Kaizan was a writer.
He gathered scattered rumors about Secret Realm exploration from newspapers and wrote wuxia-style Secret Realm stories of his own.
They were immersive and vivid. He had already gained some fame before Ginro was born—so much so that Ginro's mother, Marina, had once been a loyal reader of his novels.
Over the past eighteen years of living together, Ginro had never noticed anything unusual about his father.
If anything, he felt his mother's way of thinking was far more unconventional.
She was clearly capable of cooking excellent meals, yet she loved to experiment blindly.
For example, the grape-braised fish currently simmering in the kitchen—Ginro could easily guess her train of thought:
Fish stew with beer tastes good → wine tastes even better → grapes themselves must be the best.
Yet the most ordinary things often hide the least ordinary truths.
It was the afternoon of the day after the college entrance exam ended.
Kaizan received a phone call and rushed out in a hurry.
While at home, Ginro noticed a pile of scattered manuscripts on his father's desk.
He planned to help organize them—and maybe see what kind of novel his father had been writing lately, in case he could offer some inspiration.
Instead, buried among the drafts, he found a letter.
It was very short, written in Demonic Script.
Ginro, an excellent student, could understand its general meaning.
"To our agent. You have endured many years of infiltration. The time is near. Accelerate the completion of your mission."
What time?
What mission?
Ginro didn't know.
But Demonic Script was extremely rare.
The possibility that his utterly ordinary father was actually part of the demon race instantly shattered eighteen years of Ginro's normal life into pieces.
Report him?
Eighteen years of care. A comfortable upbringing. Ginro couldn't do it.
Confront him directly?
There were probably only two outcomes.
Kaizan would be ruthless—and kill him.
Or Kaizan would burst out laughing:
"So you found out? That's right, I'm a demon—and you're my little demon spawn. Let's overthrow Tiger City together!"
Yet Ginro had never noticed anything abnormal about himself.
A deadlock. No solution.
Tossing and turning in bed, Ginro realized studying wouldn't change his situation.
He likely wouldn't even have the chance to live peacefully through four years of college.
He needed to become a Secret Sigil Warrior.
He needed power—before anything happened.
Power enough to stand at a higher level and face whatever future might come.
And so, despite everyone's confusion and opposition, Ginro signed up as a Secret Realm Exploration Volunteer.
He wasn't acting without confidence.
Late at night, lying under his blanket, Ginro let his consciousness sink deep into his mind.
There, a book floated silently.
Or rather—a file.
"Secret Realms Change Fate: Support Program for Achieving Dreams."
In his previous life, Ginro had been a professional soccer player.
He hadn't achieved much success.
With dreams of soccer but only average talent and a terrible professional environment, he wasted years and gradually lost his drive.
At the time, his team launched a program called "Soccer Changes Fate: Support Program for Achieving Dreams."
Ginro volunteered to go to a mountain town in Guizhou, helping local youth improve their soccer skills and passing his dream on to the next generation.
Surprisingly, while playing soccer with the village boys, Ginro rediscovered the pure joy of the sport.
He spent half a year happily there.
Unfortunately, before the boys' lives could change, Ginro encountered a landslide that changed his own fate.
After dying and being reborn in this world, Ginro carried only two things with him—his memories, and this plan file.
Compared to the original version, "soccer" had been replaced by "Secret Realms," and the recipient of the support had changed from village children… to Ginro himself.
Is this the reward for my past volunteer work?
Ginro flipped open the first page.
[Beneficiary: Ginro]
[Target Secret Realm: Not Activated]
[Supporting Realm: Pending Match]
[Project Vision: Locked]
The remaining pages wouldn't open.
Clearly, the plan would only activate once he entered a Secret Realm.
Its function likely involved using a more advanced Secret Realm to assist him in clearing the "backward" one he entered.
As for how the support worked—Ginro didn't know yet.
"Tomorrow, I'll find out."
With this plan, Ginro had originally intended to enter a Secret Realm only after graduating college—once he better understood them, or even became a Secret Realm Strategy Planner.
But plans never keep up with change.
Looks like I was destined to be an athlete after all.
…
The next day, at the subway station.
Marina gazed at her precious son with reluctance.
"Are you sure you don't want us to walk you a bit farther? At least to the high-speed rail station?"
"That's enough," Kaizan said, pulling his wife back.
"The school already booked his ticket, and someone's meeting Ginro. If we go too, his classmates will laugh at him. It's just the next city over."
"What's there to laugh about?" Marina muttered.
"Kaizan, you're so heartless."
"Mom, come here."
Ginro hugged her, cutting off her complaints—and ending her plan to escort him further.
"I love you, Mom. I'll call as soon as I'm allowed to use my phone."
He hugged Marina tightly, then nodded to Kaizan.
"The train's here. I've got to go."
He couldn't let them see him off.
He wasn't going to the high-speed rail station at all.
He wasn't even leaving Tiger City.
After just a few stops, Ginro got off and arrived at the Secret Realm Explorer Service Center.
He signed in with his ID.
"Ginro… you'll be exploring Purple Secret Realm No. 605. Follow me."
As expected—a Purple Realm.
Over a thousand years of exploration, Secret Realms had been divided into difficulty tiers.
The harder the realm, the higher the quality of Secret Sigils—but also the greater the risk.
White: Easy.
Blue: Normal.
Purple: Hard.
Red: Inferno.
Gold: Legendary.
And beyond those—Prismatic Realms, almost impossible to conquer or measure.
Volunteer explorers were never sent to easy realms.
A survival rate above 95% would practically be a gift.
Most were assigned Purple realms, with early survival rates around 60%.
A few lucky ones got Blue.
And a very unlucky few were sent straight to Red Inferno realms.
Don't underestimate Purple-ranked realms.
To earn that classification, they either contained rampant war and disease—or terrifying powerhouses capable of killing with a flick of a finger.
The survival rate stayed at 60% only because many explorers focused solely on staying alive rather than truly exploring.
Soon, Ginro was led into a waiting room.
Three people were already inside.
A lively young man.
A beautiful woman.
And a weathered middle-aged man.
They were clearly his teammates for the same realm.
They had already chatted briefly.
When Ginro entered, all three looked surprised.
"You're also assigned to Purple 605?"
"You're so young—are you even an adult?"
"Baby face," Ginro replied calmly. "But I'm twenty-eight."
"Bullshit," the middle-aged man snorted.
"You look barely legal. Why risk a Secret Realm at your age?"
"Unlike me—forty-six, alone, accomplished nothing. Volunteering is my last gamble."
Ginro looked at the other two.
The man nodded toward them.
"Yoru's chasing the girl he loves."
"Setsuna joined because her family's forcing her to marry into money."
"I haven't even graduated yet," Setsuna said softly, brushing back her hair.
"My mom wants me engaged to her boss's son…"
"I regretted it the moment I got the volunteer notice."
"…And you?"
Ginro fell silent for two seconds, then sighed.
"I'm trapped by love too."
Family love counts.
The man chuckled.
Setsuna looked speechless.
Only Yoru snapped upright.
"Your childhood sweetheart was taken by a Secret Sigil Warrior too?! Bastards!"
Childhood sweetheart?
Ginro thought of Midori—foul-mouthed and violent—and shuddered.
"Yeah… worse. Her dad is a Secret Sigil Warrior. He looks down on me."
Yoru clenched his fists.
"These Secret Sigil Warriors always look down on normal people! Once I become one, I'll—"
Ginro realized he'd poked a hornet's nest and humored him until the door was knocked again.
A young man in military uniform entered—posture straight, hair slightly messy.
"Ginro. Setsuna Jiang. Yoru Blaze. Marcus Zhang."
"You're all present, correct?"
"Yes."
"Follow me."
They exited through a side door and were led into a large modified military vehicle.
The interior was spacious, but all windows except the front were sealed shut.
Lighting came from lamps.
Ventilation relied on advanced air circulation systems.
"The location of the Secret Realm entrance is classified," the officer said, handing them files.
"Don't look out the front window. You have more important things to do."
"This realm has already been explored twice. These are classified reports."
"The drive is two hours. Read them at least three times."
They're giving us intel only now?
So strict—anti-spy measures?
Oh.
Anti-my-dad measures.
That makes sense.
Ginro opened the file.
[Secret Realm Name: Navy & Pirates]
[Difficulty: Purple – Hard]
[Max Entrants per Cycle: 100]
[Cycle Length: 3 months real time / ~9 years in-realm
Sea Circle Calendar: Year 1515–early 1524]
Secret Realms weren't called "other worlds" for a reason.
Before explorers completed key objectives—before fully clearing the instance—the realm had no future.
It looped endlessly through the same time span.
At a certain point, all explorers would be expelled, and the realm reset.
This realm only had nine years of history.
At Sea Circle Calendar 1524, everyone would be expelled and the timeline reset to 1515.
In real time, that was only three months.
"Three months… I can probably hide that from Mom."
"But—Sea Circle Calendar?"
That sounded familiar.
Ginro kept reading.
[Background: A world of oceans and islands.
The vast sea gave rise to pirates—sea robbers who plundered for a living.
Those who hunted them were called the Navy.]
[Sea Circle Calendar 1498: Pirate King Gol D. Roger was captured by the Navy and publicly executed…]
Snap.
Ginro slammed the file shut.
The others looked over.
He blinked hard, rubbed his eyes, then slowly reopened it.
[Before his execution, Gol D. Roger revealed the location of his treasure.
Fame. Wealth. Power.
Thus began the Great Age of Pirates.]
"…"
Holy shit.
Not a hallucination.
Am I… the man who will become Pirate King?!
(Let me know what you think of this novel in the comments!)
Every 10 powerstones i'll post 1 extra chapter!