Jin Seo-ha died at eighty-seven years old, which was pretty good for someone who'd spent sixty of those years picking fights with everyone stronger than him.
They called him the Wandering Sword Saint. The Vagrant Blade. The Drunkard Who Somehow Conquered the Martial World.
Jin preferred "that guy who should've died forty years ago but was too stubborn."
He'd reached the pinnacle of martial arts through sheer spite and an unhealthy addiction to alcohol. No sect. No master. No grand destiny. Just a homeless kid who found a broken sword in a ditch and decided to get really, really good at swinging it.
By thirty, he was the strongest swordsman in the southern provinces.
By fifty, he'd defeated the leaders of the Five Great Sects in single combat (while drunk).
By seventy, even the Imperial Palace invited him to tea parties (which he crashed, also drunk).
And at eighty-seven, lying in a cave somewhere in the Wulin Mountains, dying from old age and liver failure, Jin Seo-ha had one final thought:
I should've drunk less.
No. Wait. That was a lie.
I should've drunk MORE.
Then he died.
And woke up sixteen years old.
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!"
Jin bolted upright and immediately regretted it. His body—his young body—wasn't used to sudden movements anymore. Or rather, it was TOO used to them. Everything moved too fast, too easily, without the familiar ache of joints that had been broken and re-broken a hundred times.
He looked at his hands. Smooth. Uncallused. Weak.
"No. No no no. This is bullshit. This is—"
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED A SECOND LIFE!]
A golden window appeared in front of his face, glowing with text that made his eye twitch.
[SYSTEM: WANDERER'S REDEMPTION]
[YOU DIED WITH REGRETS. THE HEAVENS HAVE GRANTED YOU ANOTHER CHANCE.]
[CURRENT STATUS]
[NAME: JIN SEO-HA]
[AGE: 16]
[CULTIVATION: NONE]
[SKILLS: NONE]
[REPUTATION: NAMELESS BEGGAR]
[MISSION: RESTORE YOUR LEGEND. RECLAIM YOUR TITLE. FIX YOUR MISTAKES.]
"Restore my legend?" Jin stared at the window. "Listen here, you celestial asshole. I didn't have any regrets! I lived exactly how I wanted! The only thing I regret is DYING!"
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE]
[TOP 3 REGRETS DETECTED:]
[1. Never found a proper successor]
[2. Let the Crimson Moon Sect fall to corruption]
[3. Never told Yeon Hwa how you felt]
Jin's face went red. "I did NOT—that's none of your business! And who the hell asked you to analyze my soul?!"
[THE HEAVENS ASKED]
[DEAL WITH IT]
[GOOD LUCK, WANDERING SWORD SAINT. TRY NOT TO DIE AS A VIRGIN THIS TIME.]
The window vanished.
Jin sat there in stunned silence, in what appeared to be an alley in the slums of the Capital City, surrounded by trash and the smell of his own sixteen-year-old homeless body.
Then he started laughing.
Not because it was funny.
Because of course this would happen. Of course the Heavens would drag him back and force him to relive the shittiest part of his life—the part before he'd found his sword, before he'd gotten strong, before anyone knew his name.
"Fine," he muttered, standing up on shaky legs. "FINE. If you want me to do it all over again, I'll do it over again. But this time..."
He looked down at his weak, pathetic body.
"This time, I'm doing it MY way. No sects. No politics. And definitely no falling for—"
"THIEF! SOMEONE STOP THAT THIEF!"
Jin's head snapped toward the commotion.
A girl—maybe fifteen, with long black hair and determined eyes—was running through the market, clutching a loaf of bread to her chest while guards chased her.
Jin's heart stopped.
Yeon Hwa.
The Sword Fairy of the Crimson Moon Sect. The woman who would become one of the Five Heavenly Masters. The person Jin had watched from a distance for decades but never had the courage to approach because, by the time they met in his previous life, she was already a legendary figure and he was just a wandering drunk.
And right now, she was sixteen years old, stealing bread, about to get caught by guards who would—in his original timeline—beat her badly enough that she'd lose the use of her left hand for six months.
"Goddammit," Jin muttered.
Then he moved.
Seventy years of martial experience compressed into a sixteen-year-old body that didn't have the muscle memory yet but had something far more dangerous—a mind that knew exactly how to fight.
Jin's foot hooked a cart. It rolled into the guards' path.
His hand snatched a hanging pole, swung him up and over the crowd.
He landed in front of Yeon Hwa just as she stumbled.
"Keep running," he said.
"What? Who are—"
"I SAID KEEP RUNNING!"
The guards reached him. Six men, all armed, all stronger than a homeless teenager should be able to handle.
Jin grinned.
Let's see if this body remembers.
The first guard swung his club.
Jin stepped inside his guard—muscle memory activating, body moving before his conscious mind caught up—and struck three pressure points with his fingers.
The guard collapsed, paralyzed.
"What the—"
The second guard attacked.
Jin ducked, swept his leg, used the man's own momentum to send him crashing into the third guard.
Oh. Oh, this feels GOOD.
"Who the hell are you?!" the fourth guard demanded.
Jin cracked his knuckles. "Me? I'm nobody. Just a beggar who's really good at fighting."
He moved like water through their ranks—no wasted movements, no excessive force. Just pure technique honed over seventy years, adapted to a body that was weak but fast.
In thirty seconds, all six guards were on the ground, groaning.
The market had gone silent.
Jin turned to find Yeon Hwa staring at him, bread still clutched to her chest, eyes wide with shock.
"You..." she breathed. "How did you..."
Don't say anything stupid. Don't be weird. Just be cool.
"I'm really strong," Jin said.
GODDAMMIT.
[NEW QUEST: IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT]
[OBJECTIVE: STOP SAYING STUPID THINGS TO YOUR FUTURE LOVE INTEREST]
[REWARD: DIGNITY]
[FAILURE: ETERNAL EMBARRASSMENT]
"That's not an answer!" Yeon Hwa's shock turned to indignation. "You're just a beggar! How do you know martial arts like that?!"
"I learned from a master," Jin lied smoothly. "A wandering swordsman. Very famous. You wouldn't know him."
"What was his name?"
"Jin Seo-ha."
WAIT. WHY DID I SAY MY OWN NAME?!
"Jin Seo-ha?" Yeon Hwa frowned. "I've never heard of him."
"That's because he's not famous yet," Jin said quickly. "I mean—he's famous, but only in certain circles. Wandering circles. Very specific wandering circles that—I should stop talking."
[QUEST FAILED]
[YOUR DIGNITY HAS LEFT THE CHAT]
Yeon Hwa studied him suspiciously. Then she sighed. "Whatever. Thanks for the help. I owe you one."
She turned to leave.
"Wait!" Jin called out.
She looked back.
Say something cool. Something meaningful. Something that will make her remember you.
"That bread you stole," Jin said. "The baker waters down his flour and overcharges. Three streets west, there's an old woman who sells better bread for half the price. She'll even give you free ones if you help her carry supplies."
Yeon Hwa blinked. "How do you..."
"I know a lot of things." Jin smiled. "Stick around. Maybe you'll learn some of them."
For the first time, Yeon Hwa smiled—a small, genuine smile that made Jin's seventy-year-old heart do something embarrassing in his sixteen-year-old chest.
"Maybe I will," she said. Then she ran off into the crowd.
Jin stood there, watching her go, feeling like an idiot.
[NEW QUEST: BUILD YOUR LEGEND (AGAIN)]
[OBJECTIVE 1: FIND A SWORD]
[OBJECTIVE 2: START TRAINING YOUR BODY]
[OBJECTIVE 3: DON'T MESS UP YOUR RELATIONSHIP THIS TIME]
[REWARD: A LIFE WITHOUT REGRETS]
Jin cracked his neck. "Alright, you celestial bastards. You want me to become the Wandering Sword Saint again? Fine. But this time, I'm doing it sober."
He paused.
"...Mostly sober."
He started walking toward the western district, where he knew—because he'd lived it once before—there was a broken sword buried in a forgotten smithy. The same sword he'd found in his previous life.
But this time, he knew what it would become.
This time, he'd make different choices.
This time, he wouldn't let the Crimson Moon Sect fall.
This time, he'd tell Yeon Hwa how he felt.
This time—
"HEY! THAT BEGGAR ATTACKED THE CITY GUARDS! ARREST HIM!"
Jin looked back to see twenty more guards running toward him.
"Oh, for fuck's sake."
He ran.
[NEW QUEST: SURVIVE YOUR FIRST DAY (AGAIN)]
[DIFFICULTY: YOU BROUGHT THIS ON YOURSELF]
Jin laughed as he ran, weaving through alleys he remembered like the back of his hand, feeling more alive than he had in decades.
The Wandering Sword Saint was back.