Chapter 5 – A Child Reborn
Darkness.
Silence.
Pain that felt eternal… suddenly ended.
And then—
Warmth.
Sunlight peeked through the paper-thin curtains of a modest apartment window. A fan hummed gently above, casting rotating shadows across the ceiling. The floor was cold under his cheek.
Jin Ho blinked.
"...Haaahh—!"
He gasped, clutching his chest. But the wound was gone.
His core… gone.
The energy… vanished.
Everything—reset.
He stumbled to his feet, eyes wide in disbelief as he looked down at his tiny arms, his small hands trembling. His reflection in the nearby mirror confirmed it.
Short limbs. Chubby cheeks. Missing front tooth.
"I'm… five?"
His voice cracked with childish innocence, but the terror in his mind was very, very adult.
He staggered toward the doorway.
"Eomma… Appa…?"
"Jin Ho-ah! You're awake, sweetheart?"
His mother turned from the kitchen, holding a ladle. Her smile was radiant. That soft, loving smile that he hadn't seen in over a decade. Behind her, his father peeked out from behind the fridge door, grumbling about the price of beef again.
Tears streamed down Jin Ho's face.
He ran forward, hugging her waist tightly. The scent, the warmth—it was all real.
Not a dream.
"I'm back… I'm really back…"
They laughed, gently patting his head, mistaking his sobs for a child's nightmare.
But deep inside, Jin Ho knew better.
This world was no dream.
It was a nightmare, wrapped in gold.
A kingdom run by those with money, magic, and merciless ambition.
"I can't let it happen again…"
The Dongjin Family. The false accusations. His parents' deaths. His cursed rise to power. His meaningless end.
He clenched his tiny fists.
This time, he would rewrite everything.
But…
There was a problem.
He was five.
And though he had the mind of an adult, his body was still underdeveloped. His mana circuits were dormant. His nerves, his muscles—even his lungs—couldn't handle more than a few moments of stress.
His original growth to Level 5 took fifteen years of brutal, accelerated training. But now, his body would crumble under even a tenth of that pace.
And worse… the inheritance was gone.
The artifact.
That dull, mysterious sphere from his father—vanished.
"I have to find it," he muttered.
That night, after dinner, he approached his father, curious but cautious.
"Appa, do you have anything… like a small gray ball? Like, an old one?"
His father blinked. "A toy? You lost one again?"
"No… something you had… maybe from Grandpa?"
His father frowned, rubbing his chin. "Never heard of such a thing."
Jin Ho's heart sank.
"It's like it never existed in this timeline…"
So much had changed already.
Was this world truly the same one he came from?
That night, unable to sleep, Jin Ho sat cross-legged in his room. He closed his eyes, focusing his thoughts.
"I have to strengthen myself. Quietly. Steadily. And protect them."
His breathing slowed.
He recalled every meditation technique. Every visualization method. Every magical law he once learned in battle.
Silence. Stillness. Mana. Flow.
And then—a whisper.
Not from outside.
From within.
"ᚢᚨᚱ...ᚾᛁᚲᛊ..."
A low, ancient tone. One that didn't belong to the world of man.
He opened his eyes.
And saw it.
Floating midair before him—
A blood-red system window, flickering like it was alive, with veins of magic pulsing through the edges.
The letters rearranged themselves, ancient and arcane, before settling into words he could read:
"YGGIDRASIL SYSTEM INITIALIZED"
Welcome, Progenitor of Ruin.
Level up and find the true world.
Jin Ho's breath hitched.
"W-Who…?"
A second window appeared.
QUEST UPDATED
Reawaken the Path of Var-Nyx.
Survive your childhood.
Uncover the hidden inheritance.
Reach Level 3 within 2 years — or be erased.
And in the corner of his vision, a small, red notification blinked with eerie persistence:
[Time Remaining: 729 Days]