He rubbed his eyes roughly and checked the window again. At that moment—
Ding!
[■■■, would you like to ■■?]
Ding!
[■■■, would you like to ■■?]
A glitched system window kept popping up in succession. Just like that incident on the day of the funeral.
That uncomfortable memory, still lodged in the back of his mind, began to resurface.
…Wait. Hold on a second. Don’t tell me this is… again…
Was this the same question as before? The one that had asked if he wanted to abandon the quest?
“……”
No. Maybe not. His eyes darted nervously, caught between uncertainty and dread. He couldn’t be sure. Making a decision based on nothing more than a hunch might come back to bite him hard. This was so damn frustrating. How was he supposed to respond if he couldn’t even see what it said?
As he scowled at the window, a sudden thought struck him. What if he applied the Third Eye to the system itself?
Ding!
[■■■, would you like to ■■?]
Wasn’t this skill practically broken? It was like the system had given him a fragment of omniscience. If he could see what a designated target was doing, maybe he could also see what the system was trying to say. Maybe… maybe he could even understand how it worked—maybe even uncover what the system really was.
His heart started to race.
…Fuck it. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.
He shut his eyes and focused on the system. And right at that instant—
Ding!
[■■■……]
[An error has occurred.]
Crack. C-cr-crack.
Along with a mechanical screech, the sound of something splitting filled the air.
“……!”
His eyes flew open. In the pitch-dark space, pale white fractures had started to spread.
“W-What the hell…”
Startled, he looked around, his gaze darting in every direction before tilting his head upward. Above him, cracks were rapidly stretching outward.
It was an otherworldly, grotesque scene—the kind that made it feel like he was caught in the midst of some cataclysm beyond human comprehension or control.
Cra-crack crack crack.
His body went cold from reflexive fear, and sweat broke out all over. He instinctively hunched over, wrapping his arms around his head, eyes clenched shut.
And then—
CRASH!
The shattered fragments of space came crashing down, engulfing him.
***
[Cha… Cha Eun-soo-nim.]
A youthful voice called out.
At the same time, a piercing light burned through his closed eyelids, yanking his consciousness back.
[Cha Eun-soo-nim.]
He frowned briefly, then let the expression fade as he slowly lifted his heavy eyelids.
Staring down at him in a crouch was a child. A young boy with adorably chubby cheeks.
But… something about him felt off. He didn’t seem human.
His massive irises left almost no white in his eyes, and within those orbs, there weren’t even pupils—just a pure, glowing blue.
As Eun-soo sat up, he opened his mouth. “Who… are you?”
[U-Um, it’s me! The system!]
The boy suddenly shouted in a tone brimming with emotion, as if overwhelmed by gratitude or relief.
Uh… what?
Eun-soo blinked blankly, just staring at the child.
[I’m really sorry for summoning you like this out of nowhere. But… I couldn’t just sit back and let you be taken away, Cha Eun-soo-nim.]
“……”
…Okay. Fine. First things first.
There was no question about it anymore—this kid was the system.
Every time he spoke, his words appeared in front of Eun-soo in a system window.
Yeah. Sure. After everything he’d been through, meeting a godlike entity wasn’t exactly the strangest thing to happen.
Fighting the haze creeping into his mind, he forced himself to stay focused and asked, “What do you mean by that?”
He looked around.
In stark contrast to before, the space around him was a blinding white. Countless windows, filled with strange, indecipherable symbols, were being created, altered, and erased in rapid succession. Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of those things—each one radiating an aura that screamed do not touch—he fell silent.
Sensing his unease, the system reached out and gently took his hand. It felt like real skin… but was so cold that he instinctively flinched.
[This is where I oversee the world.]
[A-And please… you don’t have to be so formal with me, Cha Eun-soo-nim.]
“……”
[You must be… really confused, right?]
That’s the understatement of the year.
He stared at the system, not bothering to answer. The boy’s glowing eyebrows drooped, as if apologetic.
[I’m not sure where to begin or how to explain all of this properly…]
He fumbled over his words, clearly flustered.
[You remember your past life, don’t you, Cha Eun-soo-nim?]
Eun-soo nodded.
[Then… you probably remember how you died too.]
The words, spoken with careful hesitation, were anything but pleasant. Eun-soo responded with a grim look.
“Yeah. I got stabbed at the office.”
And then he’d fallen off the rooftop—Or maybe not. It was hard to be sure.
[At that time, I was searching for a soul to bring into this world.]
The system continued, his voice quiet and cautious.
[A soul who could protect the Cores of this place.]
“…Cores?”
[In each world, there exist beings who, by their mere existence, sustain the world itself. We call them Cores. In this world, they’re known as Espers—specifically, S-Class Espers. Those Espers are the Cores.]
“……!”
[The current Cores are the S-Class Espers in Korea.]
Eun-soo sat there blinking like an idiot, but still listened intently.
[But I’ve seen their future. A future where they go berserk and die because they never receive proper guiding. And because of those deaths… this world collapses.]
…What the fuck.
[After that, I tried to manifest someone capable of guiding them—someone who could stand as their equal. But there was no one in this world who met the requirements.]
[So in the end, I began searching through other parallel worlds… looking for a soul that was suitable.]
“……”
[And during that search… I came across you, Cha Eun-soo-nim, just as you died in your previous life…]
“So, what—are you telling me I was that ‘suitable soul’?”
[Yes! That’s why I immediately brought your soul into this world.]
He still looked overjoyed, like this was the best thing that could’ve happened. But on my end, I was completely speechless.
So this…This means my reincarnation happened because of the system’s interference?
“……”
Wow. Fuck me. That’s just fucking amazing.
Honestly, part of me started to wonder if this was all some elaborate delusion.
[The reason you were so frail and sickly as a child, Cha Eun-soo-nim, is because you’re a lifeform that defied the natural order. You were originally from another world, and because I forced your reincarnation into this one… your soul couldn’t properly adapt. The rejection showed itself through your physical condition. I… I wasn’t able to fix that for you. I’m truly sorry.]
The system looked like he was about to cry.
[Once things stabilized and you reached adulthood, that was the earliest I could safely trigger your manifestation… It was the best I could do.]
“Wow. Just… wow. Ha-ha…”
I let out a broken laugh, then my face hardened. I yanked my hand away.
“When the fuck did I ever ask you to do that?”
[W-What…?]
“So what you’re telling me is, you yanked my soul out of another world without asking, planted it here, and forced me to be reborn. And because of that, I ended up with a body that breaks down at the drop of a hat. Then, to top it all off, you made me into a Guide and threw those half-assed, threatening quests at me. And now you’re calling that your best?”
I spoke through gritted teeth.
Sure, fine—I was reborn into a rich family just like I’d always dreamed, and I did end up enjoying the quests, even if I won’t say that out loud. Yeah. Honestly? I had a fucking blast. But even with all that, that’s a whole separate issue.
The point is—if I’d been reincarnated in my world, the way things were meant to be, maybe I could’ve lived a way more peaceful life. A life without Espers and Cores and whatever the hell else.
And beyond that, the visceral rejection I felt toward someone who had designed my second life from the ground up— It wasn’t something I could help. It felt instinctive. Even if that someone was basically a god.
Like—what the actual fuck kind of logic is that?
“Hold up.”
My expression twisted.
“Come to think of it—That time, when the system window asked me if I wanted to give up the quest… it said no at first, then changed its answer. Why the hell did that happen?”
It had been too suspicious to chalk up as just a simple bug.
The system flinched, then tightly shut his eyes before opening them again.
[That… That’s because the system from your original world has been interfering—trying to reclaim your soul. That question about giving up the quest, and even that strange space you were in before arriving here… all of it was its doing. And because you happened to activate a skill imbued with my authority… I detected it. And I broke through that place.]
“What the hell…So that world had a system too?”
[Yes… If it only ever revealed itself to certain individuals, like I do, you might not have realized it existed at all.]
Nothing was surprising anymore at this point.
…So then, those glitched system prompts that kept appearing in the darkness—They were asking me if I wanted to give up the quest, just like I thought.
If I’d nodded or agreed right then and there, my soul might’ve been yanked straight back to my original world. And if that had happened… what would’ve come next?
[I’ve heard there are systems that are so obsessive, they’d cling to even a single blade of grass if it were part of their world…I didn’t expect that one to be yours, though.]
The system muttered, half to himself, like he was cracking some ridiculous joke.
“You literally scoured other worlds looking for a soul you needed, and ended up kidnapping one.
Sounds like you’re just as obsessive—actually, scratch that. You might be worse.”
[That… yeah, now that you put it like that…]
The system’s shoulders slumped as he nodded meekly, looking completely deflated.
That pathetic expression on a child’s face…To someone who didn’t know any better, it might’ve looked pitiful.
I snorted and tried not to get caught up in his appearance.
…Though, honestly, a tiny part of me—barely the size of an ant’s eyelash—did feel a little sorry for him.
