Chapter 1: Test 1455?  

Waves thundered against the base of the Cliff below.

“Damn it all! I can’t believe I have to go into the Sea of Reset just like this,” I sighed as my eyes stared over the ninety-degree cliffside.

Black, not blue, waves crashed powerfully against the bottom of the cliff.

“This is all because of that rotten bastard. I have no idea what sort of rotten heart he had to do this to me. Just you wait! I’ll chase you to the ends of Hell to get my revenge…”

But with all my angry talk of revenge, I sighed deeply as I gazed at the Sea of Reset below.

If you drop into the Sea of Reset, everything resets to the beginning.

Everything that I worked my ass off for eight years would reset and return to level 0.

I had no other choice but to erase eight years of blood, sweat, and tears and return to when I was level zero and work my way back up. Even though I changed to a deva three years earlier, it would take me eleven years in all to catch up to that bastard. No, more like it was impossible…

“Whew… still, this is the only solution I have, right? As long I have even a sliver of chance to make this work.”

It was irritating and maddening that this was the only way.

“Oh God, please. To the beginning! For the love of God, to the beginning! To that crappy day of July 12, 2023! Yeah, right. As if some crappy God would listen to my prayers…”

I scoffed at my now dismal future and threw my body into the Sea of Reset, dreaming of returning to that first day.

————–

“Huh? What the hell was that about?”

I jumped out of bed as if I had been struck by a bolt of lightning, confused at where I was.

I was sure I had jumped into the Sea of Reset. Like, just now?!

If you jump into the Sea of Reset, all of your skills, stats, and even your inventory items are set to zero, and you start again.

In other words, I should have returned to the time when I became a deva.

Furthermore, after resetting, regardless of where you started at level Zero, you are taken to a spawn point in a lake in Minnesota, USA.

Once you awake after resetting, the first thing you’re supposed to do is take a drink from the lake. However, no matter how many times I looked around at my surroundings there was no such lake. Forget the lake, there was not even a single drop of water!

Confused at what was going on, I unconsciously spat out the words, “Status menu!”

Nothing happened.

“Huh? What? Skill tree menu!”

Nothing continued to happen.

“What is this? I know resetting means restarting from the beginning, but for everything to be erased? More than that, where the heck am I?”

Unable to understand this situation, I looked around and noticed a calendar on the wall.

“July 17, 2022?”

That was the date clearly marked on the calendar on the wall.

Even more unable to understand or believe what was going on, I looked around again and discovered the phone on the desk.

“July…17…2022…7:20 AM…”

I stared at the words and numbers on the phone’s screen, shaking. The trembling of my lips soon spread to my entire body.

The day I jumped into the Sea of Reset was exactly April 15, 2034.

The day the world changed was July 17, 2023, exactly eleven years before. But the date on the calendar and phone showed that it was exactly a year before the change.

Shaking, I looked around at the room once more and slowly started to remember where I was.

The rooftop room on the top of a small four-story building. The room where I experienced the world’s evolution.

“This is where I lived for three years before the world changed!”

Slowly, I walked out of the room.

It was just after seven AM, but the sun was already shining brightly and its warmth embraced my shaking body and calmed me down.

In the back of my mind, I couldn’t believe this was happening; maybe the calendar and phone were wrong. But at the same time, I felt that if this were real and became ecstatic and soon my body started trembling again.

Trying to keep my shaking body still, I raced down the stairs to the street below.

I needed more proof. More definite proof. That calendar and phone weren’t enough to make me believe this was real.

I came down from the fourth to the first floor and went to into the 24-hour convenience store next door.

In 2034, there were no 24-hour convenience stores.

The fact that my eyes could be deceiving me crossed my mind.

The bell above the door rang as I entered.

The second I entered the store, I asked the girl behind the counter. “What year is it?”

“What?”

“I’m asking what year is it right now!” I shouted in confusion.

We had greeted each other a few times before, since the store was right outside where I lived, but her face drained of color at my shouting before she slowly answered, “It…it’s 2022.”

“Today’s date is July 17, 2022?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. It’s really July 17, 2022! It says so on that digital clock there!”

She pointed at the digital clock, which said in bright red LED lights that it was in fact July 17, 2022, 7:25 AM. Exactly five minutes had passed since I checked the time.

“Huh…”

—

I stumbled out from the store and went back up to my rooftop apartment.

As I trudged back up the four floors, my vision began to widen.

The sun I barely noticed before was steadily rising from the east.

I was able to take in the view around me. Among the huge buildings, there was no evidence of rubble or craters or the like.

There weren’t any orcs or goblins roaming the earth, nor were there drake-like monsters in the sky.

Cars were running normally and the streets were clear of traffic. In other words, it was peaceful.

“Ah…”

Tears streamed from my eyes seeing the peaceful surroundings. I could now believe it.

“I’m back. It’s 2022! Not 2034!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. I may have jumped into the Sea of Reset, but I came back in time! Back one year before the world changed!