章 1: Chapter 1 - When I Accidentally Ticked Off a God

Zeph was just an ordinary guy until he managed to irritate a random god.

One would think the odds of that were astronomical, but somehow, Zeph's luck defied logic.

So, the story starts from here.

It was an average day.

Zeph and his friends were hanging out as usual. Rina, always quick to voice her boredom, remarked, "Hey Zeph, today's quite boring, as always." They were a small group, just the four of them, lounging on a park bench with Zeph seated beside Rina, while his two sidekicks stood behind the bench.

Zeph wore a simple black hoodie and jeans, his dark hair tousled from the wind.

Rina, with her long auburn hair tied back and dressed in a casual sundress, seemed particularly uninterested.

"Hey, look over there," Rina nudged her elbow on Zeph.

He squinted, recognizing their overweight classmate from school.

Their sort-of friend was shuffling towards them, clutching a book tightly to his chest with his pudgy hands.

The boy's oversized sweater and baggy jeans made him look even more ungainly, but there was a rare smile on his face, his eyes lit up with excitement.

"Well, well, well, what have we here? Is this our 'precious vending machine?'" Zeph teased, a smirk playing on his lips. Money was a necessity, and Zeph knew the value of hard work.

That's why he was going to do some hard work on that upcoming friend's body.

But before he could greet his friend, his sidekick outran him.

"Hey, what's that you got there, chubby?" His first sidekick, a lanky boy in a graphic tee and ripped jeans, egged him on, adding fuel to the fire as he grabbed the book from the boy's hand and exclaimed upon seeing the title, with a hint of mockery. "Check it out, guys, it's 'Heroes Counterattack.'"

Fatty, his face red and eyes welling with tears, looked on the verge of breaking down seeing the widened eyes of Zeph with a twitch forming on his lips as his hands stretched toward the guy's collar.

And why wouldn't he react this way?

"Haha, Zeph, isn't the first villain of this novel share your name?" Rina's taunt was the final straw and a reminder that the earlier cheerful laughter on the chubby individual's face was due to this fact.

She even snatched the book from the sidekick's hand, waving it to provide Zeph a clear view.

Zeph's hands moved before his mind could catch up, as he tried to snatch the novel from Rina's hands.

But dodging him, she darted across the street, which was as empty as Zeph's wallet.

Seeing her this way, Zeph's face formed a visible anger, but before he could chase after her, the guy under the beatings of his two sidekicks cried out, trying to explain, "N-no, please! I only bought it because I heard the first villain has a miserable death."

And this just snapped the last remaining rationality of him.

"Cry me a river, you—BAM!" Zeph cut him off with a swift knuckle to the head punch, causing the guy to fall with the sidekicks holding his collar also falling due to force.

Turning to Rina, he chased her and grabbed the book back from her before ripping the pages out of the cursed novel.

And in that empty road, gravity seems to play a prank with him in the form of a huge shadow covering his eyesight before his eyes turned upward to see only the sight of the same novel's cover image falling into him.

THE END.

With the fall of the huge banner, which belonged to the same novel he tore a moment ago, Zeph died.

"Hey, Rina, call an ambulance…."

"Go do it yourself, you bast….."

---

'Where am I?' Suddenly, Zeph found himself alone, face-to-face with a bearded man surrounded by countless novels.

The Otaku God who had sent him here over the torn pages of his favorite novel stood before him, a figure both imposing and otherworldly.

The god wore an elaborate robe adorned with intricate symbols, the fabric shimmering with an ethereal light.

His eyes, deep and mysterious, glinted with a mix of amusement and malice, giving him an aura of power that sent shivers down Zeph's spine.

"Kowtow, mortal," the god commanded, his voice echoing in the vast space.

'What is he saying?' Zeph, with no other choice, instinctively obeyed, his body bowing before the god's presence without him having any control over it.

"Hahaha, you sure know your place, mortal," the god laughed, the sound resonating like thunder. "Well done. You've earned yourself a pardon."

Zeph dared to hope, a glimmer of desperation in his eyes. "So I can go back now, right?"

The god's next words dashed that hope like waves crashing against a shore. "It's not that simple. Your body's a goner. But you can pick something from these novels."

'Huh?' Zeph's eyes lifted to observe the mountains of books placed behind the old man, his mouth twitching with claws clenched, a mixture of frustration and confusion evident on his face. "So you screwed me for this garbage and now expect me to choose from your collection of nonsense?"

"Insolence." The god's voice thundered, and instantly a force of a thousand tons pressed down on Zeph's puny body, who was still trying to decipher the whole situation.

His limbs felt like lead, and every breath was a struggle against the crushing weight of the god's wrath.

Everything was just too sudden for him to react.

"You miserable creature, I, Loreius, the Lackluster Muse, curse you to become the thing you detest most."

Horror dawned on Zeph, his mind reeling with the implications of the god's curse.

"W-wait!" As he screamed in realization, his consciousness faded, knowing this was far from an average day.

---

Zeph blinked his eyes open, feeling like they were weighed down by some unseen force.

"Haah..." He sucked in a breath, trying to make sense of the extravagant surroundings.

The room shimmered in gold hues, decked out with lavish scenery, fancy gold accents, and floors so polished they could double as mirrors.

Sprawled on a bed fit for royalty, draped in silk, he found himself surrounded by sheer luxury, way beyond anything he'd ever laid eyes on.

Of course, he was only able to see things with his pupils moving here and there, not the head itself.

Struggling to sit up, he realized something was off about his body.

It was like he'd suddenly gained a ton of extra weight overnight.

His once trim physique now felt like it was buried under layers of excess, making every move a chore.

'N-no.' It hit him like a ton of bricks – he'd become the very epitome of everything he'd loathed.

Glancing down, he saw himself swathed in opulent robes, dripping with gold and silver thread.

"Where is the damn mirror?" His pupils abruptly moved to find a nearby mirror which revealed a bloated face, pale skin, dark circles under his eyes, and a look of sheer disbelief mixed with horror.

"That bastard Mouse!" Zeph's voice shook with anger and realization.

Memories of his run-in with Loreius came flooding back.

The whimsical deity had plucked him from his world, cursed him, and dumped him right smack into the novel he'd torn apart.

And how he was sure about him thrown in that same novel?

Of course because, there wasn't any character who was fat and had golden eyes.

At least the books he had read so far.