In a lab, far from the celebrations, Wise watched streams of data cascading across his holographic displays.

  ‘The reports were not exaggerating. The properties really are bizarre.'

  'It's showing properties similar to every element, yet it remains completely solid. And it doesn't appear to be made of atoms—probably just pure mass or energy.'

  'But if that's the case, it should have collapsed into a singularity long ago. Not to mention it weighs barely 5 kilograms.'

  His focus shifted to a live experiment. A sample of uranium was being exposed to a controlled energy field generated by CM34.

  He leaned forward, his breath catching. "Wait... Did that just happen? Or am I seeing things? Did I make a mistake—"

  Vwooong

  Suddenly, everything froze. Wise stood immobilized, mouth agape, shock widening his eyes. Across the laboratory, the android maid Nana halted mid-motion, her artificial hands wrapped around a massive chunk of plutonium. In the corner, guinea pigs paused mid-activity in their enclosure, one frozen with its paw raised.

  Then, for a moment, everything went black, the next moment, everything went static (TV static).

  A few moments passed just like that.

  Then...

  Year 2090, November 12th

  "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"

  Wise slammed his fist onto the lab table, shattering a beaker.

  "Why isn't it working?!"

  "Using it on separate body parts doesn't work. Using it on the whole body doesn't work either!"

  "Either the subject mutilates and loses all memories, or it just dies outright!"

  He paced frantically. He had tried multiple experiments, yet not a single one of them showed any useful result.

  'The reason...'

  'What if it's not just reversing the placement of atoms? What if it's reversing actual time itself? Since it violates the laws of thermodynamics, that might be the reaso—

  Once again, Wise was cut off in the middle as time froze completely. Similar events followed the cursed cessation: a blackout, then static, then everything returned to normal.

  …

  Year 2098, September 25th

  "Finally..."

  Wise stood before a colossal device that dominated his laboratory. Tears threatened to spill, but he steeled himself.

  "The success rate is 71.229%."

  He exhaled shakily.

  "It will be my final gamble. If it fails... I don't know what I'll do. Based on my condition, I'll live at most one more yea—"

  Cough. Cough.

  Blood flecked his palm.

  'The reverse-aging method is still full of flaws. But thanks to it, I could continue my research until now.'

  Haah.

  He exhaled slowly and looked at the device towering before him—nearly three times his height—

  Time slowed once again.

  But! this moment was different. Something was wrong.

  It took Wise long enough to realize that what was happening was not reality.

  But he’d been frozen, how did he realize?

  Because he wasn’t the one frozen, he’d always been watching from the sidelines. Everything was just past, his own past. His pupils flickered wildly as he tried to understand the situation.

  But once Wise realized himself, the view shifted quickly.

  A few seconds and he found himself in a small, sun-dappled room that smelled of antiseptic. In front of him was a hospital bed. A man, weary but radiant, sat beside a woman who held a newborn swaddled in soft blue.

  Wise tried to turn his head to see their faces, but an invisible force held him rigid. He knew who they were; it wouldn’t take a genius to figure it out. He tried to force himself to move but was utterly helpless.

  Meanwhile, the scene in front played like a movie.

  The parents, who had the child late in life—father at forty and mother at forty-five—saw him as a miracle, a long-cherished wish finally granted.

  The boy was their magnum opus, their deferred dream made flesh. They showered him with unconditional love.

  In return, he was a perfectly average child: middling grades, unremarkable looks, a quiet disposition.

  A flash of white, and the boy turned seven.

  He sprawled on the living room floor, eyes wide as his favorite anime flickered across the screen. “Dad,” he asked, voice trembling with childish awe, “when can I get superpowers? Like… live forever?”

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  His father, home from another grueling shift, set down his coffee mug and knelt to eye level, the scent of machine oil and cheap detergent clinging to his work clothes.

  "Those things aren't real, Rick," he said, the words gentle but firm. "Superpowers? Not possible. Not yet, anyway." A pause. A weary smile.

  "Maybe someday, who knows? But people cherish life because it's limited. You should savor the present. Honestly, even if you had an infinite life, you might not enjoy it. Who'd want to see everyone they love grow old and..." He stopped, ruffling the child’s hair with calloused fingers.

  "You know what, why don't you become a scientist? Maybe you'll be the one to figure it out."

  The boy couldn't grasp the concept of humans not fearing mortality. Once you are dead, you are gone, right? There’d be nothing left of you. How can one embrace mortality even after knowing that?

  Every time a teacher asked what he wanted to be, his answer—I want to be a superhero with superpowers, become the strongest, and live forever—drew the same response: a classroom symphony of snickers, poorly muffled behind textbook covers.

  The years passed, and reality settled like dust on forgotten shelves.

  The problem wasn't just the dream's absurdity; it was the fact that he couldn't even take the first step.

  The boy possessed no prodigious talent. His academic performance was dismal, his physique frail and prone to illness, his social skills awkward at best. And worst of all, because of his stupid dream, he became the edgy kid who fancied himself as the main character.

  The boy came to understand a fundamental human truth: unless one was unimaginably wealthy, no one truly desired an infinite lifespan. A long one, perhaps, but not an endless one.

  For most people, immortality wasn't a blessing but a curse. Hell, there had been many instances where he’d wanted to die himself, especially that one moment when the pretty lady next door saw his embarrassing childhood pictures, which made him wish the earth would swallow him whole.

  Soon, the boy gave up. He buried the desire deep in his heart and played games instead.

  His obsession became a shield. His grades dropped, though not catastrophically enough to prevent graduation. He became a NEET otaku, his social circle collapsing to his parents and two equally reclusive friends he'd met on niche forums.

  Another flash, and the boy became an adult.

  He had changed much physically, but inside he remained the same.

  He never made it to university, but managed to land a job at a convenience store owned by an eccentric rich man who used it to launder his money.

  The store was located in the middle of nowhere, saw maybe three customers a day, but it paid more than enough to sustain his stagnant existence, further cementing his isolation into more of a shut-in who lived in fantasies all day.

  The fragile equilibrium of his life was soon shattered by the sudden death of his father. It was a workplace accident.

  The regret was a corrosive acid, eating him from the inside. He'd wanted to do so much more for his father, who gave him everything. He’d wanted to make him proud.

  Now, he’d never get that chance.

  But his mother… she was always there; she was his sole solace. She remained his anchor, her love unwavering. She nourished him with warm meals, her encouragement a gentle balm, her smile a lifeline.

  Slowly, with the passage of time, the sharpest edges of his grief began to soften.

  The cassette of life fast-forwarded, and this time it was a hospital again.

  The mother lay on the bed, pale, her skin almost translucent as she mustered a weak smile. “Don’t be sad, honey,” she whispered, her voice a frail thread of sound. “I’ve lived a satisfying life…”

  At that moment, the old Wise watching from the sidelines moved slightly. He had been straining to move for what felt like hours. He didn’t know why, but whatever force was holding him still couldn’t be a good thing. He already knew what was coming next, so what was the point of this?

  The answer was a feeling: this was his past, yet he could feel someone peeking into it.

  Tears welled in the young Wise’s eyes, blurring his mother’s beloved face. “You poor kid—

  Haaaaa—

  Crack

  The vista of the past flickered to static as multiple fissures appeared in reality. Wise had somehow moved his full arm and punched the screen showing his past.

  Krrrrrrrrr—

  Kachak

  Despite half broken, the movie only stopped for a few seconds before continuing.

  "I've lived a satisfactory life. You and your father were my world. Even if you didn't become... whatever you dreamed of becoming, you shared yourself with us. All those movies, karaoke, webtoons—forcing your poor father to read that dreadful novel until he became a bookworm."

  Her hand slid down to grip his wrist.

  Her voice softened.

  "Alerick. You are my beloved son. And all I want is for you to do what you want to do. After my death, you'll be lonely. So maybe try to get a girlfriend? I'm sure you'll get many girls as long as you try. Or maybe try fulfilling that silly childhood dream of yours—which isn't silly at all."

  "Do whatever you want. The world and the paths are all open to you. Choose a goal and stick to it. I've fulfilled all I wanted in my life. And if you ask for my final wish? It's for you to fulfill yours."

  “I’m glad that you’re here with me, happy that I’ll soon be with your father agai-@#$%^&*@#

  “No, don’t say that!” he choked out, fighting to keep his composure from completely crumbling. “You’re not going anywhere! You have to believe you’ll get better. You can join Dad later, just… not so soon—”

  Krrrrrrrrr—

  Kachak.

  Another scene, this time with the young Wise in a basement.

  Sob… sob…

  “Why? Why?!”

  Finally, he crumpled into a corner, knuckles bleeding, breath heaving.

  Krrrrrrrrr—

  Kachak.

  Hundreds of different screens appeared, showing different moments of his life.

  The years that followed became a blur of single-minded obsession.

  He turned his focus inward, to his own body.

  He trained with a ferocity that bordered on self-destruction, and soon, the name Alerick Wise was synonymous with superhuman achievement.

  He shattered world records—the fastest man, the longest breath-hold, so on—and conquered every major martial art and combat sport, until he had mastered nearly every physical pinnacle the human form could offer.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  The body had its limits.

  So, he turned to science to break them. He devoured knowledge, his mind becoming as honed as his body. Soon, he became a renowned scientist, revered for creations that elevated global society, and in doing so, he amassed a fortune that made him the richest person on Earth.

  Earning the nickname: "Apex Human."

  For being the top human—

  Crack

  The Wise watching from outside had been once again forcing himself to move. And this time he had somehow managed to move his leg and stomp on the ground, causing even more fissures to spiderweb.

  Krrrrrrrrrr—

  Vwoop.

  Black curtains covered the world.

  “Gaahh…” Haah… haah…

  Wise woke up in his laboratory with a sore neck and a tablet clutched in his hand. He sat up on the examination table he'd been using as a makeshift bed.

  ‘What a strange dream,’ he thought, before going for a quick shower. Today was finally the day—the day he would reverse the time. He had experimented wildly with the CM34 and found a bizarre property of actual time reversal under certain conditions.

  To this day his biggest obstacle in the path to achieving longevity was not having enough time. But now this would change.

  According to his calculations, the CM34 not only reversed time but also remained outside of the timeline, meaning after the reversal it wouldn’t return to where it came from, thus he could use it repeatedly, creating a closed loop of endless attempts.

  He would possess near infinite time to perfect his craft and if anything goes wrong, he could simply rewind and try again.

  He changed into clean clothes and after a few security checks, entered the colossal hunk of metal that he called time machine. The android maid Nana was also inside the machine, everything was ready, just waiting for him to start.

  “Remember, after the reversal I’ll return to my original young body, and even though I have taken all the precautions there is still a chance that I might not recognize you, you know what you need to do right?”

  “Yes.” She replied.

  “Good.”

  The plan was simple: he would jumpstart the machine by touching CM34—which for some reason required human contact to activate—and then he would move to the other compartment. After all, the whole purpose of the machine was to give him time, and if he arrived in the past with his elderly body, which would die in a few years, it would be really idiotic.

  Hooh...

  Only the final activation key remained. His heart hammered against his ribs with the frantic, hopeful intensity of a young man about to propose.

  He placed one hand directly on the central core stone and hovered the index finger of his other hand over the start switch.

  “Genius.” Just as he was about to turn it on, a voice, hushed in admiration, emanated from behind.

  Simultaneously, a small round figure of a single, luminous eye materialized on the main screen in front of him, wiping away the streams of data and calculations that had filled the display moments before.