It was a certain Sunday morning…
I was diligently doing "research" for my writing job, as a newbie webnovel author.
Or at least, that's what I told myself.
In truth, the so-called research consisted of me lying completely flat on my unmade bed like a beached whale, binge-watching the latest isekai anime from dawn until dawn, with a half-empty bucket of chicken nuggets sat wedged securely under my left arm, and a whirring laptop teetered precariously on my knees.
Life felt strangely peaceful.
Peaceful, that is, as long as I kept forcing myself to avoid thinking about the ten-thousand-word deadline looming over me like an executioner's axe.
Suddenly, a sharp notification sound cut through the room.
[DING!]
My phone.
I rolled onto my side with all the grace of a dying walrus and stretched out one lazy arm, already bracing myself for the inevitable tirade. Any second now, my editor's shrewish voice would blast through the speaker, demanding to know why my lazy ass was still horizontal instead of chained to the keyboard.
But… nope.
The message glowing on my screen was something else entirely.
[User "Mister X" has rewarded your novel with 1000 Luxury Castles — worth 5,000,000 Coins!]
I froze mid-chew for a solid half-second.
(Huh…?)
(Five million… WHAT?!)
(What the actual hell is this? Is this guy some oil prince? A crypto bro gone mad?)
(Who in their right mind throws fifty grand at a trashy smut webnovel about futa catgirls?)
(Who is this absolute GIGACHAD?!)
…
Yep.
Believe it or not, that was the moment I died.
Someone had just thrown thousands of dollars at my trashy smut webnovel. I was overjoyed, but before I could even dream of spending a single cent, I choked on a goddamn chicken nugget.
…And died.
A damn silly death.
Well, luckily for me, death wasn't the final boss. Right after the darkness swallowed everything, I woke up again. I had been reborn into another world. But I didn't arrive as a human, a mighty hero, or even some overpowered monster.
Instead, I became… a castle.
A damn castle, stuck in the middle of a wild forest.
******
Reincarnated as a castle – Day 1
The initial tsunami of panic hit me like a freight train. For what felt like hours, my mind spiraled in absolute chaos.
Eventually, the panic subsided enough for me to force a few mental breaths. Mental only, of course. Because when you're nothing but a pile of cold stones and mortar, you don't exactly have lungs or a nose to breathe through!
Eventually, I calmed down enough to process the hand fate had dealt me.
(Haha… Oh… Oh the irony!!!)
I had spent years roasting those brain-rot webnovel authors online. You know the ones, who were churning out the same tired isekai trash where the protagonist gets yeeted into a fantasy world as some random object!
Reincarnated as a slime? A spider? A sword? Honestly, those were the top-tier ones.
But then came the real trash.
Reincarnated as a literal apple? As a hot spring that hot mommies and little sisters soak in? Or—god help us—the absolute degenerate who reincarnated as a freaking condom!
Seriously?! What the hell were those authors smoking?
But now… here I was. And guess who wasn't laughing anymore?
ME!
Because not only had I transmigrated, I had become an entire castle!
A literal, physical, immobile castle, squatting in the middle of a small forest clearing like a giant stone paperweight.
Just me, a bunch of trees, and a whole lot of existential dread.
***
However, calling me a "castle" might be a bit generous.
In reality, I looked more like a small manor, or, at best, a miniature keep.
The main structure was a simple rectangle, with thick stone walls about fifteen meters high. Each corner held a short turret, capped with a pale blue, peaked slate roof to fend off the rain.
The total footprint was roughly two hundred square meters, divided between two above-ground floors and a cramped basement.
Add a small front yard choked with weeds, tangled vines, and half-buried paving stones, and the entire compound barely reached five hundred square meters.
Surrounding it was a three-meter stone wall covered in moss, along with a large iron gate with portcullis that could be pulled up.
But… that was it.
No moat or drawbridge, and of course, no crystal spires stabbing the sky like in every kid's fairy-tale castle dream.
In short, just a simple design for a simple castle.
So pathetic… really.
Enough boring specs. Actually, there were a couple of cool features worth mentioning.
First: vision.
I had two different types of vision.
External vision felt like an invisible drone hovering above my courtyard, giving a bird's-eye view of everything around. Thanks to it, I could see where I was situated, the surrounding forest, rolling hills in the distance, and a narrow river winding through the forest to the east.
The trees were mostly towering oaks and firs, dense and gloomy. Looking for a while, you'd feel like dangerous monsters or magical beasts existed inside. However, since arriving here, I hadn't seen any beasts come out yet.
The second type of vision was internal. It felt like I had CCTV cameras mounted on the ceiling of every room. I could see all halls, rooms, staircases, and even the gloomy basement. Nothing escaped my sight.
Of course, processing all those views was brain-straining. Imagine not seeing one scene, but dozens at once. A normal human brain would've melted like grilled Mozzarella cheese!
Luckily, I don't have a brain anymore, so headaches were impossible.
(Heh. Maybe this is the weird perk of becoming a building!)
Finally, after struggling for a while, I got used to this visual style. Switching between views gradually became natural.
As for my physical makeup? Nothing special. The main building and outer walls were built with thick gray stone bricks, exuding a classic medieval European vibe.
However, my courtyard was a disaster.
Grass grew wildly, vines crawled, and half-dead shrubs tangled together creating a landscape nightmare. A few cracked paving stones poked through the vegetation, proving no one had tended this garden in decades.
It's not that I didn't want to fix it. But I don't have hands to fix it!
Luckily, I don't have OCD. Otherwise, this mess would've driven me insane in the first ten minutes.
As for the inside… It's even bleaker. Every room was barren, no furniture at all.
Normally, a fantasy castle should have paintings, chandeliers, magnificent stone statues, right? If not, at least some ruins or broken tables and chairs.
But I didn't!
Just dust and empty space!
Ah actually, I had a few nice windows letting light in, and a few small torches, but that was the extent of my luxury.
Now, about what I could actually do…
Let's start with the obvious: I can't move. But I had a few parlor tricks.
One: I could open and close all doors and windows at will.
Two: I could ignite any torches or candles inside my walls. Super handy when night falls, or when I want to feel less like a haunted ruin.
And… uh… Mostly that.
Oh wait.
One more thing!
Like every isekai protagonist out there, I also had… a System!
Yep. Game-style System!
Whenever I thought "System, open!", a glowing blue screen appeared in my mind's eye.
****
Magic Castle System
Castle Point: 0
Population: 1 (just me, unfortunately)
Skills:
- Door Manipulation
- Lighting Manipulation
- Self-Repair (Level 1)
Shop:
- System Shop (require points to unlock)