Reborn To Conquer The Malivic World

CHAPTER 4

Lein’s pulse slammed against his ribs as the Abyssal Hunter stepped into the Recovery Pod. 

The chamber’s soft blue luminescence flickered wildly, reacting to the creature’s presence, almost as if even the walls feared it.

This thing didn’t belong in the early game.  It wasn’t meant for beginners.  It wasn’t even meant for players under Level 50.

Yet here it was… hunting him. Lein staggered backward. “This isn’t fair, how the hell am I supposed to fight something like you right now!?”

The creature tilted its head, visor glowing a cold violet. “You are an anomaly,” it said, voice distorted and hollow. “An outsider. Your soul is unregistered. Your presence threatens the Malivic Cycle.”

Lein blinked. “Threatens what?”

The Abyssal Hunter raised its blade. “Therefore… you must be deleted.”

Lightning rippled along the length of the weapon. The air trembled, vibrating with deadly force. Lein could practically feel the charge singeing his skin. “Shit!”

He dove to the side just as the blade cleaved down. The strike tore through the recovery chamber, splitting the floor like paper. 

A deep crack raced across the room, stopping just inches from his feet. If that hit him, he would’ve been vaporized.

Lein scrambled to his knees. He didn’t stand a chance, not with his current stats, not with no weapon, not with no armor, not with no abilities mastered.

Unless. His eyes widened. Rewind Memory.

The System granted him that skill for surviving the village massacre. He hadn’t even checked what it did yet.

The Hunter stepped toward him, each step making the floor groan under its weight. “Do not struggle,” it warned, voice like a low-frequency hum. “Your erasure will be instantaneous.”

Lein’s heart hammered. Instantaneous sounded better than being tortured to death… but dying now meant wasting his second life.

Unacceptable.

Lein clenched his teeth, focusing inward. “System, details for Rewind Memory!”

A translucent panel snapped into view.

[ABILITY: REWIND MEMORY: Stage 1]

Type: Temporal-Cognitive

Function: Rewinds your mind five seconds before a decision is executed.

Usage: Allows you to redo a moment, gain foresight during combat, and alter immediate outcomes.

Cooldown: 60 seconds

Limitations: Only rewinds the mind, not the body. Cannot change anything that happened more than five seconds prior. Overuse may cause mental strain.

Lein’s eyes flickered with sudden hope. Five seconds. Just enough to dodge a lethal attack. Just enough to change the outcome of a deadly choice.

Not a miracle. But a tool. And tools were enough for him. The Abyssal Hunter raised its blade once more. “Goodbye, anomaly.”

The lightning on the blade flared. Lein whispered, “I refuse.”

The blade came down, Lein activated Rewind Memory.

The world pulled backward like a snapped thread. His vision blurred. Time stuttered.

In an instant, he returned five seconds earlier, before the killing blow. The Abyssal Hunter hadn’t swung yet.

Lein gasped, now armed with knowledge of the attack. Left diagonal slash, heavy charge, two-second wind-up. Wide but slow.

He could use that. As the creature lifted its blade, repeating the motion, Lein darted to the opposite direction, right, not left, just before the attack launched.

The blade slammed down where he would have been. Sparks erupted, scorching the air. The Hunter’s visor flickered. “Interesting.”

Lein didn’t wait. He sprinted toward the broken wall where Graknor’s corpse had smashed through earlier, using debris as cover. His wounds throbbed, but adrenaline pushed him forward.

The Hunter stepped out of the chamber, tracking him with unerring precision. “You avoided deletion once,” it said. “But resistance is meaningless. You remain an anomaly. Anomalies must be purged.”

Lein’s breath came in ragged bursts as he darted through the underground passage. “Then catch me!” he shouted.

He didn’t dare look back. Every instinct screamed that death followed inches behind him.

…

Below the village lay a labyrinth. Not a natural one. A man-made maze of forgotten tunnels, ancient mechanisms, and faintly glowing runes. 

These ruins weren’t supposed to appear until Chapter 50, during the mid-tier exploration arc.

Everything was appearing early. Everything was wrong. Lein skidded around a corner, boots scraping against stone dust. 

He stumbled as a sharp pain tore through his thigh, his earlier wound from the battlefield reopening. “Not now, not now!”

The tunnel shook. The Abyssal Hunter had struck the ground behind him with its blade, creating a shockwave that blasted rubble in all directions.

A chunk of stone clipped Lein’s arm, sending him spinning into the wall. Pain exploded along his shoulder.

He groaned, trying to steady himself. The Hunter approached with unnervingly calm steps. “You are slow,” it observed. “Weaker than predicted. Your existence lacks value. You are not meant to survive this world.”

Those words stabbed deeper than any weapon. “Not meant to survive.”

He had heard that before. Every day. Until it killed him. “No,” Lein growled. “I won’t die for anyone’s convenience again!”

He forced himself upright. The Hunter aimed the tip of its blade at him. “The cycle demands your erasure.”

A rumble echoed through the tunnel ceiling. Dust rained down. Lein stared in horror. The ceiling was collapsing. The Hunter looked up. “Structural integrity compromised.”

A massive slab broke loose and plummeted. The Hunter sliced it mid-air, shattering it into harmless fragments. But Lein wasn’t safe.

A second slab cracked overhead. He barely had a second to move. He activated Rewind Memory again, But nothing happened. A cold message flashed.

[ABILITY ON COOLDOWN: 47 seconds remaining]

“Are you kidding me!?”

The ceiling chunk fell. Lein threw himself forward. Stone crashed behind him, blasting shards everywhere. 

One shard grazed his cheek. Another tore into his hand. He hissed but kept crawling out of the debris cloud.

The Hunter emerged from the dust like a demon. “Running wastes time,” it said. “Your efforts are futile.”

Lein’s mind raced. He wasn’t strong enough to fight it. He couldn’t outrun it forever. He needed something, anything, to tilt the scales.

He reached the intersection of tunnels. Two paths. The left glowed faintly. The right was pitch dark.

Left meant safety. Right meant danger. But Lein knew game design logic. Treasure always lay in stupidly dangerous places.

He bolted right. Behind him, the Hunter paused. Then followed.

The light vanished completely. Lein ran blind, guided only by uneven ground and the sound of his own breath. 

Every scrape, every drop of water, every distant rumble felt amplified. “Come on, come on, there has to be something, ”

His foot hit stone, then air. “Shit!”

He fell. He tumbled down a steep slope, rolling painfully until he crashed into a cavern floor. His entire body throbbed, but he forced himself up. He had no choice.

A faint humming sound echoed through the cavern. A pedestal stood at the center, bathed in dim purple glow. On it lay… an orb. Not just any orb. A Memory Seed.

A rare artifact that enhanced cognitive abilities… including temporal skills. This was a late-game item. A precious treasure. Placed here specifically.

As if someone expected him. Lein’s breath trembled. He didn’t care. He needed it. He reached for the orb.

The moment his fingers brushed it,  A blast of force hurled him backward. The cavern lit up. 

The Abyssal Hunter landed in front of the pedestal, blocking the Seed. “You reach for forbidden relics,” it said, voice colder than before. “Your corruption grows.”

Lein spat blood. “You’re really pissing me off.”

“You are not permitted to evolve,” the Hunter replied. “Your fate ends, here.”

It lifted its blade. Lightning surged. The energy built into a lethal charge. There was nowhere to run. Rewind Memory still had 12 seconds left.

His body was too injured to dodge. His mind raced. This was death. Real death. Permanent death.

The Hunter lowered itself into a killing stance. “This is the end, anomaly.”

The blade shot forward, aiming for his heart. Lein didn’t close his eyes. He faced the attack, then, something flickered behind him.

A faint shimmer. A distortion in the air. As if someone, or something, was watching. The blade struck. But a barrier of golden runes erupted between them, deflecting the attack.

The force rippled through the cavern, cracking stone, shaking the ground. The Abyssal Hunter recoiled. “What ? Who interferes?”

Lein collapsed onto his knees, stunned. A floating sigil appeared in front of him, ancient, intricate, beyond anything he had seen in the game.

Then a voice whispered. Soft. Female. Echoing like the wind through time. “Rise, Lein Arcadion. You are not permitted to die yet.”

Lein’s heart skipped. The sigil burned bright, and wrapped around him. The Abyssal Hunter roared. “YOU DARE PROTECT AN ANOMALY!?”

The cavern shook violently as the creature lunged once more, and the sigil detonated with brilliant light, swallowing everything. Lein screamed as reality blurred.