Scarlet hair that reached down to her shoulders, blue eyes that made the sky look pale in comparison, and two long ears made her look anything but human.

“Die for my race,” The Elven Princess said to Nikolai as she stabbed him for one last time. Brilliant colors left his body as his stats turned into crystals.

He reached out and weakly touched the hand that held the sword. The world then started fading in front of him as his memories flashed through his mind for one last time.

The suffering has finally ended. He was finally released from the endless cycle of questioning and torture. What a twist of fate it was to be tormented by the person he fell in love with?

It made sense, however. The only people that can truly hurt you are those you trust the most. However, he had believed he could finally be loved, that he had a place in this messed up world.

For an orphan to survive until the extermination of the human race, Nikolai was one of many. In a world where strength was crystalized, wars were bound to happen. No one, however, expected that interdimensional war was coming their way.

‘If I had known, I would have trained more. I would have prepared. I wish…’ Nikolai thought to himself as his thoughts began to cease. ‘I can take…’

***

“Revenge!” He grasped into empty air in front of him as he roared. The classroom shook a little by his roar, and everyone there flinched and turned to face him.

“Nikolai Yaran!” The teacher yelled after composing herself. “Are you sleeping in class again?” She coldly looked at him.

“What?” Nikolai looked around, confused. He took a step back and tripped over his chair’s edge, making him fall into his seat in a daze.

He looked at the faces of everyone around him. They held confusion, mockery, hostility, curiosity, and most importantly: familiarity, and he recognized most of them.

‘What is going on?’ Even the countless years of his service in the army didn’t prepare him for this. ‘Where am I?’

“Hmph.” His homeroom teacher, Miss Jena, snapped the chalk in half. “An hour in the mines, today.” She said before turning around and continuing with her lesson.

Nikolai sat there, disoriented, as he waited to wake up from this dream. Yet, this desire of his made it even more difficult to believe this wasn’t reality.

‘Have I went back into the past?’ Nikolai wondered. ‘Miss Jena taught me at my first year in the academy. Does that mean I’m seventeen again? What date is it?’

Nikolai opened his phone and saw the date. 2217, February 8th. It was a month after he entered the academy. His memories of his past life resurfaced as he remembered his hellish time at the academy.

He was raised at an orphanage in the city of Rohan. He had no knowledge or relatives from the time before he was found at the orphanage’s doors. His poverty and clothing made him an easy target for bullying at the academy.

The main reason for the bullying, however, was that he got admitted through sheer luck. He did horribly on his physical tests, but somehow, probably due to a glitch in the system, he was accepted.

Nikolai thought this was heaven’s mercy, but it was only another punishment. As he sat in his class, listening to the lesson explaining about energy channels of the lower body, Nikolai’s emotions reflooded into him like a tsunami of the time before his death. He was held under the mercy of the Elven Princess. 

‘For a year, she kept trying to break me.’ He gnashed his teeth against each other in fury. ‘I was such a fool. Such an idiot.’ His clenched fists begged to be smashed into the table. However, strength left him as he slumped in his seat.

‘But now I’m back.’ Nikolai’s eyes turned resolute. ‘Now, I’m different. I have time. In this life, I’m going to take revenge on everyone who hurt me. Those demons in the skin of humans.’

A whistle rang in his ears as a sudden pain assaulted his head. An object has struck his head from behind, making it jerk downward. Nikolai paused and turned around.

In the last seat of the classroom beside the window sat a blond youth glaring at him with a vicious smile. Nikolai’s body trembled as the memories came rushing back, although he tried to keep them away.

This person was the reason his life was hell at the academy. He was also the reason that Nikolai stayed at the F-rank until he graduated.

Julian Mackay. The class’s strongest but also the craziest person. Even after he graduated, Nikolai failed to understand why this person liked to torment him.

Suddenly, cold sweat covered Nikolai’s body. Would he need to go through that hell again? Even though he had asked for more time, he didn’t know if he can change anything.

The bell rang, ending the class, and the students left their seats. Nikolai was then again reminded of how lonely his high school years were. No friends, only enemies tormenting him.

A hand wrapped itself around his neck, and his body stiffened. Nikolai turned and saw Julian’s face behind him, looking at him coldly.

“Are you thinking about something foolish, Nikolai?” Julian whispered into his ear. “You should know how it would end.”

[Choose a response in 30 seconds.]

[Dialogue: I know, I’m sorry.]

[Dialogue: Fuck off.]

[Action: Stay silent.]

[Action: Attack!]

His eyes widened as he saw four panels appear in front of him. This has never happened before, and Nikolai knew it was something that changed after he went back into the past.

However, what were these choices? Questions filled Nikolai’s head, but there was a time limit. He gritted his teeth as the words left his mouth.

“Fuck off!”

His words came out louder than he intended, and the whole classroom heard them. Everyone turned to look at them with wary eyes as the hand around his neck tightened, making him suffocate.

“Very well, I’ll remember this.” Julian let go of his neck and went back to his chair.

Nikolai took deep breaths to calm himself as he slumped on his desk. He saw nothing but the wooden board of his desk and the bright panel that began the change of his life.

[Fate has changed by a slight margin.]

[Fate Points earned: 1 point.]

[Please access The Fate System to use your points.]

He burned these words into his eyes, trying to understand them until the recess was over and the next class began. Nikolai didn’t stay put and grabbed his bag before fleeing the classroom.

As he opened the door, he was greeted by a towering teacher that was coming. With a thick beard and a height of two meters, the teacher looked intimidating enough to resemble a bear.

“Where are you going?” The teacher, who Nikolai tried to remember his name, glared at him. “We have field training now.”

“I don’t feel well.” Nikolai tried. “I think I need to go back and rest.”

The teacher glared at him and waved his arm, white light shooting out of it and covering Nikolai. As the light covered him, Nikolai felt his body become more refreshed than ever. All of his fatigue and hidden bruises disappeared instantly.

“Get your ass back inside, you’ll need this training to survive in the real world.”

The teacher pushed him inside, and Nikolai had to walk back to his desk while suffering the stabbing glare of Julian.

“Today, we’ll be going to the forest. It has F-rank monsters, but all of them haven’t reached adulthood. This is your chance to get practical experience and if you’re lucky, you’ll get a few crystals.”

The words rang in Nikolai’s ears like a thunderstorm. Why would he waste this when he can use his experience in the army to kill monsters?

“Meet me in the field after putting on your training uniforms. We’ll be taking the bus in twenty minutes. Dismiss.”

“Let’s have fun, Nikolai,” Julian whispered as he passed by Nikolai’s desk. His body began trembling despite all the things he went through. It took him five minutes to calm down.

Nikolai understood why his body reacted in that way. It was trauma from his past. Julian made his life a living hell when he was at the academy, and he had never recovered from it.

However, he was sent to the past now so he can solve it. At the moment, he needed to understand what The Fate System was. As he went to the lockers to change his clothes, he started trying to access the system.

‘How do I access the system?’ Nikolai asked inwardly, and a panel appeared again in front of him.

[One-time tutorial has begun. Welcome to The Fate System, an entity designed to change the user’s fate and the world. To access the main menu, please say Initiate telepathically.]

‘Initiate.’ Nikolai was stunned before he gave the command. He started changing his clothes as soon as he got into the locker room. The other students were joking around, and they all ignored Nikolai.

[The Fate System]

A panel appeared in front of him with these words. Besides it, Nikolai saw three other buttons.

[Stats.]

[Characters.]

[Probability.]