Location: Training Gate – Rank D (Transformed to S+).
Time: 8 Years Ago (Lirion's Age: 19).The air was heavy with the scent of blood and scorched iron, mingled with a strange, unfamiliar odor… the smell of burning ozone, like a short-circuited electrical wire. It wasn't a graduation day as they had expected. The D-Rank gate they entered trembled violently, but the light didn't just turn purple; instead, blue digital cracks fractured across the stone walls, as if reality itself was crumbling.Monsters with crimson eyes poured in like a flood, but Lirion noticed something impossible: on the forehead of one beast, a geometric square marking pulsed faintly with light. It wasn't natural—it looked like an electronic circuit etched directly into flesh.Lirion tried to flee, but the ceiling collapsed. He fell into a dark abyss, his body slamming against jagged rocks. He heard the sickening crack of his left shoulder bone, followed by searing pain in his leg. He lay at the bottom, his blood soaking into the dirt.His weak white root (Rank F) trembled, unable to draw even a single drop of mana for a simple healing spell. The magic circuits in his body were clogged with impurities.In the haze of death, he caught a silver-green glint among the rubble. A strange stone, smooth to the touch, pulsing as if it had a heartbeat. He reached out with a trembling hand and touched it.A tremendous voice echoed through his soul—not human, but cold and mechanical:
["Restoration Key" Bearer Detected.]
[Integration initiated... Imminent death confirmed. Activating "Temporal Reset" Protocol.]
[Warning: External interference detected in the timeline. Source: Unknown.]Lirion felt his timeline being pulled backward, his pain fading into absolute darkness, and then… light.