Chapter 1 — The Voice That Answered
My name, in my past life, was Kanzaki Seiryu.
I was forty years old.
Single.
Persian by blood, Japanese by paperwork, and exhausted in ways sleep never fixed.
That morning was no different. Same office, same stale coffee, same fluorescent lights that made everyone look half-dead. The only thing new was him—my junior. Twenty-three, loud, and painfully proud.
He kept shoving his phone in my face.
"Senpai, isn't she cute?"
"She stayed over again."
"We're going on a trip next week."
I smiled. I nodded. I congratulated him like a responsible adult.
Inside, I felt nothing. Not jealousy. Not anger. Just a quiet, dull awareness that life had passed me by while I was busy being responsible.
Lunch break came. I stepped out to a nearby food stall. Cheap, greasy, familiar. Then everything broke.
Shouting.
A gun.
Someone screaming.
I turned just in time to see a robber fire wildly. The sound was deafening. I felt something slam into my chest—hot, crushing, final.
I collapsed.
The sky above me blurred. My breath wouldn't come. People shouted, but their voices faded like they were underwater.
And then—
the world went silent.
"..."
A voice spoke.
Not male.
Not female.
Not loud.
Absolute.
"Initiating Soul Record"
I laughed weakly. Blood filled my mouth.
"So this is how it ends," I muttered. "Shot over a bowl of noodles."
My thoughts drifted. Unfiltered. Honest.
"If I'm dying anyway… it'd be nice to be able to create my own power. Not be bound by systems or rules."
"Unique Skill "Skill Creation" confirmed"
I froze.
"…Hah. Guess I'm hallucinating."
My vision dimmed further.
"Still… if power exists, I'd want something that cancels other powers. No cheap tricks."
"Unique Skill "Anti-Skill" confirmed"
My heartbeat slowed.
"I always thought… Rimuru had it easy. A guide. A mind that calculates everything. I'd want a cursed version of that. Something ruthless. Honest."
"Unique Skill "Cursed Sage" confirmed"
My fingers twitched.
"And resistances. All of them. Pain, poison, fire, fear… everything."
"Unique Skill "Absolute Resistance" confirmed"
My consciousness began to sink.
"…And if I'm being greedy… something like the Shadow Monarch. Ashborn. Commanding death itself doesn't sound so bad."
"Unique Skill "Shadow Monarch" confirmed"
Silence stretched.
I should have died there.
Instead, the voice spoke one last time.
"Unique Skill "Skill Acquisition" confirmed"
"All conditions satisfied"
"Beginning Reincarnation"
I woke up choking.
Not on blood—but on air far too clean.
My body felt wrong. Small. Light. Weak.
I tried to scream.
"Gyaa—!"
A shrill, ugly sound came out.
I froze.
My hands were green. Small. Clawed.
I looked down.
A goblin.
No—this body. I knew it instinctively. Memories overlapped with mine, crude and simple.
A name surfaced.
Gopta.
The Jura Forest surrounded me—ancient trees, dense mana, the scent of monsters everywhere.
I felt it then.
The skills.
Not as words—but as concepts etched into my soul.
Skill Creation pulsed like a forge.
Anti-Skill lay dormant, sharp and absolute.
Cursed Sage awakened quietly, already analyzing everything.
Absolute Resistance wrapped my body in unseen authority.
Shadow Monarch… waited. Vast. Patient. Terrifying.
And Skill Acquisition whispered greedily at every lifeform around me.
I understood immediately.
This was before Rimuru.
Before salvation.
Before Tempest.
Gopta was supposed to be weak.
Loud.
Comic relief.
I clenched my small fist.
"No," I whispered, voice rough and monstrous.
"This life won't be a footnote."
The forest answered with distant roars.
Somewhere far away, fate prepared for a slime.
But I had arrived first.
And this time—
I would not follow.