Chapter 1
— The Portal to Murim**
Kang Jun was having the worst day of his life.
At twenty-nine years old, he had nothing to show for it. No success, no supportive family, no respect at work. People ignored him when they didn't need him and mocked him when they did.
Weak. Useless. Invisible.
Those words followed him from school to college, and even into the office.
That night, exhausted, Kang Jun walked home under dim streetlights, hands in his pockets, mind empty.
"Is this really it?" he muttered. "Work, sleep, repeat… until I die?"
Then the air in front of him twisted.
A dark crack appeared in the middle of the road.
Kang Jun blinked.
"…Am I hallucinating?"
The crack widened into a swirling black portal.
Before he could react—
A powerful force dragged him forward.
"WAIT—!"
The world flipped upside down.
Sound vanished.
Light disappeared.
Then—
Silence.
---
Somewhere far away, in another world…
Inside a martial clan estate, a newborn baby cried beneath warm lantern light.
Servants rushed around.
"Congratulations! It's a boy!"
Clan members smiled in relief.
Soon, the child's parents looked lovingly at the newborn.
"The heavens sent him to us safely," his father said softly. "His name shall be…"
"Hēi Lang."
Inside the newborn's mind—
A grown man screamed.
*WHAT IS HAPPENING?!*
Kang Jun tried to move, but his arms and legs flailed uselessly.
Tiny.
Weak.
Helpless.
He had been reborn.
Not by death.
Not by choice.
But dragged into another world.
And now…
Kang Jun had become **Hēi Lang**.
And his new life had just begun.