Daniel Park took a deep breath as he stepped out of his dorm building, the early morning sunlight warming his face. It should have been a comforting moment, but instead, the chaos of New York City immediately swallowed him whole. Cars honked angrily at nothing in particular. A cyclist was yelling at a pedestrian. A pigeon was yelling at the cyclist. Typical.
He clutched his backpack straps tightly.
"Okay… first day of my second life," he whispered. "I can do this. Probably."
He checked his cracked phone again just to reassure himself.
8:30 AM — Intro to Psychology
Hunter College — North Building
His first official class. His stomach dropped.
The Real-Life Mastery System chimed in with impeccable timing.
DING.
[Daily Mission: Show Up]
Objective: Attend your scheduled class on time.
Reward: +2 SP
Penalty: None
Daniel stared at the notification floating in front of him.
"I can't believe you're rewarding me just for going to class."
The system glimmered as if proud of itself.
He sighed heavily and headed toward the subway, trying to blend into the flow of students. But his mind kept churning with the same anxious thought: This world is familiar, but not mine. I died… and now I'm here again. Why?
The subway platform smelled like sweat, damp metal, and stress. When the train doors opened, a wave of bodies pushed inward, and Daniel squeezed in with them.
He immediately realized he had forgotten just how terrible the subway experience was.
He found himself trapped between a tall student watching a video on full volume and a woman typing furiously on her phone. A sudden jerk of the train sent him stumbling forward, nearly falling onto another passenger. He caught himself just in time, mumbling an apology the person didn't even acknowledge.
The system remained silent.
Right. Daniel only had one skill right now: Basic Trash Sorting — Beginner.
There was nothing here he could clean without getting arrested.
He held onto the pole and endured every lurch, bump, and loud sneeze until the train finally arrived at his stop. When the doors opened, he practically bolted out.
Hunter College's campus came into view — familiar to this body, strange to his original memories. Students milled about in every direction, chatting, eating, rushing, and already stressing about their schedules.
Daniel swallowed hard and headed toward the North Building. The moment he stepped inside, he froze.
The building was a labyrinth.
Signs pointed in conflicting directions.
Some stairs led to multiple floors at once.
He passed the same vending machine twice.
Then three times.
He began suspecting witchcraft.
"This place… is evil," Daniel whispered.
He turned another corner and came face-to-face with a familiar hallway — the one he had just walked down three minutes ago. He stared at the floor, convinced he had slipped into a time loop.
He took a deep breath and kept moving, determined to find Room 412 or die trying. Probably the latter.
Just as he turned quickly to avoid walking into a dead end, his shoulder slammed into something soft.
The impact scattered papers into the air like startled doves.
"O-Oh no—! I'm so sorry!" Daniel yelped.
He crouched immediately to gather the sheets.
The girl he bumped into crouched too, brushing her hair away from her face. She wore a big sweater, glasses slipping down her nose, and her brown hair was tied loosely — the kind of messy bun that somehow still looked neat.
"Oh! Don't worry about it," she said quickly, a small smile forming. "I wasn't paying attention either."
Daniel handed her a notebook he'd snagged off the floor.
"I am so, so sorry. I swear I didn't see you — I'm new — I'm very lost — I'm—"
She laughed softly. "It's okay. Really."
Daniel tried to calm himself down.
"I… I'm Daniel."
"Emily," she replied. "Freshman?"
"Yeah."
"You look a little… overwhelmed."
Daniel didn't bother denying it.
"I've already walked in like four circles."
"Oh, that's normal here." She motioned down the hall. "Psychology's this way. I can take you if you want."
Daniel blinked.
"You… actually know where it is?"
"Yep. I got lost last week, so I memorized the path out of pure trauma."
Daniel nodded seriously.
"I understand that deeply."
They walked together through the twisting hallways, Daniel trying not to overthink every step he took. He could feel his own awkwardness radiating like a low-frequency hum.
"So," Emily said casually, "are you new to the city?"
Daniel stiffened.
He couldn't exactly say:
Actually, I died of overwork in a different world and woke up here with a magical system that gave me a trash-sorting skill.
So he went with the closest thing to a half-truth.
"I… moved around a lot."
Emily's expression softened.
"That must have been tough."
Daniel blinked, caught off guard.
"…Yeah. Something like that."
They walked past two identical hallways that somehow led to opposite directions before Emily finally pointed confidently to a door labeled "212."
"Here we are," she said.
Daniel stared.
"This door says two-twelve."
"Yep," Emily replied cheerfully. "But it's really four-twelve."
"Why?"
She shrugged. "Hunter logic."
They entered the classroom, and Emily gave him a small wave before heading to a seat near the front. Daniel gravitated immediately to the back corner — the safe zone.
As class began, the professor walked in with the energy of someone who had already accepted defeat in life.
"Welcome to Intro to Psychology," he said bluntly. "This class will examine why humans make bad decisions. Some of you will contribute excellent examples."
Daniel thought that was fair.
He tried to focus, but the system window kept sitting in the corner of his vision. His Skill Tree was depressingly empty, containing only:
[Basic Trash Sorting — Beginner]
Proficiency: 0%
Daniel closed the window quickly before the professor thought he was watching TikToks.
The class dragged on. Daniel absorbed what he could, though half his brain was still adjusting to the fact that he was twenty again and no longer dead.
Toward the end of the lecture, something prickled at the back of his neck.
Someone was staring at him.
Slowly, as discreetly as possible, Daniel turned his head.
A student sitting in the far back row glared at him with sharp, narrowed eyes.
The expression wasn't confused.
Or curious.
Or distracted.
It was hostile.
Daniel froze.
He pointed weakly at himself.
"…Me?"
The guy didn't look away.
Daniel quickly turned back, pretending nothing happened, though his heart was racing.
DING.
[Alert]
Unidentified hostile attention detected.
Monitoring…
Daniel whispered under his breath, "How do I already have an enemy? I've said like four words today."
When class ended, Emily approached him again, smiling warmly.
"How was your first class?"
Daniel considered sugarcoating it.
"I nearly died on the subway."
Emily laughed. "You'll get used to it."
"No. I won't."
"That's also fair."
She lifted her backpack. "Going to your next class now?"
"Yeah," Daniel said. "Sociology. Somewhere in this… cursed building."
"If you get lost, text me," Emily said lightly. "I put my number in your phone earlier."
Daniel blinked.
"You… did?"
"Yep! Anyway, see you around!"
She walked off, leaving Daniel frozen in place as his brain short-circuited.
He hadn't had someone voluntarily give him their number in either life.
He forced himself to breathe and shuffle toward the hallway.
DING.
[Daily Mission Complete: Show Up]
Reward: +2 SP
Current SP: 5 SP
Daniel nodded faintly.
"At least something went right today…"
He didn't notice the same hostile student watching him from the stairwell, eyes narrowed, posture still and focused — like Daniel had become a puzzle he intended to solve.