MY SYSTEM LOADS 10 SECONDS LATE

CHAPTER 1: EXPENDABLE BAIT

"Vane! Move your worthless ass to the front. The Vanguard needs eyes on the northern corridor, and you're the only scout left with a pulse."

The harsh voice belonged to Garret, a B-Rank Tank and the leader of the Iron Vanguard's secondary raid team. He stood over six feet tall, clad in gleaming, heavy armor that radiated physical security.

Jaxen Vane wiped a mixture of sweat and dungeon grime from his forehead, gripping his dull iron daggers. His knuckles were white.

Jaxen was a 19 year old E rank scout. Not really the important type. His high perception skill gave him a kin sense to detecting danger and fluctuations in mana. This made Jaxen the perfect proxy to use as bait and danger control.

Jaxen had a dark skin tone and black short curly hair. His height wasn't really something to brag on but he wasn't really the short type either. He wore a black bottom with a low rank leather vest situated on top of his hoodie. A very cheap armor set compared to the others.

"Garret, the mana fluctuations in that corridor are off the charts," Jaxen said, his voice raspy. "My *[Basic Detection]* skill is lighting up red. There's a high-tier mechanical trap or an invisible high-level entity right past that archway. We need to wait for the main guild squad."

Garret snorted, a cruel smirk playing on his scarred face. "Wait? And let the Azure Guild claim the dungeon boss's core first? I don't think so. You're an E-Rank Scout, Vance. You're paid to step on the bugs so we don't have to. Now move, or I'll throw you in myself."

The surrounding guild members laughed. To them, Jaxen wasn't a teammate; he was a consumable resource. In the *Tower of Trials*, low-ranking hunters without combat abilities were frequently hired by elite guilds for a single, grim purpose: to act as living bait.

Jaxen swallowed the bitter taste of humiliation. In this world, strength was absolute. Without a powerful combat class, an E-Rank hunter had no rights. If he refused, Garret would blackball him from the Hunter's Association, and his bedridden sister would lose her medical funding by the end of the week.

"Fine," Jaxen muttered.

He crept forward, his leather boots making no sound against the damp stone floor of the S-Rank dungeon. The air grew progressively colder. Up ahead, a massive stone archway loomed, carved with ancient, ominous runes.

Jaxen activated his only skill.

*[Skill: Basic Detection (Level 3) is active.]*

*[Warning: High-density anomaly detected 3 meters ahead!]*

"There's definitely something there," Jaxen called back, halting his steps. "It's a localized pressure array. If we step—"

Before he could finish his sentence, a heavy hand slammed into the center of his shoulder blades.

It was Garret. The Tier-B Tank had moved with terrifying speed, a malicious grin plastered across his face.

"Thanks for finding it for us, kid," Garret whispered.

With a powerful shove, Garret launched Jaxen forward, straight past the threshold of the archway.

*Click.*

The stone tile beneath Jaxen's boot sank into the floor.

Time seemed to slow down. Jaxen turned his head back, catching a glimpse of Garret already retreating behind a heavy, magical tower shield. The rest of the Vanguard raid team had already stepped back into the safe zone. They had used him to manually trigger the trap so they could calculate its cooldown window.

*Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!*

From the darkness of the walls, a volley of black, poisoned steel spikes erupted. Jaxen couldn't move. He couldn't dodge.

*Squelch.*

The first spike tore through his right thigh. The second pierced his shoulder. The third, a massive steel bolt, punched cleanly through the center of his chest, shattering his ribs and tearing through his lungs.

Jaxen collapsed onto the cold stone, coughing up a torrent of dark crimson blood. The poison on the spikes immediately began to burn his veins like liquid fire.

```

[ALERT: Your Health Points have dropped below 1%.]

[Warning: Fatal organ damage detected. Blood loss critical.]

[Status: Dying.]

```

Through the haze of his failing vision, Jaxen looked toward the archway. Garret was already barking orders to his team. "The trap is on a 60-second reload! Mages, buffs up! Knights, charge past the kid's body! Let's move!"

They didn't even look at him. They just ran past his bleeding form, stepping over him like a piece of discarded garbage.

*Is this how it ends?* Jaxen thought, his vision darkening to pitch black. *Am I really going to die as nothing more than a stepping stone for these arrogant bastards?*

His heart gave one final, agonizing shudder.

Then, it stopped.

Jaxen Vane was dead.

But instead of the cold embrace of the afterlife, a deafening, metallic chime rang directly inside his skull. It wasn't the cold, mechanical voice of the world's standard System. This voice sounded golden, ancient, and violently glitchy.

```

[CRITICAL ALERT: Fatal damage detected.]

[Checking user compatibility... Soul frequency matches Hidden Protocol.]

[System Class Forcefully Overwritten: E-Rank Scout ---> EX-Rank Chrono-Anomaly]

[Innate Talent Unlocked: 'Hindsight Bias']

- Description: The passage of time is absolute, except when it isn't. Upon taking fatal damage or via manual mental trigger, your consciousness is sent back exactly 10 seconds into the past.

- Cost: 0 Stamina / 0 Mana.

- Cooldown: None (Requires a stable mind to prevent psychological fracture).

[SYSTEM OVERVIEW: Death is no longer your end. It is your data.]

[ACTIVATING TALENT: REGRESSING TIME BY 10 SECONDS...]

```

*Whoosh!*

A violent sensation of vertigo slammed into Jaxen's consciousness, as if his soul was being ripped backward through a vacuum. The liquid fire in his veins vanished. The crushing weight in his chest disappeared.

Jaxen gasped, his eyes flying open.

He was standing ten feet back from the archway. His boots were dry. His chest was completely intact.

At first Jaden was confused. He couldn't comprehend what had just happened. He could have sworn that he'd just died a few seconds ago, but somehow he was still alive.

The spikes that were just in his chest were gone. The captain stood behind him in his heavy armor. It was as if nothing had happened. Jaxen didn't know if what happened was just an illusion or a hallucination caused from exhaustion. All he knew was that what happened felt very real. Too real.

His hands shaking and trembling with fear as he tried desperately to catch his breath. As much as he was confused, Jaxen's high perception and ability to grasp things immediately kicked in. He realized the situation he was in. What he saw wasn't just hallucinations. He did die, but somehow he'd repressed back into the past. 

Beside him, Garret was smiling, just raising his heavy hand to pat Jaxen's shoulder.

"Thanks for finding it for us, kid," Garret whispered, his muscles tensing as he prepared to shove Jaxen into the trap.

Jaxen didn't hesitate. Armed with the absolute certainty of what was coming next, he ducked his shoulder and spun entirely out of Garret's trajectory.

Garret's heavy, armored hand struck nothing but empty air. Because of the sheer momentum of his own malicious shove, the heavy Tank stumbled forward, losing his balance.

*Click.*

Garret's massive armored boot slammed heavily onto the hidden stone pressure plate.

Jaxen stepped back, a cold, ruthless smile forming on his lips. "You're welcome, Captain."

Jaxen immediately knew that he wasn't hallucinating. Somehow he had regressed back 10 seconds into the passed. The notification screen flickered on and off, glitching right in front of him. He'd awakened a new ability .

Where did this power come from? Why did it come? All these questions Jaxen thought to himself, but he didn't care for explanations. All he knew was that he'd somehow obtained a new ability and his going to use it to his upmost.