"Well, I have to admit, it doesn't seem like I've returned to zero, but more like coming back from the grave," Black Look thought as he looked at the earthy ground above him.
Black Look woke up slowly in the dark depths of a dense forest, feeling the soil attempting to suffocate him as he struggled to move to get out of this tight situation.
Slowly moving with his weakness and the darkness shrouding around him, he tries to pinpoint his location and search for any clue that could help him get out. He feels the soil creeping into his clothes and clinging between his fingers, increasing his sense of suffocation and isolation.
Using his hands to search for a way out, he attempts to dig the soil using his damaged nails, but soon realizes it won't be enough. He understands he needs a bigger and more serious step to survive.
Slowly, he begins to crawl towards the faint light looming in the distance, stumbling between trees and branches, trying to overcome obstacles and find a path. He feels exhaustion creeping into every cell of his body, yet he persists in movement with determination and belief that salvation is near.
With each step he takes, Black Look's determination to escape this place grows stronger. He remains determined to stay alive and fight for survival, no matter how challenging the obstacles are.
Amidst the darkness and silence, Black Look continues to strive towards the light, confident that the end will only mark the beginning of a new phase of life, a new phase where he will start from scratch.
Fortunately, the hole wasn't properly filled with soil, which allowed some oxygen to enter occasionally. Also, Black Look was conserving air and preventing its circulation or consumption to a great extent. Without these factors, he would have died long ago.
After a long period, due to the lack of any effort to know the time, Black Look didn't know how long he had been buried.
But in the end, he was able to see it.
He could see the sunlight creeping into his eyes.
After a long struggle, Black Look managed to get out of that hole.
*Huff* *Huff* *Huff*.
"That was kind of terrifying, I thought I would die on my first day back," Black Look thought as he looked at the bright sunlight, indicating that morning had arrived.
"Well, it seems that old August was right. I'll give him a gift when we meet next time."
Black Look
The genius engineer of the seventh degree, the one with countless achievements, the one who decimated 70% of Governor's forces, and died on Tornado Mountain. All these things were true except for one piece of information: he didn't die.
Black Look saved himself using a tool of eternal imagination, the Time Chance watch. It was said to belong to the early founders of Governor and was crafted by a former engineer who worked with them.
Information about the watch was highly secretive, but one of Black Look's close friends, August Zanter, somehow knew some details about it and gave him a cryptic sentence: "With this watch, you can return to zero."
With that sentence, Black Look gained a rough understanding of the watch's nature and its ability to control time.
After studying the watch for some time, Black Look found out that he couldn't move the hands backward, meaning he couldn't use it to go back in time. However, he could go forward, which could save him from imminent danger.
With August's help, Black Look realized he could escape Governor by moving forward. Despite not fully understanding August's message, he trusted him. August had been like a father to him, caring for him since he was young.
So, Black Look decided to use the watch to flee from Governor. It would have been nearly impossible for him to withstand Governor alone, even after weakening them. Therefore, he decided to escape.
He knew he would return to zero, erasing all the fatigue he had gone through. But it was the only way to survive, and there were some positives to it. With his vast knowledge as a seventh-degree engineer, going back or even surpassing his previous state would be much easier.
"Okay, it seems like this body's owner's memories are now integrated," Black Look thought wisely as he stretched and yawned, reading the strange memories that weren't his.
Those memories belonged to the original owner of the body, who had been trying to communicate with Black Look since he entered the body. However, he had been blocking her from crossing over. After all, his soul was that of a seventh-degree imagination, and such weak memories couldn't affect him.
Over time, he slowly absorbed the memories of this body.
Elven Roh.
That was the name of this body's owner.
It had been 400 years since Black look's death, and now it was the year 1695 in the Camellion calendar.
Elven Roh was an ordinary young citizen in the city of Saelo, located in the Blue Cloud Empire.
He was a twenty-one-year-old young man. His parents had been victims of a war that occurred twenty years ago, and they died when he was young, so his aunt, Amor, adopted him.
Aunt Amor worked as a baker, baking bread, pastries, and sweets, but she didn't have many customers, which made their financial situation somewhat dire.
Elven aspired to help his mother by becoming an Imaginator, as it was well known that once you became an Imaginator, all the wealth you desired would come to you. However, Elven was not from an Imaginator family, so the only option for him was to work hard in his studies, get a scholarship to university, and get a job that would give him enough money to become an Imaginator.
Despite his efforts in his studies, he ultimately couldn't get a scholarship to a famous university. Therefore, he decided to work in several jobs to earn money.
He worked in handicrafts, did part-time household services in palaces and wealthy homes, and also worked in construction. He intended to work as a writer as well, but no publishing house accepted his novel.
"This boy doesn't have any skills in storytelling. If he becomes an Imaginator, the artist specialty would truly benefit him," Black Look thought about the memories' content as he yawned and stretched his body.
"And yet... there's something strange," Black Look noticed something odd in the memories.
"The first 4 years... the last 15 days... I can't get anything from these memories," Black Look was puzzled.
"Let's ignore the first 4 years, as it's natural for a person not to remember their early years as a child. But what about the last 15 days? And why was this boy buried in the forest? Does it have anything to do with the missing memories? Because according to the memories I obtained, this boy didn't seem to have any problems in his life or mental state or hostility towards anyone," Black Look could only wonder at this.
For now, Black Look ignored the memories and approached a nearby lake, looking at his reflection in the water.
Short, messy, dirty black hair, a regular shirt made of thick fabric with dirty cotton trousers due to the soil, medium facial features, and dark empty eyes.
"... It seems that the curse of these annoying eyes hasn't disappeared even after my transition to a new body, huh?" Black Look sighed sadly.
He tore a piece of his shirt and tied it around his eyes.
Elven set off to find a way out of the forest, the beginning of a new life for him.
"From now on, I'm Elven Roh."