Aashish_Kookna

“If you could relive your life—not to chase fame or fortune, but to right your deepest regrets—would you dare face your own past?”

Yun Fei was an ordinary man in his thirties, living a life soaked in the bitter wine of missed opportunities and mistakes. A failed business, a broken family, friendships turned sour, and the loss of the only girl who truly loved him—his world was a long list of what-ifs and if-onlys. He wasn’t evil, but he had been weak. Not cruel, but often silent when he should have spoken. His was a life not ruined by one catastrophic event—but by a thousand small regrets that, over time, swallowed him whole.

And then he died.

Not in glory, not in battle, not even in some poetic tragedy.

Just… alone. Forgotten.

But death wasn’t the end

Born Again with My Future Regrets

Joint Dream: Timeline Echo-57: "City of Silence"]

The world opened not with sound, but silence.

Yun Fei gasped as he emerged from the light. Lin Xiya stood beside him, clutching her head, a faint blue glow wrapped around her wrist like a ribbon.

They were standing atop a fallen skyscraper.

Skies cracked like shattered glass. Broken monorails floated midair. Buildings bent at impossible angles.

Floating above the horizon—like moons tethered to the sky—were Architect Shards, enormous glowing cubes humming with forbidden code.

Soulbinder Yun – Age 23 (Past Life)

He wore armor woven with silver threads and regret shards. A cloak that pulsed with whispers. A blade sheathed not in steel, but in memory.

Yun Fei knelt beside a small memorial made of crystal feathers.

Lin Xiya—older, scarred, radiant—walked beside him.

"Soulbinder Yun," she said, voice deeper, gentler. "The last City-Crystal just went dark. There's no emotion left to preserve."

He looked up at her. "Then it's time. We awaken the Swan Ring."

Lin Xiya hesitated. "If we do that… there's no coming back."

He touched her hand. "There's nothing left to return to."

They looked over the broken world one last time.

Back in the present—inside the Joint Dream—Lin Xiya clutched her head.

—She remembered burning archives.

—She remembered holding Yun Fei's broken body in the Temple of Threads.

—She remembered making a choice: trade her soul for time. To rewind reality.

"It was me," she whispered. "I triggered the Swan Ring. I caused the reset."

She looked at him with infinite grief.

"Because in that world… you died saving me. And I couldn't live with it."

Suddenly, the skies of the dream cracked.

Null 447 appeared—glitched, furious, leaking code.

"You were not meant to remember this!" it shrieked. "Abort the Echo! Lock the Swan Thread!"

A wave of memory-light surged from him.

Chains of golden thread wrapped around Null 447. He screamed.

A swan made of glass and light descended from the heavens, its wings beating with soundless sorrow.

> Child of the Ring. You remember.

Then you must also bear the burden.

The Swan lowered its neck—and placed a glowing crystal upon her chest.

They jolted awake, gasping, clutching hands.

Lin Xiya's skin glowed faintly where the Swan touched her.

> Timeline Echo Integrated. Swan Ring Fragment Retrieved.

Trait Acquired – "Soul Memory Keeper"

Lin Xiya now passively remembers alternate timelines.

New Feature: Time Echo Manipulation – 1 Use Available

They were no longer just teenagers caught in a mysterious rebirth.

They were guardians of something ancient.

Chapter 13: Echoes of the Swan Ring