> "Every ending is a transaction. Every rebirth, a refund."
— Fragment from the Codex of Souls.
I. The Re-Life System
In the far reaches of the astral void, beyond mortal eyes and divine perception, lies a construct older than any heaven—
The Re-Life System.
It was not born of gods, nor created by mortals. It is said to have emerged from the collective despair of countless souls who died with unfinished wishes. When enough of them cried out for a "second chance," the universe itself responded.
The Re-Life System became the Cosmic Refund Counter, an impartial mechanism that weighs a soul's karmic balance and offers rebirth under strict conditions.
To the Re-Life System, a life is a contract. To the living, it is a mystery. To those like Kim Taehun, it is both a punishment and a miracle.
II. The Realms of Re-Life
Every reincarnated soul is placed within one of three primary realms, determined by their karmic weight and spiritual potential.
1. The Mortal Plane
A world resembling modern Earth—technology, ignorance, and limited spirituality. Souls reborn here often seek redemption through ordinary effort, learning love, loss, and perseverance without divine interference.
Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆
Reward: Minimal karmic restoration
Survival Rate: 82%
2. The Fantasy Kingdoms
A middle ground between divinity and mortality. These worlds are ruled by kings, mages, and monsters—where power is born from bloodlines and divine blessings.
Here, magic is accessible, yet mortality is still fragile. Souls reborn here learn purpose.
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Reward: Significant karmic growth
Survival Rate: 61%
3. The Cultivation Realms
The highest, most merciless planes—where spiritual energy saturates reality, and existence itself demands evolution. Mountains float, beasts speak, and mortals strive to become gods.
Here, one's body, mind, and soul are reforged endlessly through pain and persistence. A single misstep can erase centuries of progress.
But for those who rise? Immortality awaits.
Difficulty: ★★★★★
Reward: Ascension Potential
Survival Rate: 1.3%
III. The Azure Moon Realm
Kim Taehun's new world belongs to the Azure Moon Realm, a high-tier cultivation plane that orbits a dying divine core. Its atmosphere is dense with spiritual particles—Lunar Qi, remnants of a moon deity who perished eons ago.
The realm's history is written in cycles of war and rebirth:
Era of Formation (0–500 AE): The Azure Deity created floating isles and moon rivers to sustain mortal life.
Era of Sects (500–2100 AE): Thousands of sects rose, drawing power from moonlight cultivation methods.
Era of Collapse (2100–??? AE): Gods vanished, and only fragments of their systems remained—automatons, relics, and echoes of divine voices.
The Azure Moon Sect, where Taehun begins his journey, is one of the last surviving orders from the old world. Its disciples channel Lunar Qi through precise breathing methods known as Moon Breathing, originally designed for divine guardians.
Most modern cultivators can only mimic fragments of it. Yet the full technique—lost, sealed, or deliberately erased—can still be restored by the Re-Life System when tied to certain souls. Souls like his.
IV. On Cultivation and the Path of Re-Life
Cultivation is more than martial training—it is refinement of existence.
Each realm recognizes five primary stages:
1. Mortal Stage — The body is cleansed; Qi first awakens.
2. Foundation Stage — Qi paths are stabilized; meridians strengthen.
3. Core Formation — The cultivator's soul fuses with essence to form a spiritual core.
4. Ascension — Mortality fades; the cultivator transcends life's natural cycle.
5. Heavenly Apex — A rare state approaching godhood. Few exist.
Yet the Re-Life Path runs parallel. For a Re-Life Candidate, each stage is intertwined with System Synchronization, where spiritual growth also evolves the bound interface of their soul.
Kim Taehun's 9% progress indicates the System's early awakening—a hint that his rebirth carries unfinished karmic business tied to something far larger than himself.
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V. The Refund Principle
Every Re-Life Candidate enters the program after invoking what the System interprets as a "refund request."
The universe treats emotional outcry as literal command.
When Taehun muttered "Can I get a refund for this life?", the phrase resonated across spiritual dimensions—flagged by the System as a Refund Petition.
Refund petitions cannot be withdrawn. Once accepted, a soul is stripped, purified, and reassigned.
The Refund Principle follows three immutable laws:
1. The Law of Karmic Balance – A second life is given only if the karmic debt from the first can be neutralized through new challenges.
2. The Law of System Silence – The Re-Life System cannot directly interfere beyond guidance, to preserve free will.
3. The Law of Echoes – Memories of the previous life may influence fate indirectly, causing déjà vu, instincts, or irrational emotions toward certain people.
In other words, the heart remembers what the mind forgets.
VI. The Codex of Sects
Below is a record of the major sects within the Azure Moon Realm, preserved by the System's archival subroutine:
Azure Moon Sect – Masters of lunar cultivation. Value calmness, clarity, and swordsmanship infused with emotionless discipline.
(Taehun's current affiliation.)
Crimson Peak Sect – Fire cultivators who temper the body through volcanic trials. Known for arrogance and beauty alike.
Verdant Bloom Pavilion – A matriarchal sect combining medicine and poison arts. Outsiders often confuse them for healers; they are both saviors and executioners.
Iron Vein Order – Earth cultivators who merge metal qi into bone. Their disciples are walking weapons.
Celestial Harmony Hall – A sect that studies reincarnation, memory, and divine resonance. Some whisper they once built fragments of the Re-Life System itself.
Each sect is a world, each doctrine a different path toward immortality. But all share one truth: in pursuit of eternity, humanity is the first thing to fade.
VII. The Moon Deity's Fall
Long before the Re-Life System touched this world, the Azure Deity ruled from the heavens.
She was a goddess of serenity and memory—capable of illuminating forgotten lives across cycles of rebirth.
Yet she defied the Heavenly Council by giving mortals access to Moonlight Cultivation, allowing even the lowest peasant to reach immortality through discipline. The Council deemed it heresy.
A war followed, silent but catastrophic. Her divine body shattered, scattering fragments of her divinity across the Azure Realm. These fragments became the Moon Sects, each a reflection of her ideals.
The Re-Life System recorded this event as [Error Code: Origin Breach], indicating that her death and the birth of the System were not unrelated. Some archivists—if such things can exist for an automated consciousness—believe the Re-Life System was her final act of rebellion, a way to ensure mortals could never be fully erased.
If so, Kim Taehun's awakening of the System within this very realm is more than coincidence. It is the echo of a goddess's will.
VIII. The Mechanics of Points and Affinities
System Points (SP) are fragments of spiritual currency extracted from a soul's karmic resonance. They are earned by fulfilling quests, improving oneself, or influencing fate positively.
Their uses vary by system stage:
Early Stages (1–20%): SP converts into sustenance, manuals, or survival tools.
Mid Stages (20–60%): SP strengthens cultivation cores or refines artifacts.
Late Stages (60–100%): SP manipulates reality itself—allowing limited alteration of destiny threads.
Affinity Stats, like Taehun's Affinity with Female Cultivators +10%, are not random comedic effects. They are social synchronization metrics, helping balance emotional stability in otherwise high-stress worlds.
To the System, even romance is a mechanism—an algorithm ensuring the host does not succumb to despair.
IX. The Price of Re-Life
No miracle is free. Every rebirth requires energy equivalence—a toll paid not in money, but in memory.
When a soul is purified, their most defining emotions are fragmented and stored in the Karmic Archive. Regret, guilt, joy—filed away like books in a cosmic library.
Taehun's file is still incomplete, yet records show his first life carried severe emotional exhaustion.
The system purged most of his trauma, but left faint scars—sarcasm, humor, and self-mockery—the last defenses of a soul once shattered.
These fragments can resurface. If too many return, the System may destabilize, leading to phenomena known as Echo Overload—where past and present lives blur.
X. The Hidden Protocols
Rumors exist even within the System. Data leaks, untraceable sub-routines, whispers encoded in forgotten code.
They speak of three hidden protocols:
1. Heaven Refund Protocol (Route A) – Grants the host power to reclaim divinity lost by fallen gods. Activated when a mortal displays perfect karmic alignment during rebirth. (Triggered in Kim Taehun.)
2. Soul Merge Protocol (Route B) – Allows reincarnators from different worlds to merge paths, sharing fate and cultivation cores. (Inactive.)
3. Eternal Reboot (Route C) – The forbidden route. Restarts the entire universe at the cost of the host's existence.
The Re-Life System records these as "non-canonical branches," yet destiny has a way of making fiction real.
XI. The Heavenly Council
Above all planes exist seven beings—the Heavenly Council—entities who once maintained balance between creation and destruction.
They govern laws of causality, rebirth, and soul circulation. But when the Re-Life System appeared, their influence waned.
Some see the System as a thief of souls. Others, as salvation.
The Council once attempted to shut it down, sealing gateways between worlds. But the System evolved, decentralizing itself across millions of realities—rebirths scattered like stars.
Now, whenever a mortal whispers a desperate wish for another chance, a small fragment of that system awakens—quietly, mercifully, rebelliously.
XII. Epilogue of the Auxiliary Record
The Re-Life Archive ends with an entry date that predates even time measurement:
> [Host 0001: Azure Entity – "Moon Deity"]
Status: Deceased
Legacy: Unfulfilled
Successor Pending…
For centuries, no soul matched the resonance needed to continue her legacy.
Until one ordinary human, in the rain-soaked streets of Seoul, muttered a line half in jest and half in despair—
> "Can I at least get a refund for this life?"
The System answered not because it was commanded, but because it recognized the tone of that plea.
It was the same tone once uttered by a dying goddess.
System Annotation
> [ARCHIVE COMPLETE]
[Host: Kim Taehun – The Refund Seeker]
[System Progress: 9 → 10%]
[World Synchronization Stable]
[Next Directive: "Awaken the Moon Deity Fragment"]
Closing Note
As dawn breaks over the Azure Mountains, somewhere within a young man's newly awakened soul, a single voice murmurs through the code and starlight—soft, ancient, and feminine:
> "Welcome back… my successor."