Extra's Survival: Raising SSS-Rank Characters Is My Only Option

Jin blinked.

But the words didn’t go away.

[ The ’Narrative Updating Protocol’ is now online ]

His eyes widened.

’A lifeline! A Golden finger!’

Jin, who was cursing his fate, suddenly felt alive and rejoiced!

’A system! I have a system!’

For the first time since waking up in this new place, Jin felt hope.

He felt as if god had finally shown some mercy on the poor soul and bestowed upon him a great boon.

How many novels had he read where the protagonist started with nothing, only to rise above everyone with the help of a mysterious system? How many times had he imagined himself in their place?

Adventure.

Magic.

Legendary powers.

Power to change fate and rewrite destiny!

If those protagonists could conquer impossible odds, then why couldn’t he?

[ Recognizing Host.... ]

Jin straightened instinctively despite the duke’s crushing pressure filling the room.

His heart hammered as dopamine rushed in.

This was it.

This was his moment.

’Hurray to the transmigration! Hurray to the fantasy world.’

Even if he had possessed some forgotten side character, none of that mattered anymore.

With a system-

[ Error!! ]

The message cut across his thoughts.

Jin froze.

[ Recognizing Host... ]

[ Recogni——zing Ho...st... ]

The text flickered and, for a brief moment as the words stretched sideways, distorted and broken like a corrupted video frame.

Jin’s smile slowly disappeared seeing that.

[ Host identity not found in source narrative. ]

[ Resolving anomaly... ]

[ ... ]

The screen glitched, and symbols poured across his vision.

[ ░░░░░░$░░░░░░░$&****░░░░░░░░░&**░░░░░░ ]

A chill crawled up his spine.

’Huh?’

An ominous feeling settled over him as he realized something was wrong...very, very wrong.

[ The Narrative relevance of the host is 0! ]

[ A catastrophic event has been triggered! ]

Suddenly, everything around him turned black - darkness swallowed everything.

It wasn’t the darkness one sees when they close their eyes, nor the darkness of a room. It was as if everything simply ceased to exist.

The duke, the office, the floor beneath his knees - everything was gone, and only Jin remained.

Then the pain arrived.

It started as a tiny crack somewhere deep inside his mind, then it spread...to thousands of them.

The sensation spread throughout his entire existence.

Jin felt as though invisible hands had reached into his body and begun tearing him apart from the inside.

His bones felt like they were being pulled in opposite directions.

His muscles unraveled stand by strand.

His organs were twisted.

Yet somehow none of it was physical. The agony existed beyond flesh.

It was as if something was trying to erase him.

Memories began slipping from his mind.

His childhood, his name, his face.

For a brief momemnt, he couldn’t remember who he was.

And every time a memory vanished, panic followed because he knew that if enough disappeared...

There would be nothing left to remember.

Nothing left to lose and nothing left of him.

Jin tried to scream, but no sound emerged. He tried to move, but his body no longer obeyed him.

’What the fuck is happening?’

The thought existed barely for a moment before another wave crashed into him, intensifying the pain.

A million hooks seemed lodged inside his soul, dragging him apart piece by piece. His vision fractured into cuntless shards and he genuinely believed he was dying.

But no.

Death would have been merciful...this was worse.

Then, when he was just about to give up.

[ Detected an unusual event - ░░░░░░░$& ]

[ The event is large enough to impact the narrative ]

[ Updating Narrative relevance accordingly ]

[ Narrative Relevance: 0% -> 0.04% ]

[ Status: Critically Low ]

[ The Catastrophic event has been averted ]

The agony stopped.

It wasn’t a gradual stop...it stopped in an instant.

Jin collapsed forward, air rushed into his lungs, and his body trembled uncontrollably.

For several seconds, he couldn’t think or move or even process what had happened.

The room slowly returned as the darkness resided...the office, the walls, the duke....reality stitched itself back together in front of him.

The pain was gone, but the memory of what he had experienced stayed. Every instinct in him screamed at him that he had come within a hair’s breadth of something far worse than death, something that no human being should ever experience.

He never wanted to feel it again.

Not even for a second.

Only after nearly a minute did he notice the floating text again.

[ Narrative Relevance: 0.04% ]

Jin just stared at that number.

’Zero point zero four??’

First thing, he didn’t know what this narrative relevance was, but even despite that, he was intelligent enough to understand that the small number couldn’t mean anything good.

All the joy and excitement of the golden finger puffed out into thin air as he realized that the system wasn’t a blessing.

[ Warning: If Narrative Relevance reaches 0%, catastrophic consequences will befall the Host.]

The word ”catastrophic” was doing a great deal of work there, Jin could almost feel the phantom pain crawling beneath his skin.

His breathing became uneven. He didn’t need further explanation for what those ’Catastrophic’ consequences are...not after what he had just experienced.

He would do absolutely anything to avoid feeling that again.

[ Golden Tip: Involve yourself in the story.]

’Involve myself in the story?’

It wasn’t that the words were hard to understand, but the implication was.

[ Accessing Current Situation... ]

[ Critical Situation Detected: The Duke’s Judgement ]

[ Generating Emergency Quest... ]

The text shimmered, and a title resolved itself in the air before him, underlined in deep red!

[ Emergency Quest: Survive the Duke’s Judgment ]

[ Duke Gannon has reached the end of his tolerance with the antics of his youngest son. The duke has resolved to formally disown Enrid Gannon and strip him of the family name. If the scenarios follow the narrative, all social standing, resources, and connections tied to the family will be severed. ]

[ Objective: Avoid being disowned by any means necessary. ]

[ Failure Result: Narrative Relevance falls to 0%, resulting in a canonical event. ]

[ Time Limit: 02:00 minutes ]

Jin looked up.

The Duke still sat on the writing table, with his hands folded on it, watching him with the patience of a man who had already reached his conclusion and was simply waiting for the formality of finishing.

There was no anger in his face. What was there instead was a cold stillness, like a door about to close.

’He looks scary.’

Duke Aegis Von Gannon.

He was one of the four pillars of the Empire and probably among the most influential people in the entire universe of ’The Last Age of Radiance.’ He was a man who sacrificed his own son to maintain a political alliance. He didn’t care about feelings, he cared about the strength and image of his house.

From what Jin has read about him in the novel, he was a strict, upright, and unyielding man. Unlike Encrid, who was mentioned once, the Duke plays an important role in the story.

In the future, the Duke would become a mentor to one of the protagonists and train him in secret for two arcs, pushing him past limits and helping him rise to a higher realm.

’Now that I think of it, there was a scene.’

Jin remembered a small, melancholic scene from late in the novel.

In one of their training sessions, the main character asks the Duke about his fourth son, who was disowned.

|| His upright master, who wore his expression like armor, unmoved by anything, had gone quiet. And then, after a long pause.

”He was a pitiful child. I should have paid him more attention.” ||

That was what was written.

The main character hadn’t pressed, nor did the duke say anything else, and the Chapter moved on.

But Jin had remembered it.

’That means the duke still has some affection towards his son.’

Jin thought, but he knew he couldn’t lean on it.

Affection and forgiveness weren’t the same thing.

The original Encrid had likely thrown himself at his father’s feet, he must have begged, cried, and pleaded.

And it hadn’t worked.

The duke had disowned him anyway. Which meant begging was a door that had already been tried and found locked.

’Think, Jin. What does a man like Duke Aegis value more than anything?’

Jin tried to think of a solution. It was hard to do so while the stone was biting into his knees and the headache of what he just experienced pressed at the back of his skull.

But he did so anyway.

Aegis was a man of principle. He didn’t operate on sentiment or mercy but on merit, logic, and the cold mathematics of consequences.

He hadn’t disowned Encrid out of hatred. He had done it because keeping a son like that was a liability to the family that he couldn’t afford.

It was a practical decision, which meant the only argument that could possibly work was a practical one.

The Gannon house was a machine, and Encrid was a broken gear. From his perspective, there was no need to keep broken things that disrupt the process.

It was what he thought was logical and good for the Gannon Household.

If Encrid wanted to avoid being disowned, then he had to prove that he could still serve a purpose and contribute to the house.

[ Time limit: 10 seconds ]

’Damn it,’ Jin’s thoughts lurched.

The gears in his mind were still turning, but there was no time.

But right then it landed.

Jin raised his eyes.

He met the Duke’s gaze directly for the first time and looked directly into his pale, endless blue eyes.

He didn’t look away this time.

”I would like to take the Wall, Father.”

✦ ✦ ✦