Zale regained consciousness, confused and disoriented.
Just a moment ago, an entity calling itself the System had appeared before him and forced him into a contract.
Now he stood in a whole new world, his heart pounding with excitement and sheer shock.
Such powers to traverse space and rewind time were incomprehensible to a mortal like him.
His eyes flickered with desire for such great power.
At the same time he became more vigilant toward the System, who could take his life with a single thought.
He did not dare reveal anything unusual.
Suppressing his thoughts, Zale quickly assessed his surroundings.
A narrow path led to a small bamboo house.
He looked down: a hoe in his hand, old muddy shoes, gray pants stained with soil, and a simple black shirt.
After confirming he was alone, he crouched down to receive the memories.
"System. Transfer the memories."
"Good." A cold, emotionless voice responded to him. It wasn't robotic as one might expect, yet coldly inhuman.
The system detected his host wariness but chose to ignore it.
As long as the host was capable and could fulfill their agreement, other things were irrelevant.
A torrent of memories flooded his mind at once, making him groan in discomfort.
He had the same name: Zale Johnson.
His father had passed away when he was five, and he had been raised by his single mother in a small village named Lumima.
This world was similar to the period around the mid-1900s of his previous world.
He was now eighteen. In the era where marriages were arranged at a young age, his mother had already started looking for a wife for him.
Standing at 190 cm tall, good-looking and hardworking, and owning a large plot of land, he was considered the most eligible bachelor in the nearby area.
Zale's expression darkened after taking in all the memories of his past life.
He had to stop this marriage by all means.
All his misery stemmed from his marriage to Mira, so he would cut it at the root before it could even sprout.
Inside the house, two women were talking animatedly.
"… You know the old carpenter's child, Mira, right? She is a good girl—beautiful and hardworking…"
"Mom, can we talk for a minute? In my room?"
He hastily interrupted their conversation before the matchmaker could continue.
"Mom, I don't want to get married right now. Raising children isn't as easy as before. I want to create a stable source of income before thinking about marriage.
Give me some time. I promise I'll bring a good daughter-in-law at the right time."
It was the truth.
He had no intention of marrying anyone before building a career.
Besides, marriage shouldn't just be about obligation or procreation.
He wanted to marry at the right time and with someone he liked.
He didn't want to marry only to end up repeating the same tragedy—creating an enemy instead of a family.
Thankfully, his mother wasn't a stubborn person and supported him in his every decision.
"Okay, but only under one condition. If you don't bring me a daughter-in-law by the end of next year, you will have to agree to my arrangement, okay?"
Zale's eyebrows furrowed. Two years weren't long, but they weren't short either.
"Okay, I promise."
After giving it some thought, he relented. Having lived two lifetimes, it shouldn't be difficult to achieve something within two years.
That night, Zale slept uneasily.
The dim night bulb cast a faint light over his furrowed brows and sweat-soaked forehead.
In his dream, Zale relived his past life.
In that life, he had agreed to the marriage.
The reputation that Mira was beautiful, gentle, and hardworking had mostly been a lie.
She was someone who could share prosperity but not hardship.
Moreover, she not only disliked him but had also extended that dislike to his eldest son, Aden.
As for her behaviour towards her own son, Zale had some ideas.
Maybe she suffered heavily during his pregnancy.
Maybe because she couldn't vent her anger on Zale, as he was the breadwinner of the house, she shifted it onto a helpless child whose face was almost identical to Zale himself.
The twins that she later gave birth to bore a close resemblance to her and were also silver-tongued, always making her smile.
Therefore, she adored them and poured all her affection into them.
Zale would often come home to see his son huddled in a corner, looking pitiful like a fatherless child.
There had been countless arguments, yelling, and screaming, but he had been unable to draw out her love for their eldest child.
Zale finally erupted one evening when he came home to find his son hiding in a corner, crying and licking his wounds like a wounded little beast.
Zale chose to divorce her, disregarding all consequences.
However, the very next day, his eldest son went missing while returning from school.
He had never suspected Mira despite everything. After all, Aden was her own flesh and blood, and no matter how much she disliked him, it shouldn't have gone to that extent... Right?
Even in the modern world, with its well-developed surveillance system, many cases remained unresolved.
Even when everyone had given up hope, even the authorities, Zale continued searching for an entire year.
He spent many cold nights in the open under the companionship of mosquitoes, until his wallet was left with only a few coins.
However, he couldn't abandon his remaining children.
But every Sunday, and whenever he found even a moment to spare, he went out searching—praying that someday a miracle would happen.
The twins gradually grew up.
Graduation. Marriage. A house.
By his mid-forties, his hunched back, wrinkled skin, and calloused hands were a testament to the sacrifices he had made for his family.
But when had his own children begun to hate him so much?
Or perhaps they had simply hidden it so well that he had never realized how much resentment they held toward him.
His son accused him, his face full of hatred:
"Dad, you only ever loved elder brother. It was Mom who was always with us.
Do you know how much she cried every day because of you? You pretended to be honest in front of others, but to us, you were just a hypocrite."
His daughter was no less harsh:
"What we wanted from you was never good clothes or delicious food. You were so stubborn that you only had money in your eyes.
Do you know how much we craved your love? I was so jealous when other people's fathers took their children to school, to amusement parks, or out to eat. Despite everything Mom and we sacrificed for you, you never noticed us."
Zale felt dizzy from all the accusations. He fell backward onto the chair, yet none of them turned to look at him.
People in the nearby village would often see an old, slightly deranged man wandering around, murmuring about finding his eldest son.
One day, the old man hugged a beggar whose legs had both been amputated and whose one eye was blind, insisting that he was his son.