Agony. Then, silence.
Veyne gasped awake, his body shivering from phantom wounds. His head pounded like someone had smashed a hammer against it. The pain was so intense that his vision blurred.
Instinctively, his hand shot to the back of his head, trying to stop the bleeding. He moved his hand through his hair, searching for blood—that familiar warmth, the proof of his suffering.
But there was nothing.
His fingers brushed against smooth hair.
No wound.
No dampness.
No blood.
His breath hitched.
What the hell?
He pushed himself up into a sitting position. Only then did he realize he was lying on the cold floor. He looked around, only to find himself in an empty room—empty shelves, empty tables, like someone had just moved out.
Did they kidnap me?
His eyes darted around, but the more he looked, the more ragged his breathing became.
His heart pounded as he recognized this room, and when he saw the gaming pod in the corner, it finally clicked.
This was his old guild office.
He grabbed his head in confusion. He remembered this room.
This was the place where all the misery in his life had begun. But why was he here?
As he tried to make sense of it, a sharp ring cut through the silence.
Ding!
His head snapped toward the sound. There, on the floor just a few inches away, his phone's screen glowed in the darkness.
He hesitated for a moment, but his hand moved on its own. He picked it up, his arm trembling as he pressed the power button to check the date and time.
March 2032.
The moment he saw it, a jolt ran through him, and he shouted.
"What?!"
He took another look around and then back at the date.
Am I back in time? This can't be real.
A second notification popped up at that moment from the Limia guild chat.
He froze and opened the chat app.
[Limia Guild:-
Soren: It was fun while it lasted, guys. See you around.
Mika: Take care, everyone.
Lucy: Sigh, goodbye, guys.
-> User 'Soren' has left the chat.
-> User 'Mika' has left the chat.
…]
His breath caught in his throat as he scrolled through the messages.
He knew these messages. He had read them before.
Because this was the day his first guild disbanded. These were the parting words of his old guild members—the end of his first guild, Limia.
As he read through the messages, he clenched his fingers around the phone. The weight of it hit him harder and harder.
"Hah…"
A chuckle bubbled from his throat. Then another. Then louder.
"Hahaha… haha!"
He looked up at the ceiling, grinning like a madman.
He was back.
After laughing for a couple of minutes, Veyne exhaled, forcing himself to stay calm.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
So he was back in March 2032. Exactly at the one-year mark from when he started playing AA and around two and a half years after the game's launch.
He couldn't afford to waste time.
He looked back at his phone. The guild chat was still open, messages popping up one by one. The members were still in the parting phase.
This was a day he had never forgotten in his past life. The day everything started to go downhill in his life.
The humiliation in the game. The suffering from his family. Then the life of a sewer rat.
He forced himself to stop thinking about those things.
Now was not the time to dwell on his pathetic past.
He had to move fast before the others emptied the guild vault like last time.
He stood up and walked to the metal pod in the corner. He hadn't seen this pod in years. For the past couple of years in his previous life, he had used a barely functional, taped-together headset.
This low-end pod was divine compared to that.
He strode across the room, barely hesitating before pressing the open button.
Ting!
The pod hummed to life. With a hiss, the plastic lid slid open, revealing the sleek black interior. He climbed in, settling into the cushioned seat as the lid sealed shut.
He suppressed the barrage of emotions and tapped the power button on the side with his elbow.
For a moment, there was nothing but darkness.
Then—
A red light scanned his body.
[User registration confirmed. Logging in...]
A weightless sensation pulled at him, and he found himself floating in the darkness.
Then, two massive AAs appeared in front of him, glowing with a golden hue.
[Welcome to Apex Ascension.]
A bright light engulfed him, and when it faded, he was inside the game world.
Veyne opened his eyes to a familiar sight. A small wooden room lined with bookshelves, a simple desk, and a cot in the corner.
This was the guild leader's private quarters.
His heartbeat steadied. He had arrived.
He didn't waste a second.
Throwing open the door, he rushed out into the streets of the inner city. The night sky stretched overhead, stars twinkling in the game world.
The city was still bustling with players and NPCs, but he ignored them. He had one goal.
The guild vault.
He sprinted, his body moving on autopilot, and within minutes, he reached the vault hall.
He walked into the building, went through the necessary checks, and arrived in front of the Limia guild vault.
Veyne's fingers flew across the interface, navigating the permissions. As the guild leader, he still had full access—but he wasn't the only one.
Once at the interface, he tapped the transfer function and began moving everything.
Stacks of gold. Rare crafting materials. Unused elixirs. Relics and equipment. It had taken over a year of grinding to accumulate this wealth, and last time, he had let it slip away.
Not again.
One by one, he funneled the resources into private storage, rerouting assets to scattered locations only he knew.
By the time he finished, the vault was empty.
A sharp exhale left his lips.
His past self had been stupid and pretentious, trying to maintain a friendly face to end things on good terms and all that bullshit.
In his last life, he had let others empty the vault to part amicably. And what had that gotten him? Nothing but others spitting on him when he needed their help.
He had already been used to being emotionally naked. Now, he no longer cared what others thought about him. He already had a plan for what to do with these resources.
All he cared about right now was power.
And for that, he needed that parchment.
He left the guild hall, making his way through the dimly lit streets. Along the way, he bought hundreds of pickaxes and shovels and started rushing toward a remote hill at the back of the city.
It took him half an hour to reach the abandoned mineral mine.
He stepped inside.
The air was damp, thick with the scent of earth and rust. The tunnel stretched deep into the mountain. Nobody cared about these low-tier mining spots right now.
But in a few years?
These places would be invaluable.
Veyne walked to the farthest end of the cave, where the ground was still untouched. He unsheathed a pickaxe from his inventory.
And then he started digging.
Tick! Tick!
The sound echoed through the empty cave, each strike of metal against stone sending vibrations up his arms. He worked with a steady rhythm, falling into the familiar repetition. After all, he slaved in this same cave for years.
As the hours passed, his mind wandered.
The memories of spending years in the mine replayed in his mind as he continued digging like a machine.
The memories of what he had gone through surfaced—how his once-respectful family had turned on him, how he lost level after level, how those bastards repeatedly hunted him down. And then… her.
He stopped for a moment but quickly resumed digging.
Hundreds of thoughts flooded his mind.
But now that he was back, he could change everything.
Try to start a new guild with his knowledge. Try to become a good family member. Become someone others aspired to be.
He could completely change it all, but…
He clenched the pickaxe and smashed it harder into the ground.
CRUNCH!
It couldn't withstand the force and shattered into pieces. A few wooden splinters even embedded themselves in his hand, causing pain. But without caring about any of that, he took out another pickaxe and resumed digging.
He could be all those things—but what was the point?
What was the point of having relationships and status when he had already seen what they amounted to?
At this, her face once again came to his mind.
Even she—whom he had always thought was at least with him—had betrayed him with his own brother when he was at his worst.
Now that he thought about them, he felt nothing.
Not anger. Not grief. Not even hatred.
Just emptiness and this strange calm. He no longer cared about them at all.
Tick! Tick!
The first day passed. He did not stop thinking while digging nonstop, trying to understand what he even wanted.
Then the second day.
He didn't stop.
He was in a trance where he felt no hunger. No fatigue. He only took breaks when his stamina ran out, then resumed.
Two days of nonstop thinking cleared a lot of things. He decided that in this life, he would not waste his chance trying to impress others.
He would change. This time, he would do what he wanted.
At this moment, his pickaxe struck something different.
A dull clink.
He froze. His breath slowed. Carefully, he brushed the dirt away with his hands.
And then there it was.
A crumbling, old parchment.
Its edges were frayed. Its ink faded. But he knew exactly what it was.
The key to his future.
At that moment, a notification popped up in front of him.
Ding!
[You have acquired the Broken Parchment of the Forgotten Time.]
(Hint: Restore the parchment to unseal the hidden mystery.)
Veyne smirked.
This time, he would break everything and everyone in his path.