Rio woke to an uncomfortable weight pressing down on her chest.
A faint groan escaped her lips as consciousness slowly returned.
"...Mmh..."
Everything felt heavy.
Her body ached, her thoughts were sluggish, and for a few seconds she couldn't remember where she was.
She tried to move her arms.
They wouldn't budge.
Something was pinning them down.
Her legs felt trapped as well, tangled beneath an unfamiliar warmth.
Warm.
Soft.
Breathing.
Rio frowned.
The sensation immediately felt wrong.
Her eyelids fluttered open.
A white ceiling greeted her vision.
Above her, a small ceiling fan spun lazily in slow circles. Every rotation produced a faint clicking sound that echoed through the quiet room.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Rio stared at it for several seconds.
Then confusion slowly crept into her expression.
"...My apartment doesn't have a ceiling fan."
The thought came instinctively.
Her mind was still clouded, struggling to piece together fragmented memories.
Images surfaced one after another.
Dark clouds.
Cold rain.
The violent swaying of a bridge.
Panicked screams.
The ground shaking beneath her feet.
Then—
The river.
Rio's eyes widened.
Her heartbeat suddenly accelerated.
The bridge had collapsed.
She remembered it clearly now.
The steel cables snapping.
The road splitting apart.
The freezing water swallowing everything.
People screaming as they fell.
Her falling.
The icy river consuming her whole.
The memory struck her with terrifying clarity.
Rio's breathing became uneven.
I died.
The realization hit her like a bolt of lightning.
There was no doubt.
She remembered the impact.
The freezing darkness.
The feeling of her consciousness slipping away.
She was supposed to be dead.
Rio immediately tried to sit up.
The moment she moved, the heavy weight on top of her shifted and pushed her right back into the mattress.
"...What?"
She froze.
Warm breath brushed against her neck.
Rio slowly turned her head.
A face was staring back at her from only a few inches away.
Messy white hair.
Closed eyes.
A completely peaceful sleeping expression.
The owner of that face was sprawled across her body, using her like a mattress.
One arm was draped over her stomach.
One leg was hooked around hers.
He looked less like a person and more like an oversized human blanket.
For three full seconds Rio's brain stopped functioning.
Nothing happened.
No thoughts.
No reactions.
Just complete mental shutdown.
Then her mind restarted.
And immediately exploded.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING ON TOP OF ME?!"
Without hesitation, Rio shoved him with every ounce of strength she had.
The sleeping boy was launched off the bed.
THUD!
He crashed onto the wooden floor with a loud bang.
"OW!"
Rio shot upright, breathing heavily.
Her heart pounded furiously against her ribs.
The boy rolled across the floor, clutching the back of his head.
"Ow... seriously... you didn't have to throw me..."
Rio stared at him.
Her racing thoughts slowly caught up with reality.
Messy white hair.
The same age as her.
The same irritating expression.
Recognition hit instantly.
"...Ryota."
The boy blinked.
"...You remember my name?"
Rio completely ignored the question.
Instead, her eyes swept across the room.
Every detail immediately felt wrong.
A small bedroom.
A wooden desk crowded with textbooks and notebooks.
A neatly pressed school uniform hanging beside the door.
A bookshelf packed with manga volumes and old fantasy novels.
A backpack resting against the wall.
The room looked ordinary.
Too ordinary.
Rio's stomach dropped.
"...No way."
She slowly raised her hands.
Small.
Smooth.
Young.
Gone were the calluses she had developed after years of gripping swords and spending endless hours clearing raids inside Evermount.
Gone were the subtle scars accumulated through fifteen years of gaming and adulthood.
These were not the hands of a thirty-year-old woman.
They were the hands of a teenager.
Her heartbeat accelerated.
"No..."
Rio practically leapt from the bed.
She rushed toward the mirror hanging beside the closet.
White hair spilled over her shoulders as she stopped in front of it.
Then she froze.
The reflection staring back at her wasn't the woman she remembered.
It was a younger version.
Much younger.
A fifteen-year-old girl stared back at her.
Her face lacked the maturity she had developed over the years.
Her features were softer.
Smaller.
Almost childish.
"...High school..."
The words escaped her lips as a whisper.
Her mind spun wildly.
She remembered drowning.
She remembered dying.
And then—
A strange message.
A glowing screen appearing before her eyes in the darkness.
The message had felt absurd at the time.
Like something from a game.
Would you like to reset the game?
Rio slowly turned away from the mirror.
Ryota was still sitting on the floor.
Instead of panicking, he was stretching his arms and yawning as though he had merely woken up from an afternoon nap.
"...Man, that was a weird dream."
Rio's eye twitched.
"You."
Ryota looked up.
"...Me?"
Rio marched toward him.
Before he could react, she grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him upward.
His feet nearly left the floor.
"YOU!"
"W-Wait! What did I do?!"
Rio glared at him.
"If you hadn't chosen that exact moment to confess your weird love to me—"
Ryota blinked.
"...Weird love?"
"We wouldn't have stayed on that bridge long enough for it to collapse!"
For a moment, Ryota simply stared at her.
Then something changed.
The confusion in his expression slowly disappeared.
His eyes widened.
"...Wait."
Rio paused.
"...What?"
Ryota's voice became serious.
"You remember that too?"
Rio felt her grip tighten.
"...Too?"
"The earthquake."
"The bridge cracking apart."
"The freezing river."
"And that weird game screen asking if we wanted to reset."
Rio's eyes widened.
"You saw it?"
Ryota nodded immediately.
"Yeah."
He looked around the room.
His expression mirrored her own confusion.
"...But why am I in some teenager's bedroom?"
Rio released his collar.
"Because it is a teenager's bedroom."
Ryota stood up and walked toward the mirror.
The moment he saw his reflection, he froze.
"...No way."
He leaned closer.
Touched his face.
Then touched it again.
"...Why do I look fifteen?"
Rio crossed her arms.
"Because we are fifteen."
Ryota slowly turned around.
His mouth hung open.
"...What?"
Rio didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she grabbed the phone sitting on the desk.
Her hands trembled slightly as she unlocked it.
The lock screen appeared.
Rio's eyes immediately locked onto the date.
And her stomach dropped.
April 3rd.
For several seconds she simply stared.
"...You've got to be kidding me."
Ryota walked over.
"What is it?"
Rio turned the phone toward him.
"Look."
He glanced at the screen.
Then looked back at her.
"...Okay?"
Rio stared at him.
"This date."
Ryota blinked.
Rio resisted the urge to throw the phone at his head.
"This is one week before Evermount launched."
The room fell silent.
Ryota's eyes widened.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
"...Wait."
"The Evermount?"
Rio nodded.
"The biggest VR game in the world."
Memories flooded her mind.
The launch day chaos.
The endless lines outside stores.
Players desperately trying to buy the first-generation VR helmets before they sold out.
The beginner zones overflowing with newcomers.
The hidden quests nobody understood.
The secret dungeons that remained undiscovered for years.
The rare items worth fortunes.
The legendary classes.
The future guild wars.
Rio knew all of it.
Every boss.
Every hidden event.
Every valuable item.
Every broken skill combination.
Every mistake.
Her hands slowly clenched into fists.
A fire ignited inside her chest.
"This time..."
Her voice was calm.
But beneath that calmness was iron determination.
"I'm not making the same mistakes."
Ryota tilted his head.
"...Mistakes?"
Rio's eyes darkened.
Memories surfaced.
Royal Knights.
Reina.
Arclight.
The people she had trusted.
The betrayals she never saw coming.
The opportunities she had missed.
The regrets that haunted her until the day she died.
No.
Not this time.
She would reach the summit first.
She would become stronger than anyone else.
And she would never allow history to repeat itself.
Ryota suddenly raised his hand.
"...Uh."
Rio glanced at him.
"What?"
He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"So... if this is really one week before Evermount releases..."
Rio narrowed her eyes.
"Yes?"
A nervous grin appeared on his face.
"...Does that mean I still have time to marry the Silver War Goddess?"
Silence.
Rio stared at him.
Her eye twitched.
Then she grabbed the nearest pillow.
THWACK!
The pillow flew across the room like a missile and slammed directly into his face.
"GET OUT OF MY ROOM!"
Ryota staggered backward.
"HEY! WAIT!"
A second pillow struck him in the chest.
"STOP PROPOSING TO ME!"
A third pillow followed immediately afterward.
Ryota yelped and sprinted toward the door.
Rio chased after him.
Every pillow within reach became a projectile.
"OUT!"
"THIS IS ABUSE!"
"OUT!"
Ryota barely escaped into the hallway before Rio slammed the door shut behind him.
BANG.
Silence returned.
Rio stood there for several seconds, breathing heavily.
Eventually she exhaled.
The anger faded.
The room became quiet once more.
Soft morning sunlight streamed through the window.
Outside, the world was beginning to wake.
Birds chirped in the distance.
The sky glowed with the colors of dawn.
Rio slowly walked back toward the mirror.
The girl staring back at her looked young.
Fifteen years old.
A high school student with her entire future ahead of her.
But behind those silver eyes existed fifteen years of memories.
Fifteen years of victories.
Failures.
Regrets.
And experience.
The former Level 243 Silver War Goddess.
The strongest female player in Evermount.
Now standing once again at the very beginning.
Level 1.
Rio stared at her reflection for a long moment.
Then a small smile appeared on her face.
A confident smile.
A dangerous smile.
"Alright, Evermount."
Her eyes gleamed with anticipation.
"This time..."
"I'm taking everything before anyone else can."