A Second Chance in a New World
I used to be an ordinary NEET.
I graduated from a local university full of ambition, jumped into the job market, and came up completely empty-handed. A total loser who ended up shut away in his room. At first, I pretended to study just to avoid my parents’ sharp glares, but I never had the stamina for it. In the end, I gave up on everything.
Truth is, escaping from reality is easier than you’d think. All you have to do is plug your eyes and ears, turn away from your family’s pain, and drown yourself in tiny, meaningless comforts. For about three years, I stayed locked in my room, refusing all contact with the outside world and rotting my parents’ hearts from the inside. My only hobby was reading web novels.
9,900 won a month. These days, that’s barely the price of one meal, and for that you get unlimited novels for thirty days straight. In a way, it was an incredibly cost-effective hobby.
Waiting every day for the next chapter of my favorite series, then picking up a new one when it ended—that was my only joy in life.
But misfortune always comes without warning.
I never imagined that someone like me, who never left his room except to read novels, would die so pathetically.
Cough—!
In the middle of the night, I suddenly couldn’t breathe. When I opened my eyes, my mother was strangling me.
I thrashed around immediately, but my arms and legs had no strength. She must have slipped sleeping pills into the dinner I ate earlier. Driven by pure survival instinct, I clawed desperately at the floor with my fingernails. Then I saw my mother’s eyes and gave up resisting.
She was sitting on my chest, choking me, while tears streamed down her face.
“Mom’s sorry… Mom’s sorry… Mom’s sorry…”
She kept apologizing over and over.
It’s okay.
If I could have spoken, that’s what I would have said.
Our family was poor. My father drank every day and beat us. Her only son was a worthless bum who stayed shut in his room playing on the computer all day. Of course she was suffocating. I understood.
But when I tried to open my mouth, I could only gasp like a goldfish in a bowl, swallowing nothing but air. My head gradually turned pure white from lack of oxygen. Memories from childhood all the way to the present—every happy moment—flashed before my eyes.
So this is what they call the flashback before death?
I realized I was really about to die. At the same time, a wave of regret washed over me. If I had known this would happen, I should have tried harder to live.
“Mom will follow you soon…”
Her clear tears finally fell onto my face. The droplets were so cold they stung. They slid down my cheekbones.
I wish I could wipe those tears away.
That was the last thing I remembered.
“Huk—!”
When my vision returned, I wasn’t staring at old wallpaper and a moldy ceiling. Instead, I saw a cold, blue winter sky.
“Tsk tsk. Must’ve had another nightmare.”
“I heard his house caught fire while he was out. Both parents died.”
“Poor kid.”
Strange voices speaking Chinese drifted around me. For some reason, I could understand every word.
“…Am I alive?”
But I didn’t have time to pay attention to them. The memory of being strangled by my mother while I slept was still vivid, as if it had happened only moments ago.
I frantically pulled open my collar and checked my neck. There were no handprints—nothing that should have been the direct cause of my death.
What the hell is going on?
I staggered to my feet, trying to make sense of the situation. An old man carrying a kettle that smelled of medicinal herbs jumped in surprise and hurried over.
“You mustn’t move yet!”
I looked at the elderly man dressed in old-fashioned Chinese clothing that looked like it belonged in a historical drama and asked, “Sir, where am I?”
I was definitely at home before. But this place clearly wasn’t my house. It wasn’t even my neighborhood. After all, there was no way buildings that looked like they belonged in a Korean folk village would be lined up in the middle of Seoul.
Feeling like Alice in Wonderland, I looked around in every direction and suddenly spotted a bronze mirror. The face reflected in it wasn’t mine. It was a strange young boy.
No way…
All the puzzle pieces finally clicked into place. I turned to the old man, who was watching me with deep concern, and asked again.
“Sir, I’ll only ask once more. Where am I?”
“You… really don’t remember anything?”
I nodded obediently. “No. To be honest, I don’t even know my own name.”
“That’s… Well, maybe that’s for the best in this case…?”
The old man sighed with pity, then looked at me seriously and said, “This is the village of Sangam in Sichuan Province. I am Eom Baek-hyeon, the local physician of this small town.”
After that, he kindly told me the name of the body I now possessed.
“And your name is Chilbok. Remember it well.”
Chilbok. That was the name of the boy I had transmigrated into.
His father was a native of this village, and his mother was apparently a refugee from Goryeo, one of the people called Eastern Barbarians. Neither of them had any close relatives, so they had relied on each other. Then tragedy struck, leaving their young child completely alone—an orphan with no one in the world.
And that child was now me.
By the time I possessed this body, the original soul of Chilbok had already vanished, leaving only an empty shell. Thanks to that, I had been given a new chance at life. The only thing I could do was pray for the poor boy’s soul to rest in peace.
It must have been the overwhelming shock of losing both parents. In just one night, the child’s hair had turned completely white, like an old man’s.
More importantly… How am I supposed to survive from now on?
Even though it was a new life, the difficulty level was much higher than my previous one. At least Elder Eom Baek-hyeon, who had been close to Chilbok’s father since he was young, occasionally stopped by with food. That kept me alive for the time being. But I couldn’t keep depending on him forever.
While I was racking my brain for ways to support myself, Elder Eom returned from a house call. I asked him, half in hope, if there were any simple jobs a child could do.
“Is there any shop in the village that needs a kid who can do basic math and has a quick mind? I don’t mind being a waiter or running simple errands. I just need to earn enough to feed myself.”
Elder Eom raised his white eyebrows at my question.
“There are places like that, but… I’ve never once seen you study, Chilbok.”
I answered confidently. “I’m smarter than I look. Just give me a chance.”
After all, I had received a proper higher education in my previous life.
“…Fine. Come to the pharmacy starting tomorrow. But if you’re completely useless, I’ll fire you on the spot.”
“Do as you please.”
That was how my bet with Elder Eom was formed. But anyone could tell who the winner would be.
After winning the bet and proudly securing the job, I began learning about this world little by little. I used the convenient excuse that I had developed amnesia from the shock of losing my parents.
During the day I ran small errands at Elder Eom’s pharmacy and earned pocket money. At night I studied characters on my own. Three months had already passed since I started that routine.
Just when I thought I had finally settled into life in the village, it happened.
Splash!
“Young miss!”
On my way home after finishing the day’s work, I happened to see the daughter of the village’s richest family miss her step. She fell straight into the stream beneath the stone bridge.
The moment I saw it, I didn’t think twice. I sprinted and jumped into the water. Although it looked shallow from the surface, the spot where she fell was deep enough that even an adult man’s feet wouldn’t touch the bottom.
“Help me!”
Gasp! Gasp!
The rich girl kept flailing wildly. She didn’t seem to realize that the more she struggled, the faster she would sink. Eventually she went under with a gurgling sound. Only a few air bubbles rose to the surface.
My heart pounding, I dove straight in and swam toward her using freestyle. Without even taking a breath, I submerged and grabbed the girl who was sinking to the bottom. Then I used every ounce of strength to pull her upward.
“Haaah!”
Normally a child’s body should have been light, but since I was also a child right now, carrying another person’s full weight was no different from carrying an adult.
When I finally dragged her to shore, a maid was standing by the stream, crying out, “What do I do? What do I do?”
“Hurry, come here!” I shouted.
“Eh? O-okay!”
There wasn’t much time to explain. I quickly taught the maid how to perform artificial respiration and urged her to do it immediately. Even though I looked like a child, this was a world where the saying “boys and girls should not sit together after the age of seven” existed. If a boy like me did it, there was no telling what kind of trouble might follow later.
The maid awkwardly performed the artificial respiration I had taught her. When there was no response, she looked back and forth between me and the unconscious girl with a deeply anxious expression.
“Could you please stop looking at me like that? There’s no way she’ll wake up after just one try.”
Honestly, I wasn’t sure if it would work either. But if I showed any anxiety, the maid would panic too. So I kept my poker face as best I could.
The maid repeated the artificial respiration several times. Then—
Cough!
The girl suddenly spat out water. Her eyelids began to twitch as if she were about to wake up. The maid’s eyes filled with tears as she cried out.
“Miss Rin!”
The girl finally opened her eyes. Her black, glass-like pupils looked around in confusion until they landed on me. Her expression instantly hardened.
“Just what…”
“Sob! I thought something terrible had happened to you, young miss!”
The maid finally burst into tears, but the girl called Rin ignored her completely. She stared straight at me and asked,
“Was it you who saved me from drowning?”
“Huh? Ah, yes.”
I nodded hurriedly. As expected of a rich family’s daughter, even her way of speaking sounded old-fashioned. The childish, lisping voice she had used while drowning must have been because she was desperate.
“May I ask your name?”
“My name is Chilbok.”
“Chilbok… Chilbok…”
She repeated it several times, then gave a faint smile.
“It has a warm, familiar ring to it.”
To be honest, I thought the name was too rustic and didn’t like it much. But it was the only remaining link to this body’s parents, so I left it as it was.
After murmuring my name to herself a few more times, the rich girl smiled softly and said,
“My name is Dokgo Rin. Since you are my savior, from now on I would like you to call me Rin with affection.”
That was my first meeting with Dokgo Rin.