11:03 AM – A Family That Never Stopped Waiting
The quiet hum of the hospital's ventilation filled the sterile room.
Kyung-min lay motionless in the hospital bed, his bandaged arms resting limply at his sides, his breathing shallow but steady. The glow of the monitoring equipment cast a faint light against the dim room.
Outside, a set of hurried footsteps echoed down the hallway.
Then—
The door slammed open.
A woman rushed in first—her heels clicking sharply against the floor.
She wasn't dressed like a grieving mother. No tears streaked her face.
But the moment she laid eyes on her son—
Her entire body trembled.
"Kyung-min…"
The man beside her placed a firm hand on her shoulder, grounding her.
His father.
His mother.
Both of them stood frozen, staring at the son they had long thought dead.
And behind them—
A girl stood still.
Her hands clutched tightly at the hem of her sleeves.
Her lip trembled.
Her eyes burned.
"...Oppa?"
The word was barely a whisper.
But it carried one year of grief.
One year of waiting.
One year of hoping—only to be met with nothing.
And now—
He was here.
Alive.
But unmoving.
Her knees buckled, and she caught herself against the bed railing, hands gripping tightly as her chest heaved with emotions she couldn't process.
"You're alive," she whispered, her voice breaking.
"You were gone for a year."
Her fingers curled into trembling fists.
"Where were you?"
11:06 AM – The Association's Observers
Outside the hospital room, two officials from the Awakener Association watched the scene unfold through the observation window.
One of them let out a slow exhale.
"This is going to be complicated."
His colleague scoffed, crossing his arms.
"A missing person, legally declared dead, reappears in a C-rank dungeon after a full year, with a class that havent been recorded so far?" He let out a dry laugh. "Complicated doesn't even begin to cover it."
Another moment of silence passed.
Then—
"Have you found anything else?"
The older official shook his head.
"No public records of him ever being an awakener before his disappearance. No dungeon entry logs. No missing reports connecting him to any major gate incidents."
His colleague frowned.
"Then where the hell has he been?"
They both looked at the unconscious young man.
Neither of them had an answer.
But one thing was certain—
The world thought Han Kyung-min had died a year ago.
And now, for some reason, it had let him back in.
11:09 AM – A Family's Unanswered Questions
Kyung-min remained motionless.
His breathing was steady, the soft beep of the heart monitor the only sign that he was still alive.
His mother sat beside his bed, fingers curled tightly around his hand. She hadn't moved since she arrived.
His father stood near the window, silent. A man of measured words, yet even he couldn't find any now.
And his sister…
She hadn't stopped watching him.
She was hunched forward in her chair, her arms resting on the bed's edge, her knuckles white from gripping the sheets.
Her voice was quiet, almost fragile.
"Where were you…?"
She wasn't expecting an answer.
But that didn't stop the question from slipping past her lips.
11:15 AM – The Awakener Association's Inquiry
Outside, in the observation hallway, the Awakener Association officials continued their discussion.
Their scanner flickered with unstable readings.
"His mana isn't settling," one of them muttered. "It keeps fluctuating."
"He's unstable?"
"No… it's not that. It's like—" The man hesitated. "Something is suppressing it. As if he was meant to be stronger, but something's holding him back."
The other official frowned, tapping his fingers against the side of the device.
"Could be exhaustion. If he somehow forced himself past his limits, maybe his body is sealing off part of his own power to recover."
"Maybe."
The older official glanced through the glass window at Kyung-min.
"But if that's the case, when he wakes up… whatever is being held back might not stay that way for long."
11:22 AM – The Fractured Dream
Darkness.
Then—
A flicker of something familiar.
A cavern. A battlefield.
The scent of blood, the weight of exhaustion.
Kyung-min could feel it. The coarse, broken ground beneath him. The scent of rot in the air.
The weight of death pressing down.
Then, like a whisper carried on a cold wind—
"You just… weren't meant to survive this cycle."
His breath hitched.
The voice was familiar. Distant yet painfully close.
It echoed, stretching across time, embedding itself deep into his skull.
"You just… weren't meant to survive this cycle."
Kyung-min turned, his mind racing.
And then—
The dungeon flickered.
The past crashed down like a tidal wave.
He was there again.
Inside the dungeon. The first cycle. The betrayal.
The silver-haired girl stood beside him.
The others—the people he had fought beside—surrounded him.
But their weapons were drawn.
His heart pounded. His body was too weak to move.
He had fought. He had bled. He had dragged himself through hell just to reach this point.
And now—
They stood above him, deciding his fate.
"It's not personal, Kyung-min."
The words came from a shadowy figure at the front. A voice that once belonged to an ally.
"We just… need to make sure this reward goes to the right person."
He remembered now.
How they had turned on him.
How their logic had been simple.
He was weak. He hadn't contributed enough. He didn't deserve it.
So—
They had decided his death was justified.
One of them had hesitated.
But the others?
The others had already made their choice.
He felt it again—
The dagger plunging into his gut.
The pain was so real it tore through his consciousness.
He gasped, hands trembling as he relived the moment.
The cold steel twisted inside him, and as his blood pooled beneath him—
He saw their expressions.
They weren't filled with hatred.
There was no joy in killing him.
Just detached acceptance.
As if they were simply removing an obstacle.
And then—
The silver-haired girl's eyes met his.
And she said nothing.
The vision shattered.
He was falling.
Through the dungeon. Through time. Through every torment he had endured.
The monsters that had hunted him.
The pain of being ripped apart and forced to revive in the abyss.
The hunger. The loneliness. The countless battles.
And then—
The cold laughter of the system itself.
🔹 [Floor 0 Should Not Exist.]
🔹 [User Was Never Meant to Exist Here.]
"You just… weren't meant to survive this cycle."
Again.
The voice was still there.
It echoed one last time.
Then—
A blade flashed.
Straight to his ribs.
11:31 AM – The Storm Awakens
The world outside the hospital remained calm.
But inside—
A storm was brewing.
The lights flickered.
The mana-monitoring equipment beeped erratically, displaying fluctuations that shouldn't have been possible.
The Awakener Association officials, still outside the room, snapped their heads toward the disturbance.
"What the hell—?"
One of the devices sparked.
Inside the room, Kyung-min's sister jerked back, her breath caught in her throat.
The air felt heavy.
Something was wrong.
Her fingers trembled as she reached forward—
But she stopped.
Because she saw it.
Kyung-min's body was shaking.
His veins pulsed, dark mist curling along his fingertips before vanishing.
His mother lifted her head, brows furrowed in confusion.
And then—
Kyung-min's body jerked violently.
His back arched off the hospital bed, his hands clenching into fists.
His sister screamed.
The heart monitor let out a high-pitched warning beep.
His breath came out ragged—short gasps, like he was choking on air.
His mother's eyes widened.
"Kyung-min—!"
And then—
His eyes snapped open.
The Moment of Awakening
A sharp gasp tore through his throat.
He lunged forward, gripping his ribs as phantom pain burned beneath his skin.
His vision swam, flickering between the hospital room and the dungeon.
For a moment—just a brief second—
He thought he was still there.
Still bleeding.
Still dying.
Still being betrayed.
His breath was uneven. His fingers dug into the bedsheets. His heart pounded violently.
Then—
His blurred vision settled.
He wasn't in the dungeon anymore.
He was back.
And he wasn't sure if that was a good thing.