Ethan Cole had always thought that if he ever died, it would at least be interesting.
Maybe he'd save someone.
Maybe he'd get caught in some ridiculous accident.
Maybe, if life really wanted to be dramatic, he'd die doing something heroic.
He had never imagined he'd die because he was too busy reading a comic.
His thumb dragged across the screen of his phone.
Episode 247.
He'd already read it three times.
The scene was one of his favorites.
Ren stood in the middle of a ruined street, blood running down the side of his face. Around him, buildings had been torn apart, windows shattered, and the remains of a collapsed dungeon littered the road.
He was exhausted.
Everyone around him was exhausted.
Yet somehow, he was still smiling.
Ethan stopped walking.
“Man…”
He stared at the screen.
“They really cooked with this chapter.”
A couple walking ahead of him glanced back.
Ethan didn't notice.
He was too invested.
The comic was called The Last Adventurer, one of the most popular Korean comics in the world.
Ethan wasn't Korean.
He'd never even been to Korea.
But he'd discovered the series years ago and somehow never managed to put it down.
The world of The Last Adventurer was familiar enough to feel like Earth and strange enough to make Ethan wish it were real.
Twenty years before the story began, dungeons had appeared around the world.
Monsters had emerged from them.
Humans had awakened supernatural abilities.
And eventually, adventurers had become a normal part of society.
It wasn't some distant fantasy world.
People still went to school.
People still complained about work.
People still used smartphones.
Cars still filled the roads.
The only difference was that the person sitting beside you on a train might have the ability to manipulate fire.
Or summon a sword made of mana.
Or punch through concrete.
Ethan loved it.
Especially the characters.
Ren.
Aria.
Mira.
Even the annoying ones.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He'd spent years watching them grow from inexperienced students into some of the strongest adventurers in the world.
And Mira—
Ethan smiled slightly.
Mira had always been his favorite.
She wasn't the strongest.
She wasn't the loudest.
She wasn't even particularly confident at the beginning.
But she kept getting back up.
No matter how many times the story knocked her down.
That was why Ethan hated knowing what was coming.
He knew which characters would suffer.
He knew which ones would die.
He knew which villains would appear.
He knew which dungeons would become disasters.
He knew the academy's entrance exam.
He knew the first major incident.
He knew the story.
At least...
He thought he did.
His thumb stopped moving.
“Still hundreds of chapters to go…”
He smiled.
Then his phone buzzed.
A message.
You coming tomorrow?
Ethan stared at it for a moment.
His smile faded.
He typed.
Yeah. Probably.
He didn't send it.
He erased the message.
Typed again.
I'll see.
He sent it.
Then shoved his phone into his pocket.
For a moment, he simply stood there.
The evening air was cold.
People moved around him.
Streetlights flickered on one after another.
Life continued.
Ethan's life hadn't exactly been terrible.
It just hadn't been very exciting.
His parents were always working.
The friends he'd once spent every day with had slowly drifted away.
School was school.
Home was home.
Most days blurred together.
The comic had become the one thing he could always look forward to.
A world where people struggled.
Failed.
Lost things.
And still kept moving.
He envied that.
“Maybe I should've been born there.”
He laughed quietly at himself.
“That's stupid.”
His phone buzzed again.
He pulled it out.
He didn't get the chance to read the message.
A horn screamed.
Ethan looked up.
A truck was coming toward him.
Far too fast.
His body froze.
The phone slipped from his hand.
The world became strangely quiet.
He saw the headlights.
Saw the driver's terrified expression.
Saw his phone spinning through the air.
And, for some reason, his first thought wasn't about his parents.
It wasn't about school.
It wasn't even about the life he'd barely gotten to live.
It was about Mira.
She hasn't even reached that dungeon yet.
His eyes widened.
“No…”
The truck was already there.
Impact.
Darkness.
Ethan couldn't feel anything.
He couldn't hear anything.
He couldn't even tell if he was breathing.
Then—
Something pulled him upward.
A voice.
Faint.
Distant.
“Please…”
Another voice.
“His pulse is dropping!”
Ethan tried to open his eyes.
Nothing.
He tried to move.
Nothing.
Then he heard someone crying.
“Please don't leave me…”
Something warm touched his forehead.
Ethan suddenly understood.
He was being held.
Someone was holding him tightly against their chest.
He tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
Then a strange warmth spread through his body.
It moved through his chest and limbs like a gentle current.
It wasn't blood.
It wasn't electricity.
It was something else.
Something impossible.
Mana.
Ethan's eyes opened.
Light flooded his vision.
A wooden ceiling.
A small bedroom.
Warm sunlight coming through a nearby window.
And above him—
a woman.
She had dark brown skin and thick black curls that framed her face. Her eyes were warm brown, red from crying.
She looked exhausted.
But she was smiling.
A trembling smile.
“Kaien…”
Ethan stared at her.
The name echoed through his mind.
“Kaien…”
She hugged him closer.
Ethan couldn't understand.
Who was Kaien?
Why was she calling him that?
He looked down.
Tiny hands.
Tiny fingers.
A tiny body wrapped in a blanket.
His breathing stopped.
No.
That wasn't possible.
He tried to scream.
What came out was a baby's cry.
The woman immediately held him tighter.
“It's okay…”
Her voice trembled.
“It's okay, Kaien.”
Ethan stared at the ceiling.
His mind raced.
No.
No, no, no.
He remembered the truck.
The headlights.
The impact.
He remembered dying.
And now—
he was a baby.
But that wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was the name.
Kaien.
Ethan knew that name.
He knew it because he'd spent hundreds of hours reading the story.
Kaien Arclight.
A minor character.
A boy who appeared shortly before the academy arc.
A character Ethan barely remembered because he had never been particularly important.
Ethan's tiny fingers curled into a fist.
Wait.
His eyes slowly moved around the room.
The wooden furniture.
The unfamiliar house.
The woman holding him.
Everything felt wrong.
And yet—
it felt familiar.
Not from memory.
From the comic.
His heart began pounding.
No way.
He stared at the woman.
Then down at his tiny hands.
One terrifying realization settled into his mind.
I was reincarnated.
Ethan's mind went blank.
He wasn't in another random world.
He wasn't in some fantasy universe he'd never heard of.
He was inside the story he'd spent years reading.
He was inside The Last Adventurer.
And somehow…
he had become one of its characters.
A side character.
Kaien Arclight.
The baby in his mother's arms began crying again.
His mother gently rocked him.
“Shhh…”
Ethan—or rather, Kaien—stared toward the window.
Outside was a world he had only ever seen through drawings.
A world filled with dungeons.
Monsters.
Awakened humans.
Adventurers.
A world whose future he already knew.
At least…
he thought he knew.
He didn't realize it yet.
But the moment Ethan Cole opened his eyes as Kaien Arclight—
the story had already changed.