What do you feel when you jump off a bridge?
Cold? Pain? Regret?
No… none of that.
Just black.
No screams, no sharp snap of broken bones. Just… nothing. One moment, I was falling. The next, I was floating—weightless, soundless, thoughtless—in a vast void of endless darkness. The kind of space that has no up or down, no left or right. Just black. Infinite. Empty.
I don't know how long I've been here. Minutes? Years? Centuries? Time doesn't exist in this place. Thoughts echo endlessly, but they're never answered. I tried shouting once, maybe hoping for some god, some demon, some anything to respond. Nothing came. Just silence, wrapping around me like a coffin made of shadows.
Am I dead?
Am I in heaven… or hell?
Or somewhere in between?
I don't feel hunger. I don't feel tired. But I can think—and that might be the worst part. I have nothing but questions, thousands of them, rattling in my skull like marbles in a tin box.
Do I sleep?
Do I age?
Will I ever wake up?
Why… why was I born just to suffer?
Then—something changed.
In that sea of black, I saw it.
A faint glow. A small orb, pulsating with soft light like a heartbeat in the abyss. It was the only color in this empty cosmos, and I couldn't tear my eyes away. Hope? Salvation? Illusion? I didn't care. I walked—floated—crawled—whatever it was, I moved toward it. The darkness recoiled as I got closer, like it feared the light.
I reached out, my fingers trembling, and touched it.
In an instant, the silence shattered.
A sound—no, a presence—flooded the void. Ancient. Indifferent. It wasn't speech as much as it was pressure, echoing in my bones, vibrating in my soul. Murmurs. Ravings. Whispered chants in languages I couldn't understand, like the fragmented madness from the Lord of the Mysteries novel I once read. It was dissonant, maddening, loud yet soft—as if multiple dimensions spoke over each other.
Then, buried beneath the cacophony, I heard it.
"You have been blessed, child."
Blessed?
I nearly laughed.
Blessed by what? A cursed life? Neglect? Betrayal? Abuse?
Where exactly in that miserable existence had I been "blessed"?
Before I could scream my rage, the orb exploded in blinding light—and everything changed.
When the light finally faded, I found myself lying on damp, hard ground. Cold air bit at my skin, and the musty scent of earth told me I was in a cave. Darkness surrounded me, but I could feel the space, like every inch of the cavern whispered its secrets to my skin.
But then… the pain started.
A sharp, blinding agony surged through my eyes. It was like a branding iron had been shoved into my sockets. I screamed, thrashing against the cold floor, tears pouring from my burning eyes. It felt like my very soul was being carved open. The pain didn't just sit in my head—it echoed in my ribs, my spine, even my fingernails.
Eventually, the pain dulled. My breathing slowed. I dared to open my eyes.
And what I saw—
No.
What I perceived—defied explanation.
Every detail of the cave was burned into my mind in crystalline clarity. I could count every crack in the stone, every grain of dust hanging in the air. I could see faint thermal signatures—like glowing outlines—even in the pitch dark. I turned my head, and the world moved in slow, graceful motion. My vision pierced the darkness. Far in the distance, through layers of stone, I could see faint movements—perhaps bats, or something else.
It wasn't just clarity. It was something deeper.
I was seeing the cave's data.
I could sort out the mineral composition of the walls just by looking. The temperature gradient between rocks. The subtle shift of air currents. It wasn't overwhelming. It was… natural. Like I had always seen this way.
Then I noticed it.
A faint, dimly glowing infinity symbol hovering above my head, reflected in a puddle on the ground.
And that's when it hit me.
Six Eyes.
I've seen this before. Dozens of times. Jujutsu Kaisen. A manga I read countless times during my dead-end life. Gojo Satoru—arguably the strongest sorcerer in that world—was born with these very eyes. Eyes that saw cursed energy in precise detail. Eyes that granted unparalleled perception, instant calculation, and near-infinite stamina.
I remembered those panels, his icy blue stare, the way he dismantled opponents like they were insects.
And now… I had those eyes?
No… it wasn't exactly the same.
This couldn't be a dream. Dreams weren't this real.
This wasn't reincarnation in the traditional sense either.
It felt more like… an initiation.
But into what?
Was this a second chance? A curse disguised as a gift? Or the beginning of something far beyond my comprehension?
I stood up slowly, the chill of the cave forgotten, my mind reeling from this revelation.
Whatever this was… wherever I was…
I had been given power.
And this time—I wouldn't waste.