-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: I Have a Dream
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I have a dream.
The faint cry of a newborn baby echoed in my ears.
It didn't take long to realize that the cry was coming from my own mouth.
"Honey... what are we going to do now?"
"What do you mean? Isn't it obvious?"
A man and a woman were cautiously conversing around me.
At first, it was all so confusing.
My memories were hazy, but I had definitely been up all night celebrating my job success in my new studio apartment by playing a game.
After that came a tearing pain in my chest.
And with that moment, my memories cut off completely.
... Ah, could this be it?
Reincarnation.
There was no other way to explain it.
Memories from my previous life started surfacing one by one, gradually filling my mind.
A flood of thoughts poured in, but the fragile mind of a newborn was too weak to handle them.
I grew exhausted just from breathing, without even doing anything.
My eyelids grew heavy. As my consciousness faded, the voices of the man and woman drifted faintly into my ears.
"She'll be fine, don't you think? She looks like she'll grow up pretty..."
"Are you crazy? Then you go earn the money."
Were these people my parents?
My father's looks weren't particularly striking, but my mother was beautiful enough to draw the eye.
Her sky-blue hair flowed softly like silk, framing clear blue eyes that sparkled with a pure light.
And her fair, delicate skin looked like it would cause her partner no end of worries.
Tired...
This was my limit.
A newborn's body couldn't fight off the overwhelming sleepiness.
With parents nearby, it should be fine to sleep a little.
I could sort out my jumbled thoughts after a good, deep rest.
"...Do you really think it'll be okay?"
"Don't worry. She looks pretty enough. They'll surely take her in."
And so, cradled in the arms of the woman who seemed to be my mother, I slowly closed my eyes.
I could never have imagined it.
That this moment would be the last bond I shared with these people I called parents.
※
Eight years had passed since that day.
"Heavens! What is this mess in the hallway?!"
A woman in a neat black nun's habit covered her mouth in shock.
Her sharp gaze soon locked onto me.
"Bella! You're in charge of cleaning the hallway today! Are you not even doing it properly?!"
I instinctively furrowed my brow at her ear-piercing shout.
"I did clean it."
"You call this clean?!"
"I did. But Eddy and his gang messed it up again."
It was true.
I had meticulously cleaned every speck of dust, but those brats had trashed the place again.
"Excuses again!"
But the world isn't kind enough to listen to every word from a child.
Especially not from an orphan abandoned by their parents.
"It's not an excuse."
"Don't play word games with me! If it's not spotless by lunchtime, no food for you today!"
The protests of a child who hadn't even lost all their baby fat were dismissed as petty excuses.
In this utterly exhausting situation, there was nothing I could do.
What choice did I have when they threatened to withhold food? At an age when I should be growing, I couldn't afford to starve for the sake of the future.
Instead of whining, it was better to finish cleaning as quickly as possible.
"Eddy, you little punk. Just you wait."
If he got me in trouble again next time, I'd kick him right in the nuts for real.
I picked up the broom again and began meticulously sweeping the dust from every corner of the hallway.
They weren't kidding about skipping meals if I slacked off, so I had to clean without a single flaw.
Thankfully, my skilled and practiced hands made quick work of the sweeping.
"What a life."
I muttered under my breath, staring at the dilapidated hallway that could collapse any moment.
This was a small village called Binhel.
As the scene before my eyes made clear, it wasn't prosperous by any means—it reeked of poverty.
And the facility where I was sweeping with a broom was an orphanage for children abandoned by their parents.
I had been abandoned by my parents on the day I was born and had grown up here ever since.
For someone who had been an orphanage kid in my previous life too, it felt like a cruel twist of fate.
The building was so rundown it was hard to find a single intact room. Operating funds were always short due to the directors' embezzlement.
In short, it was a place that barely kept you alive.
They provided food, clothing, and shelter.
The staple was hard, stale bread, but it kept starvation at bay.
Mold growing on the mattress wasn't reason enough to stay awake.
Sometimes, violence came under the guise of "education" if you upset the teachers.
But it wasn't unbearable.
Having grown up in an orphanage in my previous life, I was used to it.
And so, I had been living this lukewarm life here for eight years now.
Things that once felt uncomfortable had become familiar.
The other kids sometimes pranked or ganged up on me.
I could let that slide. After all, I was an adult.
Even in this child's body, inside was a man who had carved out a place for himself as a full-fledged member of society in job-scarce Korea.
Though I reincarnated before even starting work. Anyway.
Unlike these rookies abandoned by their parents for the first time, this was my second round of orphanage life. Heh.
...Not something to brag about.
Even I thought it was a pretty pathetic source of pride.
Maybe because of this child's body, but sometimes my actions felt overly childish.
I recalled hearing somewhere that the mind is influenced by the body. Could be that.
I let out a quiet sigh inwardly and gazed at my reflection in the hallway window.
White hair flowed softly like silk, faintly tinged with blue.
Beneath it, clear sky-blue eyes sparkled.
Round eyes, a straight nose, neatly arranged features.
Anyone could see it was a pretty face.
Of course, appearances change with time...
If I grew up like this, I might become a stunning beauty, I thought.
"Would've been better to reincarnate as a handsome guy."
Then at least I could've had some sweet flings with the game heroines.
Swallowing my regret, I stowed the broom and pulled out a rag.
Of course, I had no intention of living like this forever.
I was just keeping a low profile, biding my time for an opportunity.
Because I had one secret no one else in this world knew.
This place was the same world as the game I had pulled all-nighters playing in my past life.
Thanks to skimming newspapers over the years, it hadn't been hard to figure out.
Historical settings matching the lore, names of existing factions.
Countless non-human races that couldn't exist in the modern world, and the continents they inhabited.
Even the emperor of the Kairen Empire, humanity's greatest power, and the names of the three ducal houses guarding him.
Everything matched the game I knew perfectly.
This was undoubtedly that masterpiece no one hesitated to call a masterpiece.
The world of Kairen Chronicles.
It swept past countless rivals to claim Game of the Year honors.
The reasons for Kairen Chronicles' success couldn't be boiled down to just one.
First, the scale.
It wasn't just a big map or lots of regions.
A vast worldview deep enough to rival dozens of history books.
NPCs weren't throwaways; each had unique personalities and desires, crafted with care.
Some key characters even incorporated AI tech, making a single-player game feel like playing with real people.
The high freedom degree, where the story shaped itself based on player choices, sparked huge buzz and drew in tons of players.
I too had been captivated by that freedom, burning through sleepless nights and my youth.
But this place where I stood now wasn't a mere game.
No familiar interface windows anywhere.
No levels, no health bars.
The game shell was gone, revealing a living, breathing reality beneath.
I was no longer a player manipulating characters from outside the screen.
I had become a person breathing, hurting, and able to die in the heart of this world.
Accepting it wasn't too hard.
Becoming an orphan twice was harder to swallow.
Anyway, it was the world I had to live in from now on. I was grateful to know its future and countless details.
I have a dream.
A dream I had cherished deep in my heart since the day I first realized this was the game world I played.
A romantic goal any Korean guy might dream of at least once.
To become a member of the Hero Party.
Traveling across continents, forging countless bonds.
A grand adventure overcoming crises back-to-back with precious comrades.
Friendships and love blooming along the journey.
Those priceless memories would shine as the most brilliant moments of my life, resurfacing forever.
Just thinking about it brought a smile to my face.
How could a man resist this romance?
Even if I'd reincarnated in a girl's body, the burning passion in my heart was undeniably masculine.
Plus, a resume as a Hero Party member.
It guaranteed not just honor, but immense wealth too.
"Heh heh... wait for me, protagonist."
Imagining that brilliant future in my mind.
Today too, I quietly continued mopping the lonely, long hallway.
READ the whole novel at NovelsHub.org