Kai ran his fingers through his hair for the umpteenth time today. He was nervous.
Why wouldn't he be?
An Adventurer's Crusade, a light novel that had been ongoing for several years, was finally ending today. As he read the last chapter, nostalgia washed over him, each word feeling like a sacred relic.
The final release had been hyped for ages. The moment he received the notification, he dove right in. The chapter exceeded his expectations—not only was it three times longer than usual, but with every line, the secrets of the story unraveled before his eyes.
And then it just… stopped. He reached the bottom of the page to find a conclusion note, and his heart sank in dismay.
'It's over,' he thought, tossing his phone aside. It felt as if a part of him had vanished; the anticipation of weekly releases was gone, leaving an empty void in its place.
"Fucking trash!" Kai exclaimed, glaring at his phone. "Elijah had so many chances, so many women interested in him, and he didn't even choose one?"
The final chapter featured Elijah facing off against the Demon Lord, and even the epilogue didn't match his expectations. Kai couldn't understand the protagonist's denseness—after seeing the character art, he would have felt tempted by the female leads.
"Even I could do a better job," he muttered under his breath. He was an introvert who kept to himself and had developed high expectations over the years. But they had been shattered.
[Are you sure about that?]
A voice echoed in the room, snapping Kai's attention back to his phone. He looked down, but there was nothing on the screen—no notifications, no sounds, nothing unusual.
[Are you sure you can do better than the Chosen One of the world?]
The voice came again, thick and authoritative. Kai felt an overwhelming presence radiating from it—it seemed neither masculine nor feminine, almost monotone.
"Yes," Kai replied, unsure why he felt compelled to answer. The voice seemed to require no further affirmation.
An intense wave of heat surged through his palm, and he instinctively glanced at his phone.
"What the hell is wrong with this Samsung?" he muttered, raising the device to his face. Samsung phones weren't known for overheating like this; something was definitely off. By the time he realized what was happening, it was too late.
The phone exploded right in his face. Flames engulfed him as the explosion rocked his world. He collapsed to the ground, his life slipping away in that instant.
[Good luck!]
The voice echoed again, but it sounded muffled, fading as consciousness slipped from him.
#####
Kai's eyes shot open. He began to breathe heavily, memories of the explosion flooding back. He had witnessed his phone—a Samsung of all things—detonate before his eyes, and yet he was alive?
'Good luck,' he recalled the voice saying just before he lost consciousness. 'Was it the cause of this?'
He quickly assessed his surroundings and realized he was in a room far different from his own. The design on the ceiling was unfamiliar. He couldn't turn his head to the left or right; everything felt strange.
Suddenly, he felt himself being lifted. For a grown man, being hoisted so easily seemed absurd, but then it hit him—he was no longer a 20-year-old. He was a baby now.
'Hell! This is just like the reincarnation light novels I read,' Kai thought, struggling to show his feelings. His vocal cords were too underdeveloped to form words yet.
"He's so cute," said a woman's voice. Kai looked up at the black-haired beauty with glowing blue eyes—a mesmerising beauty indeed. But as she gazed down at him, he noticed that she and the other nurses were watching him expectantly.
'Shit, I haven't cried yet,' Kai thought, steeling himself. It was going to be hard for a grown man to cry, but he forced the sound out, knowing it was necessary to survive in this new world. It wasn't every day someone got a second chance at life.
Waaahh!
The loud cries echoed throughout the room, and the nurses' expressions softened. After all, some babies didn't cry immediately.
"Mrs. Brandon, he's such a beautiful child!"
"He takes after his father!"
"He'll certainly be a lady-killer in the future!"
The praise flooded over Kai, and despite himself, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. He hadn't expected such compliments after just crying.
'It was worth it,' he reasoned inwardly, unwilling to let his thoughts surface.
Maria Brandon looked down at the child in her arms, who had stopped crying and now stared back at her with curious blue eyes.
"I wish your dad could be here," she said, her voice tinged with sadness. "Kyle is always off clearing dungeons somewhere, but it's fine."
"From now on, your name will be Kai Brandon," she announced. Kai blinked up at her in confusion.
'Wait, she used my name?' Kai thought, looking up at the ceiling. It was clear that the voice from before was responsible for what was going on here.
As he processed this new world, Kai felt a mix of emotions wash over him—confusion, excitement, and a twinge of anxiety about the life ahead. He had been given a second chance, but as a baby in an unfamiliar world, what did that mean for him? Would he still have the same passions? There were bound to be things that would change.
His mind raced with possibilities, and a sense of warmth began to build within him. He would navigate his way through this new life, learn about this world, and even find a way to surpass the Main character he had read so much about… The voice from the earlier had asked him the same and he was unwilling to lose.
With that thought, Kai closed his eyes again, savoring the moment. This was a fresh start, and he would make the most of it. He hadn't been this close to peace in a while, every week had always been an update of the Adventurer's Crusade, filled with plot twists and cliffhangers that annoyed him a bit but he was finally at peace.