Darkness. Still. Cold.
A suffocating void lingered as Jin floated in the emptiness between worlds. It was the space beyond time, beyond reality—where echoes of the past whispered and futures were uncertain. The last thing he remembered was the crumbling sky of the Otherworld, the divine flames of the Final Gate collapsing upon itself, and the rumble of collapsing dimensions. He had given everything. Every ounce of power, every drop of blood, every memory.
He had prepared to fade.
But fate had different plans.
Jin gasped.
Air filled his lungs as if breathing for the first time. Blinding light overwhelmed his senses. Gravity took hold. And then—
BAM.
He hit the ground.
Grass.
Soft earth and familiar scents surrounded him. Trees. Birds. Distant vehicles.
Jin's senses slowly sharpened, and he pushed himself up on trembling arms. The world around him was vibrant—almost too vibrant. He blinked several times, forcing his vision to adjust.
It was a park. He recognized the skyline.
"Korea… Seoul?" he whispered, voice hoarse.
But how?
He reached into his coat—though it had turned to rags—and felt nothing. The runes on his body were gone. The bindings that had once marked him a warrior of the Ancients were absent. Only the deep scars across his torso remained.
Jin stood up, weakly.
His legs felt like paper, but his instincts—sharp, honed by decades of battle—were still with him.
He looked at the sky. No crimson fissures. No broken moon. No wailing cries of beasts. No Gates.
He was… home.
But something was off. He didn't feel older. He looked at his reflection in the park's water basin. He was young. Barely eighteen. The face of a boy who had just begun his first year of college.
He staggered backwards.
Thirty years. Thirty years of battle, bloodshed, discipleship, and sacrifice—vanished? Had time reset?
Or had he been returned to the moment he left?
His head spun. He had no answers.
But he had one thought: home.
Jin sprinted. The layout of the city hadn't changed—at least not drastically. Everything looked the same. Neon signs, crowded streets, honking cars. It felt like he had stepped into a dream.
When he reached the narrow alley that led to his old apartment building, his heart pounded harder than it had during any battlefield charge.
"Please…"
He climbed the stairs, skipping every third step until he reached the fifth floor. Apartment 508.
He hesitated.
Then knocked.
Moments passed. Then—
The door creaked open.
"Jin?"
A familiar voice. Warm. Comforting. His mother.
He stared, wide-eyed. She looked exactly as he remembered her. No grey in her hair. No lines of sorrow.
And standing behind her were two kids—his younger siblings.
"Where the hell have you been?!" shouted his younger sister, Hana, leaping forward to smack his shoulder.
Jin laughed.
He cried.
Their father appeared, groggy but relieved. "You're late for dinner. What, you got lost?"
It was surreal. As if no time had passed.
They had no memory of his absence.
That night, Jin sat on the rooftop, staring at the moon.
He had questions. Many.
But he wasn't panicking. Not yet. The world felt peaceful.
But peace didn't last.
The next morning, his phone buzzed. A notification.
"BREAKING: Unknown anomaly detected above Busan—portal-like structure appears in sky."
Jin's eyes narrowed.
So it had begun. Again.
But this time, he wasn't a novice.
He wasn't a victim.
He was a warrior reborn.
And this world—his world—was about to remember what it meant to be hunted.
End of Chapter 1