The Retired Hero is an Extra

Despite his question, the system remained silent for a moment before delivering an entirely different response.

{Process finished. Host can start his second life.}

Even before he could understand the system's message, he lost consciousness.

In the next moment, he was startled awake in an entirely different body.

His movements were disoriented and sluggish due to the difference in body size.

"Who is this?" he muttered in confusion, rubbing his droopy eyes and getting off the bed.

—Thud!

Unfortunately, his sense of balance was completely off as he directly fell on the ground with a loud sound.

"Urgh," he grunted from the sharp sensation of pain and complained, "Damn, this body is so soft!"

Well, he was used to his hardened body where pain was a constant companion, so he felt awkward in this soft, unfamiliar form.

Still, he gritted his teeth and dragged himself into the mirror, but before he could even move, a sudden screen startled him.

{Calibration with Host's body...}

{Error!}

{Error!}

{Need manual calibration!}

The sudden panels in front of his eyes were not something he was used to, making him wonder if he was dreaming or was his body on drugs.

"Host? Right! I have a system, now," he mumbled in realization and understood the messages, choosing to ignore them.

His first priority was finding the body he was thrust into.

{It's transmigration.}

The system seamlessly corrected his mistake as he tried to understand the different terms and finally reached a mirror.

However, the mirror was at a height of a meter, and he didn't even have the confidence to stand straight to look into it.

"I guess I need to calibrate my body?" he muttered to himself questioningly.

The moment he thought so, a system prompt came into his vision.

{Quest Issued!}

{Quest: Calibrate your body and get used to it.

Reward: Ability to use mana.

Penalty: High chance of discovery that you're not the person who this body belongs to.}

"Huh?" he blurted out in surprise, not expecting a quest so early on. It felt strange.

{Host need not think much. It's the system making up for its mistake as it can't calibrate your body due to external factors.}

"Wait, what external factors and what's with this ominous penalty?" he asked tentatively, but the system didn't reply.

Instead, he just gritted his teeth and got to work.

First things first, he tried to stand up properly, taking support.

He tried walking, but-

—Thud!

It took him quite some attempts to be able to walk normally and during that duration, he noted one thing.

'I am not in the body of an adult or child, so it has to be a teen.'

'Maybe 14 or 15?' He made random guesses as he changed his movements to jogging and running.

Although he limped and struggled, he was able to get used to this new body within ten minutes.

At least, his lower limbs were following his mental instructions properly.

Hence, he switched to his upper body and performed some basic exercises he knew to have the ability to move in times of danger at the minimum.

After another ten minutes, he felt he had reached an optimum stage and waited for the quest rewards.

Alas, they never came.

"System? What happened?" he asked while wiping off the sweat from his forehead thinking, 'Why does it feel so hot?'

{Quest Incomplete!}

"What? How?" He blurted out in disbelief, feeling scammed.

Fortunately, he didn't like to waste time and moved on, coming back to the first thing he wished to know.

Who was he?

With that question in his mind, he finally got a good look at himself in the mirror.

The first thing that came into his sight were the striking silver-white hair and then his reddish-amethyst eyes hidden beneath his silver eyelashes.

"This... Are kids even allowed to be this handsome?" he murmured in admiration.

His height allowed him to guess his approximate age, being only around 1.6 meters (5'4'').

Then his eyes followed downwards, taking in the sight of his lavish pajamas which felt too expensive to even own.

Just when he was looking at his clothes, his eyes fell on a dark object on the ground.

'What's that?' he thought curiously and picked it up.

It turned out to be a black-colored sword sheath, intriguing him further as he unsheathed it.

The silver blade gleamed in the moonlight as swirling patterns of dancing shadows flickered on its surface.

"Hm?" he hummed questioningly, taking note of the strange sight and his system appeared all of a sudden.

{Detected that the Host is in contact with a mana-infused weapon...!}

Without any hesitation, he dropped the sword, not wanting anything weird to happen.

For now, he wanted to discern his identity as the top priority.

'My features... could it be...?' he thought skeptically.

He swept a glance around his room to confirm his guess, and the luxurious insides with velvety beds and carpets came into sight.

"Definitely not some random person... Probably a noble..." he muttered in contemplation and it seemed his guess was right.

"So, I am him, right?" he mumbled before taking his name or at least he tried to.

"RETURN MY BODY!"

A loud voice rumbled his insides as he wondered just what went wrong.

{Warning...!}

{Warning...!}

{Warning...!}

The system blared warnings one after another, but even it couldn't do anything.

It wasn't a nobody its host had transmigrated into, but Amael Blake.

Amael Blake was too exceptionally talented for him to give up on his body just because of a setback and someone else possessing it.

Unfortunately, he met Allen Vox, or rather, Victor Aller.

"Shut up!" Victor shouted, uncaring of any consequences.

"You're dead! A dead man's not supposed to trouble the living world!" Amael retorted sharply.

"Not like you're alive!" Victor too wasn't one to be left behind.

However, he knew Amael's personality and the reason he even ended up becoming a villain was because of his childhood friend Jash Ramille's death.

He vowed to take revenge, but the protagonist stood in his way with an annoyingly naive forgiving mindset typical of such 'Heroes'.

As if that wasn't enough, he even tried to swoon not only Caera but also Ziva, Jash's proposed fiance.

However, Amael lost it all when the protagonist tried to flirt with his own younger sister, Amelia.

There was no forgiveness or compromise.

He straight out declared the protagonist his mortal enemy and fought till his death.

Though, his sister didn't end up becoming a heroine like Caera, but a villainess who stood in the protagonist and his harem's way.

'Should I just tell him?' Victor thought in a dilemma, but chose it directly.

He didn't want to get lingering headaches from this strange remnant.

{Does the Host wish to share his memories with Amael Blake?}

{Yes/No}

The always silent system blared into activity as if it were waiting for this timing, and Victor naturally agreed.

"Yes."

"Yes? What yes??" Amael asked but got stunned speechless due to the surprising amount of information he received despite his remnant state.

It contained everything about the novel and how it was actually true, despite seeming impossible.

Yet Amael didn't care.

"Just hand me over my body," he declared.

"That's impossible. You're but a remnant who will dissipate with some time," Victor tried talking some sense but it didn't work.

{Detected the remnant will is trying to harm the Host's soul!}

{Does the Host wish to forcefully extinguish the remnant will?}

{Yes/No}