The Logic of Reincarnation (1)
Whoosh—
Standing on the edge of the building's rooftop, a fierce wind caresses my body.
Right now, I am standing on a building located dead center in downtown Seoul. Specifically, right at the very edge of the rooftop railing.
What I am about to do is jump.
My reasoning is entirely rational and intellectual.
Reincarnation.
I will discard this cursed vessel and be reborn as a Wizard.
I had made up my mind, yet a crowd of pests kept gathering to interfere with my choice.
Down below the building, a handful of police officers and soldiers were huddled together.
Turning my head to look back, I saw a crowd gathered behind me as well. Fearing I might fall if they approached, they kept their distance, trying their best not to provoke me.
Looking at them, it really goes to show that only the first step is hard; everything after that is a breeze.
The soldiers who had set up camp on the rooftop tried to block the entrance, so I beat them all senseless to get here. But now that I've cleared the way, look at how easily everyone else just strolls right in.
Ah... the sorrow of a pioneer...
I've thought about it plenty!
More than enough!
But this is the only way!
Even among the already scarce Awakeners, they are the absolute minority. The class that is reserved only for those born with a constitution that allows them to not only freely release mana outside their bodies but also manipulate it—the Wizard.
For someone like me, who wasn't born with such a constitution, the only way to become a Wizard is to die and be reborn with one!
A better life?
There is no such thing as a better life if I can't become a Wizard.
It would be one thing if becoming a Wizard was completely impossible for everyone, or if I at least held a shred of hope that I could become one.
When the Gates opened, Awakeners who awakened mana emerged in this world. And among those Awakeners, Wizards who researched mana to cast spells also appeared.
I, too, awakened.
Yet, I could not become a Wizard.
If I hadn't awakened at all, I could have lived in anticipation, hoping that I might one day awaken with the constitution of a Wizard. If Gates and mana didn't exist in the first place, I could have overcome this harsh reality by simply fantasizing about being a Wizard.
But neither of those is the case, is it?
The likelihood of a method existing to alter one's constitution was low. If such a thing were possible, the wealthy would have changed theirs long ago, and Wizards wouldn't be so incredibly rare.
Countless people on this Earth have already failed to become Wizards. Even those with far more information than me have failed.
In that case, let us take a rational and logical approach, as a Wizard should. No one has succeeded in changing their constitution. It is impossible through conventional means.
Therefore? I must attempt a method that no one else has ever imagined or tried.
Altering an innate constitution is impossible.
What is the only remaining method to try?
I just need to be born with the right one!
In other words, if I die and reincarnate into a body born with a Wizard's constitution, I can become a Wizard.
Q.E.D.
Even to myself, it was a flawless proposition.
Sure, there's a chance it might not work, but nobody knows for sure until it's proven. Thus, it is time to test the hypothesis. There isn't a single logical flaw in it, after all.
Down below, they kept trying to judge me from a non-Wizard perspective. But to an aspiring Wizard like me, life and flesh were trivial matters.
Of course, there was a chance of failure. Reincarnation was a phenomenon that had never been officially reported.
But if I can't be a Wizard, I'd rather just die. What's the point of living?
Besides, this action was also beneficial to the world. I could have easily hanged myself in some quiet corner, but there was a very good reason I chose this specific building with a military outpost on top.
If someone jumps to their death, the property values in the surrounding area will plummet!
I get to reincarnate as a Wizard! And thanks to me, the government can curb skyrocketing real estate prices without even raising interest rates! It's a win-win scenario for everyone.
This is exactly why problems arise when a non-Wizard runs the country. They struggle so much just to control housing prices.
If they just dropped about five jumpers in areas where real estate is going crazy, they'd stabilize the market in an instant.
It's because they think like ordinary fools that they can't become Wizards. *Tsk tsk.* There are so many worthless non-Wizards in this world who don't deserve to live.
Well, I don't need to care about that anymore. It is time to let go of this life as a non-Wizard.
Once my mind was made up, hesitation was a luxury. I immediately cast aside all lingering attachments to this world and chose to reincarnate into a life full of hope as a Wizard.
Whooooosh—
But of course, the non-Wizards couldn't comprehend this Wizard-like perspective. The police and firefighters below had devised various contingencies to rescue me.
They had laid out an inflatable air mattress to cushion my fall, and even set up safety nets in case I veered off course.
A normal human would land on that cushion even if they fell, and they would have a high chance of survival. Yes, a normal human.
But if I couldn't even bypass that, I wouldn't deserve to be a Wizard. To become a Wizard, one must be able to solve at least this level of difficulty without magic.
They should have at least guessed I was an Awakener from the way I ran amok through the military unit. Or maybe they did, but just ran out of time to react.
Thud!
This is why they fail to anticipate the basics. At the perfect moment, I kicked off the building's outer wall, pushing my body far away from the mattress.
I was an Awakener in my own right, after all. I just couldn't become a Wizard.
Before long, the scorching asphalt, rather than the soft mattress, filled my vision. Everything was going exactly according to plan.
CRASH!
And then, accompanied by the sound of my entire body shattering, my vision went pitch black.
It was time to say goodbye to a life where I could never be a Wizard.
"Ugh..."
When I regained consciousness, my body felt exhausted. I found this strange. For a body that should be groaning in agony, it felt far too normal.
Judging by the different voice, it seemed I had at least suffered a major injury... but concluding that felt highly off.
They say endorphins and adrenaline can sometimes keep you temporarily fine after an accident... but if that were the case, I shouldn't feel any pain at all.
Rather than temporary pain relief, this felt more like... waking up from a deep sleep...
"Did they actually manage to treat that—?"
Wondering if they had performed some kind of miracle to save my body, I hurriedly opened my eyes.
"Huh...?"
The place where I opened my eyes was neither the afterlife nor a hospital bed, but on a mattress in a mundane room. I had woken up in a run-of-the-mill studio apartment.
What on earth is this?
I scrambled up to assess the situation. I looked around, gathering relevant information.
These are clothes. And this is... a chest?
Wait.
"Ha—"
Gasping at a sudden, looming possibility, I bolted straight to the bathroom.
A voice completely different from before. Yet, a body too perfectly fine to be considered injured. A studio apartment that looked ordinary but where I had never set foot. And scattered everywhere were items that could hardly belong to a man.
Every hypothesis pointed to a single conclusion. But I was a Wizard. I was no fool to jump to conclusions without physical evidence. I immediately stepped into the studio's bathroom and stared into the mirror hanging above the sink.
"Wow..."
Reflected in the bathroom mirror was an exotic-looking woman. Her hair was a bleached, snowy white, and her eyes were a deep, sapphire blue.
It wasn't just her unique features; the woman staring back at me possessed a level of beauty I had never seen before. And I mean that in the most positive way possible.
On top of that, my center of gravity had felt slightly off for a while now, and indeed, right in the middle of my chest hung a pair of prominent, undeniably feminine breasts. The funny thing was, despite these fatty mounds, the waist was incredibly slender.
Could a body like this even exist without digital editing? I'm not trapped in some hallucination right now, am I?
"Mmm— Ah— Eh— Ih— Hmm—"
I moved my mouth in various shapes, comparing my movements with the reflection. It was certain. This was indeed my body.
"Did I succeed?"
Reincarnation. It seemed safe to assume it was a success.
Tsk. But can I become a Wizard?
But I was an aspiring Wizard. I quickly calmed myself down. Even if reincarnation was a success, it would all be for naught if I couldn't become a Wizard. No matter how stunning this body's appearance was, it meant absolutely nothing if I couldn't use magic.
Ah... what if I'm still not a Wizard? Do I have to die again? Ha. That horrific feeling of falling... that terrifying...
...Huh?
"Wait a minute."
Suddenly, a thought struck me.
Pinch—
I immediately pinched my cheek and pulled.
A sharp, stinging pain throbbed.
I can feel pain. This body's pain receptors are perfectly normal. Yet, until just a moment ago, I had felt nothing but fatigue—no significant pain whatsoever.
"I didn't feel any pain?"
I have reincarnated. I don't know if this is truly reincarnation, but I have obtained a second life.
Yet, my previous life ended with me jumping off a building. If I died, I should have felt immense pain. But I didn't feel a single shred of it.
Thinking like a Wizard, it was clear that the impact was so massive that my head shattered before my brain could even register the pain. In other words, I died before I could even feel it.
Which means...
"Ha... haha...!"
A grin spread across my face.
I was indeed happy to have reincarnated. But the source of my ecstasy wasn't simply that I was alive. Even for someone like me, I didn't particularly want to experience pain. Any Wizard worth their salt knows that human mental fortitude has its limits.
No matter how much one claims they can endure, if truly excruciating pain is involved, they might just give up. Humans can never be certain of anything until they experience it firsthand.
But at the very least... I hadn't felt any pain.
What that implied, and the reason I could feel such absolute ecstasy... That reason was...
"I can keep dying... until I become a Wizard!!!!!!"
Because I had gained the confidence to throw away my life over and over again—until the moment I finally became a Wizard.