Solo Leveling: Digispirit.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

There was no way.

There was absolutely no way he had ended up inside the world of Solo Leveling.

That was impossible.

And, more importantly...

It was incredibly dangerous. Far, far too dangerous.

...But there was still hope.

There had to be.

"It could just be a coincidence," Takuya told himself. "Just a familiar name, nothing more."

He forced himself to calm down.

There was still one way to prove he was overthinking things.

"It was just curiosity," Takuya said with an awkward smile.

At the same time, he prepared another question.

Her brother could simply be a hunter in the ordinary sense. Maybe he hunted bears or wild animals. That wasn’t impossible.

Yes.

That had to be it.

"Oh... and what rank is he?"

If she looked confused by the question, or started talking about hunting animals, then everything would be fine.

Right?

"Oh..." Jin-ah laughed a little awkwardly before answering. "Well... actually, he’s only a D-Rank Hunter. I think he’s been working for about three years now."

Her smile gradually faded, replaced by a slightly saddened expression.

Takuya noticed it immediately.

He felt a little guilty for touching on what was clearly a sensitive subject.

Even so...

He had to know.

"Oh... I see. I’m sorry." He hesitated before continuing. "Hasn’t he ever thought about changing careers? What do your parents think about it?"

Please...

Please don’t say it.

There was no way her father had disappeared inside a Gate.

There was no way her mother had Eternal Slumber.

"I know you didn’t mean anything by it," Jin-ah replied softly, "but... it’s a sensitive topic."

She lowered her eyes slightly.

"My dad used to be a Hunter too. I think he was an A-Rank. One day he disappeared inside a Gate. The Hunters Guild said he most likely..." She paused briefly before forcing herself to continue. "...died during the raid."

"And my mom is sick, so she’s been staying at the hospital."

That was all she said.

"...I’m sorry."

Takuya lowered his head.

"I was an idiot. I didn’t know."

The apology was completely genuine.

Partly because he had unintentionally brought up painful memories for Jin-ah...

And partly because...

There was no hope left.

He really was inside Solo Leveling.

"I’m so cooked..."

The words slipped out before he could stop them.

It was an old habit from his previous life.

His mouth had always been faster than his brain.

Jin-ah let out a small laugh.

"You’re not. You couldn’t have known." She shrugged lightly. "It is what it is."

After a brief pause, she looked at him curiously.

"What about you? What’s your situation?"

"I live with my uncle." Takuya answered almost instinctively. "My parents died years ago. They had an accident involving a Gate..."

...

The moment the words left his mouth, he froze.

...How did I know that?

He hadn’t remembered that before.

The information had come out naturally, as though it had always been there.

Were his memories returning?

"Oh..."

Jin-ah nodded sympathetically.

"I see. This world really isn’t kind anymore."

"Yeah..." Takuya replied with a faint smile. "But I’m doing okay now. Therapy works wonders."

As the conversation continued, he noticed something.

Talking about this life...

It was helping.

Little by little, fragments of Takuya Kanbara’s memories were surfacing.

Not many.

Just enough to fill in some of the empty spaces.

Unfortunately, there was one fact that no amount of optimism could change.

He was in Solo Leveling.

That realization alone made his stomach sink.

This world was ruthless.

Gates.

Monsters.

Dungeon Breaks.

Hidden Dungeons.

The Monarchs.

Any one of those things could wipe out entire cities if they weren’t stopped in time.

Then another thought struck him.

One that was somehow even worse.

At the end of the story...

Sung Jinwoo turned back time.

He rewrote history.

If that was going to happen...

Then what about him?

Would Takuya Kambara simply return to being whoever originally belonged in this body?

Would he be sent back to his old world?

Or...

Would he simply disappear?

There were far too many unknowns.

And every single one of them could completely determine his future.

...

There was another problem.

A very important one.

He could feel it.

He wasn’t Awakened.

He was just...

A normal human.

And Awakening was completely random.

He couldn’t just train every day and suddenly gain powers. That wasn’t how this world worked.

First, you Awakened.

Only then did you receive your abilities.

Your potential was decided from that very moment, whether you ended up as a weak D-Rank or an elite S-Rank. Jinwoo was the only real exception, thanks to his second Awakening and the System that allowed him to level up.

If Takuya wanted any chance of living a safe life...

At the very least, he needed to become an S-Rank.

Anything less offered no guarantees.

Stories were one thing.

Reality was another.

I’m in the world of Solo Leveling... but I don’t even know if everything will follow the original plot.

How could he?

What if Jinwoo made a different decision?

What if he never experienced his second Awakening?

Or worse...

What if he still rewound time at the end, and Takuya simply ceased to exist?

There were too many variables.

Shit... shit... this just keeps getting worse.

At least he wasn’t having another panic attack.

That would have been embarrassing.

"So... are you going straight home after class?" Takuya asked, trying to distract both his mind and the increasingly oppressive silence.

"Hm? Yeah. Why?"

Jin-ah looked at him with a hint of suspicion.

It wasn’t the first time a boy had started a conversation like that. Usually, it was followed by an invitation to hang out or a confession.

Not that she disliked Takuya.

He was fairly handsome—not overwhelmingly so, but definitely above average.

Still, she neither had the time nor the personality to accept a date after a single conversation and one sandwich.

"Oh, nothing." Takuya waved his hand dismissively. "Just making small talk."

"Oh... I see." She relaxed a little. "My brother probably has a raid later today, so I’ll be making something for dinner."

"I see." Takuya nodded before another thought came to him. "By the way, where’s the computer room? There’s something I’d like to look up. I haven’t updated my phone yet, so I don’t have access to the Korean internet."

"Oh, sure. Follow me."

The two of them headed toward the computer room.

Once they arrived, Jin-ah excused herself, saying she needed to use the restroom.

Takuya didn’t mind.

If anything, he silently thanked her.

He needed a few minutes alone.

"So... I’m actually inside a manhwa."

The words left his mouth as he stared at one of the computers.

"Brutal."

He had imagined something like this before.

He had laughed while reading stories about reincarnation, sometimes wondering how the protagonists could make such stupid decisions.

Now look at him.

He had spent the last hour denying reality until it was impossible to deny anymore... and had even suffered a panic attack along the way.

"Well... reading about it and actually living it are two completely different things."

As he spoke, he began searching for information.

Hunters.

Gates.

Awakenings.

Anything that could help him understand the current timeline.

Just as he remembered, every source described Awakening as a largely random phenomenon. There were theories and speculation, but no reliable method to force one.

Then the computer froze.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

"Typical school technology." Takuya sighed. "Doesn’t matter what country you’re in."

After a few more minutes, he managed to gather some useful information.

The strongest Hunters in South Korea were already established, and among them were the National Level Hunters—the ones he had casually referred to as SS-Ranks back in his old life, even though he knew that wasn’t an official classification. It had simply been an easy way to distinguish them from ordinary S-Ranks.

"So... I don’t have any guaranteed way to Awaken."

He leaned back in his chair.

"The question is... do I even need to?"

The answer came almost immediately.

"Yeah."

He did.

Otherwise, how was he supposed to survive?

He didn’t want to be walking down the street one day only for a Gate to break nearby and end up dying to a goblin.

That would be an incredibly pathetic way to go.

The worst part was that he still lacked too much information.

And the saddest realization of all...

He really was in another world.

There was no trace of his old family.

Worse still, he couldn’t even remember their names anymore.

"Just... what the fuck?"

He rubbed his forehead.

"Why can’t I remember them? I can’t even remember my own name..."

His voice slowly trailed off.

"...Now that I think about it..."

He frowned.

"The name Takuya Kanbara..."

It sounded familiar.

Not because it belonged to him.

Because he had heard it somewhere before.

"I just can’t remember where."

He clicked his tongue in frustration.

"That’s... not a good sign."

A worrying thought crossed his mind.

"I just hope I’m not some minor character who dies in the story and I simply forgot about him."

As far as he could remember...

He was just another mob character.

At least...

He hoped he was.

As he leaned back in his chair, thinking about what to do next, the computer screen flickered once again.

Then again.

And again.

For a brief moment, lines of code flashed across the monitor before disappearing.

"This thing has a virus," Takuya muttered.

Seeing no reason to stay any longer, he stood up and left the computer room. There wasn’t much else he could look up for now. His next stop was class, and once school ended, he would finally meet his uncle.

Knowing about him was one thing.

Actually interacting with him was another.

The rest of the school day passed quietly. Takuya paid attention during class, finding the subjects surprisingly familiar. Most of the material wasn’t very different from what he had studied back in his previous life, making it easy enough to keep up.

"Now that I think about it..."

Jin-ah had said her brother had been working as a Hunter for almost three years.

That meant...

He still hadn’t experienced his second Awakening.

If this were a novel, that thought alone would have been reassuring.

I still have time to prepare.

But prepare for what?

He hadn’t even Awakened himself.

Almost absentmindedly, he pulled out his phone to check the time.

The screen suddenly flickered.

Just for an instant.

Green.

Red.

Then everything returned to normal.

Takuya frowned.

It looked almost identical to what had happened with the school computer.

That caught him off guard, but after staring at the screen for a few more seconds, he slipped the phone back into his pocket.

"I’m in a fantasy world," he muttered to himself. "I should probably look into that later."

A quiet chuckle came from beside him.

"You really talk to yourself a lot, don’t you?" Jin-ah said with a smile.

Takuya scratched his cheek in embarrassment.

"...Yeah."

It was an old habit.

He had always done it without realizing, and it was always embarrassing whenever someone caught him in the act.

When the final class ended, Takuya instinctively knew where to go.

It was another strange phenomenon.

Whenever he needed to remember something from this life, the memory would quietly surface on its own, almost as if someone were feeding him information at just the right moment.

As the day went on, more and more memories gradually returned.

Not all of them.

But enough.

Everything except names.

Those were still frustratingly absent.

The walk home took about thirty minutes at a relaxed pace. Fortunately, the apartment wasn’t far from the school. His uncle’s salary easily allowed them to live in central Seoul, where housing certainly wasn’t cheap.

As he walked through the streets, an electronics store caught his eye.

He stopped.

Almost on instinct, he pulled out his phone again.

The screen looked perfectly normal.

Then—

It flickered.

Green.

Red.

Several colors flashed across the display before it stabilized again, almost like a graphical glitch.

As far as he could remember, nothing like this had happened in either of his lives.

That alone made it worth investigating.

And what better place to do that than an electronics store?

Stepping inside, he headed straight for the smartphone section.

He needed a new phone anyway. His current one was still configured for the Japanese network, and his uncle had already mentioned that it was probably time to replace it.

He looked through the different models.

Appearance-wise, they all looked more or less the same, so he ignored the marketing displays and focused on the specifications instead.

After comparing a few models, he finally made his choice.

A store employee soon approached him with a practiced smile.

"Excellent choice, sir."

Takuya almost laughed.

Some things really are universal.

The employee explained that the model came in several colors—black, white, red, and a few limited editions.

At least they were trying to make them look different.

In the end, Takuya chose the black version with red metallic accents along the sides.

It looked clean.

Simple.

He liked it.

As he waited for the purchase to be processed, something caught his attention.

The lights.

The display screens.

Even the electronic price tags.

For brief moments, they all flickered, just like his phone and the school computer had.

His eyes narrowed.

At least that confirmed one thing.

Something was definitely happening.

For a moment, hope crept back into his mind.

Maybe... I’m about to Awaken.

Or perhaps...

He had already Awakened and simply hadn’t realized it yet.

That possibility sounded much better than remaining an ordinary civilian.

Whatever the answer was, though, this wasn’t the place to investigate it.

He would figure it out once he got home.

At the very least...

He had confirmed that whatever was happening wasn’t limited to his phone alone.