The moment I laid back, the room dimmed into a quiet gray.
I stared at the ceiling for a long while—thinking, calculating, remembering. My rebirth had changed everything. I had time now. Time to correct the mistakes I once swore I'd never get to fix.
BZZT.
My holo-tab buzzed suddenly on the counter.
I blinked and looked over.
The screen lit up with a familiar name: [Incoming Call – Aika]
Aika... my sister.
I hesitated, then accepted the call.
"You forgot again, didn't you?" she said with that typical teasing tone.
"Forgot what?"
"Father asked you to come home today. Everyone's already there. You're not about to bail again, are you?"
My breath caught.
This day...
In my past life, today was the moment my father stood before the family and asked me to take over as the next head.
And I refused him.
Back then, I had dreams of running my own studio, building something without the weight of family expectations. I believed I was choosing freedom.
All I really did was leave them vulnerable.
"Are you there?" Aika asked again, her voice softer now.
"...Yeah," I said. "I'm coming."
I closed the call and sat in silence.
Even after everything I'd just remembered—the betrayals, the collapse, the game's true purpose—what hit me hardest was the quiet weight of this family I once abandoned.
This time... I couldn't afford to.
As I packed my bag, another memory surged to the surface—sharp, fragmented, powerful.
The ruins.
The Ancient Library Ruins.
It had happened two years after this point in the timeline. A farming sector on the outskirts of the Republic detected underground seismic patterns following minor spiritual energy fluctuations. No one paid much attention—until something metallic was uncovered.
The Earth Federation sent a quiet task force. What they found beneath the hills... changed everything.
A massive chamber. Walls etched in ancient code. Inside: martial arts manuals written in dead dialects, nutrient potion formulas, recovery bath techniques, and technologies no one had seen since pre-Federation times. Energy stabilizers. Bone marrow reinforcement tanks. Bloodline enhancers.
And the real breakthrough:
A method to ascend beyond Rank 6.
For nearly a century, Rank 6 Peak was considered the ceiling. The world had stagnated. Spiritual energy was thinning, and cultivation had hit a dead end.
But the Library Ruins... opened the door.
Rank 7s began appearing. Rank 8s. Even Rank 9 cultivators—beings people had considered legends—returned from seclusion.
And once the library was uncovered, something shifted in the world.
Over the following months, other ruins started appearing—minor ones, scattered across forgotten corners of the continent. Some were found in buried cities. Others beneath collapsed temples or mountain fissures. Each carried remnants—scrolls, potions, scraps of battle techniques. Enough to stir chaos.
But none of it reached the public.
The Earth Federation and powerful families sealed them off immediately. Not a single discovery was leaked to ordinary citizens or weak families. Those without titles, without influence—were simply left out.
The information stayed buried.
And as the world shifted quietly under everyone's feet, the common people lived on—never knowing what had been stolen from their future.
The shuttle pod arrived in less than ten minutes.
I boarded, finding a quiet seat near the back. Outside the window, the city buzzed beneath artificial skies and neon roads. The skyline faded into older, greener sectors as we traveled—back toward the outskirts.
Back to the Ren family villa.
As I leaned back, the thoughts returned—deeper now.
Because the Ancient Library wasn't even the full story.
A year after its discovery, something even bigger was whispered through black-market channels—something that changed everything.
The Earth Federation had found a portal.
I knew the truth. Not from some dramatic final revelation, but because I'd lived long enough in my past life to witness the fallout.
Ten years from this moment, the public would finally learn what only the elite had known for decades.
The portal had been discovered in the Himalayas—buried beneath the remnants of a meteoroid impact from fifty years ago. At first, scientists logged it as another debris crash. Routine scans. Archived data.
But deep within the crater, the readings were... abnormal.
Not radioactive. Not naturally magnetic.
Just... wrong.
What they found wasn't just rock. It was metal laced with intelligence. Complex structure. Alien material. Quantum-locked encryption.
Technology.
And at its core—a sealed, dormant gateway.
They eventually reactivated it. And what they saw on the other side... was a world overflowing with spiritual energy. A world structured eerily like Glory. Forests, dungeons, terrain layouts, even enemy types. It was no coincidence.
The Federation hadn't invented Glory.
They'd reconstructed it.
Glory was their simulation of the real world—the other world.
Every dungeon. Every skill tree. Every ranking system.
All modelled after real-world equivalents in a place no one on Earth had ever stepped foot in... yet.
That's why the game mattered.
It wasn't just entertainment—it was a filter.
A test to find those who could survive, adapt, and lead once inter-world travel began.
And once that information leaked into the hands of a few conglomerates—chaos followed.
I remembered the moment our studio was contacted. A powerful group, backed by silent investors, offered to buy us out. Quietly. Cleanly.
I refused.
They didn't want negotiation. They wanted dominance.
And once they realized I wouldn't hand over the guild I'd built—
They retaliated.
Funding cut. Contracts severed. Sponsors pulled.
My reputation poisoned.
My family's business suppressed.
Mei Rin's name dragged through coordinated attacks.
They never needed to destroy me physically.
They erased my place in the race.
Because they knew what was coming.
They knew quotas would soon be given. That each world power would get limited spots for their chosen entrants. That Glory rankings would become the most important data on Earth.
And they couldn't afford to let someone like me take one of those spots.
I knew exactly who had done it.
I knew their name. Their emblem. Their tactics.
But for now... that truth would remain buried.
The shuttle slowed as we approached the outer residential ring.
I saw the villa up ahead, built against a quiet slope, surrounded by faded trees and an aging fence. The security scanner buzzed once, then allowed me through.
As I walked down the familiar hallway, memories surfaced unbidden.
My family wasn't powerful.
They held no title. No land rights. No army. No influence.
We weren't even recognized as a Bronze-ranked family. That required at least one Rank 3 cultivator and three Rank 2s.
We had none.
My grandfather and grandmother were both Peak Rank 2 cultivators in their prime, once known in local circles for their discipline and integrity. But they had aged out of the system.
My father was a mid-stage Rank 2. He ran a modest logistics company that supplied various medical and tech parts around the southern provinces. A man of principle—never greedy, never reckless.
My second uncle and third uncle were Rank 2 lower-stage cultivators. One worked in family finances. The other was a quiet instructor in a low-level martial academy.
My youngest aunt—still unmarried—was also Rank 2 lower-stage, focused entirely on training. She'd been chasing Rank 3 for years without breakthrough.
Then there were my cousins—four of them in total. Two from each uncle. And, of course, my little sister, Aika.
Including me, six from the younger generation.
In my past life, I had never really carried the responsibility of being the eldest. I had always wanted to be something more—outside this family.
This time, I saw it differently.
As I stepped into the main hall.
Several conversations stopped at once.
Ten pairs of eyes turned to face me.
Aika stood near the back and gave me a sly smile.
"Told you he'd show up."
I gave a small nod, glancing around the room.
Most of the family was here—my cousins, uncles, grandparents. Some looked surprised. A few looked away. No one said anything.
At the center of it all stood my father.
He looked at me for a long moment. Then turned and said:
"Come."
We didn't speak until we were deep inside his private study.
He sat down behind his desk. I stood across from him, straight-backed.
"It's been a while," he said, after a moment. "You've grown."
I said nothing.
He tapped the table lightly. "You're not a child anymore, Kaito. This family... it needs a future. I've done what I can. But I can't protect them forever."
I waited, knowing what would come next.
"If you're ready... I want you to begin preparing to take over as the head."
In the past, I had rejected this offer outright.
This time, I looked him in the eyes.
"I don't know if I'm ready," I said. "But I'll do my part."
He gave a small, satisfied nod.