I didn't expect death to be quiet.
No flashing memories.
No divine voice.
No dramatic final words.
Just rain.
Cold, relentless rain soaking through my jacket as I lay sprawled across the cracked asphalt, staring at a sky that felt impossibly far away. My phone buzzed somewhere beside me—an unread message I'd never open.
Is this really how it ends?
A sharp pain burned through my chest, then faded, like someone slowly turning down a volume knob. My fingers twitched, then went still.
Darkness swallowed everything.
---
I woke up screaming.
Air rushed into my lungs like fire, and I rolled onto my side, coughing violently. My body felt wrong—too light, too weak. The ground beneath me wasn't asphalt but soft, cool grass. The smell in the air was fresh, filled with earth and something faintly sweet, like flowers I couldn't name.
"Wha—where am I?"
My voice came out higher. Younger.
I froze.
Slowly, I lifted my hands in front of my face.
They were small. Smooth. Unscarred.
Not mine.
Panic surged through me as I sat up, my head spinning. I was in the middle of a vast meadow, golden grass swaying under a lavender-tinted sky. Three moons hung overhead, one cracked like a broken mirror.
Three moons.
"That's… not possible."
Memories flooded my mind—two sets of them.
One was my old life: a normal guy, average grades, unfinished dreams, regrets piled higher than hopes.
The other… was new.
A boy named Aren Valen, age ten. Orphan. Born in a border village of the Kingdom of Elyndor. Weak body. No magic talent—at least, that's what everyone said.
The realization hit me like a second death.
"I… I've been reborn?"
My heart pounded as I clutched my chest. I could feel it—alive, beating strongly. This wasn't a dream. The wind was real. The grass scratched my skin. Somewhere in the distance, a beast roared, deep and ancient.
And then I felt it.
Something warm, coiled deep inside me.
Power.
It stirred slowly, like a sleeping dragon opening one eye.
A translucent blue screen flickered into existence before my eyes.
---
[World System Initialized]
Soul Compatibility: 100%
Hidden Trait Unlocked: ❖ Reincarnated One ❖
Warning: Anomalous existence detected
---
I stared at the screen, breath caught in my throat.
A smile crept onto my face—half disbelief, half terror.
"So this is how it starts…"
A new world.
A new body.
And something inside me that this world clearly wasn't prepared for.
Behind me, the grass rustled.
I turned just in time to see a pair of glowing red eyes watching from the edge of the meadow.
Whatever this world was…
It wasn't going to be kind.