I sat up so fast my head spun.
The room around me was small and cramped, nothing like the luxury apartment I'd had as an S-Rank Hunter. Cracked walls, a single window with cheap curtains, and furniture that looked like it came from a thrift store. But what really caught my attention was the mirror across from the bed.
The face staring back at me wasn't mine.
A young man who looked more cute than handsome stared back. My heart hammered against my ribs for a moment before understanding crashed over me. I had been given a second chance at life, somehow transported in time into a younger body. It was written in that ancient tome—some who performed the ultimate sacrifice might be granted rebirth or ascend to divinity. I thought it was just mystical bullshit. Guess the old scholar knew what he was talking about.
The young man in the mirror had one basic feature from my past life—my white hair. Everything else was different: younger, smoother features like someone had taken twenty-year-old me and given him a baby face. The scars were gone too, all of them. Including the nasty one across my throat from that B-Rank vampire three years ago. Or should I say, five hundred and three years ago.
"What the hell?" I muttered, touching my unmarked face.
My voice was different too. Deeper, somehow. More confident than I remembered being at that age. Well, I suppose mentally I'm still twenty-eight, just trapped in a twenty-year-old's body. Not much difference, one might think. But age is truly just a number—it's the experience that sets us apart.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
WELCOME TO YOUR NEW LIFE, KAELEN THORNE
AGE: 20
LOCATION: NEW HAVEN CITY, EARTH
CURRENT DATE: MARCH 15TH, 2524
INTEGRATION COMPLETE
Five hundred years. I'd been dead for five hundred years. And my name was still Kaelen in this life? What were the odds?
More system windows started flooding my vision with information I wasn't ready for:
[UNIQUE SKILLS ACQUIRED]
Divine Awakening (SSS-Rank): Ability to restore lost divinity to forgotten deities
Goddess Contractor (SSS-Rank): Form deep connections/soul bonds with divine beings
Memory Retention (EX-Rank): Perfect recall of previous life experiences
[INHERITED ABILITIES]
All previous combat skills maintained
Mana capacity increased by 300%
Physical capabilities enhanced
[CURRENT MISSION]
Find the Seven Forgotten Goddesses
Restore their divine power
Prepare for the return of the Rift
Why do I still have my previous abilities? I just want to live a normal life.
And wait. The Rift was coming back?
Before I could process that terrifying thought, someone started pounding on my door.
"Kaelen! Get your lazy ass up! You're late for class!"
Class? What class?
I stumbled to the door and opened it to find a girl about my age glaring at me. She had short black hair, freckles, and the kind of expression that suggested she'd happily punch me in the face.
"Seriously?" she said, looking me up and down. "It's the new session and you're still in your underwear? Even for you, this is pathetic."
I looked down. She was right. Boxers and nothing else. Great first impression in my new life.
"Oh, shit," I said.
"And what happened to your hair—" I slammed the door before she could finish.
"Give me five minutes!" I called out.
"You have three," she shot back. "And if you make me late because of your hangover or whatever, I'm telling everyone about that time you cried watching that romance movie."
I sighed. What kind of reputation did this body come with? Apparently, this Kaelen had his own social complications.
As I stood there, fragmented memories began flooding back. Not just my own memories from my previous life, but also the memories of this body's original owner, who shared my name.
This Kaelen was an orphan. Parents died in a car accident when he was twelve. He'd lived with his guardian for three years before moving out on his own, scraping by ever since with part-time jobs and barely keeping up with rent. He'd gotten into New Haven University on an academic scholarship, studying computer science, but struggled to balance work and studies.
The girl was Suzy Chen, his neighbor and childhood friend who'd gotten into the same university. Unlike him, she was focused and driven, studying the same course with top grades.
I looked around the messy room, textbooks scattered on a small desk. Right, I was a college student now.
I found some clothes in the dresser—jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket that had seen better days. As I got dressed, more of Kaelen's memories filtered in. The original had been shy, unmotivated, barely getting by. He'd had potential but lacked direction and confidence.
As I dressed, I paused in front of the mirror again. Leaning closer, I traced a hand down the sculpted abs and smirked. This body was in decent shape.
My gaze dipped lower.
"Looks like this body's got potential in all the right places."
Another knock at the door, this one more polite.
"Kaelen? It's Mrs. Park from downstairs."
I opened the door to find a woman in her thirties holding a tray of cookies. She had a warm, motherly smile that reminded me of… well, I never had a grandmother, but this is what I imagined one would be like.
"Your hair!" she exclaimed, surprised but not unkindly.
"My hair?" I questioned, touching it.
"Well, I guess you young people like to experiment with color these days. It's quite striking."
That made sense. Kaelen had naturally dirty brown hair, but now it was white. Another mystery of this strange second chance.
"I made these cookies this morning," she said, offering the tray.
"Thank you," I said, accepting them.
"Make sure you eat them while they're warm." She smiled warmly. "You're a good boy, Kaelen. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I have a feeling you're going places."
If only she knew. I was far from being a good boy and had no intentions of becoming one.
"Kaelen!" Suzy's voice carried through the thin walls. "Time's up!"
I grabbed a backpack sitting by the door and headed out. Suzy was waiting by the stairs, tapping her foot impatiently.
"Finally," she said. "Come on, we need to catch the subway or we'll never make it."
As we walked through the city, I couldn't help but stare. Five hundred years had changed everything. The buildings were taller, sleeker, covered in screens and lights I didn't recognize. Flying cars moved through designated air lanes above us. People carried devices that projected holographic displays right into the air.
But the most obvious change was what was missing.
There were no hunters anywhere to be found.
"You're being weird," Suzy said, nudging my arm. "More weird than usual, I mean. What's wrong?"
How do you explain that you're a legendary hunter from the past who died saving the world and got reborn with strange powers to resurrect goddesses? You don't.
"Just nervous about the new semester," I said.
She snorted. "Right. Mr. 'I Don't Care About Anything' is nervous. Sure."
We reached the subway station, and I marveled at how different everything felt. The rush of commuters, the digital advertisements, the sound of the trains. It was refreshingly normal.
The train pulled up, sleek and modern. As we found seats, Suzy kept chattering about college subjects and which professors were supposed to be tough. She didn't look like a geek, but I could tell she was one. I found myself actually studying her as she talked. She had pretty brown eyes, a little chubby cheeks, and cute lips. She was wearing a red sweatshirt and joggers—seemed she loved baggy clothes. I had no memory of seeing her wear anything fitted. I nodded along while watching her ramble. She talked more like a concerned mother than a best friend. I wasn't sure that dynamic would last long, because I didn't plan to be as clumsy and clueless as the old Kaelen was.
"Why are you listening so attentively and staring at me like that?" she asked suddenly.
I was tempted to tell her how cute she looked rambling on and on, but I figured that was inappropriate at the moment. I just smiled broadly and turned to look out the window.
I had been given a second chance at life, somehow placed in the body of someone who needed direction. And this was apparently a danger-free world. No one seemed to know about monsters or rifts. I wondered if I was in history textbooks somewhere, because everyone here was alive at this time because of what I did. I wondered how the world had moved on.
All I knew was that the world didn't seem to remember me.
And that gave me options.
This time, I was doing things my way.
"This is going to be interesting," I murmured, watching the city blur past the window.