Tia Xu was already dead.
He knew it with absolute certainty.
The moment his foot slipped over the edge of the Rift...
There wasn't a trace of fear left in him.
Only exhaustion.
Wind tore past his broken body as he fell into the endless Rift.
Far above—
the shattered edge of the cliff disappeared beneath a sea of darkness.
"...Finally."
"Peace."
A quiet whisper.
His fingers slowly relaxed.
After thirty years of chasing something he could never reach...
Chasing a legend.
Searching for answers that never came.
In the end...
He had found nothing.
Only failure.
Perhaps this ending wasn't so bad.
Then—
something changed.
The air felt wrong.
It vanished.
Instantly.
Instantly.
Silence.
The world... stopped.
Tia frowned.
His body was still falling.
Yet everything else had frozen.
Clouds.
Birds.
Even the drifting dust around him hung motionless in the air.
"...What?"
A deep vibration spread across the sky.
Vrmmmm—
He looked up.
The heavens...
were cracking.
Thin black fractures moved across the blue sky like broken glass.
Not lightning.
Not clouds.
Cracks.
For a single heartbeat—
he thought he saw another world beyond them.
Countless distant lights.
Then—
everything shattered.
DING.
A large screen appeared before him.
[SOUL DETECTED.]
Tia's pupils contracted.
"...huh?"
This time he stopped.
He couldn't move.
Couldn't breathe.
[Analyzing Candidate...]
[PROCESSING...]
...
100%
Immediately the stalling reached one hundred percent.
He felt it .
An invisible pressure descended upon him.
Like unseen hands were pulling apart every piece of him.
His expression twisted.
"... What's happening...?"
CRACK.
Agony exploded through his mind.
"AAAGH!"
The pain wasn't physical.
It was as though something was searching the depths of his soul...
His vision blurred.
Then—
Silence.
The messages changed again.
The letters flickered violently.
Red lines spread across its surface.
Faster.
unstable.
[ERROR.]
[ERROR.]
[FAILED CANDIDATE DETECTED.]
For a brief moment...
Everything glitched.
Even the darkness.
Then the messages stabilized.
Cold.
Emotionless.
[Termination Failed.]
A pause.
[REPROCESSING...]
Another pause.
Longer this time.
Then—
[Candidate has received a second chance.]
[Do you wish to return to your world
[ACCEPT.] [DECLINE.]
Tia stared at the words.
Silent.
"...Second chance?"
The word felt Meaningless.
"...Another chance?"
A bitter smile touched his lips.
"Another life?"
"Another failure?"
"No."
"I don't want it."
Decline.
The screen vanished.
DING.
[Request Denied.]
Tia frowned.
"...What?"
[Candidate does not possess authority to refuse.]
His eyes widened.
[Forced Reincarnation Initiated.]
Darkness surged upward.
Swallowing the Rift.
The sky.
The shattered world.
And Tia.
His vision dimmed.
His eyelids grew heavy.
Just before his consciousness faded—
DING.
[Reality Binding... Complete.]
[Welcome, Second Chance Host.]
Darkness swallowed everything.