak scent.
Damn, I should have read the book to the end if I knew this would happen! I thought, then shook my head again. Anyway, since Daniel Lambert, the 9th Omega, was just an extra, even if I read the book, there wouldn’t be any information about him.
What do I do now?
If I stay like this, I’ll get trampled to death by the tyrant emperor… Ah! I can just live quietly like a mouse here for the rest of my life, right? If I never encounter him until I die, I won’t die, right?
Just when I thought I had found a ray of light in this desperate situation, suddenly a dusty shelf began to sparkle with light. The light was so bright that I couldn’t even look at it, so I covered my eyes with my hand and then removed it.
As if enchanted, I slowly walked toward the shelf, and there was a book I had never seen before. It looked somehow dangerous. With trembling hands, I picked up the book and examined the cover. Surprisingly, the book title was written in Korean, not in the Stamili Empire language.
<How to Survive as the Obsessive Tyrant’s Omega>
The moment I read the title, all hope flew away. How could possession story clichés be so accurate?
The cliché of the possession stories I had read was like this: The protagonist, who had read the original work and was overly immersed, possessed someone in the original work, but events different from the original knowledge occurred, and they would adventure through unwanted incidents.
I had to open the book and examine it quickly if I wanted to survive somehow, but having read possession stories several times, I knew that the contents of that book would be changed and that the changed content would be disadvantageous to me, so I couldn’t easily reach for it.
But I couldn’t not look at it either, so I stood there and caught my breath for a moment.
“Whew… Calm down, Seo Ajun. Someone who broke through the competition rate of Korea’s top education university can do anything. There must be a way to survive somewhere.”
I carefully opened the book. But!
“What is this? No, what the hell is…”
In the book, there was nothing more, nothing less – just one line written in large red letters.
This is a possession story cliché I’ve never seen anywhere. How could this be…
—
*”Sweet potato” (고구마) is Korean slang for frustrating situations in stories that make you feel suffocated, while “soda” (사이다) refers to satisfying, refreshing moments that relieve that frustration.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
