Ken's legs shook as he walked. His cloak was gone. His shirt clung to dried blood. The cuts across his ribs burned with every breath. The forest around him was colder than before — or maybe that was just in his head.
He still wasn't sure if he was alive. Or if this was hell wearing a prettier face.
Soul Reset. The words wouldn't leave him.
It didn't feel like healing. It didn't feel like magic. It felt like waking up after drowning, lungs screaming, body foreign. Every step was heavier than the last. Every sound in the trees made him flinch.
What scared him most wasn't the pain.
It was that he remembered everything.
Eventually, the trees opened into a field of ash. Burned grass stretched for miles, black and brittle. There had been a village here — maybe once. All that remained were collapsed fences, a half-buried well, and the charred skeleton of a house.
Ken didn't recognize it.
But his body led him there like it did.
He dropped beside the well, leaning against the stone. He was thirsty, starving, and barely holding himself together. But all he could think about was that monster — the one that tore through him like he was nothing.
And then…
He looked down at his hand. There it was — faint, almost invisible — a sigil glowing on his palm. A circle with jagged lines branching out. He hadn't noticed it before.
Suddenly, text flickered across his vision:
[Soul Reset Activated]
Current Level: 1
Death Count: 1
Skill Unlocked: Pain Memory
Trait Gained: Death Echo
Respawn Delay: Randomized
Next Reset: ???
Ken blinked. The words faded like smoke.
"...The hell is going on?"
He didn't expect an answer.
But deep down, a part of him already knew:
This wasn't some blessing.
This was a curse.
And he was stuck with it.
A rustle behind him.
Ken turned fast. Too fast.
A man stepped out of the ash — tall, cloaked in travel-worn leather, a sword strapped to his back. Not a monster. Human. He had a trimmed beard and sharp eyes that didn't look surprised to see Ken. In fact, he didn't look surprised at all.
"You're not from around here, are you?" the man asked.
Ken didn't answer.
He couldn't tell yet if this man was the first ally in a broken world…
…or just the next thing that would kill him.