In a nearly empty apartment, a nineteen-year-old boy stood still, his eyes sunken and ringed with dark circles.
The place smelled of paint and new wood—because it was new. A fresh start. A reset… or so he hoped.
His name was Roy, a nineteen-year-old who had lost his parents in a car accident.
The worst part wasn't the accident—it was the argument he had with them right before it happened.
And from that day on, Roy could no longer sleep without drowning in nightmares, echoes of regrets, and the same wish haunting him:
If only I could go back in time.
He opened box after box, sorting through the fragments of a life he no longer recognized.
When he opened the fourth box—his father's old belongings—his hands froze.
Inside was a photo of him and his father, laughing while playing baseball under the afternoon sun.
Roy's vision blurred. His throat tightened.
He put the photo on the table carefully—as if it would break—and continued emptying the box.
Then he saw it.
A bronze pocket watch, old enough to belong in a museum, yet impossibly clean.
It shimmered faintly, untouched by dust, time, or decay.
Roman numerals.
Precise hands.
And a strange button on top.
When Roy stared at it, he lost sense of time completely.
A quarter hour passed… but to him, it felt like a single breath.
As if the watch itself existed outside the world's laws.
Curiosity—and something deeper—pulled at him.
Roy pressed the button.
The world stopped.
Not slowed.
Not dimmed.
Stopped.
The hum of the fridge went silent.
Dust hung motionless in the air.
And when Roy rushed to the window, he saw a bird frozen mid-flight.
His eyes widened.
Everything—cars, animals, people—stood still as if reality had forgotten to breathe.
He looked down at his hands, trembling with awe.
The watch was gone.
Before he could process what happened, a force grabbed him—not from a direction, but from every direction at once.
His vision warped. His body tingled.
And then… he began to fade.
Literally.
His hands dissolved.
His arms vanished.
His torso erased itself piece by piece until only his head remained, floating in an impossible void.
"What's… happening?!"
The world swallowed his final whisper, and Roy's head dissolved into nothing.
The frozen world resumed as if nothing at all had occurred.
---
Roy reappeared somewhere else.
A sky the color of spilled blood.
A ground made of torn flesh and crushed bone.
Eyeballs, limbs, and organs scattered like debris after a massacre.
No trees.
No buildings.
No life.
Just Roy… who collapsed and vomited violently.
The sight, the smell, the shock—all of it crashed into him at once.
He wiped his mouth, trembling uncontrollably, and forced himself to look around again.
Then he vomited a second time.
After all, the biggest injury he had ever seen before today was a three-inch cut on his finger.
He squeezed his eyes shut, desperately wishing it was a nightmare.
It wasn't.
He could feel the warm, sticky ground beneath him—something he absolutely did not want to identify.
"Where… where am I? What is this place?!"
No answer came.
Instead—
Ding.
A cold mechanical voice echoed inside his head.
> [Ding. Host located.
Establishing link—
10%... 20%... 50%... 90%...
Link complete.]
[You have been chosen.
You are the new Master of Time.]
"Master of what?!"
Roy stumbled to his feet, looking around wildly.
"Who the hell are you?!"
> [I am the System of the Master of Time.
My purpose is to prepare you to eliminate the Enemies of Time.]
"W–Wait, enemies of what?!"
Roy forced himself to inhale slowly.
Panicking wasn't helping.
"So… System. Whoever you are.
Who are these 'enemies,' and how exactly are you supposed to train me?"
> [You cannot know about the Enemies of Time yet.
They would kill you before you mature.
To prepare you, you must awaken
things—
The Eternal Eyes,
The Eternal Body,
The Soul Weapon,
And your The essence of life.
You are to master the abilities of time itself.]
"Eternal eyes? Eternal body? What does that even mean?"
"And what ancestors?!"
> [Your ancestors possessed fragments of temporal power.
But details are restricted—you are not strong enough.]
"Hold on. So my ancestors were powerful? Then these enemies… were their enemies?"
> [Correct.]
"Then why am I solving their problems?! I didn't sign up for this!"
> [Show respect. Your ancestors were great people.]
The system speaks coldly and sharply.
"O-Okay! Okay! I was just kidding!" Roy raised both hands. "Relax."
He hesitated, then asked the question burning in his mind:
"System… who are you?"
> [I am the Essence of Time itself—
condensed after countless years of absorbing the Laws of Time.
The Enemies of Time tried to claim me.
Your ancestors protected me.
In return, I gave them the Gift of Time.
My power merged with your bloodline.]
Roy blinked.
"…Wow. So they really were great people."
He swallowed hard.
"Alright, System. What's this… 'essence of life' thing you mentioned?"
> [The Essence of Life is the core energy of every being—human, beast, insect.
All special powers draw from it.
Vampires, as example use it for blood and dark magic.
Other races for their own arts.
As the sole heir of the Essence of Time, you can manipulate temporal power.]
"And can other abilities awaken from this essence?"
> [Yes. But you must awaken your Essence of Life first.]
"So how do I do that?"
> [Two methods exist—
Method One:
Let your Essence absorb Aether Force naturally, The energy that makes the essence of life stronger.
This depends on talent.
Some awaken at fifteen.
Some at eight.
Some never awaken.
Method Two:
Kill a being whose Essence has already awakened,
and absorb its Aether Force, But this is a very dangerous method.
For you, we will use Method Two.]
"…So I need to fight something stronger than me?! "
> [Only twice as strong.
I selected the weakest monster with an awakened Essence.]
"Wait—you want me to fight a mon—"
A roar cut him off.
ROAWR! ROAWR!
> [Ding! System Quest Issued:
Kill the Silver-Fanged Lion (Beginner Level).
Rewards:
1 — Awakening of the Essence of Life
2 — Awakening of the Time Domains
3 — Awakening of the Eternal Eyes
4 — Awakening of the Eternal Body
5 — Awakening of the Soul Weapon]
Roy's hands shook as he grabbed a broken tusk lying on the ground—likely from a dead beast.
"…Damn it."
He swallowed.
This was the beginning.
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HI guys,
It's not my first time writing, but it's the first time I'm going to write seriously, 3 chapters in a day, so, Enjoy reading, I hope, Add it to the collections, thanks, bye.