Chapter 01
<Where Am I—Day 1.>
Ha… Where am I?
I was drinking and gaming, then passed out—
And when I opened my eyes, I was in a forest.
First things first, I need to figure out where I am.
<Where Am I—Day 2.>
So seriously, where the hell is this place?????
<Possession — Day 3. Cloudy, then clear, then rainy—what is wrong with this weather?
I finally figured it out.
I’d been possessed. And not just anywhere—inside the open-world game Tales World I’d been playing a few days ago.
It’s that cliché game where the hero protects the princess and defeats the Demon King.
How did I realise it?
I was hungry and went to pick some fruit.
Seeing words float above the shiny fruit was shocking enough, but the name was even worse—Bulk-Up Berry.
Bulk-Up Berry. That’s one of the early healing items in Tales World. And the naming sense is absolute trash.
<Possession — Day 4. Weather… sigh.>
I’ve searched everywhere for days and haven’t found a single strand of human hair.
I mean, can’t someone show up so I can grab them and ask where this is?
All I have is one notebook and one pencil.
And an endless forest and a lake.
Plus, the weather makes no damn sense.
It was clear ten minutes ago, then lightning suddenly crashed out of a dry sky, and after that it started hailing.
I’m starting to worry about my future.
<Possession — Day 5. Don’t even want to write about the weather.
I don’t know the name of this place at all.
Only a few regions in the game have weather this chaotic, so I can guess… vaguely.
Anyway, I’ve accepted reality, and now I need to plan ahead.
I’ve decided to settle here.
After a few days, I realised this place is actually perfect—no people, no monsters.
The only problem is this crap weather.
I definitely need a comfortable house. What if I get struck by lightning in my sleep?
And I don’t want to sleep in grass anymore. There are too many bugs.
<Possession — Day 6. Feeling sunny.>
Today I ventured deeper into the forest for the first time.
There are a lot of conifers—good for building a house.
I tied sharp stones to wooden sticks and made a stone axe.
Starting today, I’m chopping ten logs a day.
<Possession — Day 8. Feeling crushed.>
I’ll be honest.
I seriously underestimated house-building.
Chopping wood is exhausting. Carrying these heavy logs, tying them up—my whole body feels like it got beaten with a hammer.
But what choice do I have? I need a house.
No diary for a while.
I’m building.
<Possession — Day 15. Feeling a little dizzy.>
I almost cut myself in half while chopping wood.
But I’ve gotten used to it now.
At first, I could manage only two or three logs a day. Now I can chop five with ease.
Why only five?
Try carrying these monsters of logs on your back all the way out of the forest. Even some gym bro squatting 500 pounds would struggle.
<Possession — Day 30. Feeling proud.>
I finally finished my log cabin.
Nearly three straight weeks of hard labor, and my cozy home is complete.
I feel like I could fly.
You don’t know how blissful it is to have a place to lie down in this hellhole.
Of course you don’t. You’d have to try living self-sufficiently to know. This is my first time too.
Anyway, I’ve proven I’m tougher than Bear Grylls. I’m ridiculously proud!
<Possession — Day 31. Feeling… ha.>
My house is gone.
More precisely… my possession reset.
Meaning, I returned to the very beginning…….
Do you know how hard I worked for that house?
For those muscles?
For that accomplishment I built through pure suffering?!
What the hell happened?
Did I get bitten by some poisonous bug in my sleep and die?
Is that why I went back to the start?
For the first time since being possessed, I panicked.
<Possession — Day 32. Feeling depressed.>
With past experience, I went back to rebuild the house.
Seeing all the conifers magically restored—as if they’d never been cut—made my eyes sting.
I made another stone axe.
Starting again from two or three trees a day… the thought alone was crushing.
But then—what the heck?
I chopped ten trees and felt nothing.
Looks like my muscles didn’t reset.
<Possession — Day 43. Feeling good!>
I rebuilt the house much faster this time.
Thankfully, the house survived.
My possession didn’t reset.
But I can’t relax yet.
What if it happens again tomorrow?
I won’t sleep tonight.
I’m going to stay awake and watch for any poisonous bugs trying to bite me.
My house… I’ll protect it with my life.
<Possession — Day 50. Found the hero.>
I was sick of eating nothing but fruit, so I ventured outside the area for the first time.
And guess what I found?
The hero. That bastard hero.
He was insanely good-looking in person—way better than the 3D model. I kind of wanted to turn him into a keychain and carry him around.
Anyway, I greeted him because I was thrilled to see someone.
And he put a sword to my throat.
What the hell? Is the hero even allowed to behave like this?
<Possession — Day 53. Skull appeared on the hero.>
A skull icon appeared above the hero’s head.
I was so fascinated I asked him about it, but he looked clueless.
Also… there’s something seriously off about his personality.
<Possession — Day 60. Hero came to my area.>
I finally figured out the name of where I settled.
It’s beneath the hero’s early-game route, Sky Island.
No wonder the weather is like this.
Thanks to that, I realized this is still the beginning of Tales World.
Meaning, running into the hero was inevitable.
A few days after we parted, the hero passed right by my log house and entered the forest. If he keeps going, he’ll reach the waterfall leading to Sky Island.
I wished him luck saving the world and went back home.
But once he left, a thought hit me—
Why didn’t we meet during my first run?
Weird.
<Possession — Day 84. Ha… f**.*>
My house is gone again.
Meaning, another reset.
And this time, I finally learned the cause.
It happened because the hero died.
Ha… and do you know why he died?
Not to monsters.
Not from falling off Sky Island.
He randomly started burning the forest and then jumped into the flames.
By himself.
This lunatic.
<Possession — Round 4. This fragile-filet bastard.>
He died again.
Every month or two, he just goes somewhere and dies. Every damn time.
<Possession — Round 5. I think the hero has burnout.>
I finally found the root cause.
That skull icon above his head.
When the five bars fill up, he leaves in the middle of a meal to go die.
What am I supposed to do?
Am I doomed to live endless one-to-two-month lives forever?
<Possession — Round 10. I have hero-related PTSD.>
I tried soothing him.
I tried traveling with him.
I tried talking to him constantly so he wouldn’t fall into lethargy.
I tried everything.
He still dies.
Without fail.
What is the problem?
At this point, I want to die too.
<Possession — Round 20. Die or don’t, whatever.>
My life is an endless loop of short runs.
I finally figured out why I didn’t meet him during Round 1.
He’s an attention seeker.
Because I talked to him in a nearby area during a later round, he passed near my house on purpose.
This time I didn’t look for him.
I ignored him completely.
And he died somewhere without me knowing.
Either way, he keeps dying.
<Possession — Round 90. I have hope.>
I always knew one thing—
even if my starting point resets, my stats don’t.
I’m basically a muscle god by now.
But today… I think I gained a new ability.
If this goes well, I might be able to cure the hero’s burnout.
<Possession — Round 98. About to drag the burnout hero to save the world.>
I’ve lived here for over eight years now.
During that time, I trained my skills and finally created a cure for the hero.
Food.
The cure is the food I make.
I realized this during Round 90.
My cooking has special effects.
Is it because I was a cook in real life?
Either way, now that I know, I’m grabbing this bastard by the collar and dragging him to save the world.
Of course, one meal won’t fix him.
So I’ll feed him diligently—three meals a day—until his burnout is cured.
And then I’ll finally break this endless reset cycle.
So this is where I’ll end my diary.
Thank you for keeping me company all this time.
Goodbye!
“Kaizen, wait right there.”
Possession Reset — Round 97, Day 1.
I closed the notebook, and a wicked grin curled across my lips.
You’re dead now.
…No.
You’re saved.
