I Respawn as My Future Self

How it begins

Dara Keene died at thirty-one and woke at fifty-one with excellent sword technique and a mortgage.

The sword technique appeared when she reached for the bedside water. Her hand moved with a speed she did not recognize, caught the falling glass and returned it without a drop spilled. The mortgage appeared in her quest log. PROPERTY PAYMENT OVERDUE.

She sat up too quickly. Her back objected in a familiar voice she had never heard before.

Elias Noor stood at the foot of the bed holding two medical charts. One contained yesterday's examination. The other was dated twenty years ahead.

'How old do you feel?' he asked.

'Angry.'

'That isn't on the scale.'

'It should be.'

Outside the guild infirmary, the same morning market called its prices. Dara could hear the apple seller who had shouted at her before the dungeon run. No time had passed for anyone else. Her reflection in the medicine cabinet suggested it had passed thoroughly for her.

Elias showed her a skill panel. Master blade control. Advanced route memory. Unlisted oath. A dozen abilities she had never trained lay folded into her muscles, while her actual memories ended at a collapsing bridge beneath a dungeon full of pale roots.

'The checkpoint selected a later version,' he said.

'Can it select an earlier one?'

'Perhaps. We need to know what that would remove.'

Someone knocked. A woman Dara did not recognize stood outside with a small carved boat. She looked exactly Elias's age and wore a guild badge not yet invented.

'You promised you would remember,' she said.

Dara's hand closed around the boat before her mind could decide to take it. Her unfamiliar fingers knew every groove.

On the skill panel, the unlisted oath became a single line of text.

DO NOT RESET BEFORE THE FLOOD.

Elias lowered the younger chart. The market bells began to ring the same minute twice.