Episode 2: Quick Situational Awareness is Essential for Ordinary/Not Ordinary People

“………Where is this?”

An unfamiliar ceiling.

“I was definitely getting out of the capsule when I got electrocuted……”

As I tried to make sense of the situation, I began noticing countless unfamiliar sensations.

My hands had become as slender as a middle schooler’s, and my short hair had inexplicably grown long enough to reach my waist.

Most importantly… my third leg was gone, replaced by heavy lumps of flesh on my upper body.

“Wh-what is this?”

<><><><><><><><><><>

<Information>

<Name: Yun Se-ah>

<Age: 18>

<Alignment: Good, Lawful>

<Skill List>

<Psychokinesis (A)>

<Can freely manipulate psychokinetic energy>

<Recovery (S)>

<Can perfectly heal any injury. However, pain is still felt>

<Dulled Senses (B)>

<Long-term experimentation has dulled pain perception>

<Stats>

<Physical Strength: C+>

<Defense: D>

<Magic Power: A+>

<Stamina: F>

<Agility: B+>

<Luck: A+>

<><><><><><><><><><>

‘A status window… but the name says Yun Se-ah?!’

<You have been transmigrated into this world.>

<Countless stories and connections will come to you.>

<We offer ??? to you who loved this story>

<Please do your best to survive>

‘You just appear to say that and leave?’

The blue window suggested I’d been transmigrated – likely into the game <Academy Swordmaster> I’d just been playing.

Usually in these situations, whoever brought me here – developers or gods – would explain things. But there was nothing.

‘……Really nothing at all?’

The system window contained absolutely nothing.

Truly, nothing.

Something flickered annoyingly in my vision like a hypnotist’s coin.

“Ugh… my head.”

When I tried focusing, my vision blurred. I squeezed my eyes shut.

Memories that shouldn’t belong to me flooded my mind.

…

…

After darkness, scenes too cruel for a young girl appeared.

-Squelch!

“Aaaah! It hurts, Fath…er!!”

On an experimentation table in an underground lab, a 10-year-old girl screamed at a man in a white coat as blood gushed from her severed limbs.

The man called “Father” impassively increased the voltage before injecting an unknown substance into her neck.

“If you can’t endure this, you have no value to Yuseong Group. Let’s try the next experimental drug. Scream if it hurts – I won’t stop, but I’ll listen.”

-Wheeeeeeeeng!!

“Aaaaaaaah…..!!”

“Hmm… Rapid regeneration even after bisection. Let’s increase the monster blood concentration.”

The girl never knew familial love. Her single mediocre skill – <Natural Healing> – made her perfect for her father Yun Seongho’s experiments.

‘So at home, Yun Se-ah was just a lab rat.’

I knew her backstory involved brainwashing and escape to the academy, but the details were more horrific than expected.

“My beloved daughter Se-ah was the perfect test subject! Who else could regenerate severed limbs so perfectly?”

Her father’s words confirmed she’d been used for monstrous human experiments.

Her only sibling – a four-years-older sister – proved equally twisted.

-Thud!

“Ugh…?!”

“Weakling. You disgrace the Yuseong name just by existing. Why don’t you hang yourself?”

Yun Seolhwa, the sister, brutally abused Se-ah for “tarnishing family honor.” Though she later apologized during puberty, the damage was irreversible.

‘I only knew her as an A-rank hero in-game, not this…’

At 17, the final atrocity came – her father gouged out her eye and replaced it with an S-rank monster’s while she screamed unanesthetized.

‘So the brainwashing started in childhood.’

“………..So this is Yun Se-ah’s… no. My story.”

‘……My head’s spinning.’

The flickering object pulsed hypnotically, infuriating me.

“Stop bothering me and disappear…..!!”

I angrily gestured, triggering a <Psychokinesis (A)> that shattered something with a crash.

‘Finally quiet.’

“…Finally quiet now.”

Before me lay the wreckage of a device.

‘So that was the problem.’

“Seems I guessed correctly.”

My vision cleared as I recognized the room – Yun Se-ah’s single dorm room at Raon Academy.

‘I’ve possessed her before the original story begins?’

“Hmm… An avant-garde situation indeed.”

‘Why does my speech keep getting corrected?’

“This is… rather troublesome.”

Though my thoughts formed normally, they emerged in Se-ah’s characteristic aristocratic speech.

‘I look like I’m talking to myself.’

“The meaning seems well conveyed, at least.”

I examined the destroyed device.

<Indirect Brainwashing Device>

<Implants subconscious suggestions to eventually make the user obey commands>

I sneered at the purple-fragment-filled elephant statue.

‘So this caused the childhood brainwashing.’

The “elephant statue” – an affection item in-game. Se-ah received it as an “admission gift” from her father.

‘Has the brainwashing been broken?’

“But how should I overcome this predicament…”

-Beep beep beep!

[7:30]

‘I need information. Time to go downstairs.’

“I should go down for breakfast.”

Muscle memory helped me navigate women’s clothing – underwear to skirt – despite never having worn them before.

‘Imprinted memories are great!’

“…Such memories are quite convenient.”

Yun Se-ah’s ingrained habits let me move comfortably as I headed out.