In the cold confines of the small dusty room, Jin stood at the edge of the mural. He had gone back to pick up the candle, unable to believe his eyes.
Yet, the words remained, etched on the old wood with hurried strokes.
—Hi Jin. There is no way to say this without sounding weird so I'll just get into it…
I am you, or at least the original version of you that was reborn into this world, and this… this is eighteen years after your reincarnation.
"Eighteen years…"
Now it made sense why he couldn't recognize this body. The character design, and not to be narcissistic, but he was too handsome to be an npc. At the same time, he was not a main character.
Initially he had believed he was transmigrated, but it seemed that was not the case… he was born in this world.
He glanced back at the wall and swallowed.
—I know, it's weird right? You're probably wondering why you have no memories of the past 18 years. Our parents in this world, how we lived our life…
Well, I'm not telling you any of that.
"Huh?" Jin stared blankly at the wall, his fingers tightening by his sides.
The memory-erasing ritual is almost ready. I have to run… but damn, thinking back, I really got myself involved in some nasty stuff, things I should have never known about this world.
B-But hey, I've given you a clean slate, no memories just plain Jin Seok, please don't fuck it up like me.
Ps, I managed to reset the system as well so you can understand it from scratch.
Good luck junior me…
"How obnoxious is this guy?"
He had dropped a bomb right on Jin's head and left him to figure everything out for himself.
Whatever he did was his mess up and instead he was the one suffering for it.
Well technically, we are the same person…
"But still! He didn't even tell me how to leave this godforsaken place."
Just as the words left his mouth, the wall suddenly caught fire. The words etched on them glowing brighter and brighter by the second.
"Don't tell me—"
Jin quickly hurried to the other edge of the mural and flipped the table to shield himself from the wall.
Bang!
The wood shattered like glass and the wall came apart, sending a wave of splintered wood and dust flying across his head.
Jin couldn't help but laugh. He had only anticipated it because it just seemed like something he would do.
"An explosion spell…"
All this just went to show how experienced he must have been with this world's magic and systems.
He glanced up at the ceiling. 'So I've really lost 18 years of memories…'
Whatever was the cause, his past self had been clear. Don't go digging. And Jin planned to do just that, at least he would try to.
Rushing into past problems was a recipe for death and frankly, Jin had no idea what made his past self get involved in other people's business.
This was a fantasy world.
There were far better things to do than delving into mysteries, and a perfect example of what he could do was already forming in his mind.
This world was constantly under raid by the apocalypse, not only that, in the medieval times, sickness ravaged cities with ease.
To make the game more difficult, the developers had severely nerfed healing magic…
Jin smiled. "I will make a fortune in this place."
The mural surrounding him slowly turned to ash, and the thick, almost living shadows dissipated, appearing more normal.
Jin quickly picked up the book, dagger and pocket watch like he had done the last time. He tucked the dagger into his belt and held the book and watch.
"Inventory." If he was lucky then the inventory feature of the game was still available.
The materials suddenly fizzled away from his hands, disappearing into his inventory.
In front of him, he could now see the dark streets of the city through the gaping hole in the wall.
But first, he took a cautious step out of the mural, his body tense with anticipation. As his foot landed outside the circle—nothing happened.
"Good."
He quickly walked towards the hole and out of it.
[Congratulations, Xavier!]
"So my name is Xavier." It wasn't exactly bad, but not special either. "Show me my rew—"
The words died on his lips as he stared ahead, yet the system continued as though oblivious to what was going on.
◆ Quest: Escape the building
◆ Status: Complete!
[Your rewards have been sent to your inventory!]
[Hidden Reward Obtained!]
[You have unlocked the system stats screen!]
But even with the screen flashing in front of his face, Xavier's attention was elsewhere.
The city…
It was burning.
Bodies littered the streets with various degrees of injuries. Some were burned, others dead without a single scratch.
Houses were on fire and from where he stood, he could hear distant wails mixed up with the guttural roar of beasts.
Far in the distance, there was a violent flash of light followed by a bang that sent a ripping shockwave through the city.
He could see silhouettes of beasts in the distance, monsters moving from house to house and dragging out women kicking and screaming.
Jin now knew at what point in the game he was in…
He was at the start of the second arc, the fall of Centuria.
He gritted his teeth as he stared at the gory street, his fingers trailing the edge of his dagger. But as much as he wanted to help them, he was no fool.
Jin did not know his abilities and he could hardly fight. All he would do would be to add another death to the tally.
So he turned back, and began jogging away, his body reluctant to move, but a rippling screech was all the convincing he needed.
He bolted, teeth gritted and dagger in hand as he dashed through the rubble that was Centuria.