Chapter 1: There Were Better First Days

"RYAN!"

A deafening roar exploded beside his ear.

"WAKE THE HELL UP!"

Ryan’s eyes flew open.

The first thing he saw was a greasy wooden countertop.

The second...

More than a dozen furious faces glaring at him.

For a split second, he simply stared.

The tiny noodle restaurant was packed to the brim. Every table was occupied, while even more customers stood outside the entrance, craning their necks to see what was causing the delay.

The atmosphere was suffocating.

Steam rose from boiling pots.

Plates clattered.

People muttered impatiently.

And in the middle of it all...

Ryan had been sleeping.

A stocky middle-aged man stood before him with bulging veins across his forehead. His apron was stained with soup, and his face had long since turned crimson with rage.

"Are you trying to bankrupt me?" The man bellowed. "They’ve been waiting for almost twenty minutes, and you’re sleeping on the job?"

Ryan blinked.

"...Sleeping?"

"The fourth time this week!" The man roared. "And you’ve burned the noodles again! Seventh time!"

Burned?

Ryan’s nose twitched.

A thick smell of smoke suddenly invaded his senses, and without another word, he rushed into the tiny kitchen.

"..."

One pot had become a lump of black charcoal.

The noodles inside were no longer recognizable as food.

The egg frying beside it had turned into something resembling burnt rubber.

Ryan stared at the disaster with a calm face and muttered.

"...That’s unfortunate."

His calm reaction only made the restaurant owner angrier.

"UNFORTUNATE?" He shouted. "Who says that after burning my food?!!!"

It was yet unfortunate enough that Ryan wasn’t listening anymore. His golden eyes quietly swept across the unfamiliar surroundings.

A noodle restaurant...

Cheap equipment...

Small space...

A leaky ceiling.

Not exactly where he expected to wake up after the final battle.

His last memory was still vivid.

A shattered continent with a sky dyed crimson.

The corpse of the Primordial Twelve-Winged Bone Dragon of Elys stretching beyond the horizon like a fallen mountain.

That battle had ended a war spanning centuries.

The Red Bone Faction had been annihilated.

Peace had finally returned.

And after wandering through countless worlds for hundreds of thousands of years...

He had finally decided to settle for retirement.

The idea had come from his oldest companion, a mysterious existence that had accompanied him through every transmigration.

’His my old friend going to be here too?’ He wondered.

And as though answering his thoughts...

Ding.

A familiar mechanical voice echoed inside his mind.

[Transmigration Successful.]

Ryan’s lips slowly curved upward, forming a smile.

[Record: This is your 311th Transmigration, Brother. And it should definitely be the last!]

[Destination Confirmed: Planet Earth.]

[Peace Rate: 82%.]

[Evaluation: Suitable for Retirement.]

"...Soly?"

There was a brief pause after that...

And then...

[Of course I’m here, Brother.]

Ryan chuckled.

"I thought we’d finally part ways."

[And miss watching you embarrass yourself by burning noodles? Impossible.]

Ryan rubbed the bridge of his nose and gave a slight shrug.

"...Fair enough."

[Besides, we’ve traveled together for over three hundred thousand years.]

[Did you truly think I’d disappear now?]

"I was hoping retirement meant fewer voices in my head."

[Unfortunately for you... it doesn’t.]

Ryan laughed quietly, realising that some things just never change.

"RYAAAN!"

His boss’s furious voice shattered the reunion at once, as his attention was immediately drifted.

"What are you smiling about?!"

Ryan turned with a face that showed little to no amount of precision... Whatever he was doing next, he didn’t know.

At that point, the man looked ready to explode.

"There are still customers waiting!"

"Oh."

Ryan glanced back toward the kitchen, walking like he knew what he was doing, but he definitely doesn’t.

"I may have forgotten how to cook," then he suddenly muttered.

"You..."

The owner pointed toward the entrance with trembling fingers.

"You know what?"

"I’ve had enough."

"YOU’RE FIRED!"

Before Ryan could react, the man grabbed his arm, dragged him across the restaurant and threw him out the front door.

Bang!

Ryan landed on the sidewalk, as the customers inside watched the scene unfold.

Some pitied him, while others happen to applaud.

Ryan slowly stood up and dusted off his clothes.

"...Well."

"I’ve certainly had better first days."

[Actually, Brother...]

[This is an excellent beginning.]

"I suppose it is." Ryan sighed.

He shoved his hands into his pockets and began walking down the busy street.

Not one he could really get grasps off, but he could see the modern buildings, passing cars, towering billboards, and people staring at glowing screens.

Everything felt... Peaceful.

No monsters.

No collapsing kingdoms.

No gods trying to destroy creation.

It truly felt like... Retirement.

He was enjoying the views until something strange caught his eye.

Above the head of a businessman walking past floated glowing golden words.

[46 Years. 6 Months. 2 Weeks. 2 Days.]

The numbers steadily decreased.

[Forty-three seconds... Forty-two... Forty-one...]

Ryan frowned, as he furrowed his brows and turned to another passerby.

[11 Years. 3 Months. 1 Week. 4 Days. 13 Hours. 33 Minutes. 16 Seconds.]

A young woman crossing the street.

[58 Years. 2 Months. 3 Weeks. 2 Days. 8 Hours. 21 Minutes. 47 Seconds.]

An elderly man buying fruit.

[9 Months. 3 Weeks. 6 Days. 17 Hours. 11 Minutes. 6 Seconds.]

"...Soly."

[Yes?]

"What exactly am I looking at?"

[Remaining lifespan.]

Ryan stopped walking, his face already showing his clear curiosity.

"...Lifespan?"

[Every living person possesses one.]

[You can now see it.]

Ryan immediately decided to look around again and noticed that every single pedestrian... Every driver. Every shop owner.

Everyone carried an invisible countdown.

He was literally seeing their lifespan counting down over their heads!

Then...

A man sprinted across the road while carrying a little boy drenched in blood.

The father looked terrified, as his clothes were soaked red.

Above the father’s head, his lifespan could be clearly seen.

[2 Weeks. 5 Days. 11 Hours. 14 Minutes. 52 Seconds.]

And above the child’s...

[2 Minutes. 32 Seconds...]

Ryan’s gaze lingered on the boy, as the countdown continued.

And he was there until one minute.

Fifty-nine seconds.

Fifty-eight...

"They’re heading to the hospital."

[Yes.]

Ryan shook his head, realising the end point of it. It was a really sad take, but it was definitely clear.

"...The child won’t make it."

[Correct.]

"...And the father wouldn’t be able to bear the pain of losing him, therefore resulting to taking his own life."

[Absolutely.]

Ryan remained silent.

He had witnessed the deaths of worlds.

Thousands.

Millions.

Yet watching a father desperately race against time still left a bitter taste in his mouth. The fact that it was just a matter of time for the both of them was already a foreseen tragedy.

He looked away eventually at the end, trying not to be carried away, and continued his walk.

"I suppose this ability wasn’t given to me without reason."

[Perhaps, brother.]

"Hmm-hmm..."

Ryan didn’t ask further.

After hundreds of thousands of years together... If Soly wanted to explain something, he would.

If not... The answer would eventually reveal itself.

He had walked almost halfway to his destination before remembering a particular step.

"What about the memories?"

Something that had to be installed in him after every transmigation. It was more like a weapon than just a memory, as it was one of the most important things he’d need.

[Memory Integration Beginning...]

A cool sensation swept through his mind.

Countless memories flooded in like pictures, yet they revealed every detail.

A small apartment.

Long shifts at the noodle restaurant.

A younger sister...?

Funeral photos?!!!

Hospital bills.

Debt!

Despair.

Then...

Everything settled, and Ryan slowly opened his eyes.

"So this body’s name is Ryan Calender."

An orphan who’s twenty years old, and is a college dropout.

His parents had died in a train accident three years earlier.

His uncle had stolen almost everything they owned, including properties left behind by his father.

Now he and his younger sister lived in a rundown one-room apartment on Mining Street.

Eighteen months behind on rent, and barely surviving.

"...Quite the mess," Ryan cursed.

[The original Ryan couldn’t endure it anymore.]

Ryan nodded quietly, not knowing what to make of that. But the one obvious take is that he would continue from where the original body stopped, like he always had.

"I’ll take it from here."

[Ah-ah. You always do.]

He turned toward the street at the left hand side and walked through it, making use of every memory fragment that he had obtained.

And soon, he reached his destination.

...

The apartment building looked as though it had survived several decades without maintenance.

Cracked walls mounted the structure, followed by rusted railings. Broken windows patched with cardboard, like it was once an abandoned playhouse.

Ryan climbed the stairs until he stopped before Room 17.

Right there. It was where the memory led him to. Where he lives, and where his sister lives as well.

He knocked gently after a long sigh, and a few seconds later...

Click.

The door opened.

A young girl stood there with a blank face at first. She wore an oversized hoodie several sizes too large for her.

Her face was pale... Far too pale. But despite that, she smiled the moment she saw him.

"...Brother."

The voice was weak, gentle and relieved, and Ryan doesn’t have to imagine why it was like that. He was the only one she has in this world, and her only family.

Ryan felt something stir inside his chest.

Not his own emotion, but the lingering affection of the previous owner.

It was already expected because that was how it had always been over the last three hundred and ten experiences.

He was up for it.

He was about to make a straight look at her eyes when his eyes moved upward, but then, something else immediately came stealing his attention.

Golden letters quietly appeared above her head.

[Emily Calender]

[Remaining Lifespan: 2 weeks. 23 Hours. 11 Minutes. 46 Seconds]

Ryan’s pupils contracted as his heartbeat seemed to stop for an instant.

"...Soly."

For the first time since arriving on Earth...

There was a trace of urgency in his voice.

"Tell me..."

"...I’m seeing that wrong."

But then came the answer.

[You are not, Brother.]

[Your sister... Is going to die.]