1.
"The sun must be rising in the west today. Our Eun-ho woke up this early?"
My mother, preparing breakfast, smiled as she spoke.
"It's the New Year. I'll show you a better version of me."
I replied with a grin.
It had only been one day since I turned back time.
All I did was wake up early, eat well, and greet them properly. Something so simple—yet it made them happy.
After breakfast, I helped clean the table and wash the dishes.
I wiped down the restaurant tables, mopped the floor, straightened the seat cushions, and opened the shutters.
For the first time, I helped with the morning preparations instead of just watching.
"You rascal."
My father nodded in satisfaction.
My parents and their little restaurant came into view.
Just seeing that filled my heart and warmed me.
Like being inside a dream—only it was real, which made it even better.
During a brief lull, my father asked,
"You said you had something important to tell us when you came down. What was it?"
Memories of that former life played out like an old black-and-white film.
Me standing at the doorstep of my parents' house, shoulders slumped.
Getting fired for backing the wrong person at work.
Being scammed out of all the money I'd saved.
Returning home because I had nowhere else left.
'You're going to give me money anyway someday—can't you just give it to me a bit early?!'
I had held out my hand shamelessly.
'You fool! You should work and earn money with your sweat, not chase get-rich-quick schemes!'
Even as my father scolded me, he couldn't turn away his useless son.
The pension savings he'd been steadily contributing to, the restaurant he had finally paid off—he gave them all to me.
And I blew through everything.
'Idiot. Worthless idiot.'
I felt disgusted with myself.
I shook my head, throwing off those ghosts of the past.
"I just wanted to wish you a happy New Year."
I answered with a smile.
Work. Money. Success.
The goals I chased all my life—
none of that mattered anymore.
"…You're such a bland kid," my father chuckled, turning away.
As he did, I noticed something I had never seen before—a scar on his elbow.
The scar he got when young me overturned boiling water in the restaurant.
He had shielded my face with his arm.
And he limped slightly climbing the stairs.
Probably wore out his cartilage from running around doing deliveries every morning and evening.
I hadn't known. No—I'd ignored it.
My eyes stung instantly.
I bowed my head toward his back.
'I'm sorry.'
For the first and last time, I apologized to him in my heart.
I wouldn't cry.
Instead, I would be grateful for the chance to restore my parents' lives.
I would run, smiling, again and again.
2.
The restaurant overflowed with customers in the summer, but winter was slow.
After cleaning the hall, I went up to my room on the second floor.
It was spotless—my mother cleaned it every day.
Wheeeee…
The old laptop let out a loud buzzing noise as it slowly booted up.
Seeing that ancient Windows screen filled me with nostalgia.
'Every plan starts with records.'
I opened Excel, created numbering, and sorted things by tags.
The habits I picked up preparing for meetings came in handy.
I sat and thought, recalling everything carefully as I built my plan step by step.
'Slowly. Slowly.'
I couldn't make the same mistakes again.
The foundation of every plan was, of course—Unity.
I opened a portal site to gather detailed information, but—
'Don't even need to search.'
The portals, communities, news—everything was plastered with Unity.
— The world's first virtual reality game, Unity!
— Join us on the first journey into a new world!
As if possessed, I watched the promotional video.
A lush green field, villages and castles.
Elves, orcs, frost giants, and cyclopes attacking.
Noble knights and brave mercenaries rallying together into an army.
In the sky, a hero riding a unicorn clashed with a fire-breathing dragon.
The comments section went wild over the flashy battle scenes and beautiful scenery.
— Holy crap, the graphics go hard.
— Forget everything else, the elf eyes are so pretty ㅠㅠ
— The sense of gliding is insane! Even if this is a scam, it's worth buying.
But watching it again after all this time…
I snorted.
What an amazing scam!
I could say it with confidence.
It was all outrageous exaggeration.
A knight riding a unicorn?
Unicorns were nearly impossible to obtain, and the riding skill was even harder.
Even that Middle Eastern oil-prince-something-the-Second guy threw money like water and still couldn't get one.
Same with knights and mercenaries riding horses.
'Completely out of reach for commoners.'
Even I, before hitting the jackpot late in the game, didn't dare to dream of it.
If you could afford to ride even a basic horse, you were upper class—and most of those riders were early users.
The First Starters. The Pioneers.
The lucky few who managed to log in on the very first day.
And the luck they enjoyed wasn't just early access.
Because that was the only time the game ever gave starting money and items.
The Starter Pack.
In other games, it's something you get by default—standard courtesy.
But Unity, a game built on pure greed, offered it just once, only to the first logins.
Every player afterward started from absolute zero.
If you missed it, you could only pound the floor in regret.
Of course, it wasn't because people were stupid.
— Who falls for the intro hype? You think I'd dump money because of a few trailers?— Even making an account costs money, plus the connection device? Way too expensive ㅠㅠ— Account fee is whatever, but maybe you can log in from the new capsule rooms?— And that's cheap? They're just getting greedier.— "VR" is just the new word for "scam."— Even after the server opens, there's plenty of time. Just wait for YouTuber reviews LOL
There weren't many who would blindly throw a fortune at a game no one had even seen.
I was the same back then.
But if you know and still miss it, you're an idiot.
I checked my bank account. Only the tiny deposit for my monthly-rent apartment remained.
I emptied everything I had to pay the account fee and reserved a slot at the nearest capsule arcade.
Just doing this already changes the starting line.
It was like starting a marathon a hundred meters—no, a full kilometer—ahead.
I kept searching through videos and information, thinking hard.
I need my own unique power.
Just getting a head start wasn't enough.
There were monsters that slaughtered tens of thousands in seconds.
Geniuses whose abilities defied normal human sense.
These were the enemies I would eventually have to face—if not worse.
And there wasn't much time left until launch.
It was tomorrow at 9 a.m.
Closer than I thought.
I was frowning in anxiety when—
— We invite you. To the true world, the world united as one!
At the end of the video, the Unity logo flashed briefly.
The image showed the roots of the World Tree encircling a green seed.
The intertwined roots and seed created a pattern like a maze.
A strange, intricate symbol.
If you stared at it too long, it made you dizzy, like one of those magic-eye puzzles.
It was small enough that most people would just overlook it.
Too strange to be just a logo.
And after living through the future, it looked even more suspicious.
In the changed world, complex patterns like that—
were almost always magic circles.
High-grade magic circles grew more complex with their power.
And I had never seen one that extreme, that bizarre, at that time.
If it is a magic circle… then—
The moment I realized it, a chill raced down my spine.
This is it!
My whole body tingled as if lightning struck my spine.
A plan flashed in my mind.
The chances of success were slim—but if it worked, it would become my strongest hidden card.
3.
After the Cataclysm—
The powerful ones proclaimed a new era and reshaped society as they pleased.
And paradoxically, they revived ancient titles of honor.
Knight. Noble. Cardinal.
A privileged class revered even by Awakeners.
And above them, the very pinnacle—those who stood alone.
Kings.
The monsters of the Celestial Realm.
To call them merely talented was an insult.
They were Einsteins who shattered the constraints of classical physics and opened entirely new realms.
A one-man army that battled nations and won.The rulers of the New World.
Among them, there was one king who stood alone without a group.
The Mad Monarch.
The king who had gone insane.
He started the game very late, with no organization, no money, no support.
Yet through talent alone, he devoured everything and rose to the top.
In the game—and in the new reality afterward.
And despite all that, he remained alone.
Because he was never sane to begin with.
Rumors circulated that he had been confined in a psychiatric hospital.
And eventually, it was confirmed as true.
His followers didn't hide it—they flaunted it proudly.
They believed the king's suffering revealed the king's glory.
According to them, the Mad Monarch had a mental illness: an obsession with forms, shapes, symbols.
A type of OCD.
Coming from his zealots, that made it even more credible.
If it was the Mad Monarch, he would have dug deep—obsessively—into the patterns.
This was the secret of his explosive growth!
He was the one who discovered the power hidden in symbols.
My throat went dry.
The king's power. The king's authority.
To overcome the hardships to come, I would need at least that much.
So I pushed everything aside and focused on the pattern.
Magic patterns held power in and of themselves.
If I can obtain that power…!
The more I stared, the more dizzy I became.
The world spun.
I even vomited midway through.
— Guegh!
Oddly enough, throwing up cleared my mind.
I must have looked truly insane, staring and staring at that symbol again and again.
— Ding, ding, ding.
Before I knew it, midnight had passed.
I had never focused like this in my entire life.
Even with my eyes closed, I could picture its detailed shape perfectly.
In the darkness, I traced the pattern in white light.
Hot—
A burning pain spread through my chest.
My head felt like it was filled with pressure that could explode any moment.
Was this real pain or just hallucination?
Was the future I experienced just a delusion?
Or worse—was I nothing more than an illusion?
Doubt. Fear. Suspicion. Pain.
Every negative feeling swirled violently.
Why bother trying? Wouldn't things just somehow work out if I did nothing?
— Smack!
I slapped myself.
You useless bastard with no talent and no will. Planning to rely on luck again?
I had to succeed here.
The responsibilities on my shoulders were far too heavy.
Blood dripped from the corner of my mouth where I bit down too hard.
My head throbbed as if it were splitting open.
Then suddenly—instinct screamed.
— Engrave it.
Engrave the pattern onto my soul.
I understood intuitively.
At some point, my soul had connected with the thread of light.
But knowing the answer and achieving it were entirely different.
It was like being told to write a novel by typing on a keyboard—using a tail I didn't even have.
But I had to succeed, no matter how insane.
Only then could I reach even the faintest possibility—
at least chase after the heels of the monstrous geniuses.
— Squirm… squirm…
The glowing thread crawled painfully.
— Scratch. Scratch.
And began engraving the strange pattern into the heart of my soul.
The pain was hundreds of times worse than carving flesh with a chisel.
I screamed internally, convulsing.
But this had to be the right path.
I grit my teeth and endured.
Little by little, light seeped through the window.
Dawn was coming.
If I missed the server opening?
This chance would never come again.
— Ding, ding, ding.
The chime marking 6 a.m. made my heart burn with anxiety.
Not yet? Still not yet?!
Just as I cried out in pain—
Finally, the seed sprouted.
— BOOM!
The shape of a shining seed engraved itself onto my soul.
And I opened my eyes to a new world.
The formula of the soul was engraved onto my heart.
— Ttiriring! Ttiriring!
— You have become the first human to successfully Awaken!
The voice of the system I had so desperately longed to hear finally reached me.
4.
When you achieve a feat worthy of recognition by the system—
and especially when that feat holds tremendous significance—
rarely, but occasionally, rewards are granted for each meaning involved.
In the industry, they call this two birds with one stone!
But then… what should you call this?
— You have achieved [Achievement: Awakening].— [Privilege: Gold Box] has been granted.
"Jackpot!"
I stared at the golden box with gleaming eyes.
Box tiers went: Iron → Bronze → Gold → Platinum → Diamond.
Third from the bottom might sound unimpressive, but underestimating it would be a fatal mistake.
Even nobles struggled to get their hands on a single Gold Box.
My heart pounded even though I hadn't even opened it yet.
And this was only the beginning.
— Additional reward granted for meeting the "First Human" condition.— [Privilege: Platinum Box] has been granted.
"You've gotta be kidding me—!"
A curse almost slipped out loud.
A deep, ocean-colored box reminiscent of cobalt-blue.
My hands shook naturally before a top-tier box said to be touched only by kings.
And the rewards still weren't over.
— Additional reward granted for meeting the "Method" condition.— [Authority: Real Mode] has been unlocked.
"At last!"
My whole body trembled with emotion.
So awakening through the pattern really was the answer!
Before my eyes shimmered a king-grade Authority in radiant colors.
A top-tier power rivaling even the Diamond Box, the highest privilege of all!
With this, I could do it.
This would be the first step in protecting the happiness of my parents—and myself.
I did it!
It felt like drifting through a dark ocean only to finally find a lighthouse.
I cheered and raised my fist.
But then an unexpected message appeared.
— "Fastest Time" achievement obtained!
'…No way?'
There was no "Human" or any qualifier attached.No descriptor at all meant it was an achievement across the entire system—across all species.
Could it be…? Could it really be…?!
— Due to an unprecedented accomplishment, reward quantity is increasing explosively.— Additional reward granted for meeting the "Special" condition.— [Privilege: Black Box] has been granted.
My hands trembled.
'What… on earth…?'
Pitch-black.
A color I had never seen on any box before.
A box so rare, so unknown, there weren't even rumors about it.
Only vague speculation existed:
— "If the lowest grade box with no tier is white, then the ultimate box that transcends all tiers must be black."
Nothing but a wild theory.
Yet the legendary, unknowable box that existed only in imagination had appeared before my eyes.
I clenched my fist tight.
In that moment, I was certain—
No matter who I compared myself to,I was starting ahead of everyone.