Light.Too much light.
Han Jaemin floated in it, unable to move, unable to breathe. The fortress, the saint, the hero — all swallowed by the blinding white.Only one thought clung to him like a splinter.
This isn't fair.
[Memory instability detected.][Reconstructing host data.]
The voice in his head wasn't human, yet it sounded almost curious, like it was sifting through a broken file.And suddenly, memories poured in — sharp, disjointed, bleeding into each other.
He was seventeen again, back in Seoul. A gray sky, a small apartment, the smell of instant noodles. His mother's voice — tired, gentle — asking if he'd eaten.She worked two jobs. He pretended not to notice how her hands shook.
Books were his escape. Novels, web stories, anything that wasn't his life.The one he loved most was The Hero's Sacrifice. A world full of divine systems, endless trials, characters who could change fate just by existing.He used to whisper while reading, If only I could live like them.
Then she got sick.Hospital walls. Monitors. Debt. The kind of story no hero ever saved.
He stayed by her side until the end — and when she was gone, the world felt scripted. Every day copied and pasted from the last.He read the novel again that night. The same tragic ending, the same dying saint.And when he fell asleep at his desk, his last thought had been, Maybe I'll understand if I were there.
The light dimmed. His chest ached."I never meant it literally," he whispered, voice raw. "Why am I here?"
[Host integration complete.][Assigned role: Observer of Deviation.]
Observer.What a joke. He'd finally escaped his life only to become something that didn't even exist inside this one.
He clenched his fists, forcing himself to stand. The void flickered — and in a flash, the world returned.Smoke, screams, the fortress in ruins.
He was back in the middle of the siege.The saint's prayer echoed through the air, the same one from the book. Only now he knew every line, every death that would follow.
He looked down at his trembling hands. "I know this story. And I know it ends with you dying."
[Deviation expanding. Narrative integrity compromised.]
The world rippled again.
Jaemin's eyes burned with a quiet fury. "I won't let this world repeat what mine did. Not again."
He ran — faster than logic allowed, faster than the story could catch up.When he reached her, she turned, startled, light haloing her face.
"Who are you?" she asked.
He wanted to say no one. But he was done being no one.
"Someone who's already read your ending."
Her lips parted in confusion. "Ending?"
He grabbed her hand before she could complete the spell, before the same tragic light took her.And the system screamed.
[Unauthorized interference.][Timeline collapsing.]
The ground split. The fortress blurred.Jaemin shouted, "You can reset the world a thousand times, but I'll still find a way back!"
[Observer defiance logged.][Memory erasure initiated.]
His body began to fade again. He reached toward the saint, desperate."Please… someone remember me."
The saint's eyes widened. Her lips moved — a whisper, barely audible through the static."Han… Jaemin?"
The light froze, as if time itself hesitated.
[Anomaly detected.][Narrative breach at 89%.]
Jaemin smiled weakly. "Guess you heard me this time."
The world shattered like glass.
When the light faded, the hero Aserion stood at the fortress gates, the saint alive by his side.The story continued.Perfect. Unbroken.
Except for one thing: a single golden thread tied around her wrist, glowing faintly — a thread that hummed with a name the world had already forgotten.
"This time," whispered the wind, "I'll change the fate of the story."