Am I… dead?
That was the first coherent thought that drifted through the haze.
The last memory I had was the burning sensation in my chest, the kind you feel when your end is already sealed.
But strangely, I wasn't afraid.
Regretful, yes.
Afraid, no.
I guess this was that "peace" people talked about before death.
If anything… I was relieved.
Relieved that the burden of being me was finally gone.
The weak, useless Nam Gi Won.
The boy who couldn't stand without help.
The one who caused trouble simply by breathing.
Now, at least, my family wouldn't have to worry anymore.
A pathetic final thought… but it was mine.
When I opened my eyes again, I didn't see heaven.
Nor hell.
Only a vast void — an endless expanse where light and darkness intertwined, forming gentle blue ripples across nothingness.
No sky.
No ground.
No weight.
Just floating, like a ghost drifting underwater.
"…So, this is what comes after?"
My voice didn't echo.
It was swallowed by the silence immediately.
I lifted my hands — faint, pale, almost transparent.
Light drifted off my fingertips like dust blown by a soft breeze.
"Even in death, I'm still pathetic."
A dry laugh slipped through.
"Not even a proper afterlife. Just… nothing."
I closed my eyes — but then a memory flickered like a spark.
Her.
The girl who walked against the world.
The one who kept her chin up even when fate ground her dreams into the dirt.
The one I tried to save but failed—over and over.
Why was I thinking about her now?
Maybe it was guilt.
Maybe obsession.
Maybe regret.
If I could redo it —
If I could face those endings again—
Ting.
A clear chime rippled across the void.
A light formed.
A window.
Silver text carved into space itself.
[Welcome, Player.]
My eyes widened.
This interface…
This font…
This color…
"…E.F.O."
My voice trembled.
"Eternal Fate Online."
The game that consumed my whole life.
My escape, my dream, my obsession.
An unexpected presence filled the void
[Nam Gi Won. I am T.O.W.K. Thank you for witnessing the end of all fates.]
My breath caught.
T.O.W.K…?
That name echoed inside me like a forgotten chord suddenly plucked back to life.
"T.O.W.K?! You mean—the developer of E.F.O? The guy who's never replied to a single one of my messages or bug reports? The same person who ignored literally thousands of community posts for years?"
My voice sounded small, swallowed by the endless void surrounding us.
So why is he… revealing himself now? In the afterlife, of all places?
A hum, like the vibration of an ancient machine powering on, washed across the darkness.
[I am indeed the one who created that world in the form of a game.
But do not fret. I did it to find someone… someone like me.]
His tone wasn't robotic, nor human—something in-between, overlapping, as if many versions of him spoke at once.
[Someone who loved that world as much as I do.]
My heart thumped painfully.
"What…? Then does that mean that world was real? Everything about it—every death, every ending… was all real?"
A pause.
Like he was choosing his words carefully.
[You are half right… and half wrong.]
[That world is a derived version of the real one. A mirror. A test.
A copy created to observe the hearts of those who walk through it.]
My stomach twisted.
"So that last ending—was it real? Did the world truly end like that?"
[No.]
The answer came instantly.
[You witnessed a fragment. A false end.
A controlled collapse.]
[Even I have never seen the true conclusion.]
That stunned me more than anything else.
"How…? How could the admin not know the ending of his own world?"
The void pulsed. The cracks of light around us brightened.
[Because it was never written.]
[The world was incomplete.]
[And you—
the one who walked every path,
who uncovered every hidden route,
who challenged every ending—
you will now shape the remainder.]
My mind blanked. I felt my legs weaken though I had no body here.
"Why me…? There were millions of players. Why me?"
His voice softened. Almost… warm.
[Because you didn't just play.]
[You cared.]
For the first time, his voice flickered—distorted by interference, like a dying signal.
[My time is limited. Listen carefully.]
The void trembled. A deep rumble vibrated through the emptiness as jagged lines of white light burst outward, fracturing the darkness like shattering glass.
Pieces of nothingness began to fall.
[Save this world.]
The light engulfed my feet—no, what felt like feet.
[In return…
I will grant you any wish.]
The final words boomed through the collapsing void, echoing long after the light swallowed everything
**
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I noticed was the forest.
Trees towered above me, their roots twisting like veins, half-buried in the soil. Shafts of sunlight pierced the canopy, scattering motes of energy that shimmered like drifting embers. Somewhere far off, birds chirped, and a gentle breeze carried the scent of damp earth.
For a long moment, I just lay there, staring at the swaying leaves.
It felt… unreal. Dreamlike.
Slowly, I sat up, brushing dirt from my cloak. The air was sharp, clean, and humming faintly with something foreign yet familiar. Mana. It prickled against my skin like static, vibrating just beneath the surface of reality.
I inhaled deeply.
Somehow, it was refreshing—the wind brushing my cheeks, sunlight warming my skin.
I felt… alive.
I wandered toward a nearby pond. At first, the reflection was vague, a blur of dark shapes, but as I drew closer, it sharpened.
"…It really is me."
Long black hair fell past my neck.
Eyes deep and glossy with exhaustion.
A defined jawline, smooth features, tinged with a faint melancholy.
My avatar. The one I had designed on the last day of my final run before the servers shut down.
I had made it resemble my real face—so I could meet her as myself.
"What a stupid, sentimental choice," I muttered.
"Why would a fictional character even remember me?"
"And why didn't I make myself more attractive?"
I chuckled softly.
My clothes were simple—a worn traveler's cloak, faded boots, a short sword tied to my waist. In my pocket: thirty silver coins.
The standard beginner set of Eternal Fate Online.
I flexed my fingers and stood.
No aches, no lingering pain. My body felt light, as if invisible weights had been removed.
Then a familiar blue window appeared before me: the Status Window.
---
──────────────────────────────
STATUS WINDOW
──────────────────────────────
Name: Nam Gi Won
Race: Human
Class: Swordsman
Trait: [EMPTY VESSEL]
Hp: 100 / 100
Mp: 0 / 0
STR : 12
AGI : 11
CON : 12
WIL : 10
MNA : 0
DEX : 10
──────────────────────────────
SKILLS
──────────────────────────────
• Absorption (Unique) ... Rank E
──────────────────────────────
There it was.
Empty Vessel.
Not inherently bad. Not great either.
It was my signature trait—the one I had been foolish enough to choose.
Traits were dangerous.
Lethal in some cases, powerful in others.
Empty Vessel allowed me to use every attribute freely…
But at a cost.
I could only handle up to 3rd Circle magic.
I couldn't form a mana core.
I had to rely on external sources. And even those had limitations—making the early game a nightmare.
The real problem wasn't the trait.
It was the body I had been transmigrated into.
A custom character.
In E.F.O., there were three types of playable characters: main casts, side casts, and custom characters.
I grabbed a fistful of my hair.
"If I want to clear this game… at least make me a main cast. I'd have a chance to engage with the plot more directly."
I had loved custom characters for the freedom. No cringey romance lines, no "chosen one" story arcs. I did whatever I wanted.
Now… I was utterly doomed.
I barely remembered the main storyline. Only one extra character's arc—the one outside the main route—was etched in my mind.
She appeared once in the main route, then only again as one of the final bosses.
But then—
My hand clenched.
I remembered the final battle.
Her frozen body in my arms. Her last words echoing through a collapsing world:
"I'm sorry…"
I had always thought: if I had one more chance… I could save her.
Now, maybe I finally could.
"That settles it," I whispered.
"I'll save her first… fix some other problems… then dox the whole world and run away."
A reckless grin spread across my face.
"It'll be difficult, of course. I gave myself the hardest start in the entire game…"
I smirked.
"…Fine. Let's begin."
For now, I needed two things: information and money.
"First… I need to know exactly where I am."
I scanned the forest around me.
Endless trees stretched in all directions.
Glowing roots crawled along the soil.
Small critters darted between bushes.
Streams sparkled faintly under the sun.
It was breathtaking. Alive in a way no monitor could ever capture.
I began walking, boots crunching against the damp earth.
Every few meters, I marked a tree with shallow cuts from my sword—a habit I had learned from the game.
E.F.O. liked to play tricks with direction, after all.
Eventually, through the gaps in the trees, I saw smoke—thin, gray trails rising in the distance. A campfire, or maybe a passing carriage.
Bingo.
I adjusted my cloak and followed the road downhill until the cobblestone path came into view. The faint creak of wooden wheels echoed through the quiet forest.
I smiled.
A small merchant carriage appeared, drawn by two brown horses. The driver — a middle-aged man with a kind but wary face — slowed down when he saw me waving.
"Hey there, traveler!" he called out. "You look a bit lost!"
"Yeah," I said, approaching carefully. "I woke up in the forest. Mind giving me a lift?"
He looked me up and down, then shrugged. "Sure, hop in. Ain't safe for a lad to walk these roads alone."
Fortunately the man was kind. He gave a lift even someone as suspicious of me. Perhaps my innocent face affected it
Anyway
As we rode, the rhythmic clatter of wheels filled the silence. I struck up casual conversation — standard RPG courtesy.
The man's name was Darin, a merchant heading to Elton, a border city near the Empire's edge. From his words, I pieced together the timeline.
Five months before the academy's next enrollment.
That meant I was early — far earlier than the main cast's debut.
Perfect.
I still have time to prepare specially for the entrance exam
"Elton, huh…"
It's the near the border of the empire not exactly a good place to start on from others but this place is a fine training ground for me
Sooner the town Elton came to view it looks exactly like how I've seen it in the monitor
From a distance, Elton looked almost peaceful.
Nestled in a shallow valley surrounded by gentle hills, the town was neither vast nor imposing — more like a stubborn ember refusing to die out in a world long past its golden age.
Its stone walls, darkened by rain and moss, gleamed faintly under the afternoon sun. Smoke curled lazily from chimneys, painting thin gray trails into the pale sky.
If I hadn't known better, I would've mistaken it for an ordinary trading town.
But Elton wasn't ordinary.
Not to me.
That place… was where countless players met their first deaths.
And their first triumphs.
From here, I could see the town clearly. Carts rolled through the gate in slow rhythm, merchants shouting at guards, and a few armored figures stood watch — adventurers, maybe. Their weapons glinted, but their postures spoke of fatigue more than vigilance.
The town's architecture was distinct even from afar.
Thick stone bases anchored the buildings, with wooden upper floors that leaned slightly toward the streets, their red and brown roofs layered like scales. Flags fluttered from towers — faded crests of the Empire, barely maintained.
To the west, I could see the outline of the Adventurer's Guild hall, built higher than the rest — a rectangular shape with a watchtower jutting upward, topped with a silver emblem that caught the light. Just below it, a marketplace sprawled outward like a web, full of moving specks.
I took a deep breath.
Even from here, I could hear faint echoes — laughter, shouting, the clatter of iron.
It was nostalgic
"Elton," I whispered, a small smile tugging at my lips. "You haven't changed at all."
I stood there for a moment longer, just watching the city breathe beneath the sky.
It's the place where many players starts their own journey
A town of adventurers.
A place of beginnings.
"Alright," I said quietly. "Let's start from zero again."
---
✦ End of Chapter.