The rain fell in lazy sheets across the cracked pavement as Ash Revenant stepped out of the dungeon gate, the blue portal flickering before it snapped shut behind him.His breathing was steady. His hands, slick with monster blood, didn't tremble.Not this time.
A successful clear.Another life saved.Another hour bought.
And none of it mattered.
The system window blinked in the corner of his vision.
[ Regression Count: 37 ][ Current Anomaly: Identity Degradation Detected ]
Ash closed the screen with a practiced swipe.
It was getting worse.
At first, it had been small things. His favorite coffee shop forgetting his usual order. His neighbor pausing just a beat too long before greeting him.But now?Now it was starting to hollow him out.
When he reached home—a quiet apartment tucked between two rune-sealed buildings—the lights were off. His sister's shoes weren't by the door. The umbrella stand was empty.
He called out anyway.
"Lina?"
No answer.
She always used to rush out to greet him. It was a habit of hers, like clockwork.
But when he checked his phone, the last message from her was nearly a week old.
Lina: Hey, can you pick up dinner tonight? See you later, Ash! 💙
That was it.
Nothing since.
No missed calls. No 'where are you?' texts. Nothing.
The next morning, Ash went to the guild's main hall. The receptionist, Mina, glanced up from her paperwork as he approached.
Her brows pinched together. "Can I help you?"
Ash gave her a flat look. "It's me. Ash Revenant."
She hesitated. "Sorry, have we met?"
A hollow pang pressed against his ribs, but his face didn't crack.
"Hunter ID: Revenant. Rank B. Clearance for dungeon raids under Captain Owen's team. Ringing any bells?"
Mina blinked at her screen, scrolling quickly. "Your file's… here. But I don't remember registering you."
"You did." His voice stayed even. "You always complain that I never bring you coffee after raids."
A flicker of confusion passed over her face.
Mina's POV:He looked so sure. His voice, his expression—he wasn't lying. But… I've worked here for years. I would remember someone like him, right? Wouldn't I?
"I'm sorry," she said, her tone softening out of pity. "You must be mistaken."
Ash sighed and turned away, his boots thudding against the marble floor.
Ash's POV:It's fine. It doesn't matter. This life? This version? It's probably already too chipped away to fix. The only thing that matters now is pushing forward. Resetting. Buying more time.
Captain Owen, at least, still remembered him—for now.
"Damn, you look like hell," Owen grunted, slapping him on the back as they suited up for the next raid. "Long night?"
"Something like that."
"Well, lucky for us, you don't need to look pretty to kill ogres."
Ash managed a faint smirk. "Good to know."
But even Owen's memory was starting to fray at the edges. His jokes about their old missions were getting fuzzier. His nicknames for Ash were gone now, replaced by more distant, formal callsigns.
Like the story of Ash Revenant was slowly being erased, page by page.
After the raid, Ash stood on the edge of the collapsed dungeon, the portal sealed behind them.
Owen clapped him on the shoulder. "Good work, Revenant. You're always reliable. Never let me down. Though I swear I don't remember when you first joined us—must be getting old."
Ash's throat tightened.
Owen's POV:Reliable, yeah. But… was he always here? I can't picture him at the rookie evaluations. When did I start trusting him this much?
"Yeah," Ash said quietly. "Must be getting old."
That night, he walked the dark streets back to his apartment, the system window blinking quietly in his vision.
[ Regression Count: 37 ][ Memory Loss Spread: Intermediate Stage ][ Forecast: Full Erasure Projected at Regression 50 ]
Ash stared at the numbers. There wasn't any panic. No fear. Just a steady pulse of focus.
The more he regressed, the more the timeline snapped and bent around him.The more he twisted fate, the more the world forgot him.
Family. Friends. Records. History.
It didn't matter to him physically—his body stayed strong, intact, alive.
But socially? Spiritually? He was vanishing.
When he reached his door, there was a note taped to it.
It wasn't Lina's handwriting.
It was from the landlord.
"Apartment unpaid. Belongings cleared. Unknown tenant. Key invalidated."
Ash slipped the crumpled note into his pocket.
Ash's POV:That's fine. I've done this before. I can live without a home. Without people remembering my name. I can keep regressing as long as it takes.
Until I fix it. Until I win. Even if I have to disappear to do it.