Chapter 1: Starting from Zero

"Welcome to the World of Aetherion," said a voice as cheerful as a morning cartoon host.

Kim Lin blinked.

He stood in a stone chamber filled with glowing glyphs. Other people—men, women, teens—stood around him, equally confused. Some in pajamas. Some in business suits. One guy was still holding a half-eaten sandwich.

"Is this a dream?" someone muttered.

Kim Lin had heard that exact phrase before. In his first loop. In his second. His fifth.

He looked at the girl beside him. Glasses. Nervous. Clutching her phone like a lifeline. She would die in ten minutes. Crushed by a golem.

Unless he stopped it.

He sighed and cracked his neck. "Alright," he muttered, "Round 12. Let's get this over with."

The cheerful voice continued, unaware—or maybe uncaring—that some of them had heard it too many times.

"You have been chosen as Heroes of Aetherion. Each of you will receive a Blessing. Please place your hand on the altar."

People hesitated. Kim Lin didn't. He strode up and placed his hand down.

A surge of light blasted up his arm. The altar glowed, scanning him.

[Blessing: Regression Acquired]

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "You always say that."

But then… something new happened.

A second light flared.

The system stuttered.

[Hidden Skill Acquired: ???]

Kim Lin froze. "What?"

The glyphs around the chamber buzzed like angry bees.

The voice, for the first time, glitched.

"…sssing error. Unique trait detected. Recalculating…"

Kim Lin felt something click in his brain. A pressure he'd never noticed before—like something had been chained, and now, the lock had turned.

He staggered back, holding his head.

Images. Symbols. Code. Choices.

It wasn't just regression.

It was rewriting.

He didn't just go back in time.

He could change the rules of the world.

"…Oh," Kim Lin whispered. He curled his lips in despair. ''Huh?'' 

The altar room faded into silence. The moment of light, the glitch, and the voice's error were gone, like a dream dissipating in daylight.

Kim Lin stepped back, shaking the tingling from his hand. Around him, the others were still approaching the altar, cautiously—some with wonder, others with fear. He had seen this play out before, but now, everything felt… off.

[Hidden Skill Acquired: ???]

That message was new.

The world was changing.

He could feel it.

The chamber they were in—called the Sanctum of Beginnings—was made of smooth obsidian stone, etched with veins of glowing silver. Glyphs floated midair, slowly rotating. The air was heavy with ancient magic, the kind that buzzed at the edges of your thoughts.

This place wasn't built for humans. It was too symmetrical. Too perfect. The ceilings arched high above, supported by columns of translucent crystal. There were no doors, only a single Stone Gate at the far end, pulsing with a slow heartbeat of blue light.

That gate led to the outside world.

Aetherion.

A place torn by war, ruled by systems, gods, and monsters.

But to Kim Lin, who had lived through a dozen regressions already, it was more than a fantasy world.

It was a game disguised as a reality.

And a very cruel one.

The others finished their blessings.

One by one, names and skills appeared above their heads.

[Blessing: Flame Heart][Blessing: Beast Affinity][Blessing: Sharpsight][Blessing: Luck of the Fallen Star]

Most of the blessings were mediocre. A few were rare. None were as terrifying as his.

Not that they could see his.

His Blessing had been marked as Hidden from others, thanks to a clever decision he'd made in his fourth loop. Small choices mattered. Like when to eat. Where to stand. Who to save.

Because Aetherion was a world of rules. It had a System.

And the System was always watching.

"Hey," said a voice beside him.

Kim turned. A tall, broad-shouldered man with a soldier's bearing stared at him. His name, glowing faintly above his head, read:

[Zhou Kai – Blessing: Iron Will]

"Noticed you stepped up first," Zhou said. "Veteran? You've done this before?"

Kim gave a lopsided grin. "You could say that."

Zhou studied him. "You're calm. Like you've seen worse."

Kim's grin didn't fade. "I've died worse."

Zhou blinked. Before he could respond, the Stone Gate rumbled.

The chamber dimmed.

The glyphs shivered.

And then the voice returned, now cold and metallic.

"Your blessings have been granted. You are now Initiates of Aetherion. Beyond this gate lies your first trial. Survive, and the world shall open to you. Fail, and you shall return to the Ash."

The gate opened with a grinding sound of ancient mechanisms.

A breeze wafted through—dry, hot, and metallic, like sunbaked stone and distant blood.

Kim Lin took a breath. Even now, even after everything, this moment still made his heart beat faster.

The first step outside.

The first death, for many.

Beyond the gate lay a vast canyon, cracked and sun-scorched. Jagged rocks rose like teeth from the earth. In the distance, a broken fortress clung to a cliff. The sky was tinted orange, dotted with two suns—one massive and red, the other small and white.

Above them, floating islands drifted like slow clouds, impossible and majestic.

Aetherion.

A dying world, stitched together by forgotten gods.

A world with five continents, each ruled by a different "Domain":

Solveil – The continent of flame and machines.

Narthir – A frozen realm under eternal twilight.

Yria – Forests older than history, crawling with eldritch beasts.

Kaedum – The city-world of the Skybound, scholars and tyrants alike.

The Depths – Not a continent, but a void. Where the world's trash—and secrets—are dumped.

They were now on Solveil, the edge of its scorched lands.

Kim Lin had died in every Domain. Learned their languages. Fought their monsters. Met their rulers.

And every time, the System pretended to guide him.

But it always led him to death.

This time, he would do the guiding.

Zhou stepped up beside him. "Ready?"

Kim Lin narrowed his eyes at the path ahead.

A storm was building in the distance. Lightning crackled along the cliffs.

And in the shadows of the rocks, something growled.

"Not even close," Kim said. "But let's go anyway."

They stepped into the world.

System Log – Private AccessUser: [Kim Lin]Status: Regression Loop 12Hidden Skill: [Recode – Level 1]Description: You can see the underlying structure of the world. At higher levels, you may rewrite it.Warning: The System is aware. Remain discreet. 

The sun here didn't burn like Earth's sun.

It pierced.

Kim Lin shielded his eyes as they exited the Sanctum. The light was harsh, raw, unnatural—like a spotlight trained on a stage. The cracked earth beneath their feet glowed faintly, each footstep kicking up motes of silver dust.

He had almost forgotten this part. The way the air shimmered. How your skin itched under the weight of invisible magic. How silence didn't feel silent. It watched you.

The others murmured behind him, their fear rising like heat from the canyon floor.

Zhou walked beside him, his soldier's posture rigid. Others clustered close: the nervous girl with glasses, a boy in a track jacket, a woman with braided hair muttering prayers under her breath. They were strangers, pulled from different corners of Earth.

None of them were ready.

The System said this was a "tutorial zone." But that was a lie.

Kim Lin had learned the hard way.

They walked for twenty minutes before the System reappeared. A translucent screen materialized in front of each person. Kim Lin didn't look at his—he had most of it memorized.

Tutorial: Trial OneObjective: Survive until nightfall.Location: Redfang WastesThreat Level: ModerateNotes: Cooperation recommended.Reward: Class Seed (Randomized)

Kim Lin exhaled through his nose. This one again.

Trial One wasn't about fighting. Not yet. It was about watching who panicked. Who followed orders. Who froze when the shadows moved.

It was about separating survivors from corpses.

"Redfang Wastes," Zhou muttered. "What the hell kind of name is that?"

"The kind you don't want to find out the meaning of," Kim Lin replied.

The landscape stretched endlessly around them—jagged rock formations like ancient bones, plateaus split open by time, crevices deep enough to swallow light.

Nothing grew here.

Not anymore.

Kim Lin knew this land had once been alive. Long ago, before the gods warred and the sky cracked. He had learned fragments—half-ruined temples, murals hidden beneath layers of ash, songs sung by wandering ghosts. The world had bled itself dry trying to survive divine judgment.

Now it ran on inertia, held together by the System like rusted wires on a broken machine.

And the System was not benevolent.

They found an abandoned outpost near a cliff edge—half walls, some broken crates, and the skeletal remains of a tent. Kim Lin motioned to the others to stop.

"This is as good as we're going to get," he said. "We should stay here until nightfall."

"Wait," said the boy in the track jacket, eyes wide. "Aren't we supposed to do something? Kill monsters or—"

"Doing nothing is the point," Kim Lin cut in. "The trial isn't about fighting. It's about enduring. If we move too much, we draw attention."

Zhou stepped forward, arms crossed. "You speak like you've done this before."

"I have," Kim replied flatly. "More than once."

That earned him looks. Suspicion, mostly. A few awe-struck stares.

He didn't care. Let them think what they wanted. Truth always turned into myth here anyway.

As the sun dipped lower, the shadows began to stretch.

The wind shifted. It no longer carried dust, but the scent of copper. Decay.

Kim Lin stood at the edge of the outpost, watching the far ridges. His hand brushed the hilt of a rusted blade he'd scavenged earlier. It was nothing fancy—iron, cracked along the spine—but it felt familiar. Like something he had once bled with.

He glanced at the System screen still floating to his side. A second tab flickered underneath the main quest window:

[Hidden Skill: Recode – Level 1]Passive Ability: You can "see" rule threads. At higher levels, you may manipulate them.Progress to Level 2: 6%

Rule threads.

He hadn't fully grasped what they were yet. But they hovered just beneath the surface of the world—thin glowing strands, like veins in stone. Connected to objects. People. Even space.

He'd caught a glimpse earlier, when the voice had glitched.

Now, if he focused… just right…

He blinked. The world shifted slightly, like oil on water. The cliffs were now laced with thin golden threads. Some vibrated faintly. Others flickered.

And beneath the old outpost, in the ruined cellar, a cluster of red threads pulsed like a heartbeat.

Something's down there.

"Kim," Zhou called from the side. "You see something?"

"Maybe," he said quietly. "Just a feeling."

He didn't want to say more. Not yet.

Let the loop play out… just a little longer.

Because he knew: once night fell, the Redfangs would rise.

And not all of them were monsters.

Elsewhere, in a place where the System's gaze did not reach…

A figure sat in darkness, surrounded by shifting screens of light. Their face was obscured, but their voice hummed with static.

"He's adapting faster this time," the figure said.

Another voice answered from behind the veil.

"Should we interfere?"

A pause.

"No," the first voice said. "Not yet. Let him remember. Let him reach."

The screens shifted. One displayed Kim Lin, sitting on a rock, eyes closed, feeling the wind.

The figure leaned closer.

"Let's see if he uncovers the truth… before the threads snap."