The school gates felt like the bars of a cage. As I walked past them, I didn't look back. I could hear the muffled sound of Mr. Park's voice fading as he shouted for me to return to class, but it sounded like it was coming from another planet. To him, I was a delinquent skipping math. To me, he was a ghost standing in a building that was destined to become a pile of rubble.
My legs were already shaking. Just that short sprint from the classroom to the gate had my heart hammering against the Relic in my chest.
"Pathetic," I muttered, wiping a bead of sweat from my nose.
In the future, I had seen high-rank Players jump off skyscrapers and land without a scratch. I had seen them trade blows with monsters that could flip tanks. Now, I was winded from a two-minute jog.
I checked the time on my phone. 09:42 AM.
The timer in my head—and the one flickering in the corner of my vision—was moving. Every second that ticked by was a second I wasn't getting stronger. I had exactly 120 hours until the "Great Awakening." Most people thought that was when the world began, but I knew better. The days before the rifts opened were actually the most important. That was when the "World Seeds" were planted.
I started walking toward the city center. I didn't have much money in my pockets—just a few crumpled bills and some change. It wasn't enough for a weapon, but I didn't need a sword yet. I needed fuel.
I walked into a convenience store. The bell above the door chimed, a cheerful sound that made me flinch. It was too normal. The shelves were packed with bright bags of chips, sodas, and candy. In my old life, a single one of these bags of chips would have cost a month's worth of scavenging. People would have killed each other for a cold bottle of water.
I walked straight to the back and grabbed four large bottles of high-calorie protein shakes and a handful of energy bars. I needed to feed the Relic. If it was "Syncing" with my body, it was going to drain my energy levels like a parasite.
The clerk behind the counter, a college kid with headphones on, didn't even look up. "That'll be twelve dollars."
I handed him the money, my hand trembling slightly. Not from fear, but from the low-level vibration coming from my chest. The silver lines were starting to itch under my skin.
"You okay, kid? You look like you're running a fever," the clerk said, finally glancing at me.
"I'm fine," I said, my voice cold. I grabbed the bag and walked out.
I drank the first shake in three long gulps. The thick, chalky liquid hit my stomach, and almost instantly, I felt a rush of warmth. The silver lines on my chest glowed for a split second, hidden beneath my shirt, absorbing the calories.
[ SYNC RATE: 0.12% ] [ WARNING: NUTRIENT INTAKE INSUFFICIENT FOR OPTIMAL CALIBRATION ]
"I'm working on it," I growled at the screen.
I headed toward the Gwangmu Woods. It was a large forest park on the edge of the city. To the public, it was just a place for hikers and weekend picnics. But in my memory, it was the site of the "Golden Leak."
Twenty years ago, a famous Hero named "Steel-Hand" Baek had boasted about how he found his legendary strength. He had been a hiker who got lost in Gwangmu Woods on April 12, 2026—today. He had stumbled into a small, shimmering tear in the air. Inside, he found a tree with a single golden fruit. He ate it, and when the apocalypse started the next day, he was already Level 10 while everyone else was Level 0.
He became a god among men. He also became a tyrant who burned down villages for fun.
"Not this time, Baek," I whispered.
The walk to the woods took nearly an hour. By the time I reached the trailhead, my school shoes were pinching my feet and my uniform was soaked with sweat. My body was screaming at me to stop, to sit down, to go back to the air-conditioned classroom. I ignored it. I had spent twenty years sleeping on concrete and eating rats. I could handle a sore foot.
The woods were quiet. The deeper I went, the more the sounds of the city—the cars, the sirens, the construction—faded away. I moved off the main hiking path, pushing through thick bushes and thorns. I remembered the map Baek had described in his drunken rants.
Find the rock shaped like a weeping eye. Walk fifty paces north until the air smells like ozone.
I pushed through a wall of tall ferns and stopped.
There it was. A massive gray boulder, covered in moss, with a natural hole in the center that looked exactly like an eye.
My heart began to race. I looked north. The air didn't smell like pine trees anymore. It smelled sharp, like the air right after a lightning strike. The hair on my arms stood up.
I pushed forward, my eyes searching the ground. I wasn't looking for a monster. I was looking for a shimmer.
And then, I saw it.
Tucked between two ancient oak trees was a rip in the air. It was only about three feet tall, glowing with a soft, golden light. It looked like a crack in a mirror, showing a world of bright yellow grass and trees made of white wood on the other side.
The Golden Rift.
It shouldn't have been possible for a Zero like me to enter. Usually, these rifts had "Requirements." You needed to be a certain level or have a certain power.
I walked up to the edge of the crack. The air felt cold near the opening. I reached out a trembling hand.
[ DETECTING ANOMALY ] [ SCANNING... ] [ RELIC OVERRIDE ACTIVE ] [ ACCESS GRANTED: THE ZERO-SUM PROTOCOL ]
The golden light wrapped around my wrist like a snake. Instead of pushing me back, it pulled me in. My boots left the dirt of the Gwangmu Woods, and I tumbled forward into the light.
I landed on my face in grass that felt like silk.
I scrambled to my feet, looking around. The sky here wasn't blue, and it wasn't purple. It was a pale, shimmering gold. There was only one thing in this tiny pocket dimension: a single tree with white bark and silver leaves.
And hanging from the lowest branch was a fruit. It looked like a peach, but it was made of solid gold, glowing with a soft light.
The Heart of the Forest.
This was it. The thing that would fix my broken, weak body. I started toward it, my boots crunching on the strange white soil.
But I stopped when I heard a low, rumbling growl.
From behind the white tree, a shadow moved. It wasn't a monster from the rifts. It was a Guardian. It looked like a wolf, but its fur was made of sharp, green pine needles, and its eyes were two glowing emeralds.
It was only Level 1, but to a teenager with no weapons and a 0.1% Sync Rate, it was a death sentence.
The wolf bared its teeth, and the needles on its back began to stand up.
I didn't have a sword. I didn't have magic. But I had twenty years of experience watching better men than me die because they were too slow.
I reached into my backpack and pulled out the heavy glass bottle of the protein shake I hadn't finished. I gripped it by the neck, my eyes locked on the wolf's throat.
"I didn't come back through time to be dog food," I growled.
The wolf lunged.