Rain soaked the streets of Seoul like the sky itself was grieving.
Lee Jinhyuk stood still beneath the dim streetlight, his oversized hoodie clinging to his chubby frame. The world moved around him—cars, footsteps, umbrellas—none of them slowing down. No one ever did for someone like him.
People had always judged him before they ever knew him. Ugly. Fat. Disgusting. That was all they saw.
Except for one man.
"Jinhyuk, listen to me." His father's voice echoed in his mind, warm and steady. "It doesn't matter what the world thinks. One day, you'll be stronger than all of them."
He smiled at that memory, even as the pain in his chest twisted deeper. His father—Lee Sangho—was found dead this morning. Stabbed in an alley. No CCTV footage. No suspects. Just blood, and a note burned halfway into ash.
A single word was written on it: "Found."
The police called it a robbery. Jinhyuk knew better.
His father wasn't some helpless businessman. He was… strange. Always locking his study. Always disappearing for days. And the things he told Jinhyuk—about fate, power, and a world beyond this one—they weren't the ramblings of a crazy man. They were warnings.
Jinhyuk walked home alone that night, his heart colder than the rain sliding down his skin.
When he arrived, he went straight to his father's study.
The police had sealed it, but they'd overlooked one thing—Jinhyuk had been watching for years. He knew the pattern of his father's bookshelves, the tiny keyhole behind the third row. He opened it with a pin.
Inside the hidden compartment was a jade talisman, glowing faintly with swirling light.
As his fingers brushed it, the world around him twisted. The air cracked. Symbols lit up the floor beneath him in a pattern he couldn't read—but his soul could feel.
Pain surged through his body. Not physical—something deeper. Like his very being was being yanked out of place.
Then—
Silence.
He opened his eyes, and everything was different.
Crimson skies. Towering mountains that floated in midair. Rivers of spiritual energy snaking through the air like living creatures.
He had left Korea behind.
And a voice echoed in his mind.
> [System initializing…
Welcome, Lee Jinhyuk.
Synchronizing dual-world access… complete.
Hidden bloodline detected.
Unlocking path: Cultivator of Ruin and Reason.
Begin your ascent.]
Jinhyuk's hand clenched around the talisman.
"This world took the only person who gave a damn about me…"
He raised his eyes to the skies above, his voice quiet—ice-cold.
"…I'll burn both of them down if I have to."