His fetal brain restructured.
Neural pathways that shouldn't exist for months formed in minutes.
His body's growth accelerated—cells dividing at enhanced rates, organs developing faster than natural.
The pain was indescribable.
Like his entire being was being taken apart and reassembled one atom at a time.
He would've screamed if he had lungs that worked.
Outside
Lee Min-ah gasped, her hand flying to her swollen belly.
The medical monitors beside her cot went haywire.
The dead fetus's heart—silent for hours—suddenly beat. Once. Twice. Settling into a rhythm.
Dr. Choi rushed over, checking readings with disbelief.
"That's... that's impossible. The soul displacement—"
"My baby," Min-ah whispered, tears streaming. "My baby's alive."
The doctor didn't answer.
He was staring at the monitors.
The fetal development readings were spiking.
Growth rate increasing.
Brain activity showing patterns he'd never seen.
What is happening?
He didn't know.
Couldn't know.
That the cosmic game happening kilometers above had accidentally pulled a scattered soul into this dying fetus.
That an adult consciousness was being forced into an infant's body.
That this child would be born remembering a previous life, a previous death, 823 years of dissolution.
All Choi knew was that the baby's chances of survival were dropping.
Fifty percent. Forty. Thirty.
"Get the surgical suite ready," he ordered.
"If this goes wrong, we'll need to deliver immediately."
Inside
Yoo's consciousness stabilized.
The pain receded to merely agonizing.
Akasha's voice returned:
"Adjustment 73% complete. Host body approaching viability. Warning: external complications detected."
What complications?
"Host mother is under extreme stress. Location: underground bunker designated Sanctuary Gamma-7. Context: global catastrophe in progress. Monster invasion. Estimated civilian survival rate: 12%."
Monsters? Invasion?
Yoo's programmer brain tried to process this.
He'd died in 2024.
Seoul was normal—crime, sure, but normal.
What the hell happened?
"Chronological analysis: 823 years have passed since host's original death.
Current year: 2847.
Earth's status: apocalypse scenario.
Cosmic entities designated Aethon and Chaos have initiated reality restructuring.
Monster incursions occurring globally.
Human civilization collapsing."
The words hit like hammer blows.
823 years.
The world ended.
He was being reborn into hell.
This is insane. This can't be real.
But he could feel it.
The fear radiating from his mother's body chemistry.
The tremors shaking the bunker.
The distant sounds of something massive moving above them.
This was real.
He was trapped in a fetus.
In a bunker.
During the apocalypse.
I can't even move. Can't speak. Can't do anything.
"Recommendation: survive gestation. Achieve birth. Grow stronger. Current form is temporary."
How long?
"Typical human gestation: 40 weeks.
Host is currently 38 weeks developed.
Estimated time until birth: 14 days."
Two weeks.
He had to survive two weeks as a helpless fetus, then birth, then months—maybe years—as an infant before he could do anything useful.
This is going to be torture.
"Affirmative. However, alternative is death. Choose."
Yoo would've laughed if he could.
Some choice.
But he'd died once already.
Spent 823 years as scattered fragments in the void.
He'd been given a second chance—insane, impossible, completely fucking ridiculous second chance.
He'd take it.
Fine. I'll survive. I'll grow. I'll figure this out.
"Excellent. Adjustment 89% complete. Preparing host body for final integration phase. Note: this will hurt."
More than it already does?
"Significantly more."
The pain that followed made everything before feel like a gentle massage.
But Yoo endured.
What choice did he have?
When it finally ended—when Akasha announced "Integration 100% complete"—Yoo's consciousness settled fully into his new body.
He was trapped.
Helpless.
Waiting to be born into a world that was ending.
But he was alive.
And this time, he'd make it count.
Above the bunker, the ground shook.
Something massive was moving through Seoul's ruins.
The cosmic game continued, pieces moving, reality restructuring.
None of it mattered to Yoo.
He floated in amniotic fluid, his adult mind in an infant's body—planning, surviving, adapting.
I died once in a pointless alley, he thought.
This time will be different.
This time, I'll be ready.