The night sky stretched endlessly above deep, cloudless, quiet.
Moonlight poured through the trees, silver and soft, like the touch of a forgotten memory.
Souta lay on the forest floor, breath steady but shallow. A thin cut stung across his shoulder. Behind him, the corpses of demon wolves bled into the soil.
He didn't look at them.
He just looked up at the moon.
"Still beautiful... even in another world," he whispered, voice barely louder than the wind.
Silence returned.
But in his mind, a storm rolled in.
His eyes lowered, half-lidded.
Then—memories came like ghosts.
***
He was four when the dungeon took his father.
It was supposed to be easy, a low-level Rift just outside the city.
Kael Sato, B-rank Hunter, a hundred-man strength and the softest smile. Souta remembered clinging to his armored leg that morning, his dad's helmet tucked under one arm, sword strapped to his back.
"I'll bring you something cool, alright, little lion?" he said, ruffling his hair.
Souta never saw him again.
They called it a collapse. A Rift distortion that sealed the gate for good.
No bodies. No remains. Just cracked stone and silence.
"All five hunters presumed dead."
His mom didn't cry, not in front of him.
She just held him tighter at night, whispering,
"We'll be fine, Souta. We'll be fine."
She worked two jobs, potion vendor by day, guildhall janitor by night.
Souta grew up on cold leftovers and soup packets. But he never complained. He couldn't.
He saw what it cost her.
He started working too, running errands, polishing weapons, sorting dungeon loot. Waiting by Rift gates for hours just to snag discarded gear he could sell for scraps.
He watched other kids awaken.
By twelve, most had Classes and uniforms.
By fifteen, they had already cleared their first dungeons.
By seventeen, Souta was still nothing.
No Class. No Rank. No power.
But his mother never once saw him as a weakling.
She smiled like he was everything.
She died the night the rain wouldn't stop.
No monster. No magic. Just sickness.
A fever that turned into something worse.
By then, Souta had awakened as an E-rank.
He'd cleared his first dungeon a week before she collapsed.
The hospital turned them away.
He didn't have enough coin.
He sold everything. Risked everything.
Took jobs that should've killed him just for healer potions in shady alleys.
Too late.
She died holding his hand.
"Don't become someone you're not, Souta. Promise me."
He didn't scream. Didn't cry.
He just drifted.
Through dungeons. Through slums. Through gangs.
He became part of the underworld.
But he didn't break.
He got stronger.
Not quickly. Not easily. But relentlessly.
E to D. D to C. C to B.
No genius. No favor from fate. Just grinding.
He learned every monster's weakness. Trained in ruins, fought with broken gear, pushed his body until it had no choice but to keep pushing.
People started noticing.
The same ones who once ignored him and saw him as a useless soul.
By twenty-one, they called him the "Ghost."
A B-rank soloist who cleared C-rank dungeons alone.
Not flashy. Not friendly. But always returning.
Still… none of it mattered.
He had money.
But the ones he needed it for were long gone.
"I died... because I was curious," Souta murmured, wind brushing his cheek.
A faint smile tugged at his lips, not from joy but from irony.
All that pain, all that fighting to live…
And in the end, curiosity killed him.
That itch that made him face an S-rank demon solo in the core chamber.
He wanted to see it. Wanted to know.
He remembered the flames. The claws.
The final strike.
And then—darkness.
And then—this place.
He groaned, sitting up.
A dull ache pulsed in his limbs, but there was strength now.
His muscles didn't burn like before.
The cuts were already sealing.
His palm opened—and the system responded.
———~Ω~———
Status: Hunter of the Boundless Path
Level: 4
Title: Reborn One
Traits: Boundless Affinity, Cursed Curiosity, Mental Fortitude
Skills Unlocked: 3
—————————
The words hovered in the air, clear as breath.
He clenched his fist.
"This time... I won't waste it."
He rose slowly, moonlight gleaming in his eyes, the eyes were both light green like twin blades.
A new world.
A second chance.
He didn't know why he got it.
Maybe fate pitied him.
Maybe it was some sick experiment.
Or maybe... just maybe, the universe knew.
Souta Kael wasn't done yet.
And this time?
He was going all the way.