Chapter 0: Restart in the Void

The sky was blue.
That was the first thing she noticed.
Not the warmth of the sun, nor the whisper of the wind through the trees, not even the tickle of grass brushing against her legs. It was that blue sky, deep and cloudless, that filled her vision when she opened her eyes.

Aria blinked slowly, her gaze fixed on that brilliant emptiness. She didn’t understand why she was there. Or how.
She only knew that she knew nothing.

She was confused. Not afraid—not yet. It was a thick, drowsy confusion, as if her mind were caught in a fog. Her heart beat with an unnatural calm, far too slow for what she felt she should be experiencing. As if her body knew something was wrong… something her consciousness hadn’t yet processed.

She sat up awkwardly. The field stretched as far as the eye could see, bathed in the soft light of that strange sky. The grass swayed in a warm breeze, and everything was covered in an unsettling silence, as if the world itself were holding its breath.

Aria looked around.
No roads.
No buildings.
No one.

And inside her… there wasn’t much either. She tried to remember. Her family. Her home. Her school. How had she gotten here? What had she been doing before?
Nothing. A white wall. A void.

—“What is this…? Where…?”

Then, without warning, a floating screen appeared before her eyes with a soft click, like a video game interface.

[System: Save Point Activated]
You have returned to the last stable state.
Location: Lirien Valley.
Time rolled back: 30 minutes 14 seconds.
Emergency mode activated: automatic activation upon death detection.

Aria remained still. She blinked.
She looked down at her hands. They were trembling.

—“So… I really did die.”

Her voice came out weak, almost hollow, as if saying those words confirmed something impossible. And then, like a wave crashing against the shore, the memory returned to her.

A feeling of cold.
A roar in the darkness.
A figure. Claws.
The moment her body was pierced.
And then… nothing.

Aria brought a hand to her forehead, clenching her teeth as pain stabbed at her temple. Her breathing turned ragged.

—“Thirty minutes ago… was that when…? But it doesn’t make sense. I’m alive! Or… am I?”

She tried to stand up fully, swaying slightly. Her body felt intact. No wounds, no blood. Only a faint tremble in her limbs.

The system had said “returned to the last stable state.”
A save point. Like in a video game.
As if… she could die and come back.

—“What kind of insane nonsense is this…?”

The wind blew again, as if the world itself answered her with an indifferent whisper.
And in that moment, she understood.

She had died. But she had also returned.
A life that restarted after death…
An ability that seemed impossible.
And she… completely alone.

—“This isn’t a dream,” she murmured, staring at the horizon. “It’s a beginning.”