Arc 1: Cheonliang — The Shore That Rejects the Dead
Chapter 1: What the Sea Refused to Bury
[POV — Ethan Cross]
Cold came first.
Not the gentle kind. Not the kind that fades when you move.
This cold clawed.
Salt burned his throat as Ethan coughed, rolling onto his side, fingers scraping wet sand and broken shells. His chest convulsed, lungs screaming as brine spilled from his mouth. Each breath felt stolen—earned by pain.
The sea raged behind him.
As if angry he was still here.
Ethan lay there for a long moment, staring at a sky the color of bruises. His body was small. Too light. Starved. Bruises bloomed across his skin like old stains that never washed away.
Late elementary school age.
Abandoned.
Again.
Memories that didn't belong to this body surfaced in fragments—another life, another world. A place where he had watched monsters fight from behind a screen. Where strength was something you admired… but never touched.
Ethan laughed.
The sound was cracked and ugly, scraping his throat raw.
"So this is Cheonliang," he muttered, pushing himself up with shaking arms. Pain flared instantly—sharp, honest, real.
His lips curled upward.
"…Guess hell has standards."
Pain meant he wasn't dead.
And if he wasn't dead—
He could fight.
[POV — Seongji Yuk]
Further down the shore, another boy woke up.
Seongji Yuk didn't laugh.
He woke with his teeth clenched so hard his jaw ached.
His fingers dug into gravel and sand as his eyes snapped open. His head throbbed. His ribs screamed with every breath. But worse than the pain was the familiar heaviness pressing on his chest.
Thrown away.
Again.
He sat up slowly, back straight despite the agony. His body—lean but solid—was already tougher than most boys his age. Hardship had shaped him early.
The sea stretched before him, endless and uncaring.
"If you wanted me dead," Seongji said quietly, voice flat,
"you should've finished it."
The waves answered with another crash.
He stood.
That's when he noticed the footprints.
Fresh. Uneven. Leading up the shore.
Someone else survived.
Seongji followed them without hesitation.
Cheonliang didn't allow coincidences.
[POV — Ethan Cross]
Footsteps.
Not cautious. Not light.
Measured.
Ethan turned.
Another boy stood a few meters away, watching him with sharp, assessing eyes. Taller. Broader. Muscles already forming under torn clothes. No fear on his face—only irritation.
They stared at each other.
The wind howled between them.
Then Ethan smiled.
Wide. Curious. Wrong.
"Well," Ethan said lightly, wiping salt from his lips,
"looks like the sea didn't want either of us."
The boy frowned. "You're smiling."
"Yeah?"
"This place kills people."
Ethan tilted his head. "Then it must be bad at its job."
Silence.
The other boy clicked his tongue. "Annoying."
Ethan chuckled. "Grumpy."
They didn't move.
Two abandoned kids on a cursed shore, sizing each other up like predators.
Neither backed down.
[POV — Mujin Jin]
From the cliff above the shore, a man watched.
His body was massive—unnaturally so—corded muscle stacked upon muscle, as if he had been carved rather than born. Messy black hair fell into a rough mullet, the sides shaved clean. He wore nothing but blue shorts, a strip of red fabric tied at his waist.
A woman's ribbon.
His face was swallowed by shadow.
Only one thing pierced it—
A single white-glowing eye.
Mujin Jin had lived his entire life in the wild. Mountains. Forests. Shores like this one. He had buried men stronger than armies and walked away without a scratch.
He hadn't come looking for children.
He had come to Cheonliang after plundering the Shaman's treasure—after stealing things better left buried. The Red Paper among them.
But what he saw now made him stop.
Two boys.
Alive.
One smiling like pain amused him.
The other standing like the world owed him blood.
"…Hah."
Mujin descended the cliff slowly, gravel crunching beneath his feet.
"The sea's gotten strange," he muttered.
"Spitting monsters back instead of corpses."
[POV — Seongji Yuk]
The man approaching them felt wrong.
Heavy.
Not in weight—but in presence. Every step he took pressed against Seongji's instincts like a warning bell screaming in his skull.
Danger.
Real danger.
Seongji clenched his fists.
Beside him, Ethan leaned forward slightly.
Interested.
Excited.
That was worse.
[POV — Ethan Cross]
Oh.
This was it.
Ethan felt it immediately—the pressure, the kind only truly strong people carried. Not loud. Not flashy.
Absolute.
His heart pounded.
Not with fear.
With joy.
He looked up at the man towering over them, one glowing eye staring straight through him.
"Hey," Ethan said casually,
"you here to kill us… or teach us how not to die?"
The man stopped.
Then laughed.
Deep. Rough. Like stone grinding against stone.
"Brave," Mujin Jin said.
"Or stupid."
His gaze shifted between the boys.
"No family," he continued.
"No place to return to."
"And still standing."
He crouched to their level.
"Tell me," Mujin Jin said calmly,
"do you want to survive—"
Seongji answered instantly.
"Strong."
Ethan didn't hesitate.
"Strong enough," he said, smiling wider,
"that no one ever throws me away again."
Mujin stared at them.
For a long moment.
Then he stood.
"Follow me," he said.
"If you keep up."
Without another word, he turned and walked inland.
[POV — Ethan Cross]
Ethan glanced at Seongji.
Rival.
Stranger.
Future problem.
He grinned. "Guess hell just opened its gates."
Seongji walked past him without replying.
But he didn't slow down.
For the first time—
Neither of them was alone.