TRPSG 1

chapter 1

My breath shot up to the tip of my throat. My pounding heart felt like it was screaming. My ankle twisted hard as I ran along the dirt path, and my body pitched forward.

Just before I hit the ground, a strong arm caught me. My body was lifted cleanly, and my view flipped upside down.

“Did you think I’d let you go just because you died trying to escape?”

Purple eyes gleamed dangerously. Unlike the man who had always been kind and considerate toward me, his breathing was rough. His appearance, so different from what I remembered, made me shrink my neck and shake my head.

No. I never tried to run away. Well, I did just run, but it wasn’t like I meant to disappear for good.

I was trying to find the right excuse to calm his anger, but another large hand reached in from the side and grabbed my left wrist.

“You said you’d die together with me. So why?”

Because I never planned to die with you! Do I look like some suicide enthusiast to you?!

I wanted to shout that, but seeing his arm thicker than my thigh made my heart shrink. I hadn’t realized it before—because he had never once frightened me—but a man this enormous, large enough to cast me fully in his shadow, was terrifying.

Perhaps sensing my fear, his grip loosened slightly. When I slapped his hand away with force, he obediently released me.

But before I could even escape his grasp, my ankle was grabbed instead.

Dragged by the ankle, I was laid flat on the ground, and elegant long fingers slowly slid up, lightly gripping my neck.

It wasn’t pressure. I wasn’t being strangled. And yet I couldn’t breathe. It felt like I had been caught by a giant snake.

As if begging for salvation, I lifted my head—and saw him looking down at me with a sorrowful face. I was clearly the one in danger, yet tears filled his eyes instead.

“What do you think I felt when I lost you right before my eyes?”

Yes. I did think about that. I thought about it a lot. I’m sorry.

I’ll reflect deeply, I’ll beg you properly, so can you just let me go? I’m scared now.

Before I could even speak, his long fingers tightened around my throat and pressed down. I gasped as my chest heaved violently.

Looking down at me indifferently, he spoke.

“I belong to you. So if you intend to leave, then take my life with you.”

How many times do I have to say it—I didn’t disappear in front of you because I wanted to!

Between three men who looked like they might kill me at any moment and then take their own lives, I writhed in frustration.

I’m the victim too. It’s all because of that damn system window.

Someone, stop these insane people!

* * *

Becoming a hero had been my lifelong dream since childhood.

A hero who saves people in danger and, without even looking back, goes off to save someone else again. That resolute figure looked so cool.

I’m an ordinary person, so I could never be such a hero—but if I had some hidden special ability, maybe I could save people in danger.

I had held onto that childish dream for twenty-six years.

But I never meant it as “I want to save someone and die in their place.”

Screeeeeech!

I didn’t expect to save a child who fell onto the railway tracks and get hit by a train myself.

I thought I had time to escape when I saw the train coming from afar—but when I came to my senses, it was right in front of me.

I don’t even know how I died, since my entire body was torn apart. Still, the child survived, so maybe there’d be a newspaper article calling me a brave citizen.

They say tigers leave their skin when they die, and humans leave their name—so if my name, “Seong Ju-in,” is left even in a newspaper, that wouldn’t be a bad end.

I couldn’t become the hero I once dreamed of, but as an ordinary human, I guess I did pretty well.

I smiled bitterly.

Everything around me was darkness.

In movies, don’t shinigami come to collect you when you die saving someone? But I couldn’t see anything.

“So there’s no afterlife.”

Just as I thought that—

A mechanical fanfare sounded, and a system window appeared in front of me.

Pathetic Sacrifice Lv. 1

Excellent! You are a righteous person who saved another life.

A new life is granted to a righteous person who died before completing their natural lifespan.

Do you accept the life reward?

YES / NO

…So if I press YES here, I get reincarnated?

No afterlife, but there is a reincarnation truck.

Well, I got hit by a subway, not a truck—but whatever.

I stared at the absurd system window, even more unrealistic than a grim reaper.

“Pathetic Sacrifice,” seriously? I may have been alive a moment ago, but I’d have received a Brave Citizen Award if I survived. Could you at least drop the “pathetic” part?

I reached toward the window. It was strange that my body, which had been completely destroyed, now had all its limbs intact here.

[YES]

Unless you were suicidal, who would choose NO here?

I clicked YES without hesitation.

A small hourglass appeared, and a window said: “Loading…”

So slow. Come on, Korean speed—hurry up!

If you’re giving it, give it quickly. A new life! New body, new life!

Preferably, I wanted to be reincarnated as a wealthy villainess in a fantasy romance novel, just like my friend read, dodging death flags while seducing the male lead and living comfortably.

I did save someone before dying—shouldn’t I get at least that kind of reward?

But once loading finished, a new window shattered my expectations.

Beginner Bonus

In 30 days, you will save one person and die.

Excuse me. Could you explain how this is a bonus?

I barely got 30 extra days after saving someone, and I still have to die saving someone again? Are you kidding me?

I rarely swear in my life, but I felt rage boiling up so much that I cursed instinctively.

“Damn it…”

But I couldn’t finish.

My vision blurred as if something was pulling my body away.

I had no idea where I was going, but I had a bad feeling that wherever this damn system sent me, it wouldn’t be a good world.

* * *

That premonition was correct.

“Ugh!”

I dropped from the air and slammed my back onto the ground. The stone surface hurt quite a bit.

“Ow… owow…”

I’m still young—I can’t ruin my back already.

Rubbing my aching lower back, I stood up and saw tall trees.

One tree, two trees, three trees… lots of them.

A forest? Or a mountain?

Given the rocks and steep slope, it was likely a mountain.

Is this Korea or another world? It’s nothing but trees and rocks—I can’t even tell.

I looked at my clothes. My body was mine, but I wasn’t wearing the subway outfit I had on before dying.

And it wasn’t a flowing dress like in romance fantasy novels either.

It was travel gear suitable for hiking—thick outerwear, gloves, pocketed pants, and long boots. So it didn’t seem like primitive, ancient, or medieval times.

“Where the hell am I…”

I needed to get out first to figure out my location.

I started climbing upward. Rather than going down blindly, I thought it would be better to get a high vantage point.

Fortunately, once I left the dense forest, my view opened up.

“…Wow…”

Even from a mountainside, it was breathtaking. Vast mountain ranges stretched endlessly across my view.

This scale didn’t look like Korea at all. So… is this really another world?

I tried recalling novels or games I had read. I couldn’t remember anything with a setting like this. It didn’t match any world I knew.

So this is dimensional travel? Another planet?

If it were a book or game, I could at least use prior knowledge—but all I see is mountains.

Can I even get down before sunset? And I don’t even see a village anywhere below.

The “30-day death sentence bonus” was already terrible, and now the world itself is like this too.

My second life was ruined before it even began.

“Even if you reincarnate me, why in a place like this…”

I was cursing the system’s lack of decency when a hologram-like window suddenly appeared before me.

Pathetic Sacrifice Lv. 1

Remaining lifespan: 30 days [Beginner Bonus active]

In 30 days, you will save one person and die.

Forming party…

Current members: (0/2)

So the system window appears here too.

Under the ungrateful bonus, unfamiliar text floated.

“Party formation?”

So I’m supposed to escape the mountain in a party?

Then… is this a game?

I had never heard of a survival game like this before. Hopefully it’s not a trash game.

“Wait. If I need to form a party…”

It wasn’t telling me to find items or complete solo tasks—it wanted party members first.

No tutorial, no NPC, just party recruitment from the start…

That meant I had to start in a group.

Which meant a mission requiring multiple people was coming.

Like hunting monsters I couldn’t handle alone.

“Don’t tell me… there are monsters here?”

As soon as I realized that—

A distant howl echoed.

Not exactly an animal… more like something distorted, like a monster from a horror movie.

“First, find a safe zone. Party or not, I’ll die instantly if I get attacked alone.”

I immediately recalled where I had first arrived. If this is a game, the safest place is obvious.

The starting point.

First, I should return there and search for beginner items needed for survival.

No tutorial and no starter gear would be too unfair.

I quickly headed back into the forest.

But at the place where I first woke up—

someone had already arrived.