Midnight Awakening

“Mmm….”

It was the next day by the time I finally dragged myself out of bed.

I'd slept so long that my body actually felt heavier than before.

“Twelve hours straight.”

It was already five in the afternoon. Late as it was, I changed my clothes and headed out of the house.

Yesterday's training had pushed me hard, but there was no way I could skip my run, not even for a single day.

After an easy jog, I dropped onto a park bench and gulped down the water I'd brought along.

My stamina has definitely gone up.

The effects of the Body Reconstruction were remarkable. Muscles were actually forming on a body that had never carried any.

But the reconstruction was only a bonus.

The most important thing is that I've gained mana.

Mana. The fuel of my footwork — and the power Pride had once called uniquely mine.

Awakeners wield a force called magic power. What I used was something different from what they used.

I hadn't even expected to obtain mana.

What I'd actually hoped for was the opening of my mana channels. But because the Body Reconstruction had happened alongside it, mana had accumulated in my body as well.

Yet the moment I had mana in my grasp, a question I couldn't shake settled over me.

Pride had once said that mana resembled their demonic energy. But mana and demonic energy shared nothing in common.

In my first life, I had stumbled into mana by pure chance. Back then I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠simply assumed I'd acquired a power similar to magic — and Pride had flatly denied it.

Mana is the pure power of nature itself.

Over twenty years of training, I had built a breathing method specifically to obtain mana. And through it, I learned that mana was a pure energy born from the natural world.

If mana and demonic energy share anything at all, it's only that both differ from magic power.

Magic power felt like mana reshaped and refitted for human use. And humans could only acquire it through the System.

Mana, on the other hand, could be drawn from nature itself — while ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠demonic energy arose from humanity's negative emotions.

So what exactly is mana?

Unlike in my first life, I found myself questioning it. Pride's words had left a deep ripple in someone who had always simply taken mana for granted — a power similar to, yet distinct from, magic.

Perhaps this very question was a path to even greater strength.

If I could uncover mana's true nature… I could strengthen my footwork even further.

My skin was already prickling with anticipation.

A month had passed since then.

Fast if you call it fast, slow if you call it slow — for that entire month, I trained without fail, day after day.

One minute from now, I awaken.

I swallowed as I watched the clock.

11:59 p.m.

At midnight, as the date turned, the awakening would begin.

Awakenings generally occurred on the first day of each month. And I — the one who knew the past — would awaken on this first day of the month.

And on September 1st, those three awaken as well.

September 1st would one day be remembered as the Golden Day.

Me, wielder of an unknown power. Yu Jina, the Ice Queen. Jin Pung-rim, the Scorching Fist. The three of us awakening together sent Korea's standing in the global awakener industry soaring.

But this time, history would record no such names of mine.

This time, I'm keeping mana hidden.

If I revealed it, guilds and corporations would shower me with sponsorship, just as they had in my first life. But that would shrink my range of activity and throw my plans into disarray.

And I had not the slightest intention of accepting sponsorship from the bastards who had betrayed me.

“Come on. Let it be good starting stats.”

I pressed my palms together and prayed.

In my first life, "dismal" didn't begin to describe my stats — they were pitifully, embarrassingly thin.

Most awakeners start with stats above 5 across the board. I hadn't had a single one that cleared that bar. The absolute worst starting point imaginable.

It was hell, honestly.

That was why I'd spent this past month subjecting myself to training brutal enough to be called hell — all to rewrite my starting stats.

And no more chicken breast. I refuse.

Training? Fine. Great, even. But eating nothing but chicken breast for another month? That, I would not survive.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Staring at the clock, louder than usual tonight, made time crawl even slower.

Three. Two. One.

The instant I finished counting, the second hand swept onto midnight exactly.

And a familiar system message appeared before my eyes.

“Whew—.”

A sigh of relief escaped me the moment I confirmed the message.

I'd been quietly agonizing over whether the outcome might differ from my first life.

“Status window.”

At my words, the status window unfolded before me.

A smile crept across my face the moment I read the window.

Every stat had more than doubled. Seeing the fruits of my training laid bare in numbers filled me with an enormous sense of satisfaction.

A month of sweat and blood, well spent.

I hurried to check the rest.

Traits could be considered the fundamental talents an awakener was born — or built — with. Mine, Footwork, granted a correction to anything I did with my feet.

When people walk, the act of walking itself is constantly undermined — a misstep here, a tangled step there, interference from a hundred little causes. The Footwork trait made such failures impossible.

Body Reconstruction registered as a trait properly, too.

Traits were further divided into innate and acquired. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Footwork belonged to the former; Body Reconstruction to the latter. Innate traits came with you at birth, while acquired ones could only be obtained through grueling training or as rewards from the System.

“Two achievements, huh.”

Founder of Footwork was a familiar one. I'd earned it in my first life, when I created my footwork in the first place.

Good — it registered without a hitch.

But there was only one way anyone could ever have obtained the second achievement.

Regression.

From this achievement alone, I could guess that something connected regression and the System.

After regressing, I had turned the question over and over: who or what had sent me back?

Three candidates, in total.

Pride. The Witch. And the System.

But the first two had eventually been crossed off. Pride had no reason to do it, and the Witches were, by and large, indifferent to humanity.

So I'd been suspicious of the System….

One Who Defied Time.

That achievement pointed squarely at the System. But for now, I had no way of knowing what the connection actually was.

Deal with the rest first.

It was nothing more than a hunch, but I felt that once I'd grown strong enough, I would be able to uncover the secret of my regression.

“Two achievements already — might as well aim for Supernova.”

Earn five or more achievements before reaching Level 10, and you gained a buff called Supernova. A buff that lasted until Level 100 — tremendously useful.

The first Supernova wouldn't be revealed to the world for another two years.

The first Supernova is going to be mine.

The first one was certain to carry a special effect. It had to.

There's definitely something to it.

Cheon Myeong-hun had become an S-Rank awakener with no special trait and no skills at all. Which meant the first Supernova he'd claimed must have granted him some extraordinary power.

And now that power would be mine.

Next up: the inventory.

“Inventory.”

At my word, a small 10-by-10 grid unfolded before my eyes. Compared to the 100-by-100 I'd possessed in my first life, it was laughably small.

That'll sort itself out once I expand it later.

I closed the inventory, sat down at my desk, and powered on the computer to visit the Association's official website.

Awakener test applications were accepted from the 1st through the 6th of each month.

Application complete.

I had submitted mine on the very last day. With that done, I started digging through the news.

Stories about the new awakeners were already flooding in — but none of them was the one I was looking for.

So that news hasn't broken yet?

Packing away my disappointment, I shut the computer down and changed into outdoor clothes.

12:30 — perfect timing.

I slipped straight out of the house and flagged down a taxi. Thankfully, Mom and Dad were asleep, and Sunha was staying at a friend's place.

“Where to?”

“Bukhansan, please.”

The driver didn't ask a single question — he just drove.

At this hour of the night, there was only one reason I'd be heading to Bukhansan.

The Hidden Piece inside the Goblin Village Gate.

In exactly one week, a Hidden Piece would be discovered in the Goblin Village Gate on Bukhansan. And the one who claimed it had been an ordinary F-Rank awakener.

That F-Rank went on a meteoric rise all the way to B-Rank — and then abruptly vanished.

Turns out Envy killed him.

Envy, the Demon. Her origin, too, was that of an F-Rank awakener. Consumed by envy of the higher-ranked, she had transformed into a Demon — and then, in a fit of that same jealousy, murdered the man who had obtained what she never could and risen while she rotted.

That was the whole story of the incident.

And that Hidden Piece passed into Envy's hands — and became the instrument of a massacre.

If the thing was destined to become a tool for mass murder, it was far better that I claim it first.

Roughly thirty minutes later, I got out at the entrance to Bukhansan.

The Goblin Village Gate is off to the right from here.

I'd passed through this gate several times before, so I remembered the way. After a short walk, a blue-colored hole came into view.

It's been a while since I've seen a gate.

In my first life, every gate had eventually vanished in a Gate Break. A Gate Break was the phenomenon where, if a gate went uncleared for too long, the monsters inside spilled out into the world.

And every time a Gate Break occurred, the power of the Demons grew stronger.

I can't plug every hole myself.

Once I learned to wield clones, that might become a solution — but for now, I had no answer at all.

Focus on the Hidden Piece first.

Whether I blocked the gates or not was a question that could wait until I had the piece in hand.

Near the gate, an Association staffer on guard duty was nodding off, head bobbing.

Well then — shall we go in.

Basic footwork.

Darkness.

The moment I stepped into the form, my presence blurred and dimmed.

Brr — it's cold.

Shivering, I stepped through the gate.

At long last, I was entering a gate.