The breeze was warm, the air still. Curtains swayed lazily by the window, sunlight spilling through in soft, golden bands. Birds chirped outside.
'Ahhhh how peaceful' thought Jin
'This must be heavennnnnnn'
*RUFF* *RUFF* *RUFF*
With an almost drunk feeling Jin slowly rustled around to stop the annoying sound messing up his sleep. He then finally got his hand on… a ball of fur?
*Yelp*
'What the fu-'
Jin finally snapped out of his wooziness as he sat up on his bed. He suddenly felt a sloppy wetness all over his face and stumbled as he tried to push his dog out of the way.
"Choco?!" he blinked, wiping the drool off his face with the back of his sleeve. The little white dog barked once more, tail wagging like crazy as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
But it was out of the ordinary.
Choco had been gone for years. Buried in the backyard under the big oak tree. There was no way…
He looked around the room, heart thudding. Posters on the wall. Old tennis trophies. A cracked Nintendo DS on the nightstand.
Everything looked… familiar. Too familiar.
"What the hell is going on?" he whispered.
Ahhh Jin had an epiphany "This must be what my version of heaven looks like… my 13-year-old cave of wonders."
Jin took the moment to play with his cute little white pomeranian
Ironically named Choco, despite being snow-white, the name had been a childhood decision—based less on logic and more on a five-year-old's obsession with choccy milk. By the time anyone pointed out the contradiction, the name had already stuck… much like Choco's habit of being a little ratty devil.
Anyway, after lazily soaking up the moment with Choco, Jin finally dragged himself out of bed and shuffled toward the door.
The second he stepped into the living room, a wave of nostalgia slammed into him like a truck. Everything, the faded couch cushions, the chipped coffee table, the faint smell of his mom's cooking still clinging to the walls hit him all at once.
"Wow, heaven is really interesting," Jin murmured to himself, still taking it all in.
"What are you talking about, Jin? Is everything alright?"
Jin snapped his head up.
Standing in the kitchen was a woman in her mid-30s, staring at him with a raised brow and a spatula in hand. Her sharp features, framed by long, jet-black hair, made her look exactly like he remembered.
His mouth hung open. "Mom… I can't believe you made it to nirvana with me."
She blinked. "Nirvana? Did you hit your head again?"
Mom smacked Jin's cheek a couple times with the flat of her spatula, each thwap sharper than the last, like she was trying to beat the nonsense out of him.
"OW—HEY—QUIT IT!" Jin squealed, voice cracking in a way that betrayed him completely.
"Oh wow," Mom said with a smirk. "You still sound exactly like what you look like—a little kid."
Little kid?!
Jin's heart dropped into his stomach. He spun around and bolted down the hall, bare feet slapping against the floor as he made a beeline for the bathroom.
He flung the door open, nearly tore the mirror off the wall with his stare—
And there it was.
Rounder face. Shorter frame. Bedhead that hadn't discovered gel yet.
Thirteen-year-old Jin.
Why would heaven make me younger? Jin thought, staring at his reflection like it had personally betrayed him.
His 13-year-old life wasn't exactly peak happiness. He'd had maybe like one or two friends and the one time he worked up the courage to ask out a girl, she laughed so hard she had to lean on a locker. Brutal. Didn't even try to cover it.
"If this is heaven," he muttered, squinting at his baby face, "someone up there has a messed up sense of humor."
Irregardless, now that Jin was apparently in heaven, he wasn't exactly sure what to do with himself. With no divine instructions or harp music in sight, he defaulted to his usual morning routine; brushing his teeth, taking a long shower, and staring at the ceiling like a man with nothing left to lose.
After that… nothing. He sat on the edge of his bed, towel still draped over his head, eyes unfocused, brain flatlined.
"Heaven's kinda boring," he muttered. "Isn't there supposed to be, like… eternal bliss or something?"
All he got was silence and the distant sound of Choco chewing something he definitely wasn't supposed to.
Just as Jin was about to fall backwards onto his bed and commit to a life of divine boredom, a sudden ding echoed in his ears, like a notification, but somehow… inside his head.
[Synchronization complete]
[Initiation beginning]
[Stats creating]
[Traits forming]
[User UI composing]
1%...10%...33%...59%...87%...99%... 100%
DING*
***
SYSTEM (ServeOS)
NAME: JIN ZHANG
AGE: 13
TALENT: NOVICE +
GEMS: 0
STAT POINTS: 0
(System analysis: Shitty player who sucks at all aspects)
***
Jin jolted fully upright, eyes wide as the glowing text hovered in front of him like a neon insult.
"A game screen? Wait… what the hell is this?" He leaned in. "Shitty player who sucks at all aspects—excuse me?"
He jabbed a finger at the screen, offended on a spiritual level. "Listen here, you passive-aggressive Windows 95 pop-up—I played tennis for years. YEARS!"
The screen didn't respond. It just floated there, quietly judging him.
Is this like the novels I read? he wondered, eyes flicking from the glowing UI to his small hands, then to the mirror across the room.
The kind where someone dies and wakes up with a system and a shot to start over.
He stared at the reflection of his 13-year-old self—awkward, skinny, and uncertain. It didn't exactly scream "hero of a redemption arc." But it was his face. His second shot.
Maybe I really am alive, he thought. And maybe this is it.
A chance to do it differently.
(A/N): Hey guys this chapter is on the shorter side so I may release another one today, also, if ya'll ever have any criticism or have certain plot points you want to see please let me know! I'll try my best to include them somehow.