Chapter 1 — The Day My Life Ended

The first thing I noticed was the rain.

Not the sound of it.

The cold.

It soaked through my shirt as I stood beneath the flickering lights of an empty street, staring at the red glow of the traffic signal ahead.

11:47 PM.

I sighed and checked my phone again.

2% battery.

"Of course."

I shoved it into my pocket.

I'd had a terrible day.

My boss had yelled at me.

My landlord had called about the rent.

And my mother had sent me three messages asking when I was coming home.

I hadn't answered any of them.

Not because I didn't care.

I just didn't know what to say.

My life had become a collection of things I kept postponing.

Tomorrow I'd fix things.

Tomorrow I'd call Mom.

Tomorrow I'd find a better job.

Tomorrow I'd become someone I could actually be proud of.

There was always a tomorrow.

Until there wasn't.

The pedestrian signal turned green.

I stepped onto the road.

Then I heard it.

HOOOOONK!

I looked to my left.

A truck was coming straight toward me.

For one impossible second, everything became silent.

I saw the driver's terrified face.

I saw the headlights.

I saw the rain hanging in the air like thousands of tiny pieces of glass.

And then—

CRASH.

Pain.

White light.

Then nothing.

Somewhere beyond death

I opened my eyes.

There was no hospital ceiling.

No ambulance.

No pain.

I was standing in darkness.

Complete darkness.

I couldn't see my hands.

I couldn't feel the ground beneath my feet.

"Am I dead?"

My voice echoed.

Then another voice answered.

"Yes."

I froze.

The voice hadn't come from anywhere.

It had come from everywhere.

"Who are you?"

"That is irrelevant."

"Where am I?"

"Between worlds."

I laughed nervously.

"Okay. Either I'm dreaming, or I've officially lost my mind."

Silence.

Then a strange blue light appeared in front of me.

A circle.

Symbols began forming inside it.

I couldn't understand them.

Yet somehow, I knew what they meant.

[SOUL CONFIRMED]

[WORLD OF ORIGIN: EARTH]

[CAUSE OF DEATH: ACCIDENT]

[REINCARNATION ELIGIBILITY: CONFIRMED]

I stared.

"Reincarnation?"

"You have been granted another life."

My heart began beating faster.

"Another world?"

"Yes."

"Like... magic?"

"Yes."

"Monsters?"

"Yes."

"Superpowers?"

There was a pause.

Then—

"Yes."

For the first time since the accident, I smiled.

"So I really get a second chance?"

"Not exactly."

My smile disappeared.

"What does that mean?"

The blue circle changed.

Thousands of symbols appeared.

Then one sentence formed.

[WARNING: YOUR SOUL IS ABNORMAL.]

"Abnormal?"

"Your existence does not conform to the laws of the destination world."

I stared at the message.

"Is that bad?"

The voice didn't answer immediately.

Instead, another message appeared.

[UNIDENTIFIED AUTHORITY DETECTED]

[UNIDENTIFIED AUTHORITY DETECTED]

[UNIDENTIFIED AUTHORITY DETECTED]

The symbols began shaking violently.

For the first time, the voice sounded uncertain.

"This shouldn't be possible."

"What shouldn't?"

"You shouldn't possess an Authority."

I swallowed.

"What is an Authority?"

The darkness trembled.

"A power that even the gods cannot command."

Before I could ask another question, something grabbed me.

Not physically.

It felt as if reality itself had seized my soul.

The blue light exploded.

[REINCARNATION BEGINNING]

"WAIT!"

The darkness disappeared.

And I fell.

Three hundred years later

I opened my eyes.

Sunlight hit my face.

I immediately sat up.

"Ow!"

My head hurt.

I looked around.

Trees.

Huge trees.

Their trunks were wider than cars, and strange blue flowers floated several feet above the ground.

Birds with four wings flew between the branches.

I stared at them.

"...Okay."

I slowly stood.

"This is definitely not Earth."

A notification appeared in front of my eyes.

Not a hallucination.

Not a reflection.

A translucent blue window floating in midair.

[WELCOME TO ASTERIA]

[LEVEL: 1]

[RACE: HUMAN]

[NAME: UNREGISTERED]

[CLASS: NONE]

[AUTHORITY: ERROR]

I blinked.

"System?"

The window remained.

I reached toward it.

My finger passed through.

Then another message appeared.

[SPECIAL CONDITION DETECTED]

[THE WORLD HAS REJECTED YOUR EXISTENCE.]

My smile disappeared.

"What?"

The forest suddenly became silent.

No birds.

No insects.

Nothing.

Then I heard a growl behind me.

I slowly turned.

Something stepped out from between the trees.

It was a wolf.

Except it was enormous.

Its body was covered in black scales, and flames burned inside its mouth.

Above its head floated a red symbol.

[F-RANK MONSTER]

The wolf stared at me.

I stared at it.

Neither of us moved.

Then it smiled.

At least, I think it smiled.

Its jaws opened.

I took one step backward.

"Uh..."

The monster lunged.

I raised my hands instinctively.

[AUTHORITY ACTIVATED]

The world stopped.

The wolf froze in midair.

The wind stopped.

The falling leaves stopped.

Even the flames inside the creature's mouth became motionless.

I stared in disbelief.

Then a voice whispered inside my head.

Not the voice from before.

Something else.

Something ancient.

[Authority identified.]

[Name: Sovereign.]

[Effect: Unknown.]

[Evolution requirement: Unknown.]

I looked at the frozen monster.

Then at my hands.

A strange black mark had appeared across my palm.

And for some reason...

I wasn't afraid anymore.

I smiled.

"Second life, huh?"

The black mark pulsed.

The frozen world began moving again.

And the monster charged.

This time—

I charged back.

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