Chapter 1: The Boy Who Should Have Died*
Darkness had a heartbeat.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Each beat echoed through endless black, slow and heavy, until it became unbearable. It felt as if something ancient was breathing beyond the void, its pulse replacing Arin's own.
Then the pain came.
It exploded through his skull without warning.
"GAH!"
Arin shot upright, clutching his head with both hands. Every breath burned his lungs, and his heart hammered violently against his ribs as though it wanted to tear free from his chest.
Dust hit him first.
The smell of damp stone, rotten wood, mold, and the faint metallic tang of dried blood filled the air. His vision slowly focused, and his stomach sank.
This wasn't a hospital.
This wasn't his apartment.
A cracked stone ceiling stretched above him, held up by rotten wooden beams that looked ready to collapse. Moonlight slipped through holes in the roof, casting pale silver across a room that had clearly been abandoned for years.
Arin froze. "...Where am I?"
His voice sounded wrong. Rougher. Younger.
He stumbled off the broken bed, but his legs buckled immediately. His body felt frighteningly light, as if months of hunger had eaten away every ounce of muscle. Then memory returned in pieces.
Blinding headlights. A truck. Screeching brakes. The crushing impact.
And the ruby necklace his mother had placed around his neck years ago.
His hand flew to his chest. The necklace was still there. Warm. Real. His breathing stopped.
"That's impossible..."
This necklace should have disappeared with his body on Earth. His fingers tightened around the cracked ruby, and memories of his mother flooded his mind. Even on her deathbed, she had smiled through the pain as she fastened it around his neck.
"Be strong, Arin. Never give up."
Those were the last words she ever spoke to him. After she died, life became painfully empty. At twenty-seven, he had nothing left except that necklace and the ache of missing her.
He was supposed to have died beneath that truck.
So why was this necklace here?
Before he could think further, another wave of memories slammed into his mind. Not his memories. Someone else's. A stranger's entire life burst into his consciousness like a broken dam.
A barefoot boy running through muddy streets. An empty bowl on a cracked wooden table. Winter nights spent shivering beneath torn blankets. Hunger so intense it turned to numbness. Loneliness.
Arin screamed. His body folded onto the dirt floor as unfamiliar memories poured endlessly into his mind. They weren't just images. They were emotions. Every humiliation, every desperate night, every tiny moment of hope became his own.
His fingers dug into the earth until his nails cracked. "Stop... Please... stop..."
The pain only grew worse.
A sky split apart by golden light. Mountains collapsing beneath creatures the size of cities. Humans wrapped in blazing qi charging toward monsters with impossible bodies. Then darkness swallowed everything.
Silence returned.
Arin lay face-down on the floor, breathing like a drowning man dragged onto land. Minutes passed before he could move. When he finally opened his eyes, tears had mixed with the dust on his face.
He knew. There was no denying it.
"I died..." The words tasted strange. "And I... took someone else's body."
Slowly, he raised his hands. They weren't his. Slimmer, paler, covered in tiny scars and calluses earned through years of hard labor. He touched his face. Seventeen. This body belonged to a seventeen-year-old boy. Not his twenty-seven-year-old body from Earth.
A bitter laugh escaped him. "So even in another world... I'm still unlucky."
The room came into focus again. It was barely a home. A single broken bed leaned against one wall. A cracked clay bowl sat upside down in the corner. Rain stains covered nearly every wall, and the wooden door had been patched so many times that different pieces barely held it together. Cold wind drifted through countless gaps.
Whoever lived here had been desperately poor.
Arin searched through the foreign memories again. The boy's name... Arin. His name was Arin too. He blinked in disbelief. "What kind of coincidence is this?"
The previous owner had lived in Vermont Village, a forgotten settlement on the outskirts of the Phoenix Kingdom. An orphan. No parents. No relatives. No cultivation talent. No future.
A violent pain twisted his stomach. "Ghk..." Hunger hit him like a hammer. He grabbed his abdomen as nausea climbed into his throat.
This wasn't ordinary hunger. It felt ancient. Cruel. As though this body had been starving for days.
The memories answered immediately. The previous Arin hadn't eaten in three days. He had wandered the village begging for scraps before returning home empty-handed. Nobody helped him. Nobody cared. He came back to this ruined house, lay down on the bed... and died. Just like that.
Arin's face went pale. "He... starved to death."
The realization chilled him more than the night air. This body hadn't been killed by a beast. It hadn't been murdered. It had simply run out of food.
He leaned against the wall and laughed quietly. The empty room echoed with the sound until it faded. "What a miserable life."
Another memory surfaced. The Awakening Ceremony.
Children stood before enormous golden stones taller than houses. One after another, they pressed their palms against them. Some stones erupted with blazing flames. Some crackled with lightning. Some froze the air. Cheers filled the square as parents cried tears of joy.
Then came Arin's turn. Nothing. The golden stone remained cold. A disappointed murmur spread through the crowd.
He was led to a second altar. A white Soul Stone. Hope burned inside the young Arin one final time. His palm touched it. Nothing. Silence. Then whispers.
"No Spiritual Trait." "No Soul Trait." "Completely talentless."
Children laughed. Adults sighed. Some pitied him. Others looked at him as though he had already become worthless.
From that day onward, Vermont Village had decided his future. Labor. Poverty. Or death. No academy would accept him. No sect would recruit him. No noble family would spare him a second glance.
Arin slowly clenched his fists. "So in this world... power decides whether you deserve to live."
The thought settled heavily inside him. His gaze drifted back to the ruby necklace. Unlike everything else, it didn't belong here. The ruby glowed faintly beneath the moonlight. The same crack. The same silver chain.
His fingers wrapped around it instinctively. Warmth spread through his palm. His heartbeat slowed. For one brief moment, peace washed over him. It felt almost like his mother's hand resting gently on his head.
"...You're here too." A faint smile appeared on his lips. For the first time since waking in this unfamiliar world, he didn't feel completely alone.
Then the warmth disappeared. Silence returned.
Arin pushed himself to his feet. His legs shook immediately. Too weak. This body was terrifyingly weak. He took one step. Then another. Black spots filled his vision. He caught himself against the wall before collapsing.
"I need food... If I don't eat... I'll die again."
He searched the tiny house. A broken cabinet. Empty. A clay jar. Dry. Even the cooking pot contained nothing except hardened residue stuck to its bottom. Not a single grain of food remained.
Despair settled into his chest. Outside, the village should have food. Maybe work. Maybe someone willing to help. Maybe.
He forced himself toward the door. His fingers had barely touched the wooden handle—
Grrrrrrrr...
A low growl rolled through the night.
Arin froze. Every hair on his body stood on end. That wasn't a dog. It wasn't any animal he had ever heard on Earth. The growl was deeper. Heavier. Predatory. It came from directly outside the house.
Heavy footsteps scraped against the dirt. Slow. Patient. Whatever stood outside already knew prey was inside. It wasn't rushing. It was waiting.
A cold breeze slipped through the cracks in the broken door, carrying the overwhelming scent of blood and wet fur. Another growl followed. Closer. Hungrier.
Arin tightened his grip around the necklace until the cracked ruby dug into his palm. Outside, something enormous shifted its weight. The rotten wooden door creaked inward.
Then—
A shadow filled the doorway. Two golden eyes opened in the darkness.
Arin's heartbeat stopped.
The beast had found him.