~~~
Jin stared at his reflection, turning his head left and right to study the sharp angles of his new face. Though it was quite unnerving to have a foreign face look back in the mirror, after years of cancer had left him with a husk of a face, this was... an improvement.
"Holy shit. I actually look... normal. Better than normal," he muttered.
The pale blue eyes that gazed back held intelligence that hadn't dimmed from months of chemotherapy fog. Light blue hair caught the morning sunlight streaming through the bathroom window, giving him an almost ethereal appearance.
Real. This body is real, not some fever dream brought on by experimental drugs.
His fingers traced the unfamiliar jawline, watching the mirror image follow his movements with perfect synchronization.
"This is really happening, isn't it?" he whispered to his reflection, then louder: "I'm actually here. I'm actually in the fucking world of Mantle of Gods."
So reborn as an extra?
The thought struck him as he examined his features more closely. In all ten books of "Mantle of Gods," he couldn't recall a single mention of anyone named Jin Winters. Not even a passing reference to someone with his distinctive coloring or background.
"Jin Winters... Jin Winters..." He searched through his memories of the novels, cross-referencing every character he could remember. "Nope. Nothing. Not a single mention."
So, no one with direct impact on the story. Someone destined to live and die in mediocrity.
But he wasn't that person anymore.
A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Someone this good-looking can't stay an extra for long," he said to his reflection with growing confidence. "I mean, look at this face! The author would've definitely described someone who looks like this."
At least I won't be dying as some skeleton wrapped in a hospital gown.
The smile faded as his thoughts turned darker, memories of the novel's plot surfacing like poison in his mind. The chosen ones. The so-called heroes who were supposed to save everything.
"Those fucking idiots," he muttered under his breath, his voice gaining an edge. "Kaelen and his 'righteous fury.' Seraphina and her 'divine justice.' Bastards had everything handed to them on a silver platter and still managed to screw it up."
Jin's hands clenched into fists as he remembered the novel's ending.
"Oh, let's focus on the demons because they're the obvious threat. Let's ignore every single warning about the cults because 'demons bad, cult small problem.' Fucking morons!"
In his previous life, he'd thrown the final book across his hospital room in rage, watching those characters fail despite having every advantage imaginable.
"Had the World's Will literally giving them hints, had the best mentors, the strongest artifacts, the most loyal companions..." Jin's voice rose with each word. "And what did they do? Let their egos get in the way and doom everyone!"
But that had been fiction then.
Now it was his reality.
I don't think of myself as a hero, but if nothing changes, in ten years the same ending I read will happen.
Except this time, I'll be the one on the receiving end.
The weight of that realization should have crushed him. Instead, something else stirred in his chest—determination, fierce and bright.
"No. Hell no." He spoke to his reflection with growing conviction. "I want to enjoy this life. I want to see all the beautiful places the author described, taste all the foods, witness all the wonders he wrote about."
His grin widened as he thought about some of the female characters from the novels.
"Maybe even meet some of those beauties he spent way too much time describing. Like, seriously, did Aria really need three paragraphs dedicated to her legs? Not that I'm complaining..."
Maybe taste some of them in this life.
His reflection grinned back at him, no longer the ghost of a dying cancer patient but the face of someone with limitless potential.
"I've been given a second chance, and I'm not wasting it." He raised an imaginary glass to the mirror. "Thank you, Morpheus from Temu, for the red pill. Even if you were creepy as hell."
Time to see what I'm working with.
As his thoughts aligned with his newfound resolve, a strange calm settled over him. The panic of waking up in a new body, in a new world, began to ebb. This was his opportunity to change everything.
Jin took a deep breath and spoke the words that would reveal his place in this world.
"I call upon my Mantle."
And before Jin, a blue, transparent screen shimmered into existence.
o__________________________________________o
NAME: Jin Winters
AGE: 16
TITLE:The Soul Beyond the Stars of Fate
THE MANTLE OF HARVEST
❂ BOON
"What mortal hands would barely reap, the Bearer's touch shall always yield more—what earth gives forth through toil and seed, the Bearer's hand makes plenty's deed."
❂ AFFINITY
»»»» «None»
❂ [ORDER 0] ENTITY
❂ MARKED SKILLS
»»»» «none»
❂ ACQUIRED SKILLS
»»»» [Adept] Reading (53)
»»»» [Adept] Learning and remembering (51)
»»»» [Novice] Cleaning (23)
»»»» [Novice] Physical fitness (12)
»»»» [Novice] Sword Mastery (19)
»»»» [Novice] Unarmed Combat Mastery (12)
»»»» [Novice] Combat Mastery (15)
»»»» [Novice] Light firearm Mastery (21)
o__________________________________________o
"Holy fucking shit!" Jin's eyes went wide as he read through the display. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be seeing this right in front of my eyes. It's exactly like the novels described, but seeing it in person..."
He paused, studying the title more carefully.
"The Soul Beyond the Stars of Fate... now that's interesting." His voice took on an analytical tone. "Is this because of my reincarnation? Here in this world, or did the original Jin always have that title?"
I've never heard of titles like these in the novels. Hell, gaining titles is supposedly more difficult than progressing through orders.
Most people don't get their first title until ORDER IV at minimum.
Jin frowned and then shook his head, focusing more on his status.
"Mantle of Harvest... no extra modifier, so it's not tied with any specific entity or legend. That's... actually really good," he said, nodding to himself. "Tied to the concept of harvest in general. I can definitely work with that."
More importantly, I remember something about this type of Boon from volume seven...
"Although my current boon is related to increasing the yield of harvested crops," Jin's smirk returned as he remembered knowledge that wouldn't be discovered for years in the original timeline, "the beautiful thing about conceptual Boons is that they can be modified."
"If it were tied to any entity, doing so would have been a pain."
His grin widened as pieces fell into place.
"With my knowledge and the right preparation, I can change part of this Boon. Turn 'crops' into something much more useful. Monster cores, maybe? Or essence itself?"
The possibilities are endless. The author spent an entire chapter and a lot of side stories explaining how Ameye Jocelin found out about the hidden boons and how they can be modified.
Though that moment is pretty late in the story… so right now I'm the only one with this knowledge.
His acquired skills weren't bad either. The original Jin had clearly spent time training, judging by his combat abilities.
"Not bad, original Jin. Not bad at all." He nodded approvingly at the system display. "Those reading and learning stats are gonna be invaluable for absorbing all the technical manuals I know the locations of. And the combat training means you weren't completely hopeless."
Though ORDER 0 means I'm still basically a civilian. Need to hit ORDER I before I can really call myself a Mantle Bearer.
Jin's gaze drifted back to the system window, but as his eyes moved across the ethereal display, something behind it caught his attention. Something that made his blood turn to ice.
A poster on the wall.
"What the hell is..." His hands trembled as he swiped the system window away and stumbled closer to read the colorful travel advertisement mounted on the bedroom wall.
"COME VISIT VIENNA! THE CITY OF YOUR DREAMS!"
"No."
The word fell from his lips like a stone dropping into still water.
This can't be right. Please tell me this isn't what I think it is.
Jin stumbled closer to the poster, legs suddenly unsteady. His hands trembled as he read the cheerful marketing copy describing Vienna's attractions—the famous hot springs, the mountain skiing, the cultural festivals that drew visitors from across the continent.
"No... no, no, this can't be happening! Of all the cities, of all the fucking places in this entire world..."
Vienna. Of all the fucking places in this world, I had to wake up in Vienna.
Jin's breath caught in his throat.
"This has to be a different Vienna. There's got to be more than one city with that name, right? Right?!"
He spun toward the window, nearly tripping over the open suitcase as he lunged for the heavy curtains. His fingers fumbled with the fabric before yanking them aside with desperate strength.
"Please be wrong, please be wrong, please be—"
The view that greeted him matched the poster exactly.
Snow-capped mountains dominated the distant horizon, their peaks gleaming white against the clear morning sky. Below them, a sprawling city stretched toward the sea in terraced layers of civilization climbing gentle hills. Elegant spires and modern buildings created a skyline that would have been breathtaking under different circumstances.
It would have been breathtaking if not for what Jin saw at the far edge of the city.
Faint darkness gathered there like storm clouds, but wrong—too geometric, too purposeful. Veils of shadow that seemed to pulse with malevolent life, creeping closer to the inhabited areas with each passing moment.
No. No, no, no, no, no!
Jin's legs gave out. He collapsed to his knees, his eyes fixed on the dark veils that spelled doom for everyone in this beautiful city.
"This is Vienna. The actual fucking Vienna." His voice came out as a broken whisper. "The city of sea and snow. The tourist paradise that gets turned into a nightmare hellscape."
Of all the cities in this world, I had to wake up in one of the four that get completely annihilated.
"Why? Why here, of all places?" He laughed bitterly, the sound echoing off the apartment walls. "I finally get a second chance, a healthy body, an interesting Mantle, and it's all fucking pointless because I'm about to die anyway!"
The book "Mantle of Gods" had started on the darkest note imaginable. Four cities were destroyed simultaneously in a coordinated catastrophe that served as the opening act to ten volumes of escalating horror. Vienna, Prague, Naples, and Istana—wiped from the map in a matter of hours.
"Chapter One, paragraph fucking one," Jin recited from memory, his voice shaking. "'When even the sun was blocked by the eternal darkness that rose over the four cities, it would be the last dawn their citizens would ever see.'"
Millions of souls snuffed out in a matter of hours. The worst part? Not a single person survived to tell the tale. The cities were simply... gone. Wiped from existence along with everyone who had called them home.
And Vienna was one of those four cities.
"My life will end before it even starts," he whispered.
The unfairness of it all crashed over him like a tidal wave. Jin's hands found random objects—a decorative vase, books from the nightstand, anything within reach—and hurled them at the walls. The crash of breaking ceramic echoed through the apartment, but it wasn't nearly loud enough to drown out the screaming in his head.
"Fuck this! Fuck this shit!" He grabbed another vase and smashed it against the floor. "I get a second chance and it's in a fucking death trap!"
If my memories of Jin Winters are correct, if this is really the day the novel began, then I have hours. Maybe less before everything goes to hell.
"The original Jin should have been with his uncle's family right now," he said aloud, pacing frantically around the broken pottery. "Safe in some other city, enjoying a peaceful vacation. But no! He had to stay behind because he was embarrassed about his Mantle!"
That decision just became my death sentence.
Jin pressed his face against the cold window glass, watching those dark veils creep closer to the city center. Each pulse of shadow brought them nearer to the apartment where he knelt, paralyzed by the knowledge of what was coming.
"In the original novel, no one saw it coming until it was too late," he muttered against the glass. "No warnings, no evacuation orders, no chance to run. But look at that thing..."
He glared at the growing darkness.
"That veil's been forming for at least an hour, maybe more. The authorities have to see it, right? Weather satellites, air traffic control, someone has to notice a giant fucking shadow creeping toward the city!"
But if no one's doing anything yet... that means the top brass either got bribed to look the other way or they're working with the perpetrators.
"Which means this is exactly like the book. The government officials in charge of Vienna's safety were bought and paid for by the fucking cults."
The calamity would strike without mercy, and when it was over, Vienna would be nothing but a crater filled with monsters too terrible for human minds to comprehend.
Jin's reflection stared back at him from the window glass—pale blue eyes wide with terror, light blue hair disheveled from his breakdown. He looked exactly like someone about to die.
Because he was.
"But..." Jin's voice was barely a whisper. "Do I just accept it? Do I roll over and die like everyone else?"
He thought about his brother Ren, probably sitting beside a hospital bed right now, wondering what happened to his dying sibling. About all the books he'd never finish reading, all the places he'd never see, all the experiences he'd never have.
"I already died once. I know what it's like to feel your body give up, to feel everything slip away while you're helpless to stop it."
Jin's hands pressed against the window, his reflection wavering as tears blurred his vision.
"I won't go through that again. Not like this. Not when I have a chance to fight."
The question was, would he accept this fate forced on him just like that?
"Fuck no."
~~~