Chapter 3: To Die

Knowing that he was fated to die in only three days' time, Ackster naturally felt some panic. Although he had transmigrated after his first death, Ackster doubted something like that would happen if he died again. And it felt even more unlikely that he would get a do-over.

Not that getting another chance would do anything since he would die at The Hero's hands, no matter what. It seemed like Ackster's only option was to die. On that point, maybe it was fortunate it was only three days left since it meant he only had to endure the feeling of having a guillotine pressing against the back of his neck for three days instead of an entire week.

Ackster sighed in defeat. He had hoped that changing his mindset would have, in some way, stimulated his brain to devise a solution. But even after several hours of telling himself to accept his fate, Ackster still hadn't discovered the answer to his problems. He would die no matter what he tried to do. The only thing that would change was the location and the number of days.

If he really wanted to, he could go and find The Hero and ask him to end it at once. And if he forfeited, he might be able to extend his life by a couple of weeks or even months, depending on The Hero's mood. However, Ackster would be forced to live with the stress of The Hero finding and extinguishing him at any moment.

"Wait a moment!"

Ackster put his hands against the desk and stood up with enough force to make the wooden chair scoot backward.

'I just have to die!'

Since The Hero would find a way to kill Ackster as long as he was alive, the most surefire way to make The Hero not do that would be to not be alive.

Once Ackster realized it, the answer was surprisingly simple. Now, he only had to figure out how to die. Or rather, fake his death. As long as The Hero and everyone else believed, truly believed, that Ackster was dead, no one would try to kill him, not even The Hero.

Of course, fooling everyone, including The Hero, would be difficult. There was also what came after to think about. Ackster wouldn't be done after evading death at The Hero's hands. He still had to live, and when he was at it, he also had to find a way to change the book's original ending. Otherwise, his fake death would no longer be a lie. It would become a reality.

Ackster also had to worry about the butterfly effect. Any changes he caused would reverberate and send tremors through time that would potentially change the course of the world to something Ackster wouldn't recognize. And if the changes were too extreme, his privilege as a transmigrator would quickly fade away.

However, with the skill possessed by Ackster's body, he wouldn't have minded giving up the advantage his knowledge gave him if the butterfly effect was enough to change the original novel's ending. As long as he had the original Ackster's skill and the base understanding of the world inside the novel, Ackster was sure he would be able to live a lavish life.

But he doubted that any changes he made would be enough to change the novel's ending. So, Ackster had to keep things as true to the original novel's storyline as possible since it would make it easier for him in the future. By the looks of it, he would have to step in personally and change the ending. How he would do that was a matter for another day.

Ackster's first order of business and the thing with the highest priority was his battle with The Hero. If he wanted to maintain the original novel's storyline as much as possible, Ackster would have to die during his battle with The Hero, just like the original Ackster had done.

Thankfully, the battle had been so short that Ackster remembered it in detail.

And compared to finding a way to survive his encounter with The Hero, there were a lot more ways that Ackster could use to fake his death. The only things that limited him were a lack of time and resources.

But even so, Ackster felt that he could find a way to successfully fake his death and evade his fated death sentence.

Ackster began by writing down as many details as possible of his circumstances and the hurdles he had to overcome. He then listed all the ways that the original novel mentioned that one could employ if one wanted to fake their death. He also added some methods that he knew from stories, movies, and shows back on Earth.

There were things like faking death by ingesting some kind of drug that could put the person who ingested it in a state of suspended animation. If he looked hard enough, Ackster would probably be able to find a potion, medicine, or item that could do something similar. But that would take time and resources, the two things he didn't have. It would also be difficult to implement that method since he had to fake his death during his battle with The Hero.

Since using any kind of method to put him in a state of suspended animation would probably leave a lot to be desired, Ackster began thinking of other methods that were only possible thanks to his body and the world he was in.

Stuff like healing magic, or resurrection magic probably wouldn't work, especially resurrection magic. That was stuff only the Saintess could do, and she hadn't even made her appearance yet. And healing magic? Why would anyone use that on someone that was supposed to die? Even if Ackster managed to find a way to get someone to use it before he drew his last breath, that would still leave at least one witness.

Ackster went over the list of details and circumstances and realized something. He hadn't written down the reason why The Hero and his companions stopped by Degrest, his city. When he realized that, Ackster also came up with a fairly possible way to fake his death.

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