I Thought It Was a Common Transmigration - Chapter 122

‘Does it make sense for the author to lose?’

Lizé, or rather, K, screamed in her mind.

This outcome had never occurred to her, and now that it had, she didn’t know what to do.

K was a writer whose first web novel, written for fun, became a hit.

Having always been praised for her academic excellence from a young age, she was depressed after a series of unsuccessful job applications, so she turned to romance novels to distract herself from her reality and started writing, thinking, “I can write something like this too.”

She created a female lead named Lizé Sinclair who embodied all of her aspirations to the point where she could forget all about his gloomy reality, and a male lead named Cliff Ludwig who embodied all of her desires.

Her first work, “I Refuse Your Obsession,” was written by mixing clichés of romantic fantasy appropriately.

The number of people who read it grew day by day, and soon a major publisher offered to publish it.

And the first book she published was an instant hit.

A fandom quickly formed, and readers in fiction communities and cafes praised her.

This instantly boosted her confidence…… a little too much.

‘I mean, how many books have I read since I was a kid and how much knowledge do I know? It’s definitely different from what those kids wrote.’

Quickly immersed in the “successful author” role, K cynically reviews the web novels of other authors, criticizing them and posting malicious comments in the guise of a reader.

– The characters are flat and the story is childish. It’s like the author didn’t put much thought into it.

– This reminds me too much of “M* Wo***”. Did you sell your conscience, author?

– Why would I pay to read something like this? I hit the back button immediately after reading the free chapters. My coins are too precious for this.

At first, she said what she didn’t like about it, but later on, she just wrote malicious comment after malicious comment.

But K never felt the slightest bit guilty.

‘I’m helping the readers save their money, so they can spend their time reading something better.’

Meanwhile, she formed a writers’ club with writers she met online.

Of course, there wasn’t a single writer in that club who was better than K.

And in the name of the club’s development, K evaluated each member’s work once a month.

“I think you’re using too few vocabulary words, you should read more books.”

“Don’t you think the plot is too far-fetched? You’ll be criticized if your plot is this bad.”

“I don’t think you have the skills to write yet.”

K’s criticisms were harsh, but the Writers’ Club members expressed their gratitude, saying that her sound advice had brought them to their senses.

So there was no need for K to be humble.

Then something unpleasant happened.

A work written by one of the members of the Writers’ Club had become a huge hit. It was a success that surpassed “I Refuse Your Obsession.”

The members of the club congratulated the new hit author and asked her to evaluate their work.

‘What the hell? She only got a hit because she got a good promotion, but she’s so arrogant.’

K was furious at the member for stealing her spot and immediately started leaving hateful comments in the comment section.

She used her mother, father, and brother’s identities to create new accounts and criticized the author with all sorts of malicious comments, and eventually, she told the author to stop writing.

And in the end, the author sued K.

When the author confronted K in court, she was outraged to learn that K was the head of the Writers’ Club, so she even revealed K’s true colors to all the members of the Writers’ Club and other online communities.

K was eventually forced to abandon her original pen name and start writing under a new one.

However, her second web novel under the new pen name was a disastrous failure.

From then on, K went downhill.

Under pressure to write a new web novel that would be as successful as “I Refuse Your Obsession,” she couldn’t write as well as she wanted, and her anxiety and depression grew worse by the day.

She ran away from home after a big fight with her parents, who suggested she go to counseling, and became obsessed with “I Refuse Your Obsession” the further she fell.

She enjoyed reading “I Refuse Your Obsession” many times, and her love for the female lead, Lizé Sinclair, grew stronger by the day.

At some point, the wish of “I wish I could be Lizé” turned into a thought: “Lizé is a character modeled after me.” Eventually, a single thought took over K’s mind.

‘I am Lizé.’

Slowly eroded over the years, K’s mind couldn’t distinguish between reality and delusion, and one day she decided to go back to where she belonged.

In a small studio apartment with no one to talk to, she popped a handful of sleeping pills without a second thought.

Finally, she was reincarnated as Lizé Sinclair, just as she had always hoped.

As a female lead, as an author. K felt an overwhelming sense of joy in that moment.

All the inferiority complexes she’d felt in her previous life were instantly gone, and she was happy every day.

Moreover, as an author, she could control the main characters and change the plot as long as it didn’t contradict the original story, so there was no crisis in her life. There were just triggers for events that looked like crises.

‘This is getting a little boring after repeating it so many times.’

After living this life a few times, K decided to add a little thrill to her life instead of accepting that living the same life over and over again was hell.

So she came up with ‘Edith’s reincarnation’. As a one-off villainess who appears and disappears in the middle of the story, Edith is the easiest character to play as she confronts Lizé directly and shows her viciousness.

The result was exactly what she thought it would be. How refreshing it was to have a villainess who didn’t act like the one in the original story.

It breathed new life into a character who had fallen into a behavioral pattern that was always the same, and every time she won a game against a human reincarnated as Edith, K was thrilled.

It was going to be like that forever.

It was supposed to be forever, and she never imagined that she would be defeated by the thirteenth Edith.

‘What happens now?’

The 13th Edith met the third exception condition that K thought she would never be able to do.

Despite all her urging, “Ask Killian to save you,” Edith did not listen, as if she had given up on her life altogether.

[The third exception condition has been met. An exception has been granted and the author’s control has been reduced. The third exception condition will be removed.]

The voice in her head was terrifying. She didn’t know who it was, but she wanted to run over and shut it down.

But the gods of this world were not on her side, the author.

[The original storyline set up for Edith Ludwig is now gone. The force that holds this world together has been changed from ‘original flow’ to ‘probability’ as the original flow has become extremely weak.]

Hearing that, K felt like being struck by lightning.

Now there is no power left for K to wield in this world.

What’s more, the flow of the original story has also been weakened, so the future of Lizé’s happy ending has also become uncertain.

“No…… no……!”

As she trembled and faltered in a small panic, one of the knights around her cleared his throat and soothed her.

“Lady Lizé is soft-hearted, so it must be hard for you to listen to these terrifying screams. There is a world order that must be upheld, even with such drastic measures.”

At that moment, Lizé’s trembling stopped.

“Lady Lizé……?”

The knight examined Lizé’s complexion with worry, but she smiled brightly, as if she had never trembled before.

“You’re right, for the sake of world order…… there are some things that must be done.”

The knight was inwardly proud that he had calmed her down, and Lizé was genuinely grateful to him.

The knight’s advice had helped her realize what she needed to do.

***

How long have I been asleep?

I opened my eyes feeling deadly cold.

I didn’t seem to have been asleep as long as I thought, as I could still hear the screams from the execution ground.

I shivered and gently patted my numb cheeks.

The gash in my mouth had healed somewhat, but the bruises were still sore with the slightest pressure.

‘How long am I going to be here?’

If they’re going to keep me alive, they should put me somewhere better than this. I’m going to freeze to death in here.

As if on cue, I heard someone open the dungeon door and descend the stairs.

It didn’t seem to be the knight or Killian, as the footsteps were too soft.

“Edith!”

“Huh? Lizé……!”

It was Lizé, clutching something in her arms.

“You’re cold, aren’t you? I brought you a hot-water bottle to warm you up.”

Oh! As expected, you have the heart of a female lead!

I pushed my stiff body to my feet and stepped closer to the bars.

“Thanks, Lizé. I thought I was going to freeze to death.”

Lizé’s smile hardened a bit.

“If you don’t want to die so badly, why didn’t you say a word to Killian to save you before?”

“What?”

“You could have died a moment ago, and I told you to ask Killian to save you, but you didn’t even pretend to listen……”

For some reason, Lizé’s tone seemed a little different from that of the original character.

Moreover, I couldn’t understand why I was being criticized in this way at the moment when I was in despair and lost even the will to live.

“Thank you for worrying about me, but earlier, I really didn’t think there was any point in…… living. I felt like they wouldn’t believe me no matter what I said. You, too, thought I helped Shane, didn’t you?”

Lizé clenched her jaw, saying nothing.

All is well and good, I hope she quickly hands the hot-water bottle to me first, but I’m a little embarrassed to even say it.

I sighed deeply.