A time will come when the entire universe trembles... Time is no longer linear, but synchronous. Past and future begin to collapse without clear cause within zones of space and time.
"This world hasn't moved in a linear fashion for a long time now—instead, it progresses slowly within an interconnected, holistic harmony."
"What does that mean, Father?"
"It means... everything has begun to move in sync."
"Does... it have something to do with that tree?"
A girl's gentle hand pointed toward the sky, brimming with curiosity.
There, spanning the starry night sky, was a cosmic silhouette shaped like a tree.
"Correct~ How did you know?"
"I read about it in an ancient book. But I couldn't find an explanation for why it's called the Uncertainty Tree. Do you know something, Father?"
"It is because that tree remains untouched by the hands of gods and demons..."
"A place full of mysteries?"
"Yes. It is... a place shrouded in mysteries..."
Without warning, the foretold day arrived abruptly... Shaking the entire cosmos.
Crack...! Crack...!
Zzzwwwoooooooooooommmm——!!
"What is that...?!"
"How can this be...?!"
The sky tore and crumbled like fragile glass.
Gods and demons emerged like an unstoppable tide from every direction—and the battle began.
Everyone panicked.
"Come with Father now! Quickly!"
"F-Father...! What's happening?"
Her father gripped the girl's hand so tightly. Ensuring his daughter wouldn't slip away, even if it hurt her delicate wrist.
"Where are we going, Father?!"
"..." Without answering, her father ran, clutching the girl, sweat and anxiety plain on his face.
They sprinted through a long corridor, descended flight after flight of stairs, before finally arriving at an underground chamber.
"Why not just take the elevator, Father?!"
"...Would take too long...!"
They stopped before a massive steel-reinforced door layered with countless magic seals across its surface.
"What is this place...?"
Her father carefully injected Mana into the layers of magical seals.
A few seconds of meticulous Mana control and seal manipulation later—the seals vanished. Then, Bang!
Her father kicked the door open with all the strength gathered in his leg.
Blinding golden light spilled rapidly through the doorway.
"Inside...!" They both hurried into the room.
An altar stood before them. Floating above it was an Artefact emitting a golden glow.
"Finally...!" Her father stepped forward and took the Artefact from the altar.
"An artefact...?" The girl's eyes marveled at the beauty of the Artefact floating above her father's palm.
"What is that artefact, Father?"
"This..." Her father's expression grew complicated as he tried to answer. "This is an artefact with the power of time... Hold this..."
He handed the Artefact to the girl.
It floated above her hands.
"Father can no longer use this artefact." Her father said with a smile.
But the girl knew—that wasn't the sincere smile she usually received.
"Father...!" Sadness welled up inside her at his forced expression.
"Remember this well, my child. You can only use it a few times."
"No! Father must come with me!" Tears streaming, she clutched her father's clothes tightly.
Her father shook his head slowly, replying gently, "No. Father can no longer use it, and even..." He stroked her silver hair with mixed feelings.
"F-Father...!"
"Return to the past, and do as you wish. Remember—tell no one about this later."
Her father spoke with a smile and flowing tears. Then the Artefact shone brighter, more intensely in the girl's hands, covering her entire vision with a golden light far more dazzling.
"FATHERRRRRRRR...?!!"
---
UNCERTAINTY TREE. That's what they call the object floating deep in the farthest reaches of space. So magnificent, yet simultaneously giving an eerie feeling to those who gaze upon it too long in the night sky.
The sight of that glowing cosmic giant tree within a spatial distortion sparked everyone's curiosity—what lay there? What caused its appearance in the universe?
For hundreds of years, that unidentified object was studied by thousands of historians for the sake of scientific progress, to handle the worsening space-time distortions.
But... behind that beautiful sight, experts discovered something that shook the entire cosmos. Behind the beauty of the Uncertainty Tree lay a dark fact from history's past.
HOLLOW MONARCH!! One of the cosmic entities bearing the title 'Evil' engraved in its soul. One of the 777 Lords of Destruction standing at the peak of ruin.
With a fierce desire for destruction and slaughter, it roamed the entire universe and committed countless unforgivable crimes!
Until one day, the gods could no longer tolerate the brutality and savagery that kept on– Sigh~~
"The person who wrote this history must have just woken up from a wet dream..."
"Wasn't the story supposed to be like that, though?"
"No. It's far from the truth. What's with this 'desire for destruction and slaughter'? And who even is this Hollow Monarch?"
"How do you know it's the truth or not?"
"How should I explain it to you all? I don't know either..."
"See? Told you."
[Numbers 31, 32, 33, 34, and 35.]
"Okay... 10 minutes until my turn."
"Be careful, Veyr!"
"Don't be nervous."
"Nervous? As if."
With light steps, I left the waiting bench and headed to the preparation room.
...
"Hmmm..." I slumped into a chair in the quiet, awkward room alongside four others.
A sigh. Now... time for a brief introduction.
'Keep it short...'
Though I'm not certain about this body's actual age, I'm confident it's still in its teens after examining DNA samples down to the molecular level.
Maybe around 14 or 15? My body was truly small and weak. My height was only 120cm. So I had to force it to grow to 160cm.
The process involved small-scale bone breaking, tightening muscle fibers, and repeated regeneration in each surgical procedure...
Doing that was tough for my current strength, and besides—the process hurt like hell.
But enough about my body. Look at this...
You probably won't understand it clearly, so I'll be your interdimensional Google Translate.
====================
ORMIDS ID CARD
——————————————
ID No.: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
——————————————
Name: Veyr
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Place/Date of Birth: Portle/xxxxxx
Home Planet: Sirius
Citizenship: Moonlight Kingdom
Marital Status: Single
Profession: Explorer
====================
What's "ORMIDS"?
ORMIDS is the name of this solar system, merged into one because it holds more than one or two planets harboring intelligent life. Similar to District A, B, C, and so on.
And remarkably, these planets have strange orbital paths where their distances are halved without interfering with each other. I live on a planet called Sirius.
···
Seven months ago.
"Hmm...?! Is this the reincarnation phenomenon that only happens in myths...?!"
I woke up in a small alley, wearing tattered clothes, my body covered in bruises and wounds.
"Hmm...?"
Rising slowly, I moved my whole body, did some warm-up stretches, then walked out of the alley without a second thought.
Swoosh~~~
The sea breeze brushed against my hair and skin—as if welcoming me.
"... Oh—Hoo~"
The bustling docks. People hurried back and forth with expressions both fresh and bitter on their faces.
Then the scenery swept completely across my vision, revealing the varied panoramic landscapes of a planet I hadn't had the chance to appreciate before.
In the sky, many planets were clearly visible, quite close to one another. I almost thought they were all moons in orbit.
"Hmmm... What kind of solar system is this...?"
This is a fairly common phenomenon in the... world... fantasy world? Yeah, let's call it that—simpler, easier to grasp. Though it's actually more of a hybrid.
It became clearer that some general logic and physics laws don't fully apply or run along the same tracks as in my original world.
In certain matters, friction exists between the logic I adhere to and the logic they follow. In fact, there are cases where they don't understand simple things I do, and vice versa.
"Uh-huh... Setting that aside. I need to confirm something..."
Shifting my gaze and walking, I tried to find a mirror.
Turns out, I found a house window that reflected me clearly within just a few steps.
"This...?!" The glass showed my image completely.
A youthful reflection of myself—no tacky new facial features. Except for star-shaped, golden-yellow pupils, and hair white as snow. Well... though a few strands appeared black like streaks in my bangs.
"Crazy..."
No matter how I looked at it, this face was a picture of my younger self back on Earth. That became obvious when I used illusion to change my hair and eye color.
But what's with my hair color? Genetics? Premature graying? Not sure...
Tap, tap, tap...
I continued walking, crossing through various corners of the city, ignoring all the strange stares from people coming and going from morning till morning.
Then, from here, I pondered my own sudden reappearance.
'Who am I? What's my life like now? Who's my family? What are my daily routines? What happened to me before I regained consciousness?'
But it was all futile—I couldn't do much. And in the end...
A sigh. "Oh God... Just a matter of time, huh...?"
I gave up trying to figure it out.
After all, there's nothing I can do even if I force myself. In the end, time will determine whether I'm capable or not... I'm not sure... I don't know enough to act like I know more...
"What else can I do? To survive in society for now... I need to gather basic information first."
With light steps from my small feet, I went to various places. Trying to understand people's lifestyle patterns in this world, its currency system, rules, laws, and so on.
···
Seven months passed.
Well... That's the gist of it. Like it or not? Willing or unwilling? Nothing I could do about it.
If there's anything to be grateful for—it's that I was revived with many better opportunities.
I'll also take this as a chance to enjoy my life. But above all... My emotions have returned...!
EMOTIONS... Nothing feels quite as good as feeling emotions again after so long. Emotions that had been lost for who-knows-how-many-years—refreshing in a certain sense...
Was losing emotions a side effect of longevity? Not sure.
But at least I have a simple assumption: brain overload, to which the body naturally responded by discarding things that could disturb one's way of life.
But well... There's nothing good about longevity when it costs you your emotions and interest in living.
So how did we live calmly and peacefully without emotions? Not sure about that either...
"Long life, but the price is Emotions? I hardly felt any major benefit... More like... resembling a robot rather than a living being."
I've seen many humans and various other Races with life expectancies below 500 years. They forced themselves to live long—what they often term "Immortality."
Until finally, when they succeeded in surpassing their life expectancy limit, many began losing their sanity, ending up mad and rampaging like possessed beings.
And some who endured and survived that effect—it doesn't mean they didn't suffer losses. They lost most of their emotions as a consequence of longevity. I'm also part of those people.
But now it's different. Is this some kind of... blessing? Not sure either.
"No one knows what'll happen to me later... Because having emotions can also be a double-edged sword..."
'...No one knows what awaits me in the future...'
What's clear is—the fact that I stand here, have reincarnated, come back to life—it emphasizes something...
No matter how hard I try to think positively, I'm not allowed by myself to think optimistically about my return to this world.
[Participants, please get ready! The test begins in 10, 9, 8...]
Bzzt... Bzzt...!
Slowly but surely, the sound of grating friction spread inside the room, accompanied by the structure folding in on itself.
"An illusion room, huh..."
[7, 6, 5...]
"..."
[4, 3, 2...]
'My mood's a bit lazy today...'
[1!! Difficulty level increases over time. Good luck~!]
A sigh. "...?"
'What's with that overly cheerful last line?'
...
[Test concluded! Participants 31, 33, and 34 have passed! Congratulations~!]
"...?"
The room returned to normal, and silence began to settle—but not for long, as the sound of snapping bones whispered from the right and left.
The two people beside me trembled as if about to vomit their stomach contents, tears streaming.
A sigh. "..."
This test ended with three successes and two failures.
It aimed only to test mental resilience against various illusions that increased gradually over time.
The two who failed were teleported out the moment their condition became concerning. The three who passed would leave manually—bodies trembling, eyes glassy.
Seeing their complicated, distorted expressions yet still possessing strong resolve... seemed they endured quite well under the illusions' influence.
Then, what about me?
'Not sure either...?'
Because the illusions were quite simple and... mediocre in a too-ordinary way... The mechanism merely showed weird scene changes at each stage.
Starting from corpses lined up everywhere, being chased by hordes of insane killers and monsters, trapped in a quiet room, and also...
"Feels more like a horror movie, honestly..."
'Or maybe I'm the one who's not normal here...?'
---
TO BE CONTINUED!