I opened my eyes to darkness.
Not the darkness of night, but something warm and tight. My body felt weird, like I was floating in thick soup. I tried to move my arms, but they wouldn't listen. Panic shot through me.
Where am I? What happened?
The last thing I remembered was... what? I frowned, or tried to. My face didn't move right either. Slowly, memories came back. I was Lee Hyun-woo. Twenty-eight years old. Software engineer in Seoul. I'd been working late again, debugging code for the new game release. Then...
The truck.
I'd stepped off the curb, looking at my phone. Horns. Bright lights. Pain.
So I died.
But if I died, why was I thinking? Why did I feel... alive?
Muffled sounds reached me through whatever surrounded me. Voices, but distorted. A rhythmic thumping, steady and constant, filled my ears.
A heartbeat. Not mine.
The realization hit me like ice water.
No way. This can't be...
I was in a womb.
My mind raced. This was insane. Reincarnation? Transmigration? I'd read enough web novels during lunch breaks to know the tropes, but actually experiencing it?
Time passed differently here. I couldn't tell if hours or days went by. I just floated, trapped with my thoughts. At least I could think clearly now. My memories from my previous life were intact—every birthday, every line of code I'd written, every late-night ramen meal.
But I also had... other memories. Faint ones, like watching a movie through frosted glass. A grand castle. People in medieval clothing. Magic circles glowing in the air.
Magic is real here.
My programmer brain immediately started analyzing. If this world had magic, it must have rules. Systems. Logic. And if I had my full adult consciousness from birth, I had a massive advantage.
But I need to be careful.
In every story I'd read, the reincarnated protagonist made the same mistake—they showed off too early. Got noticed. Drew attention. That never ended well. Jealous siblings, paranoid nobles, evil mages sensing unusual power...
I'll keep quiet. Stay low. Learn everything I can.
The floating sensation changed. Pressure built around me. The muffled voices grew louder, more frantic.
Oh. This is it.
Being born was... unpleasant. I won't describe it. Just know that I spent the whole time pretending to cry like a normal baby while internally screaming about the indignity of it all.
When I finally opened my eyes—really opened them this time—the world was a blur of shapes and colors. Someone held me, warm and gentle. A woman's face, soft and kind, looked down at me with tears in her eyes.
"He's beautiful," she whispered. Her voice was thick with emotion.
I couldn't understand the words at first. The sounds were foreign. But as she spoke more, something clicked in my brain. Like a switch flipping. Suddenly, I knew what she was saying. The knowledge just... appeared.
The system. It has to be.
A man's voice boomed nearby. "A son! My third son!" He sounded proud and disappointed at the same time. "He'll bring honor to House Valmont."
Valmont. My new family name.
Over the next few days, I pieced together my situation. I was Aldric Valmont, third son of Duke Casimir Valmont. I had two older brothers—Cedric and Brennan. My mother was Duchess Elara, the duke's first wife.
The Valmont duchy was powerful, with lands stretching across the eastern provinces of the Asterian Empire. My father commanded respect and fear in equal measure. My brothers were already showing promise in magic and swordsmanship, even though Cedric was only seven and Brennan was five.
Being a baby was boring and frustrating. I couldn't move properly. Couldn't talk. Couldn't do anything except eat, sleep, and soil myself. But I could observe. And listen.
The servants gossiped constantly, thinking a baby wouldn't understand. That's how I learned about this world.
Magic existed, powered by something called mana that flowed through all living things. People awakened their magic affinity around age five, tested by specialized crystals. The affinity determined what elements you could control—fire, water, earth, air, light, darkness, and rare variants.
Adventurers explored dangerous dungeons filled with monsters, seeking treasure and glory. Different races lived across the continent—humans dominated the empire, but elves controlled the western forests, dwarves the northern mountains, beastkin the southern plains. Dragons were rare and powerful. Demons were sealed away... mostly.
It was like a fantasy RPG made real.
Three months after my birth, it happened.
I was lying in my crib one night, staring at the ceiling and mentally designing magic-powered circuits, when words appeared in my vision.
[INFINITE COMPREHENSION SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
[HOST: ALDRIC VALMONT]
[AGE: 3 MONTHS]
[PRIMARY MISSION: ESTABLISH AND DEVELOP A KINGDOM]
[CURRENT COMPREHENSION LEVEL: INFINITE]
My heart—my tiny baby heart—started racing.
A system. A real system.
More text appeared.
[INFINITE COMPREHENSION ABILITY: Host can understand, analyze, and master any concept, technique, or knowledge at an accelerated rate. Complexity is no barrier. Time required for mastery depends on exposure and practice, but host's learning speed is unlimited.]
[MISSION DETAILS: Build a kingdom from nothing. Develop technology, gather followers, create lasting civilization. Rewards granted for major milestones. Failure: None. This is your purpose.]
[FIRST REWARD: Language Comprehension - Granted. Host now understands all languages heard.]
[CURRENT OBJECTIVE: Survive. Learn. Grow stronger. Begin planning.]
Then the system went quiet.
I lay there, mind spinning. Kingdom building? That was the end goal? Not saving the world or defeating a demon king, but creating an actual kingdom?
That's... actually perfect.
I'd always loved strategy games. Civilization. Age of Empires. Building something from scratch, optimizing systems, developing technology—that was my thing. And now I had infinite comprehension to help me understand this world's magic and combine it with modern scientific knowledge.
But first, I needed to survive childhood. And that meant training in secret.