A new destiny

Twelve years later, on a sunny beach somewhere.

An old man in a long black robe was teaching with great care. He paced back and forth, speaking at length, yet there was only one student before him.

It was a boy wrapped in animal hides. He sat on a rock by the beach, holding a thick book and listening attentively.

After a while, the old man asked, "Have you memorized everything about Sunspear and the history of House Martell?"

"I have, teacher." The boy nodded solemnly and answered with a serious expression.

The old man then asked several questions. Seeing that the boy could answer them all fluently, he smiled with satisfaction. "That concludes everything I have to teach you about the history of the Seven Kingdoms."

The boy gazed at the beautiful scenery around him, his eyes full of longing. "The beaches of Sunspear are so beautiful. I wonder if I'll ever have the chance to actually visit in this lifetime..."

The old man ignored the boy's wistful remarks and chose to end the day's lesson. "It's already morning outside. It's time you woke from this dream."

The two vanished in an instant. The beach burst like a bubble and dissolved into darkness.

Beyond the Wall, amid ice and snow. Inside a wooden cabin deep in a forest.

Gary jolted awake. He rubbed his eyes and climbed out of bed with a yawn.

"You're awake? Come eat."

In the yard outside, Leaf had heard him stir. Holding a pot of steaming meat soup, she warmly called Gary over. Beside her, a whole deer was roasting over the campfire, its skin golden.

Smelling the enticing aroma, Gary swallowed and hurriedly put on his shoes. "Coming, Aunt Ye."

The Children of the Forest rarely ate meat, living mostly on plant foods. They generally had no need to light fires to cook and naturally were not skilled cooks.

Leaf had been the same, but to give Gary a normal "human" life, she had worked hard to learn. Not only had she built a reasonably durable wooden cabin, but she had also honed her cooking skills.

Gary, in turn, never forgot her kindness in raising him. He was especially well-behaved and obedient in his daily life, and the two were as close as mother and son.

Gary went to the campfire in the yard and eagerly sliced off a small piece of roast venison with a knife, putting it into his mouth and relishing it. With his mouth stuffed full of meat, he said indistinctly, "Aunt Ye, your cooking keeps getting better. You only sprinkled on some salt, yet it tastes this good. You're amazing."

Leaf seemed accustomed to Gary's lavish flattery. She smiled helplessly. "You're still growing. Eat more."

"Mm." Gary nodded vigorously and ate with even greater gusto.

They now had no trouble communicating, because Gary had already learned the Old Tongue.

When Gary was two, Leaf had begun teaching him the Common Tongue of Westeros and the Old Tongue. He learned quickly and could read and write normally by the age of four.

Moreover, every night, the Three-Eyed Crow would personally descend into Gary's dreams to teach him about the history, culture, customs, geography, and noble houses of Westeros.

By now, Gary was twelve. He had learned most of the knowledge he was supposed to learn.

Yet although he had learned a great deal, he had made no progress whatsoever in combat.

Over all these years, Leaf and the Three-Eyed Crow had never taught Gary any combat skills.

They seemed to prefer that he become a scholar rather than a warrior.

What Gary did not know was that all of this stemmed from the Three-Eyed Crow's distrust of him. The scenes from those "fragments of the future" remained vivid in his mind. The Three-Eyed Crow could not afford to be careless.

Thus, he had been diligently "educating" Gary, giving him five years of lessons in "languages," "history," and "moral character."

He taught the history of Westeros to make Gary love the continent. He described the lands and customs south of the Wall in beautiful language and used the vilest words to describe the White Walkers of the Lands of Always Winter, all to make Gary love humanity and hate the White Walkers.

He hoped that even if Gary truly became a White Walker in the future, he would still side with humanity.

Clearly, however, the Three-Eyed Crow was worrying too much. Gary had never liked the ugly White Walkers, not to mention that the Night's King had once led troops in pursuit of him.

If Gary were given a full set of god-tier gear and a few fire-breathing dragons right now, he would dare return to the Lands of Always Winter alone and cut down the Night's King himself.

"Aunt Ye, don't the Children of the Forest know magic? Could you teach me?" Gary blew on the hot soup in his bowl and asked tentatively.

Leaf smiled. "All the magic of the Children of the Forest is connected to weirwoods. You don't believe in the Old Gods. Without a weirwood as your source of magic, how could you learn?"

Gary pouted. Asking a transmigrator who believed in science to worship a tree really was asking a bit much of him.

Unless he could see the Old Gods with his own eyes, he really would struggle to convince himself...

"Aunt Ye, I want to... go south of the Wall and have a look." Gary had muddled through twelve years, recalling the plot of Game of Thrones every day.

He had long yearned for southern Westeros. That was where the heart of the story lay.

Had Leaf and the Three-Eyed Crow not kept such a close watch on him, refusing even to let him interact with the nearby Wildlings, he would have run away from "home" long ago.

Leaf fell silent for a while before replying, "Wait a few more years. You're only twelve. By human standards, you're still a cub..."

Gary felt a headache coming on. Leaf and the Three-Eyed Crow were far too protective, leaving him feeling deeply stifled. "I'm not little anymore, Aunt Ye."

Seeing Gary's firm attitude, Leaf relented. "Luke, the Greenseer has already made arrangements for you. Once you've finished eating, we'll go speak to him."

"Ugh, that again. Every time I go, all teacher does is lecture me."

Gary sighed and pouted.

The cave where the Three-Eyed Crow hid.

Gary followed Leaf from the cabin, walking for an entire afternoon. Only as the sun sank in the west did they finally manage to reach it.

A handful of Children of the Forest were scattered inside and outside the cave. They had taken over Leaf's duties, guarding the Three-Eyed Crow within.

It was not that the Children of the Forest were stingy and had sent only a few of their people. Rather, they were nearly extinct and had very few members to begin with. These were all that remained.

Though few in number, the Children of the Forest had extraordinarily long lives. Their longevity was beyond human imagination. Leaf, for instance, was already over ten thousand years old. Even after another century, when Gary was old and frail, she would remain as youthful as ever.

Thus, these young-looking Children of the Forest might all have been thousands of years old. Whenever Gary thought of this, he could not help marveling to himself.

The Children of the Forest all knew Gary well and greeted him warmly.

Gary politely responded to each of them. They had all been his childhood playmates, and they were very close. But now was not the time to chat with them. He had to see the Three-Eyed Crow first.

He and Leaf went into the depths of the cave and saw the Three-Eyed Crow, who had become one with an ancient tree.

"Teacher."

Standing respectfully beneath the ancient tree, Gary called softly.

Unlike the Three-Eyed Crow in his dreams, whose limbs were intact, the Three-Eyed Crow in the real world looked terrifying. His lower body had merged completely into the trunk and disappeared from sight. Even his exposed upper body was skeletal, covered in patches of dark green moss.

The Three-Eyed Crow opened his eyes and stared fixedly at Gary. "Luke, the White Walkers in the north are watching hungrily, yet the people south of the Wall have long forgotten how terrifying they are. With such complacency, the White Walkers will surely breach the Wall in the future. When that time comes, will you fight for humanity?"

Gary had never revealed his identity as a transmigrator to them, so "Luke" was the new name they had given him.

"I will, teacher." He answered with his head held high and his chest out, looking every bit as though he were prepared to face death.

The Three-Eyed Crow nodded in satisfaction, thinking that his earnest instruction over all these years had indeed borne fruit. At his signal, a Child of the Forest nearby ladled out a bowl of hot soup and brought it to Gary.

Gary accepted the bowl and smiled. "After walking all afternoon, I'm cold and hungry. This soup of yours has practically saved my life, teacher."

The Three-Eyed Crow explained, "You are descended from the First Men and have the potential to awaken as a skinchanger. This soup was brewed from weirwood seeds. It can help you awaken."

Under his gaze, Gary drained the bowl in one gulp.

So bitter... almost like the Chinese medicine from my previous life. Gary's brows knitted tightly, but compared with "learning magic," this little bit of bitterness was hardly worth mentioning.

Had he not spent twelve years playing dumb and behaving himself precisely for this moment?

Seeing this, the Three-Eyed Crow continued, "Now you only need to touch the weirwood's trunk to establish a connection with the Old Gods."

Gary jogged over to the Three-Eyed Crow and eagerly grabbed a raised root.

The instant he touched the ancient weirwood, a powerful surge of outside energy rushed into his mind.

That energy seemed to activate something. Gary's left eye changed from its original blue to an eerie dark green. His mind grew hazy, until his eyes rolled back and he collapsed unconscious.

Still somewhat worried, Leaf looked up and asked the Three-Eyed Crow, "Greenseer, did it work?"

The Three-Eyed Crow's face, however, was filled with disappointment. He shook his head. "No, it failed. I cannot sense him..."

He had thought that since Gary could replace the Night's King as the new king of the White Walkers, there must be something exceptional about him. Disappointingly, however, he could not even become a skinchanger.

"Since he cannot become a skinchanger, it is no longer suitable for him to remain here. Make the preparations. It is time for him to leave." The Three-Eyed Crow closed his eyes and fell asleep once more.

In his dreams, Gary seemed to return to that forest blanketed in ice and snow.

This time, however, the direwolf did not appear. The Night's King eventually caught up with Gary and turned him into a White Walker.

The instant he became a White Walker, an unfamiliar deity suddenly descended into Gary's mental world.

The deity took his Green Pearl, but granted Gary power in compensation, allowing him to replace the Night's King as the new king of the White Walkers.

"No, I don't want power. I just want to go home."

"Home? Hmm, how about this? Help me conquer Westeros, and I'll send you home," the unfamiliar deity said.

Just like that, scenes flashed past like a revolving lantern. Gary could no longer see complete memories, only fragments.

In these fragments, he wielded the greatsword the deity had given him, killed the Three-Eyed Crow and Bran Stark (the Three-Eyed Crow's successor), and led his army through the Wall.

He slipped into Winterfell alone and successfully slew the King in the North, Jon Snow (the male lead), with his own hands. After occupying the entire North, he sacrificed hundreds of thousands of its people, creating countless White Walkers and wights and making full preparations to march south.

Half a year later, Gary marched south, destroyed the six kingdoms, slaughtered dragons, killed the female lead (Daenerys), and successfully conquered all of Westeros.

He turned it into a kingdom of the dead, with no living creatures left, only White Walkers and wights.

When his task was complete, Gary met the deity again. Yet who could have known that the deity would break his word? "Winter has yet to envelop the whole world. You must help me conquer Essos as well. Only then will I have enough energy to send you home."

Gary saw through his greedy facade and raised his sword to slay the god. But how could a puppet defy its master?

He lost, and in the end, his body was shattered to pieces, vanishing into nothing...