The next two years passed quietly.
At least, at first.
Kaien kept a simple routine.
School.
Home.
Training.
Hunting.
Repeat.
He didn't rush his growth.
He knew he had two years before the academy, and he intended to use every day of them.
His first year was mostly focused on mana control.
He practiced every morning before school.
He learned how to move mana through his body without wasting it.
How to compress it.
How to release it.
And, most importantly, how to stop.
That last part was harder than expected.
Kaien eventually learned that controlling mana wasn't about forcing it to obey.
It was about understanding it.
His Mana Core gradually became more stable.
His stamina improved.
His exhaustion became easier to manage.
He learned exactly how far he could push himself before his body started warning him to stop.
That knowledge would become one of the most important things he'd ever learn.
His weapons developed alongside him.
The handgun was only the beginning.
After reaching the necessary levels, Kaien unlocked more weapons.
A second handgun.
A revolver.
A shotgun.
A rifle.
And eventually...
A sniper rifle.
Kaien stared at the weapon for several seconds.
It was long and heavy, with a large scope mounted above the barrel.
He held it carefully.
"This is more like it."
He spent weeks practicing.
Distance.
Breathing.
Positioning.
Wind.
Mana control.
He learned that summoning a weapon didn't magically make him good with it.
He still needed skill.
And Kaien liked that.
Every missed shot taught him something.
Every successful shot felt earned.
His weapons weren't simply abilities.
They were tools.
And he wanted to understand every one of them.
The system developed too.
New functions slowly became available.
[Weapon Storage]
[Weapon Information]
[Weapon Customization]
[Weapon Evolution]
Kaien was especially interested in customization.
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Weapon Points were still difficult to obtain, so every upgrade had to be considered carefully.
He experimented with different ammunition.
Normal bullets.
Mana-infused bullets.
Armor-piercing rounds.
Compressed mana rounds.
Most of his experiments failed.
One of them exploded in his hand.
Kaien stared at the smoke rising from his glove.
"...I'll count that as research."
He wrote down the result.
Do not compress mana beyond current stability.
Then he tried again the next day.
Kaien continued hunting as well.
Not every day.
He wasn't reckless enough to spend all his free time fighting monsters.
Whenever he had enough time, he visited controlled monster zones.
Sometimes he killed one monster.
Sometimes five.
Sometimes none.
It didn't matter.
He was learning.
He studied their movements.
Their habits.
Their reactions to mana.
Some monsters were aggressive.
Some were territorial.
Some avoided humans entirely.
And some were...
strange.
Kaien still remembered the Scale Fang from his first hunt.
The one he thought had smiled.
He never saw it again.
Eventually, he convinced himself he'd imagined it.
At least, he tried to.
Then he found its tracks.
The creature had circled his hunting area without attacking.
It had simply watched him.
Kaien crouched beside the tracks.
"That's not normal."
He looked into the forest.
Nothing.
Kaien stood.
He didn't stay long.
Then, when Kaien was fourteen, everything changed.
The outbreak happened without warning.
A monster gate opened inside the city.
At first, it was classified as a minor breach.
Then the number of monsters coming through increased.
Emergency alarms sounded across the district.
People flooded into the streets.
Kaien was at school when he heard the announcement.
"All civilians are advised to remain indoors. Adventurer teams are being dispatched..."
Kaien's heart dropped.
He immediately grabbed his phone.
He called his mother.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
His hands tightened around the phone.
He called his father.
Nothing.
"Come on..."
Another message appeared.
Emergency evacuation orders had been issued.
Kaien ran.
He didn't think about the rules.
He didn't think about school.
He only thought about getting home.
But by the time he reached his neighborhood, the streets were already filled with smoke.
Sirens echoed between the buildings.
Adventurers fought monsters in the distance.
People were being evacuated.
Kaien pushed through the crowd.
"Mom!"
Nothing.
"Mom!"
He kept running.
Then he saw their house.
Part of the building had collapsed.
Kaien stopped.
His entire body went cold.
"No."
He ran toward it.
A rescue worker grabbed him.
"Hey! You can't go in there!"
"My parents are inside!"
"We're already searching!"
"Let me go!"
"Kid!"
Kaien struggled against the man's grip.
Then he heard something.
A voice.
His father's voice.
Faint.
Buried beneath the rubble.
Kaien froze.
"He's there."
The rescue team immediately moved.
They worked for hours.
Kaien never left.
Eventually, they found them.
His father was already gone.
His mother survived long enough to be taken to the hospital.
Kaien stayed beside her.
She was barely conscious.
Her eyes slowly opened.
"Kaien..."
He grabbed her hand.
"I'm here."
She smiled weakly.
"You grew so much."
Kaien tried to smile.
"Yeah."
Her eyes moved toward his hair.
She gently touched one of his braids.
"You still have them."
Kaien looked down.
"Of course."
She smiled.
"I knew you would."
Her hand slowly fell.
Kaien's smile disappeared.
"Mom?"
No answer.
"Mom?"
The monitor beside the bed went silent.
Kaien didn't move.
For several seconds, he simply stared.
Then his head lowered.
His fingers tightened around the braid she had touched.
The last thing she had ever made for him.
The funeral was quiet.
Too quiet.
Kaien stood beside his father's grave.
His hair covered his eyes.
The two braids rested against his shoulders.
He touched one.
Then the other.
He remembered his mother's voice.
These stay.
His father laughing.
His mother complaining about his hair.
The little arguments.
The meals.
The ordinary days.
Everything he'd once taken for granted.
Gone.
Kaien stood there for a long time.
Then he whispered,
"I'll keep them."
The wind moved through his hair.
"I promise."
From that day forward, Kaien never cut the braids.
They weren't just part of his appearance anymore.
They were the last piece of his family he could carry with him.
A year passed.
Kaien was fifteen now.
Nearly 1.9 meters tall.
His afro had grown even larger, covering his eyes almost completely.
The two braids had grown longer too.
His body remained lean rather than heavily muscular.
Enough strength to handle his weapons.
Enough endurance to run.
Enough control to fight.
Nothing unnecessary.
He had also become much more capable with his weapons.
His handgun was no longer the same weapon he had first summoned.
His sniper rifle could now channel mana far more efficiently.
He had learned how to create specialized ammunition.
His aim had become reliable.
His mana control was vastly better.
And his system had unlocked more functions.
But there was still one thing he hadn't figured out.
Why was the world changing?
Small differences had appeared over the years.
People he didn't remember.
Events happening earlier.
Monsters behaving differently.
And sometimes...
things that never happened in the comic at all.
Kaien didn't know what it meant.
Not yet.
That evening, Kaien sat at his desk.
A calendar was open in front of him.
He circled a date.
Tomorrow.
The entrance examination for the Seoul National Academy of Adventurers.
The academy.
The beginning of the original story.
Kaien opened an old notebook.
Inside were pages filled with names.
Ren.
Aria.
Mira.
And dozens of others.
He had written down everything he could remember.
Important events.
Characters.
Villains.
Dungeons.
Awakenings.
Deaths.
Things he wanted to prevent.
His eyes stopped at one name.
Mira.
Kaien stared at it for several seconds.
Then closed the notebook.
"I'll find you."
A notification appeared.
[Level Milestone Approaching]
[Level 15]
[Special Breakthrough Quest Available]
Kaien opened it.
[Breakthrough Quest]
[Objective: Reach the entrance examination.]
[Reward: ???]
Kaien frowned.
"That's suspicious."
The quest disappeared.
Kaien leaned back in his chair.
Tomorrow, he'd finally enter the world he'd spent years reading about.
He reached up and touched one of his braids.
His parents had given him these.
Now they were the only part of them he could carry wherever he went.
Kaien stood.
He grabbed his bag.
"Alright."
He looked toward the door.
"Let's see how much of the story is still the same."
He walked out.
Tomorrow, Kaien Arclight would enter the academy.
And for the first time...
he would meet the characters he'd spent years watching from a screen.
Only this time—
they would be real.
And so would he.