[I shouldn’t Exist]

Cold.

The first thing I felt was cold air biting at my skin. It was damp, suffocating, like the inside of a tomb.

I opened my eyes. Darkness. Thick stone walls surrounded me, lit only by a dying lantern. My breath came out ragged, my chest rising and falling like I had just been running for my life.

What… what happened?

I pushed myself up, my fingers scraping against the rough stone floor. My head pounded, a dull ache pulsing behind my eyes. I tried to remember where I was, who I was, but all I got was static—like a corrupted file that refused to load.

Then, my gaze fell to the body at my feet.

My body.

I stumbled back, my heart hammering against my ribs. My corpse lay there—pale skin, dried blood trailing from the mouth, lifeless gray eyes staring into nothing. The exact same face as the one I had now.

That was when the memories hit me.

Not my memories. His.

—Kieran Valteus.

A nameless extra in Eclipse of the Gods, a novel I had finished reading just last week.

A character who only appeared once.

Because he died in the prologue.

My breathing turned sharp. No. This couldn't be happening. This was just some messed-up dream, right?

Then—

A system message flickered before my eyes.

━━━ ◇ ━━━

[You have regressed after your untimely death.]

[Your true identity has been partially unlocked.]

━━━ ◇ ━━━

I froze.

Regressed? Partially unlocked?

Before I could make sense of it, another message appeared.

━━━ ◇ ━━━

[Bloodline Detected: Son of the Abyss]

[Your existence has been deemed an anomaly.]

[Warning: Higher Entities have taken notice.]

━━━ ◇ ━━━

A heavy pressure crashed down on me. It felt like something was watching me, something vast and incomprehensible. The air turned thick, shadows flickering along the walls even though nothing had moved.

I clenched my fists, trying to steady my breathing. This was bad.

In Eclipse of the Gods, Kieran was never supposed to be important.

But now, I had regressed, and the system was calling me an anomaly.

Which meant two things:

1. Someone—or something—killed me before I was supposed to die.

2. And now, the entire world wanted me erased.

I let out a slow breath. Calm down. Think.

I wasn't some overpowered protagonist. I wasn't some chosen hero.

I was just a dead extra.

And if I wanted to stay alive this time…

I needed to figure out why I was never meant to exist.