The first thing Kail noticed was the silence.
No monitors beeping. No antiseptic sting in his nostrils. No hum of hospital machinery keeping his brain alive.
Only wind.
He blinked—and found himself lying in the dirt, staring up at an orange sky. Wispy clouds crawled across the horizon like lazy smoke. Strange, fur-covered birds circled overhead. One let out a warbled cry, somewhere between a hawk and a seagull. The sound echoed strangely across a dry, broken field.
The air smelled wrong—metallic and warm, like blood carried on desert wind. A breeze tugged at his cheeks, dry and unfamiliar. Beneath him, the soil felt coarse—more sand than earth. Brittle grass cracked under his elbows as he pushed himself upright.
"What the hell?" he muttered.
His body felt… small. Weak. Light.
He looked down. Gone were the thick fingers and rough palms worn from years of lifting metal and concrete. These hands were small. Childlike. The wrists narrow. The fingernails clean. His clothes hung awkwardly on him—coarse linen, singed around the cuffs.
Then the memories struck like falling bricks.
A steel girder. Screams. A tunnel collapse.
He'd been an engineer in Jakarta. The government had sent him and his team to inspect an aging metro line. He'd argued with the project manager about the rusted supports—warned that one more delay could be fatal.
He remembered pushing his assistant out of the way.
Then darkness.
A slow, cold realization crept over him.
He had died.
So where the hell was he now?
A flicker of light snapped his attention upward. Hovering before him was a translucent blue interface—just like something out of a game.
System Booting…Welcome, Subject #002731 – KAIL MARVINTransdimensional Transport CompleteSoul Sync: 94%Physical Host: 10-Year-Old Kail Varnen, native of Kingdom ThalnorInitial Perk Unlocked: [Architect of Worlds]Progress through Development Tasks to Earn Knowledge Points (KP)KP Redeemable for Knowledge from Former WorldStatus: Exiled Noble – Barony of Veirdale (Uninhabited Wasteland)Objective: Establish Viable Shelter – Reward: +5 KP
Kail's jaw slackened.
"This… is a literal Isekai system."
He rubbed his temples. "You've gotta be kidding me."
But the ache in his knees, the cut on his finger, the heat of the sun—they were all real. He wasn't in a dream or simulation.
And then, behind the system prompts, another wave of memories poured in—older, deeper. Not from Kail Marvin, engineer of Earth, but from the boy he now inhabited.
Kail Varnen.
His mother—Mira Varnen—stern and graceful, once a captain of the merchant fleet. His father—Thom—an eccentric inventor, idealist, and a man who never learned when to shut up.
They had challenged the king's tariffs, spoken out against corruption in the High Court. A bold act in a kingdom where noble titles were more fragile than glass.
Their punishment? Not execution.
Exile.
"You think you're too good for the rest of us?" the Duke of Rellin had spat. "Then take your 'vision' and build a paradise in the mud."
Their 'reward' was a barren strip of land near the Mistscar Plains—a cursed frontier abandoned by even the taxmen. Veirdale.
No water. No roads. No hope.
Yet his parents hadn't wept.
They called it a challenge.
For three years, they tilled that stubborn soil, raised goats, built their home from stone and sweat. Kail remembered helping his father build irrigation lines from old barrels and copper tubing. He remembered his mother calculating trade routes that no longer existed.
And then came the bandits.
No soldiers. No law. Just fire and knives.
Kail remembered smoke choking his lungs. The sky black with ash. His father's final roar. His mother shielding him beneath a burning wagon. His small, shaking hands clutched around a dagger he never used.
The end.
But now…
Now he was back.
In this same body—this ten-year-old version of Kail Varnen. Yet something new burned behind his eyes. The memory of another life. Another world. And this… this system.
Objective: Shelter Construction RequiredBlueprint Available: [Simple Earth-Drel Hut]Resource Hint: 3 Mature Drel Trees Nearby. Axe Tool Recommended
Kail exhaled slowly, rising to his feet. Around him, the land was a graveyard—scorched ground, a few charred beams jutting from the soil like bones. A melted lantern. A collapsed fence.
His family's dream had died here.
But maybe it could be reborn.
"I'll do it, Dad," he murmured. "I'll do it better."
He walked toward the remains of their old barn. Amid the rubble, he found a partially burned crate. Inside, under layers of soot, lay a small axe with a dull blade and a cracked wooden handle. Useless to a soldier. Perfect for a builder.
He hefted it, surprised at the weight. It felt real. Heavy in the right way.
The system didn't comment. Just pulsed quietly, awaiting progress.
He turned toward a trio of odd-looking trees—thick gray trunks with bark like woven rope. The leaves shimmered a faint copper-green.
A glowing icon hovered above one: [Mature Drel Tree – Harvestable]
"Right. Time to get to work."
[New Task Unlocked – Woodcutting: 1/3 Drel Trees Chopped]Tool Durability: 68%Tip: Completing tasks with minimal tool damage grants bonus KP.
Kail wiped sweat from his brow after the first tree fell.
Every swing awakened old instincts. He remembered safety diagrams. Fulcrum force. Blade angles. He adjusted as he went—not just because he was taught to work smart, but because the system tracked everything. A virtual assistant for survival.
As the second tree crashed, another memory surged—his first year in college, scribbling structural formulas while eating noodles on a rusted balcony. His dream had always been to build things that lasted.
Now, he had a second chance.
Task Complete: Shelter Materials AcquiredNew Blueprint Unlocked: [Reinforced Foundation: +2 KP Bonus]Knowledge Bonus: Rope Lash Binding (Primitive Joinery Technique)
He blinked at the notification. Rope lash binding—he knew that. It was something he'd seen in survival shows. But now, it wasn't just memory—it was knowledge imprinted directly in his mind, crisp and clear.
He could feel the right way to loop rope tension across a support beam. The optimal knot to secure weight against vibration. The KP system wasn't just giving him back his knowledge. It was enhancing it.
And that gave him ideas.
If he kept going—if he built more—what else could he reclaim? Could he unlock welding techniques? Civil design? Microhydraulics?
Could he rebuild… everything?
He looked out at the barren wasteland before him, where nothing but ruins and ghosts remained.
No vassals. No armies. No legacy.
Yet.
He planted his axe in the dirt and cracked his knuckles.
"Alright, System," he said with a grin. "Let's build a kingdom."
End of Chapter 1