Jasper woke up with a raging headache. His body ached in a million different places. Rubbing his face against his coarse bed, he gradually opened his eyes.

The sharp glare of the morning sunrise caught his eyes and he saw…people?

What?

Was he sleeping on the street? Was he not supposed to be on his way to the studio right now?

As his weary brain tried recollect what happened to him, he slowly got up from his sleeping spot and confirmed that yes, he was indeed sleeping on the street. Down on the very concrete without even any sleeping bag. Right there with the other homeless and drunkards.

“What happened here?”

[Welcome back, Jasper Quinn. The body-soul unification process has been successful. We recommend that you confirm the results.]

Jasper’s soul almost jumped back out of his body again at the intrusion of voice in his head. Picking up the loose change that some kid dropped at his feet, he got up as his memories finally caught up to him.

I am dead.

Right. He was dead and he had made some deal with an all-powerful extraterrestrial entity that was apparently entrusted to maintain ‘order throughout the vast cosmos’.

“Wait…so I have transmigrated?”

Remembering the System’s advice, he quickly made his way to a public restroom. After waiting half an hour before the previous occupant left, leaving a reeking smell behind that permeated the entire restroom, Jasper finally got to enter.

He had to pinch his nose to prevent himself from inhaling any of the poisonous fumes. After throwing a bit of water at the dusty mirror, he wiped at it with his sleeve. With the mirror clean, he could now get a clear look at himself.

Fuck.

The person staring back at him was certainly not the Jasper Quinn he knew.

Different from his skinny lanky frame, the person in the mirror was much more chubbier. In fact, the body seemed to be overly obese. Realizing this fact, Jasper looked down at his huge potbelly and bloated hands.

“How did I overlook this?”

Even the voice that came out of his mouth startled Jasper. He couldn’t help but become a bit dazed. He remembered his old voice.

His voice had been one of the biggest barriers that had prevented him from making it big in his attempt to become a pop star. It had always held a dry rusty quality, and no medicinal remedies could fix this natural trait.

Such a thing was possibly the worst misfortune an aspiring singer could get. After all, to a singer, his voice mattered the foremost.

Jasper had later spent lavishly on hiring expensive tutors and practiced for years straight to develop his singing techniques. His singing skills had improved by miles after years of exercise.

But an unpleasant voice was still unpleasant, no matter how beautifully it was dressed. No one wanted to listen to his songs, no matter how many high notes he could hit, or how big the range of his singing register was.

Have I finally managed to escape the curse of my crow voice?

Jasper couldn’t help but fantasize. He couldn't resist the urge to experiment with his new voice.

“Do re mi fa so la ti do…”

Jasper was instantly mesmerized. Compared to his old voice, his current voice sounded like it came out straight out of the throat of an angel. Though it sounded very rough as Jasper had not yet gotten used to his new vocal chords, it held enormous potential.

Before he could try to test out his voice further, he was rudely interrupted again.

[Since you have adjusted to your new body, we shall now transfer the original body’s memories as well as the plot information to you.]

“Wait, no-”

Before he could even finish his sentence, he felt like a floodgate opened up inside his soul. A big tsunami came and hit his mind like a mighty battle ram.

“Aaaaaaah!”

Jasper held his head as his entire world came crashing down on him. He tried to support himself with the wash bison sink, but it didn’t help much. As foreign influences started invading his mind, he directly collapsed unconscious…yet again.

 

***

Jasper woke up around an hour later. He felt horrible. Disgusting. Wasted.

This was like having the worst hangover possible.

His mood was not much better either. Now that the System had finally deemed it befitting to inform him about the world he was in and the mission he was assigned, he had a preliminary understanding of his circumstances.

It wasn’t good.

It turns out the world he was in was actually a BL world. Well, not really a BL world, but it did resemble a BL world. To better understand his scenario, it would be appropriate to refer to this world as a BL novel.

Just like a BL novel, this world had two main characters- one MC, the protagonist, and one ML, the main love interest. In this story, the MC, Aiden Woods, was an aspiring singer.

Being from a humble background, he had build his career by his own hands, step by step. In just the span of 3 years, he had come to become from a nobody country bumpkin, to a world-class rising star.

His momentum had especially further rocketed by the release of his debut album, which turned out to be massive success. It ended up topping several charts and winning many prominent awards.

During the course of his journey, he met the charismatic major label CEO, Cassian Reynolds. After the dominant CEO had to bend his back to convince this rising phoenix to join his company, the two started a high-profile relationship, which was unanimously approved by the public.

As Aiden went on to set up his foundation as a pop star, the attention he attracted was bound to have some rotten apples stuck to him.

Jasper Quinn was one such rotten apple. No, of course not him. It was the original Jasper Quinn. The person whose body he was currently occupying.

Jasper Quinn was the ex-boyfriend of Aiden Woods. He was just a spoiled rich brat who only knew how to spend his father’s money, far different from a hard-worker like Aiden.

The two had met back when Aiden had just started his career. He had just graduated from high school and had no money to pay for college tuition. Using his beautiful face and bewitching voice, he wanted to build a small music career for himself and make some savings.

That was when the original Jasper came into the picture. He was from the same high school as Aiden. He had always been attracted to him, but due to being extremely out of his league, he had never been able to build up the courage to ask him out.

Learning of Aiden’s circumstances, he made use of his father’s money and offered Aiden a deal. He would help Aiden in his career as a music artist. In return, he had to be with him in a relationship.

This was a very unethical deal and both Aiden and the original Jasper were aware of that. But due to his struggling circumstances as well as to fulfill his dreams, Aiden agreed to it.

Initially, the relationship had been smooth-sailing. The original Jasper was a smooth sweetheart and would take care of Aiden in every way. Aiden was also pleasantly surprised by Jasper’s personality and started to treat their relationship seriously.

But then things changed. The dynamics of the relationship were too unbalanced. Jasper had too much power over Aiden. Due to having just started his career, Aiden barely earned any money. Instead, he was actually losing money to pay for studio fees, promotion activities, etc.

Jasper funded them all. This went for a few months before Jasper’s true colors finally showed up. He started becoming more forceful, and was no longer as sweet as before. Though he still funded Aiden, he started demanding weird favors in return.

Aiden could no longer take his harassment and had to run away. Forced on the street with nothing on his name, Aiden somehow got back on his feet to become the person he was today.

Now, years after their old entanglement, Aiden had already long left behind Jasper. Aiden was an A-class celebrity, loved by countless, while Jasper was merely a second-generation rich boy, with no real achievements to his name.

Looking at Aiden’s fame, he became jealous and spread malicious rumors about him, claiming that he was a two-faced hypocrite who left him as soon as soon as he gained some success in life, forgetting about old favors.

Unfortunately, he had kicked an iron bucket. Harmony Records, the company owned by Cassian Reynolds, under which Aiden was currently signed, took action against him. Under their massive fist, Jasper’s father’s influence held no power.

The original Jasper soon had to bow down and issue a public apology, leading to him being scolded across the entire internet. Even close acquaintances broke relationships with him. But that wasn’t the end of the problem.

In the background, Cassian made sure that Jasper had no way of recovering. He targeted his father’s company, leading it go bankrupt overnight. Mr. Quinn was so angry that he almost had a heart attack and ended up disowning Jasper.

And this was how he came to find himself on the street. Depressed, lonely, and no money to his name. Although he did have some money left with him in the form of loose cash before his father disabled his credit cards, he spent it all on booze.

Over-drinking till he was barely aware of himself, he spent the cold night on the pavement. According to the plot information transferred by the system, the original Jasper froze to death approximately 4 hours before he, the current Jasper Quinn, took over his body.

Jasper was silent for a few a few minutes before he muttered to himself, “What the hell…”