Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Reincarnation and choices

The last thing I remembered wasn’t pain.

Not exactly.

It was the sensation of being disconnected from reality itself—as though someone had reached behind the world and ripped out the cable keeping my existence running.

One moment, electricity was tearing through my body after I crashed into the extension socket beside my desk.

The next—

I existed somewhere else.

I opened my eyes slowly, expecting darkness. Maybe a hospital ceiling. Maybe the afterlife.

Instead, I saw cards.

Thousands of them.

They floated endlessly within a vast white void, layered on top of each other like a galaxy made of paper and light. Every card pulsed with strange energy, symbols shifting across their surfaces as though they were alive.

Some radiated golden brilliance.

Some looked like shattered mirrors reflecting worlds I couldn’t understand.

Others felt... wrong.

Like reality itself rejected their existence.

My breathing turned uneven.

"Where am I...?" I muttered weakly. "What is this?"

The void was silent.

But it didn’t feel empty.

It felt aware.

Like something incomprehensibly vast was staring directly into my soul.

Then a voice echoed through the white space.

Not from above.

Not from below.

Everywhere.

"Welcome, young soul."

I froze.

The voice was calm. Ancient. Detached.

"I will now transfer you to Abyssal Chronos: Veil of Ruin."

My pupils shrank.

That name.

I knew that name.

Abyssal Chronos.

The nightmare of a game I had wasted countless sleepless nights on. A brutal dark fantasy RPG with no true happy ending. No matter what route players chose, the world always collapsed in the end.

Outer Gods devoured civilizations.

Entire kingdoms disappeared overnight.

Heroes died meaningless deaths.

And every timeline led toward ruin.

"...No way," I whispered.

My throat suddenly felt dry.

"This has to be a dream."

The voice ignored me.

"You may now select two Mythical Abilities before entering the world."

My mind struggled to process the situation.

"Wait," I said quickly. "You’re saying I’m being sent into the game?"

"Yes."

"As the protagonist?"

"No."

The answer came instantly.

"You will exist within the world itself."

Silence hit me harder than the electric shock that killed me.

Memories flashed through my mind.

The sparks.

The burning pain.

And the strange words I thought I imagined hearing before everything went black.

—Timeline fracture unstable.

—Candidate resonance confirmed.

So it wasn’t a hallucination.

This had been planned.

I clenched my fists tightly.

"You’re serious..."

My gaze drifted back toward the floating cards.

If this was real, panic wouldn’t save me.

Power would.

The cards stretched infinitely across the void. At the highest level were Mythical-tier abilities, shining like distant stars. Beneath them were Epic-tier abilities that still carried overwhelming pressure.

Even from a distance, I could feel the difference between them.

Mythical abilities felt absolute.

Like laws.

Then I noticed one card pulsing unnaturally among the others.

Not brighter.

Heavier.

As though space bent around it.

The surface distorted continuously, unable to maintain a stable shape.

The moment my eyes landed on it, instinct screamed at me.

Danger.

But also possibility.

"...That one," I said immediately.

The Watcher remained silent for a brief moment.

Then:

"Selection confirmed."

The white void trembled slightly.

A cold pressure settled over my body.

"One Mythical selection remains."

I exhaled slowly and forced myself to think properly.

Abyssal Chronos wasn’t a world where raw strength alone guaranteed survival. Talent meant nothing if you lacked adaptability. The strongest characters in the game were monsters because they broke rules, not because they followed them.

My eyes scanned the countless cards again.

Then I noticed something strange.

Below the Mythical section was another category labeled Epic.

But mixed among the Epic abilities were things that absolutely did not belong there.

Divine Seeds.

I frowned immediately.

"That classification makes no sense," I muttered. "Why are Divine Seeds considered Epic-tier?"

The Watcher answered calmly.

"Divine Seeds possess limitless potential but require specific conditions to awaken. Most who possess them never awaken them throughout their entire lives."

The voice paused briefly.

"They are therefore classified as Epic until activation."

I stared at the cards silently.

Then another thought hit me.

"Wait... if I only have one Mythical selection left, how am I supposed to choose a Divine Seed too?"

The Watcher answered immediately.

"You may exchange your remaining Mythical selection for two Epic selections."

I blinked.

"So instead of taking one second Mythical Ability... I can choose two Epic Abilities?"

"Yes."

The voice remained emotionless.

"A single Mythical Ability possesses greater immediate value than standard Epic abilities. However, certain Epic abilities possess evolutionary potential capable of surpassing Mythical classifications."

That changed everything.

Immediately.

A Mythical card guaranteed overwhelming power from the beginning.

But two Epic abilities—especially Divine Seeds—could scale infinitely if awakened properly.

In a normal world, Mythical would obviously be the safer choice.

But Abyssal Chronos was not a normal world.

It was a world where monsters evolved constantly, where hidden bosses became gods, and where late-game enemies could erase entire nations casually.

Long-term growth mattered more than early dominance. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

And Divine Seeds...

Those things were absurd.

Even in the game’s lore, awakened Divine Seed users were treated like walking disasters.

I slowly narrowed my eyes.

"So I can trade my second Mythical slot for two Epic cards instead..."

"Correct."

The voice paused.

"Your probability of survival decreases significantly with that decision."

I almost laughed at that.

"Pretty sure my survival rate was already terrible."

The Watcher said nothing.

I looked back toward the Epic section carefully this time.

Some cards manipulated gravity.

Others distorted time itself.

But two cards immediately stood out.

One radiated crimson energy so violent it looked like the card was collapsing inward endlessly.

The other resembled a mirror—perfectly reflective, impossibly still.

Just looking at it made me uncomfortable.

"...Divine Seed of Destruction," I said quietly.

The void shook harder this time.

"Selection confirmed."

The pressure in the white space intensified.

Even breathing became difficult.

"One Epic selection remains."

I hesitated.

For the first time since arriving here, genuine uncertainty hit me.

Because I recognized the second card.

Not from the game.

But from hidden lore files buried deep within the unfinished data archives players discovered years ago.

An ability that was never supposed to exist.

A forbidden concept.

Something tied directly to the broken timelines of Abyssal Chronos itself.

The mirror-like card flickered violently as my hand moved toward it.

As though reality itself was warning me not to touch it.

But I already understood something important.

If the world I was entering truly followed the original game’s future—

Then ordinary power would never be enough.

Not against the Outer Gods.

Not against the beings waiting beyond the veil.

I slowly opened my mouth.

"I choose—"

The moment I spoke the name, the entire void distorted.

Several floating cards shattered instantly.

Cracks spread across the white space itself.

For the first time, the Watcher reacted.

"...Interesting."

That single word carried an emotion the voice hadn’t shown before.

Curiosity.

"Selections complete."

The cards around me began fading away one after another like dying stars.

The white void started collapsing.

My body became weightless.

Then I started falling.

Not downward.

Through something.

Fragments of shattered timelines flashed around me endlessly.

Burning kingdoms.

Collapsed skies.

Black oceans swallowing continents whole.

A man clad in silver armor standing alone against the end of the world.

The Hero King.

And behind him—

Something enormous watching from beyond reality itself.

A presence so vast my mind instinctively rejected it.

Fear unlike anything I had ever known gripped me.

Then everything went black.

And I fell into Abyssal Chronos: Veil of Ruin.