It hurts...
The man stood up with difficulty, wiping the blood from his lips.
The tallic taste lingered, reminding him every second of what had just happened.
What a ss... so pathetic...
He began walking down the street under the gaze of passersby, whose looks offered no comfort whatsoever.
So looked at him with contempt, others with indifference... but none of them stopped.
What can a man like do after my parents’ death? I shut myself away to play. What do they know about ? Don’t I suffer? Do I not care about my parents’ deaths?
Thoughts jostled one another, disorderly and unfiltered.
mories of his childhood flashed through his mind as he ate dinner with them: his father’s laughter, who wore a wig in public to hide his baldness.
Small details... but impossible to forget.
Now, what can a 25-year-old holess man—who’s been kicked out onto the street by his aunt and uncle—possibly do? How is he supposed to make a living?
The question had no answer.
He looked at his reflection in one of the windows of a building; he, who had a decent appearance, was neither too handso nor too ugly... in short, an ordinary face.
A face that didn’t stand out... that went unnoticed.
Is there really nothing I can do anymore?
The question ca out weakly... as if he already knew the answer.
He collapsed, covering his face as tears stread down like a waterfall.
"I want to start over and thank my parents for supporting so much..."
His voice broke as the words ca out. But that was of little use now... It was too late.
"Help...!"
The scream shattered the mont, snapping him out of his thoughts.
He looked up toward the source of the voice, where so guys were kidnapping a little girl on a motorcycle. Without realizing it, a sense of determination flooded his body, and he ran toward the attackers.
He didn’t think... he just moved.
"They’re taking my dear daughter... help!"
The scream faded behind him as everything around him began to move faster.
He kept running, and a few ters away, he lunged at the n, knocking them down in the process; they rolled several tis across the ground.
The impact was clumsy, uncontrolled... but enough.
Feeling his skin being torn, he lifted the girl, who wouldn’t stop crying, but suddenly he heard the loud sound of a truck approaching quickly, and he caught a glimpse of the driver asleep at the wheel.
It all happened in an instant... too fast to think.
Without a second thought, he threw the girl aside, accepting her death as... After that, everything was a cacophony of noise and chaos.
There was no ti to finish that thought.
Images ca and went; he saw himself lying on a stretcher as it moved down the hallways, his vision growing blurry. The ceiling lights flashed by like distant sparks.
Muffled sounds... distant voices... hands moving over his body.
Is this how I’m going to die...?
It was the last thing he thought before darkness fell over him like a final curtain.
...
In a vast expanse.
There were no clear boundaries... just an expanse that seed to go on forever.
The man opened his eyes.
The absence of pain was the first thing he noticed.
He was standing, pain-free, in a garden made of stardust. Nebulae floated like golden smoke among crystalline trees. The sky—if there was a sky—was a perpetual dance of constellations.
Nothing felt solid... and yet, everything was there.
A majestic ancient palace stood in the distance. Its vast do, supported by imposing stone pillars, towered over the imnse expanse.
It didn’t look built... it seed as though it had always been there.
Then, a voice. Ancient. Imasurable. It didn’t co from any particular place. It was everywhere.
[Hmm... this is truly unexpected. I didn’t expect a young man like him to be dragged here.]
He turned, on high alert. The surroundings, though beautiful, offered no comfort.
"Have I died...?"
[You have died, young man.]
"Huh? What?"
His mories flooded back all at once: the truck, the stretcher, the darkness.
"Wait! Where am I? Who are you?" he asked cautiously, fear washing over him as he found himself in an unfamiliar place.
"You were dragged to this place when you died, even though that shouldn’t have happened," said an unknown entity calmly.
The man turned toward the source of the voice. What he saw left him frozen in place.
In front of him stood a young man. His face was his own. But his body was trembling, warping like water. One mont, it was himself. Then the nurse. Then an older man. Then a child.
The entity shifted its form as if its identity were a collection of masks.
"What the hell are you?"
The entity remained silent for a mont.
[The one who will change your miserable existence]
A door appeared behind him. It was ford of countless layers of spherical light, each enveloping translucent tentacles that writhed with a hypnotic rhythm.
He looked at it and swallowed hard.
He didn’t know where it led... but, for so reason, he was sure that if he crossed it, his life would no longer be as miserable as it had been.
"So... do I open it or what?" he muttered, still watching as one of the tentacles seed to gesture at him.
[??]
The entity decided to ignore that comnt. Even as it shifted shape with every Step, IStepgan walked slowly among the ethereal flowers in the garden, whose petals shimred like stardust suspended in the air.
[You still don’t believe , do you? But I understand. That’s how the human mind works: it needs to see to accept, it needs logic to believe.]
The man took a deep breath. Despite the whirlwind of thoughts assailing him, he asked the most pressing question:
"What do you an, you’ll change my existence?"
The entity paused. For a mont, it took on his exact features, with a serene and distant expression.
[You weren’t supposed to be here. But because of the influence of that door, you were drawn in.]
He frowned, even more confused.
"Are you saying that... that door will give a second life?"
[Exactly. Although... It’s not all good news. Once you move on to a better life, your mories will be sealed away.]
This ti, the entity spoke with the face of an old woman, its eyes glassy.
He turned his gaze toward the door: it was made up of countless layers of spherical light, wrapped in translucent tentacles that writhed, as if expressing emotions he couldn’t understand.
Would that be why he was getting a second chance? It was absurd. Irrational. But at the sa ti, it was the only thing that could explain his presence in that impossible place.
He took a deep breath and got straight to the point.
"So tell ... How exactly are you going to give this second life?"
The entity didn’t answer right away. Its form distorted once more; tentacles covered in sinister symbols erged from beneath its robe.
[Simple.]
He paused. His voice dropped in pitch.
[Through that door.]
"Just... that?"
The entity seed to expand, growing like an eclipse.
[That’s right. You will be reborn in a new world. But your mories will be sealed until you realize it.]
Its voice no longer ca from any particular place. It seed to speak to him from within his own body.
The entity extended an arm. It didn’t snap its fingers. It simply pointed, and reality itself seed to give way.
The door appeared before the man, even more imnse than before. In its hand, the entity held a glass bottle filled with a silvery liquid, like quicksilver.
[Step through the door and drink the potion. The rest... will happen on its own.]
"..."
He hesitated, but then took a step forward. He did not disappear imdiately. His body began to sink slowly, as if subrging into an ocean made of shadow.
He raised his right hand, brought the bottle to his lips, and drank.
As he sank into the darkness, he looked up at the entity from the depths and smiled gently.
"Thank you for giving this second chance."
The entity watched him until even his silhouette faded away.
And then, in a low voice, as if bidding farewell to an impossible mory, it murmured:
[Have a happy second life...]
...
..
.
"Mast..."
"Maste..."
"Master!"
"Huh?"
Adam finally snapped out of it when he saw Synes’ face so close to his own. Frowning, he pressed his hand to his forehead as he processed all the mories that had suddenly co flooding back.
It wasn’t just information... it was a heavy burden.
Many questions that had previously lingered were now clear, as were the dreams he’d had recently... the idea that he had died and been reincarnated.
Everything fell into place now... including what had once seed incoherent.
A smile spread across his face as he thought about his situation.
It wasn’t happiness... it was disbelief.
I’ve been reincarnated as a noble in a magical world.
The thought struck him as absurd... and yet, at the sa ti, completely real.
Adam almost burst out laughing; it was the perfect title for a novel... though he was still in shock, even though this would be his third life.
The irony didn’t escape him.
Quite ironic, isn’t it?
There was no one to ask... only himself.
Although that also explains the system’s appearance, it was given to him by that strange entity when he drank that strange potion.
Adam pushed his thoughts aside as he let out a long sigh; later, he would look more closely at the mories of his first life.
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