SWNOVELXO Chapter 1
Chapter 1. A New Beginning (1)
The sky seen from the burning earth was unbelievably clear.
Why did the sky of a world about to perish have to be so bright and beautiful?
My chest tightened, and I closed my eyes.
‘To end in vain like this again.’
I thought of myself as a sword. That if I honed and tempered myself, I would one day become sharp.
‘What a load of crap…’
But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't become strong.
I was a regressor, living my hundredth life.
I had put in tireless effort over what felt like an eternity, only to arrive at one truth:
No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t grow stronger. I was an incompetent man with not even a speck of talent. In the end, I could only curse my own lack of talent.
Cough.
Blood surged up.
When I opened my eyes from the pain, the world was still red.
The heroes I had painstakingly raised were burning like heaps of firewood.
The one hundred thousand elite soldiers I had united across the continent were now completely gone, without a trace.
Beyond that, the Apostle of Gamelom, the Mad Dragon Ignita, spread her massive wings.
Taking flight, she blotted out the sky and exhaled once again.
Silence.
A small orb of light, no more than a speck, appeared in front of the dragon’s snout—and at that moment, silence fell, as if nothing else existed.
Within that silence, I looked. At the cause of all this.
What the dragon was unleashing now was my failure.
It was the regret and screams of what I failed to save, gathering and being fired at me.
I reached out with a blood-soaked arm.
I had to stop it. But I couldn’t do anything.
My heart ached again. And the dragon’s breath finally burst toward the earth.
With a sound like the sky was being torn apart, a massive energy once again covered the land.
But before that, despair engulfed me.
I should never have dreamed.
Savior Silverhearts, age nineteen, should have lived a humble life doing chores in a village.
I should have shut my eyes and ears to tales of knights and mercenaries and lived an ordinary life.
But I couldn’t.
Youth burns on the fuel of hope and dreams. My youth was no different. I wanted to be a mercenary—and then, a hero. To fight, I needed to learn how. To learn how to fight, I needed gold.
‘If only I hadn’t gone to the mercenary office that day…’
The outstretched hand was the first to be erased by the dragon’s breath. But I continued my thoughts unperturbed.Regret—something I could only allow myself now.
I applied to the mercenary office as a porter, and a few days later, joined an archaeological expedition.
The exploration went smoothly. We fought monsters a few times but safely discovered ruins.
Then came the time to collect loot. I reached out, without thinking, toward a white pebble on the altar.
Who could have known? That it was a divine relic of Moirai, Goddess of Time and Fate.
[Save humanity from the dimensional invasion of Gamelom, the God of Destruction.]
The moment I touched the relic, a revelation rang in my head.
To a young man who admired hero stories and wanted to become a mercenary, it was an irresistible temptation. So I answered all too easily.
‘Yes, gladly.’
The disappearance began at my fingertips, climbing up my arm and toward my torso.
[Do you see a way to save them all?]
The voice of Goddess Moirai echoed with regret.
She always asked me this question after I returned from death.
Each time, I explained my progress. What training I did, how I planned to become stronger.
She would smile and listen kindly. Thus came the second round, the third, then the fifth and tenth. But something felt wrong.
“Goddess… why am I not getting stronger?”
She was surprised, perhaps not expecting me to be so untalented in combat.
[You have infinite time, so what is there to worry about? Let’s just try a little longer.]
I admit it. Both the goddess and I were foolish.
A person who’s hopeless remains hopeless even after countless rebirths.
Still, I was more realistic than she was.
When my thirty-first life began, I told her:
“I don’t necessarily need to be strong, right? As long as we stop the destruction.”
That’s when I began to search for other methods. In repeated lives, I sought out those who would one day be called heroes and helped them grow stronger.
I gifted them fateful opportunities and prepared them for the great war against the Mad Dragon.
My life also changed.
I began refining myself in new ways.
Herbology, alchemy, strategy, smithing, even cooking and sewing.
I learned everything I could.
Plans to save humanity were established, step by step. With every life, humanity’s power became more unified.
The heroes grew stronger. But perhaps the progress seemed too slow to the goddess.
At the end of my fiftieth life, she suddenly said:
[I’m doing everything I can to find another way. If it’s too hard, you don’t have to keep trying.]
Of course, I knew she said it for my sake. But her words only made me feel more wretched.
When the cycles reached eighty-one, she tried to stop me again.
[Let’s stop now. If we can’t succeed after all this, then it’s simply impossible.]
She wept.
I was terrified.
I hadn’t achieved anything yet.
I didn’t want to give up. I wanted to keep going.
“I can do it. Goddess. I think I’ve finally found the way.”
So I lied. And the regressions continued. But humanity’s salvation remained distant.
If I hadn’t been chosen as the savior, could the world have been saved?
If I hadn’t picked up that white stone, would the world have known peace?
My vision began to blur.
My body was about to completely vanish.
So this is where regret ends. As always, I would leave all regrets and remorse behind in death.
Even despair was a luxury in the face of my mission.
‘In the next life, for sure…’
Just before my entire body turned to ash, I remembered the mission I couldn’t give up.
Save humanity from the dimensional invasion of Gamelom, the God of Destruction.
No one but me could stop this destruction. So I had to find a way again.
The hundredth regression. And so, my hundred and first life began—with immense pain.
The whitened vision slowly returned. Beyond that hazy view stood a woman of middle age, so beautifully drawn it felt unreal. The Goddess of Time and Fate, Moirai.
I was terrified of hearing the word “give up” come from her lips. So I quickly told her the outcome of this life.
“I finally faced the Mad Dragon.”
– At last!
It was the first time I had managed to bring the dragon into direct combat. That alone made the goddess’s eyes widen in amazement.
– Incredible! How did you achieve such a feat with such a weak body?
The goddess was sincerely overjoyed.
Seeing that pure smile made my chest ache once again.
When I came face to face with the Mad Dragon, I understood. That creature could never be defeated. Unless I discovered another possibility, there was no way.
‘Damn it… and I’m the one with that possibility, yet I have no talent for combat…’
Whether she knew my thoughts or not, the goddess took my hand and jumped for joy.
– This is great. You achieved results. I also gained some results on my end. There's no time, so let’s proceed quickly. We only have thirty minutes left, don’t we?
Thirty minutes.
The waiting time until I began a new life.
While time rewound in the Midrealm, it was the brief moment I could rest.
But the goddess suddenly grabbed my hand and hurried me along, saying that thirty minutes wasn’t enough.
I could feel her excitement through her grasp.
I needed to tell her that the Mad Dragon was stronger than we thought…But I couldn’t bring myself to ruin her good mood. Still, more important than hesitation was to speak the truth and discuss our next plan.
“More importantly, I need to say something—”
But I was interrupted by her words.
– I’ve brought you a gift that can shatter your despair. Since you’ve already faced the dragon, regression is no longer necessary. Just do the same thing in your next life.
“What do you mean? No longer necessary?”
My heart dropped.
– It means that the only thing you lack now is strength. Your planning and strategy are more than sufficient.
Saying that, the goddess stood at the center of the altar.
– My salvation, the salvation of humanity. My apostle and beloved son, Savior. As your god and mother, I command you—receive this gift I have brought.
Her gentle smile made me frown.
She kept speaking in cryptic riddles, and I was growing frustrated.
– Bring my divine relic here and kneel before me.
“Aren’t you going to tell me what the gift is?”
– Fufufu. I’ve brought you spring.
“Spring?”
– See with your own eyes.
Still puzzled, I followed her words, raised the divine relic, and knelt before the altar.
– In accordance with the laws of the universe, I offer the karma and divinity of the mortal Savior in exchange for power.
The divine relic rose from my hands and began to emit light.
The bright light that extended from the altar enveloped my entire body.
Then letters appeared before my eyes.
[Contract with the ‘Universal Governing Law’ and the Goddess Moirai is now in progress.]
– My son, Savior. Your life was not a mistake. You will now receive your answer.
The light that had filled the temple was suddenly drawn into Moirai’s divine relic, then burst out again.
It wrote letters in the air.
[Sufficient ‘Karma’ has been instilled in Moirai’s Stone.]
[Calculating the ‘Karma’ gained from your past lives.]
[Calculation in progress… 12%]
[Due to the vast amount of Karma, more time is required than expected.]
“What is this…?”
– Don’t be surprised. This is the method I found for you.
I was speechless at the incomprehensible phenomenon unfolding before me.
[Calculation in progress… 42%]
[TIP. ‘System’ was derived from the games of humans in other dimensions.]
The light from the relic formed words.
I was dumbfounded.
It was all happening so suddenly.
[Calculation in progress… 68%]
[TIP. The evil god Gamelom has made the Mad Dragon Ignita his apostle. You must stop Ignita’s ambition to turn the Midrealm into the domain of an evil god.]
Fwoosh!
A beam of light shot forth. In its reflection were scenes of Ignita slaughtering the creatures of the Midrealm. The undead returning from death. Monsters possessing both savagery and violence.
Humans who betrayed humanity, and demons ruling over them.
They were all followers of the Mad Dragon whom I had encountered in previous lives.
[Calculation in progress… 89%]
[Goddess Moirai, to counter the evil god, scoured countless texts and discovered a substitution ritual based on the governing laws of the universe. According to that law, the Karma accumulated by her apostle will be transmuted into a .]
The light showed another image.
Moirai, surrounded by more books than grains of sand, studying with sorrow in her eyes as she thought of me.
[Calculation in progress… 99%]
[Goddess Moirai will lose all her power as a result of this contract. The power of regression she bestowed upon Savior will vanish. She will soon fall into a deep slumber.]
[Calculation complete… 100%]
[Calculation of the Karma amassed by Savior is complete.]
[Searching for traits appropriate to the accumulated Karma.]
[A ‘Transcendental’-grade trait, , will be granted.]
“Oh my god…”
I stared blankly at the letters. Then, suddenly, my body was enveloped in light.
Thirty minutes must have passed. It was time to return to the Midrealm.
– Now that spring has come, let your new leaves sprout, my son.
With those last words, the divine form of the goddess crumbled. And my vision was completely overtaken by light.