While Frank was busy being reborn, a sudden cascade of shimmering notifications appeared before him, each glowing with ethereal intensity, informing him of his previous status and now his current state of existence. The series of messages unfolded in rapid succession, almost overwhelming his senses:
[Your skill Meditation (E) has leveled up!] [Your skill Meditation (E) has leveled up!] [Your skill Meditation (E) has leveled up!]
[Your skill Meditation (E) has changed to Meditation (E+)]
[Status
Due to acquiring another one of Death's books, your skill Meditation (E+) has leveled up, and the information concerning the generated skill – Escape (C) – has changed.]
Although all these notifications were displayed before Frank, he was powerless to interact with them. He couldn't explore the hidden depths of his newly enhanced abilities; all he could manage was to glance fleetingly at the glowing text while enduring the painful yet transformative process of rebirth. Yet the notifications did not relent—they pressed forward, relentless and unyielding, as another wave of messages surged into his vision.
[Status
You have come in contact with a large amount of life energy, you are experiencing changes within your body, your body physiology is changing.]
[You are cursed!]
[You have temporarily been released from the curse plaguing you.]
[You are being healed.]
[Some abnormal statuses have been halted.]
[You have successfully been freed from an abnormal condition!]
[You have leveled up!]
The moment that final revelation appeared, Frank understood with absolute clarity—he was no longer shackled by the fear of decay, no longer haunted by the subtle reminder that he was a dying man. That single notification carried profound meaning: he had been fully reborn into this world, liberated from the chains that threatened to drag his progress into despair. Though his class still read "Half Soul Being", his status window had shifted dramatically, reshaping itself into something far more vibrant and alive. Frank's eyes lingered on the glowing panel, watching with keen fascination as his new identity unfolded before him.
[Status
Name: Franklin
Level: 3
Life: 100/100
Class: Half Soul Being / Half Human
Attribute: Curse of Idleness Skills: Average Gamer (B), Breathing (C), Hesitation (S), Idleness (SS), Drift (C), Meditation (E), Mining (F+)...
Occupation: Orn's Official]
As the last bit of wounds closed up across his now naked body, Frank drifted into a state of thought, wondering how the answer to his dilemma had been nothing more than crashing recklessly into a vat of life energy and hoping the surging, radiant force contained within would heal him. Although he played a dangerous game of luck, combined with his limited knowledge of what the life energy inside the vat might truly do to him, what happened to Frank was not the work of chance or blind fate. Instead, it was the culmination of a conception born from a series of subtle activities that had unfolded while he was still under the care of Maru and his officials.
Though Maru never openly displayed his concern for Frank's troubling condition, he had quietly used subtle, deliberate methods to nurture Frank's growth into the hero he envisioned. From the moment Frank returned from the library, Maru had already devised plans to address the illness hindering his progress. He sought out a piece of a destroyed soul being whose skull Frank absorbed, using it to level up from level 1 to level 2, granting him a boon of twenty maximum health so that he could better withstand the dilemma plaguing him. And although Frank had lost the training match with Berry, Maru ensured he still received his reward—a vial containing one of the highest grades of life energy, potent enough to cure his affliction in a single use.
Yet, being the absolute noob he was, Frank failed to recognize and enjoy the boons before him. Instead, he lost the vial of life energy and drifted into obscurity, working as a miner for a low‑class family.
Still, Frank could hardly be blamed; this was his first time in another world, and adjusting to its strange rules was no easy task. All that could be hoped for now was that he would make smarter, sharper decisions moving forward.
As the final stage of his rebirth concluded, before any of the soul beings gathered around him could react, Frank made a decisive move. He seized a piece of technology lying on the table, activated it, and opened a round crimson portal. Without hesitation, he leapt inside. Before anyone could reach him, the portal sealed shut, and Frank was already gone—vanished into the unknown, carrying with him the fragile promise of a new destiny.
***
Ralph was among the soul beings gathered before Frank—the intruder—watching in stunned silence as he performed something so magnificent, and walking out looking completely unscathed. Ralph's eyes widened further when he realized the supposed intruder, whom he had mistaken for an ordinary miner, picked up a portal technology sprawled across the table, handling it with astonishing expertise, manipulating its shimmering surface with uncanny precision, and escaping in an awesome, almost theatrical way, just as the series of events concerning him had unfolded earlier.
It took a moment for Ralph to grasp the fact that the intruder had possibly stolen countless luxury and expensive items from nearly every floor of the castle he had infiltrated and places it into the bag he was carrying. While here, he had even stolen the castle's most prized possession—the vat of life energy—and possibly vanished from the fortress as mysteriously as he had appeared. All these events were too extraordinary, too surreal, for the mind of the worker bee that was Ralph to classify them as real happenings or mere dreamlike illusions.
Yet Ralph was forced to accept the events as real because of the way the security officials prowled around the scene, eyes sharp and restless, searching for a scapegoat. They could have easily reported exactly what had happened in the vault to their master, thereby admitting they had stood idle while the intruder escaped. Such a confession would never be believed by the master of the castle, so instead suspicion fell upon the gathered servants and officials. Each flinched whenever a security officer's gaze lingered on them, and subtle whispers of prayer escaped their lips, pleading that the official's eyes shift toward another, less fortunate soul.
Ralph wore a bleak expression while all this unfolded. Though he dreaded being chosen, he believed in the law and trusted that even if accused, the friends he had made in the vault—likely gathered for the trial—would defend him, ensuring he was justly freed of a crime he did not commit. Unfortunately, the reverse became his reality. He was singled out as the scapegoat by the officials. Instead of being tried in court, he was dragged before the master of the castle, accused of stealing vast quantities of life energy and other treasures. When Ralph insisted the accusations were false, he was tortured repeatedly, the same question hurled at him until his spirit was half broken. Finally, he was cast into the cell reserved for wronged servants, left in solitary confinement, abandoned in darkness and despair.