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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Prologue
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He died after a life spent drifting from one nameless extra role to another. He didn't know if it was an accident or suicide. It was a memory from a very long time ago.
After that, he was born, died, and born again. For some reason, his memories were never erased. The memories of every life accumulated within him.
He created a library of lives.
Some lives were so long and vast, he shelved them in a corner of the library. Others were so precious, he placed them in an easily accessible spot, taking them out to revisit often.
He was never reincarnated as a human.
It wasn't that he particularly wanted to be human, but while he had been reincarnated as other creatures time and again, he had never once been reborn as a human. It was strange.
Just as his first life began to fade from memory, he was born again.
As a human.
* * *
"Bu-bu-bu."
The baby giggled. At his smile, the new parents, Lee Minjun and Seo Eunhye, clutched their chests and nearly collapsed.
"I know he's our baby, but he's just too cute…"
Lee Minjun nodded in agreement with Seo Eunhye's overwhelmed sigh. Their seven-month-old baby was so well-behaved he was an absolute blessing. He ate well, pooped well, and was never sick.
Other couples with babies his age were envious of Lee Minjun and Seo Eunhye.
"Seojun! Lee Seojun!"
"It's Daddy! Daddy's here!"
The baby let out a squeal of laughter. Even though he was just a baby, his round eyes sparkled, and his features were already well-defined.
His beaming smile was like a ray of spring sunshine. He was an adorable baby who seemed to have inherited only the best traits from his mother and father.
"Yaaaawn."
As the baby yawned, the couple lowered their voices. Seo Eunhye gently patted the tummy of the baby lying in his crib. Lee Minjun pressed a button on the CD player resting on the dresser. A gentle children's song began to play softly.
* * *
The baby, Lee Seojun, opened his eyes.
'Hmm.'
Lee Seojun thought. It was too big.
The door before him was too big. It was the door to the library that held the memories of his past lives.
His tiny baby hand, no bigger than a maple leaf, slapped against the massive library door.
The door didn't open.
Of course it didn't.
Sometimes, he was born as a creature with less-than-standard intelligence. Even then, he would sometimes visit this library of memories.
A creature with less-than-standard intelligence—a 'fool,' in other words—would mindlessly absorb any ability it laid eyes on. Occasionally, that ability would surpass the limits of its physical body, and in such cases, the body would invariably be destroyed.
After dying that way a few times, he had sealed this library shut. And he'd made it so that only the door matching his current 'body' could be opened.
'Guess I'll give up on this door.'
Even this massive door would swing wide open with a mere touch once Lee Seojun's abilities had grown enough.
Seojun waved his tiny, fist-sized hand. Like a revolving door, the huge door slid away, and a smaller one appeared before him.
There were a great many doors to the library. Every time a 'fool' was born, he had set a new standard of ability and created another library… Come to think of it, a lot of 'fools' must have died.
He had made the system easy to understand at a glance. The greater the power, the larger the door; the smaller the power, the smaller the door.
The books containing the memories of each life also varied in size. The life of a large, long-lived monster would be a big, thick tome, while the life of a small, short-lived one would be a small, thin volume.
Seojun continued to wave his hand. The doors grew progressively smaller. He passed doors the size of five-story and three-story buildings—so tall he couldn't see the top—until finally, a blue, doghouse-sized door appeared. It was the smallest library of them all.
'Right, the library I made when I was a slime.'
Mourning the 'fool' of a slime that had died just three days after its birth, Seojun sat on the floor before the small door and thought.
His form in the library changed to match his current body. At seven months old, just sitting up on his own was a remarkable achievement.
Just a few weeks ago, he could only lie on the floor before the library doors, staring at their firmly shut surfaces. He would occasionally manage to roll over.
Perhaps because his head was so big, sitting up was a bit of a strain. Seojun flopped onto his back.
'In any other life, I would've opened it and gone inside by now…'
Opening the door was simple. All he had to do was touch it.
Seojun lifted both his feet and kicked at the empty air.
Hnngh, hnngh.
'Human babies grow so slowly.'
Even if he managed to enter a door this small, the only books he'd find would be useless ones—like the life of a slime that did nothing but flop about, or that of a fairy that only ever sparkled and fluttered around.
Whenever Seojun was reborn, he would assess his new circumstances, learn the necessary skills for that life, and record them. He had lived so many lives that some things were inevitably forgotten.
Since this was his first life as a human, he really did need to browse the books to see what kind of abilities were suitable or necessary.
'Then again, it's not like I really need to look right now.'
He was a baby whose only jobs were to eat, sleep, and poop.
Of course, there was one thing he always did upon rebirth—at least, when his disposition was of the light—and that was the [Elf's Basic Breathing Method]. He remembered it well and had been practicing it ever since he gained consciousness.
His remarkably radiant appearance, even as a baby, was all thanks to the Elf's Basic Breathing Method.
Seojun stopped flailing his legs in the air and rolled over onto his stomach. Rolling over was a piece of cake now.
'Hm?'
As he turned and lay flat on his stomach, he spotted a tiny door next to the doghouse-sized one. It was no bigger than his own face.
Never mind its size; it was a dark, black door covered in dust, which was probably why he hadn't noticed it before. It was a wonder he'd spotted it at all.
'I've never seen one like this before…'
Tilting his head in curiosity, he reached out and pressed a pattern on the door. The door creaked open slowly.
He poked his head inside. His shoulders got stuck, but that was fine. There was only a single book inside.
Seojun pulled his head out, reached an arm inside, and grabbed the book. It was a book he had no memory of ever seeing before.
The book he pulled out looked ancient. It was caked in so much dust that it looked as if a single puff of air would cause every page to disintegrate and scatter.
The baby opened the book slowly.
The book was written in Korean.
Seojun was aware that the memories of his lives, once recorded in Korean, had gradually shifted to the scripts of monsters. This was because, subconsciously, the monsters' scripts had begun to feel more natural to him.
But this one was written entirely in Korean.
It was his first life.
All Seojun remembered of his first life was being a nameless actor. He couldn't even remember how he had died.
The baby spread the old book out on the floor and began to read it slowly. The Korean felt awkward, but he read on, the memories slowly returning to him.
The book was fascinating.
It was the story of a man—Seojun himself, though his memories were so hazy he felt like a stranger—who had strived to become an actor, only to die in an accident on set without ever making a name for himself.
'Hmm.'
A short phrase was written in the final part of the book. It must have been the very last thought he'd had before he died.
-If I'm reborn, I want to be an actor again. In my next life, I want to be the star.
The baby sat before the old book, spread open on the floor, and fell into deep thought.
His heart, which had grown numb after so many lives, seemed to beat a little faster. He wondered if he had ever lived as passionately as this man, striving to become something.
He hadn't.
At first, he was too busy trying to survive. Later, life became unbearably dull.
The baby gave a small, crooked smile.
He felt strangely moved by the book.
'Alright! Let's do it. An actor!'
The baby looked down at the book before him.
'No, that's not it.'
He tapped the book, as if to comfort the past self who had died so futilely.
'Why settle for just an actor? I'll be a superstar.'
A superstar whose name would go down in history.
Before the book of the nameless actor, the baby made a promise.
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