Chapter two — kaelion's memories
Max stared at his reflection in the glass for a long, unsteady moment, trying to ignore the cold knot twisting in his stomach. He rapidly sifted through the memories in his head, trying to understand how he got here… and where even "here" was.
He shut his eyes, forcing himself to start from the beginning.
He remembered the Comic-Con with Andrew—his best friend since childhood. The noise, the laughter, the crowded hall. Then a sharp crack. A shadow falling overhead. A flash of pain. Andrew's scream tearing through the chaos.
Then—
Darkness.
When he came to, he was… here.
"So… I died, huh?" he muttered, jaw tightening as he remembered the moment a gigantic prop sword broke loose, falling from above, and punching straight through him like a goddamn final destination scene made real.
He remembered Andrew shouting his name, desperately trying to lift the prop, trying to stop the blood.
But it was too late.
Darkness claimed him in moments.
The memories of Earth hit him next—not the event itself, but of the quiet aftermath he'd never get to see.
His fiancée waiting for a call that would never come. His little sister expecting him to bring back souvenirs. Andrew blaming himself, maybe forever.
A weight settled on Max's chest—a grief that cracked something inside him. He wasn't ready to let any of them go. But ready or not, he was dead.
He could only hope now that they live a good life.
He inhaled slowly, shaking off the burn behind his eyes. He did not know when, but sometime while he was recalling, tears had begun to silently pour from his eyes, running down his cheeks.
He wiped them away and closed his eyes again.
Now came the next part—understanding what "here" was exactly. he shifted through to the memories that nearly spilt his skull open earlier; the memories of a boy named Kaelion Vale.
Born into a middle-class family in Tulip City—one of four cities under the Arkan Empire—Kaelion's earliest years were simple, quiet and even.
His parents were hunters, powerful ones, skilled enough to make a living beyond the safety of the walls, where monsters lurked and essence storms could swallow a man whole.
They died when he was five.
The memories were faint, blurry at the edges, but the grief was buried so deeply in Kaelion that Max felt it thrum in his chest even now.
After that, Kaelion was raised by his aunt—Marilyn, his mother's younger sister.
A stubborn woman with sharp eyes and a louder heart, who'd taken him in without hesitation.
She didn't have much, but she gave what she could, pushing him forward, supporting his dream of becoming an Evolver one day… and eventually, a hunter.
Just like his parents.
The only problem was that kaelion was nothing special. His affinity for life energy was so low, it might as well be non-existent. Far below average.
Still, he worked hard.
Where others trained for an hour, he trained for three. Where others complained, he clenched his teeth and pushed harder.
Yet it wasn't enough.
His peers left him farther behind with every passing moments and they made sure he knew it—especially mark and his little gang of future disappointments.
Eventually, Kaelion did something desperate.
He tried absorbing a beast core while still a Rank 0 Evolver. A gamble with a ninety percent chance of failure.
And "failure" usually meant one thing:
Death.
He knew that.
Yet he did it anyway.
Luck didn't favor him either as he fell right into the ninety percent.
And so, kaelion vale died alone in his room, his very own essence snuffed out by the essence of the beast core he tried to devour.
Only for Max's consciousness to awaken inside the cooling shell of his body.
But even in those final burning moments, Kaelion hadn't regretted the choice.
If anything… his only regret was not trying sooner.
Max gasped as the boy's emotions crashed into him—raw, stubborn, heartbreakingly earnest. For a moment he couldn't help but be in awe of the kid. His hopes, his fears, his will—they clung to Max's mind like fingerprints on glass.
"Damn…" he whispered. "You really tried your best, didn't you kid?"
Compared to the kid… max felt embarrassingly small.
He'd always been the type to duck away from the worst of life, to drown grief in noise—games, comics, jokes, anything to keep the dark at arm's length.
That was how he survived when his dad died.
And when his mom died too.
But Kaelion?
Kaelion had run headfirst into the fire, eyes open, knowing the odds were stacked against him… and still choosing to try.
"Shit," Max muttered.
The realization settled in his chest like a hard lump he couldn't swallow.
His gaze drifted to the bed—Kaelion's final spot. The same place where the kid had sat when he tried to absorb the core.
An opened metal box lay nearby—the container the core had come in.
Max sighed and forced himself to breathe. He dug through what he knew about this world from Kaelion's memories.
From the fact that monsters that could kill him in a breath existed, to the Evolvers strong enough to match these beasts and keep them at bay.
Just imagining someone punching a beast into a bloody mist made Max's pulse spike. His inner geek rose like a dragon stretching its wings after a thousand-year nap. The idea of training, fighting, evolving—becoming something more—it lit something fierce inside him.
He actually grinned.
But then the grin faded away just as fast, when he remembered the trash talent of this body.
After all, if that did not change then there was nothing he could do, he too would also be trash.
And as for a cheat ability? A golden finger? He did not have much hope. Being alive again was already more than he expected.
Still, the hunger to know more burned in him.
Max dove deeper into Kaelion's memories, searching for understanding, answers, loopholes, anything he could use. The kid had died chasing a dream with everything he had.
Max had no intention of insulting his legacy by not trying. And most of all unwilling to spend his second chance at life settling for the bottom.