Transmigration or illusion

"Why are you so calm?"

A voice suddenly rang out from beside Zidan.

Zidan turned his head lazily, thinking it was just a hallucination. But his eyes widened when he saw a teenage boy standing there with arms crossed, expression blank but sharp. His hair was a bit messy, and his eyes looked like mirrors—reflecting everything but revealing nothing.

"Uh... who are you?" Zidan asked, half sitting up, still confused.

"Seriously? You've been using my body for half a day and you're still asking who I am?" the boy replied, narrowing his eyes.

Zidan instantly got to his feet and pointed at himself. "You... Ryu?!"

"Yep. The original owner of the body you just entered."

Zidan gaped. "Whoa, my bad. I'm terrible at remembering faces. Oh well, maybe I'm dead again."

"How could that happen?" Ryu asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Blame your mom! She threw a pair of heels at my head!" Zidan snapped, annoyed. His head still throbbed.

"My aunt, not my mom," Ryu corrected him in a flat tone.

"...Oh. So, how did I end up transmigrating into your body? Don't tell me you died too?"

Ryu nodded slightly, then walked over to the edge of the lake. He crouched down and touched the shimmering surface of the water.

"At first, yeah, I died. My illness came back. Then someone whispered to me... that it wasn't my time yet. But before I could return, you barged into my body."

"Hey, that's on the system! I didn't ask to transmigrate! I just sneezed!" Zidan protested loudly.

Ryu turned and stared at him with eyes that sent chills down his spine.

"I'm not blaming you. But now... we're stuck between life and death. And it seems like only one of us gets to return."

Zidan fell silent. He swallowed hard.

"You mean... we have to choose who gets to live? And who dies?"

Ryu nodded slowly, though his expression softened a little.

"But I don't want to live anymore. I want to see my mom again... What about you?"

Zidan scratched his head.

"Honestly... I don't know. My real life? It sucked. No achievements, few friends, a crappy job. But weirdly, after I entered your world—even if I'm just the antagonist and everything's full of drama—it feels like I finally have a purpose."

Ryu said nothing for a few moments, just watching him.

"So why choose to die? What about the people you're leaving behind?" Zidan asked quietly.

Ryu looked up, gazing at the mirror-like sky over the lake.

"Because now there's you. You can take my place. Just... tell my dad that I love him, okay?"

Zidan clenched his jaw.

"Why don't you tell him yourself? Why does it have to be me? Can't I return to my own body?"

Ryu slowly shook his head.

"You're already dead, Zi. Your body's been buried. Where would you even go back to? Wanna be a wandering ghost?"

Zidan's eyes welled up.

"What about my mom? She's already a widow... and now I'm gone too."

He wiped his face, trying to stop the tears that were starting to fall.

"My mom's the only one who ever cared about me. And... I never even got to apologize for all the trouble I caused her," he said, voice cracking.

Ryu stood up and looked Zidan in the eyes.

"You can still say sorry," he said softly.

Zidan looked up, confused. "What do you mean?"

Ryu reached into his jacket—though where it came from in a place like this, who knew—and pulled out a crescent moon-shaped pendant. The letter "Z" was carved in the middle.

"My mom gave this to me when I was little. She said if I ever felt lost... this would remind me that I was loved."

Ryu handed the pendant to Zidan.

"I want you to keep it now. And when you meet your mom, give it to her. Tell her it's from Zidan—meaning, from you."

Zidan took the pendant with trembling hands. "Are you sure, Ryu? My world is totally different. How can I find her and give this to her?"

Ryu smiled faintly, the kind of smile that was genuine but bittersweet.

"Actually... our worlds are the same. That novel you were reading? It was an unfinished story I wrote."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Zidan asked, brows furrowed in confusion.

"You thought I was just an antagonist in some novel you were reading. But this isn't a fictional world. This is real."

Zidan blinked. "Wait, hold on. My brain's buffering. You mean... this world isn't a novel?"

Ryu nodded.

"Right. That novel you found... it was just a draft I never finished. I wrote it randomly, based on my own life and the people around me. But I only got halfway through. That's why the plot felt all over the place. It was never meant to be published."

Zidan stared blankly. It felt like being smacked with a 500-page hardcover book of truth.

"So… you're saying I'm really living as you now? And this isn't some fictional story? I'm not a character... I'm a real person?"

Ryu smiled, softer this time.

"Yeah. And now, you're living as me—with your own choices."

Zidan looked at the pendant in his hand.

"But if this is real, and the novel I read was your work... why did you write the ending where you died at the hands of your father?"

"Maybe... I preferred to die by my father's hand than by my illness," Ryu replied with a faint smile.

"What illness did you have, that you'd rather die like that?"

"I had early-stage leukemia," Ryu said quietly.

Zidan froze, processing the words.

"Sh*t—I don't wanna be you. In the end, I still die anyway. And probably suffer before that. No way. I'd rather die now, seriously," Zidan said, shaking his head in panic.

"Zi, please," Ryu begged, clutching Zidan's hand tightly, tears falling. "Take my place. I'm tired... I just want to rest. I want to see my mom again."

Zidan sighed heavily. "Fine."

"But I can still meet my mom, right?"

Ryu nodded eagerly, smiling in relief.

"Yeah. You'll see your mom again. Your friends. Your old life. Even that cat that triggered your sneeze."

"Wait—so I really died because of a sneeze? And it was caused by a cat?!"

Ryu laughed.

"Yup. Turns out there are people in the world with extreme cat allergies."

Zidan pouted, his eyes blank with disbelief.

Suddenly, the lake beside them began to glow. A beam of light rose from the surface, forming a faint doorway.

Ryu looked at the light, then turned to Zidan, still sulking.

"It's time for you to go back."

Zidan paused. It felt like leaving a conversation that wasn't finished. But the decision had already been made.

"Ryu..."

"Yeah?"

"You sure you won't regret this?"

Ryu just shook his head, smiling softly.

"Life isn't about how long you live—it's about how deeply you live it. And honestly, I'm happy... you're continuing my story."

Zidan nodded slowly. He looked at Ryu—maybe for the last time.

"I promise I'll take care of everything you left behind. Not as Ryu Ar-Rayyan Mahendra... but as Zidan, someone who learned how to survive through your life."

Ryu smiled.

"Don't worry about the memories. I'll give them to you when you wake up."

"You better. Don't make me walk around like an idiot with no memories," Zidan muttered as the light slowly enveloped him. The world spun. Ryu's face grew smaller… then disappeared.

"Be happy, Zidan Ar-Rayyan. Take care of my dad for me, okay?" Ryu whispered as he watched Zidan vanish.

---

THUMP.

Zidan jolted awake—this time in a soft hospital bed. The sharp scent of antiseptic filled his nose. Morning sunlight peeked through the window. Next to the bed, Arutala leaned back in a chair, playing on his phone.

"You're awake?" Arutala asked, not looking up.

Zidan rolled his eyes. "No. You can clearly see that, genius."

He raised his hand... the crescent moon pendant was still clenched tightly.

Zidan—or now, Ryu—had just been given a second chance at life.