A shimmering portal flickered open in front of a quiet two-story suburban house, its swirling energy casting an eerie glow against the night sky.
The space between worlds distorted for a moment before a lone figure stepped through, his long coat billowing behind him.
The moment his foot touched the ground, the portal snapped shut with a faint hum, vanishing without a trace.
The night was quiet.
A warm breeze rustled the leaves of the trees lining the street, the only witness to his sudden arrival.
Eric took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the familiar air of home.
“Three months, huh?” he muttered to himself, rolling his shoulders as the stiffness from constant battles finally started to melt away.
“Feels like a lifetime.
Or ten, depending on how you count it.”
His shadow rippled unnaturally beneath him on the porch light, as if it had a mind of its own.
The darkness writhed and shifted like living ink, creeping up his legs and torso before seamlessly reforming his entire outfit.
The battle-worn long coat and reinforced combat gear melted away, replaced in seconds by a simple black t-shirt and comfortable half-pants—the exact same clothes he’d been wearing the day he got yoinked into another world.
It was as if he had never left.
Well, except for the fact that he totally had.
And it wasn’t even entirely his fault.
Mostly.
Three months ago, something had awakened inside him.
Memories of a past life, or at least that’s what he thought they were.
They played out in his head like a high-definition movie—he could recall every detail, rewind specific scenes, but they didn’t quite feel like personal experiences.
Detached, almost.
He didn’t dwell on the philosophical weirdness for long, though, because those memories came bundled with something way cooler: a System.
A straight-up otherworldly mechanism bound to his soul, offering power like something ripped from the pages of a fantasy novel.
Its main function?
Teleportation to another world.
Sounds awesome on paper, right?
The ultimate isekai dream.
Adventure, power-ups, the whole hero package.
Except for one tiny, glaring issue: there was no manual.
No guidelines.
No pop-up tutorial or helpful AI voice saying “Welcome, host!
Don’t die immediately.” Nada.
Despite the absurdity of it all, Eric hadn’t been completely reckless.
He wasn’t some wide-eyed protagonist charging headfirst into danger without thinking.
So he did what any rational sixteen-year-old with a world-hopping cheat would do—he told his mother.
The Smartest Dumb Decision of His Life.
To be fair, it made total sense at the time.
His family wasn’t exactly average.
They had pull.
His grandfather was a senator, the kind of guy who could make calls that moved mountains.
One uncle was an active-duty general with access to resources most people only saw in movies.
Another uncle ran a big political consulting firm, the type that knew everyone worth knowing.
If this System thing was real, they had the specialists, the analysts, the labs—people who could study it properly and help him plan things out safely.
At least, that was the logical play in his head.
But in the heat of teenage excitement, he’d forgotten one critical detail: he was still just a sixteen-year-old kid.
In his mother’s eyes?
A dumb kid with an overactive imagination who spent too much time reading web novels and playing games.
He’d explained everything with wide-eyed enthusiasm—the concept, the insane potential, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
He expected curiosity at minimum.
Maybe even a little excitement.
After all, his mom was basically his best friend most days.
She’d always listened to his wild ideas before.
Instead… she laughed.
Hard.
Brushed the whole thing off as childish nonsense.
Didn’t believe a single word.
So, in a moment of youthful arrogance and pure desperation to prove her wrong, Eric made the reckless call.
He activated the System right there in the living room, in front of her.
And in the blink of an eye—he was gone.
His original plan had been idiotically simple: pop over, take a quick peek, and immediately bounce back.
Even if there was a cooldown, he’d lay low, avoid anything dangerous, and slip home as soon as possible.
He’d read enough system stories to assume he’d have a return ticket whenever he wanted.
Classic rookie mistake.
He was wrong.
Painfully, hilariously wrong. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
A Year in Another World.
Where did he end up?
A world he’d just seen in those fresh memories—the world of Solo Leveling.
And the worst part?
He wasn’t sure he could even survive as a random bystander.
Who knew if those universe-resetting events would erase him too?
Faced with the very real possibility of getting deleted, he used one of the Exchange Cards that came with his System and swapped places with Sung Jin-Woo.
In the process, he inherited the Monarch’s power.
Which meant he was forced to fight.
To stand on blood-soaked battlefields against world-ending threats.
To survive in a war where gods and monsters clashed like it was Tuesday.
It was like playing Dark Souls on maximum difficulty with no respawns, no save points, and a very angry System breathing down his neck.
By the time he clawed his way back through the final war and found a stable way home, over a year had passed for him in that brutal world.
But here, in his original universe?
Only three months had gone by.
According to the System, time flowed differently between dimensions.
Between Marvel and Solo Leveling, the ratio was 1:4.
For every hour here, four ticked by over there.
Technically, he could have tried returning earlier, but the System had thrown up big red warning signs.
Something about entropy.
Something about causality breaking in messy ways.
He didn’t fully understand the mechanics yet, but the message was clear: the laws of reality were still stronger than him.
At least for now.
Taking another steadying breath, Eric stepped up to the door and pressed the doorbell.
The familiar chime echoed inside the house.
A second passed.
Then two.
Then—
The door creaked open slowly, the porch light spilling out onto the lawn.
A middle-aged woman stood there, clad in a loose nightgown.
Her once vibrant face looked gaunt now, cheeks slightly sunken from stress and sleepless nights.
Dark circles hung heavy under her eyes, telling a story of endless worry and quiet desperation.
Eric blinked, heart twisting at the sight.
His mother’s gaze locked onto him, unblinking, unmoving.
The whole world seemed to hold its breath for a heartbeat.
Then, before he could even get a single word out—
SLAP!
The sharp sting burned across his left cheek.
He barely had time to register it before another followed.
SLAP!
SLAP!
And then—a solid kick straight to his shin.
“Ow—Mom!” Eric yelped, stumbling back a step while dramatically clutching his leg.
“At least let me say something before you go full martial arts mode!”
His mother’s chest heaved as she glared at him, fists clenched tight at her sides.
“Three months, Eric.
Three whole months!
You vanished into thin air without a trace, and now you just waltz back in here like you went out for milk?!”
Eric winced, rubbing his face even though the pain was mostly performative.
He’d toned down his durability on purpose.
“Okay, okay, I get it.
But hey, at least be glad I’m back in one piece?
No missing limbs or anything.
That’s a win, right?”
She didn’t look impressed.
If anything, her foot twitched like she was considering another well-placed kick.
Eric flinched on pure instinct, holding up his hands in surrender.
“I swear, if you don’t start explaining in the next three seconds, I’m dragging you to the orphanage myself!” she snapped, voice sharp but cracking with emotion at the edges.
Eric sighed, deciding it was time to spill the beans.
“Alright, listen.
You remember that whole ‘I have a power that lets me travel to other worlds’ thing I told you about?”
His mother’s eye twitched dangerously.
“You mean that childish nonsense you spouted right before you disappeared into thin air? This chapter was taken from novelping.com without permission.
Yes, Eric.
I remember.”
“Yeah, so… turns out it wasn’t nonsense,” he continued, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
“I really did get teleported to another world.
And, uh, due to some technical difficulties—like, cosmic-level ones—I kinda got stuck there for a year.
My bad.”
Her stare could’ve melted vibranium.
“But!” Eric quickly added, waving his hands defensively like he was trying to ward off another slipper attack.
“Due to the time difference, it’s only been three months here!
So technically, it’s not as bad as it sounds!
Silver lining?”
Silence stretched between them, thick and heavy.
Then—
BONK!
His mother snatched the closest object—a worn slipper from the hallway—and smacked him right on the head with it.
“Ow!
Mom!
Violence is never the answer!” Eric complained, dodging the follow-up swing with exaggerated movements.
“Says the boy who disappeared to another world for a year!” she fired back, her voice rising in that perfect mix of relief and fury only moms could pull off.
“Do you have any idea what I went through?!
I reported you missing!
The police found nothing!
I thought—I thought you were dead…
Everyone kept looking at me like I was crazy, saying you probably just ran away!”
Eric’s bravado faded fast.
The raw pain in her voice hit harder than any monarch’s attack.
Guilt twisted in his stomach like a living shadow.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly, dropping the jokes for a moment.
“I didn’t mean to make you worry like that.
I really thought I’d be able to come back immediately.
I didn’t know there’d be a time restriction or… any of this.”
His mother exhaled shakily, rubbing her temples as she leaned against the doorframe.
“What kind of ‘power’ makes you disappear for months with no way back?”
“A very scuffed one,” Eric muttered, offering a weak smile.
“Honestly, I should’ve known better.
But on the bright side, I did some important stuff over there.
Saved a whole world, fought god-like beings, got ridiculously strong—”
His mother hurled the slipper at him like a pro baseball pitcher.
“—Ack!
Okay, I’ll shut up now!” Eric dodged, catching the slipper mid-air with a grin.
She let out a long, tired sigh that carried the weight of three months of hell.
“I don’t care if you became the strongest being in existence.
You’re still my son, and you will be grounded for this.” She crossed her arms, giving him the classic mom glare.
“No internet, no games, no going out with friends—”
“Joke’s on you, I don’t have friends,” Eric quipped, unable to help himself.
“—And no food except instant noodles for the next week!”
Eric paled dramatically, clutching his chest like he’d been shot.
“Okay, now that’s just cruel and unusual punishment.
I survived shadow armies and you’re hitting me with ramen?
Have mercy!”
His mother huffed, but the corners of her mouth twitched like she was fighting a smile.
“Serves you right.
Now get inside before I change my mind and make it two weeks.”
With a defeated but genuinely relieved groan, Eric trudged through the door, the familiar creak of the floorboards under his feet feeling like the best sound in any universe.
As he stepped into the living room, his mother’s voice softened behind him, the anger finally giving way to something warmer.
“You’re really back this time?”
Eric turned, offering her a genuine smile that reached his eyes.
“Yeah, Mom.
I’m back.
For good.”
At least she hadn’t disowned him.