"Ah, such a small role. I hardly have half a page of dialogue. This is the last examination of the year. I need to make an impression on the teachers during the drama. But how? God damnit." A young man in his early twenties could hardly contain his anger as he threw the script in his hand across the room.
Suddenly, a sharp pain seized his chest. Gasping for air, he fell to his knees, clutching at his heart. His face turned pale as he collapsed to the ground, still gripping his chest.
"F*ck, am I really dying like this? Not achieving anything in this shithole called Earth," he cursed with his last breath.
Kim Joon-won died alone in his flat, the victim of a sudden cardiac arrest brought on by rage.
From his now lifeless body, a transparent soul emerged. It was Joon-won. Desperately, he reached out with his ethereal hand towards his body, but before he could touch it, his soul was dragged away.
As Joon-won's soul was whisked away, leaving a cold body on the floor of his rented single bedroom, another white soul was gently placed into it. As this new soul integrated into the body, a small golden wisp darted into the head, burying itself deep inside.
Color returned to the face, signifying that life had once again filled the body. The hand holding the crumpled script clenched it tighter as the eyes fluttered open.
"Ugh, where am I? I should be dead by now. Is this heaven? I should look for Quin if it is." A hoarse voice filled the silent room. It was Zen Su, the former king who had hoped to reunite with his wife in the afterlife.
Rubbing his eyes, which were hazy and unclear, he finally took in his surroundings.
"I thought heaven was above the clouds with a blue sky. Why is the sky brown? Am I in a special room, waiting to go to heaven?" he pondered, staring at the brown ceiling.
"Wait, what is this pain? Ugh." His hands immediately left the script, clutching his head as a rush of information flooded his mind.
"Wait, what? This isn't the Zen Kingdom? I'm not Zen Su? I wasn't a king? What are these new memories? Why does it feel like I'm forgetting an important part of my life?" he murmured fearfully, gripping his head tighter.
[Host memories going haywire. Initializing temporary protocol to ensure a smooth flow of memories while maintaining the old ones] A small robotic voice resounded in his head, but Zen Su was too panic-stricken to notice.
[Beep... Beep... Stable Network established for the flow of memories. Shutting down until the Host fulfills necessary conditions for full activation.]
"I am Zen Su, not someone else. Oh god, I almost forgot who I was immediately after I died. But where am I? Why do I remember being someone else? A kid named Kim Joon-won? Why do I know his name and memories?" Slowly, he released his tight hold on his hair.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and calmed himself, showing the self-control and skills he had honed as a king. Slowly, he began to organize his thoughts.
"I died, yet I was reborn in another world, inside another body? I have never heard of such a thing, even in the Zen Kingdom."
"According to these memories, I am inside a 20-year-old kid named Kim Joon-won. What a strange name." Finally, he opened his eyes.
"I'm not in heaven or hell. I'm alive again. This poor guy died young, giving me this chance."
Pulling himself up while still sitting on the ground, he looked around, trying to understand his surroundings. Seeing the medium-sized television, his mouth fell open.
"What is this strange thing? Even as a king, I never saw anything like this. Wait, this is called a television? T.V.? According to these memories, we can see motion pictures in it?" Feeling curious about the new technology, he slowly grasped what television was from Kim Joon-won's memories.
Looking around, he finally found the remote and picked it up.
"Hmm, to turn this T.V. on, I need to use this. Yeah, this button should do it." Finding the right button, he pressed it.
The T.V. sprang to life, and his eyes widened in amazement. He saw people talking inside it and was rendered speechless by the pure shock.
"Woah, this is revolutionary. Such amazing things exist in this world. Even the magic we had can't compare to this. To even think of such a thing and make it, the human brains here are much more complex than back home," he finally reacted, awe filling his voice.