On the middle of a battlefield, two figures can be seen standing, the one with the white coat and red cross on it holds a sword that glows a rainbow color, the other figure was a person who's appearance is like that of a child around 9 years old, has light blue hair and was holding a sword while panting heavily

'Just one hit and I'm going to die.'

The light blue-haired thought to itself.

"Give it up, Rimuru Tempest. No matter what you do, you will die in here."

The white coated woman said this as she looked at the blue-haired person, whom she referred to as Rimuru Tempest.

Rimuru stared at the woman and then closed his eyes, gathering his thoughts as his non-existent glands began to produce sweat. It was weird, especially when he wasn't a human at all, yet his body was functioning like one.

'I can't let myself get killed in here.'

After making the decision, he opened his eyes and unsheathed his sword. 

"Sorry, but it seems like I won't be holding back anymore."

Rimuru declared with an air of confidence, only to piss off his opponent slightly.

"Then I won't hold back either; prepare yourself for this will be your end."

The woman said as she got to her fighting stance, bringing her sword forward and maintaining her gravity as she balanced herself on the ground.

'Sorry Shizue, but I need to hurt one of your students.'

Seeing the opponent's stance and intention , Rimuru took it more seriously, a serious matter that could change his life, his ways of living, and his reasons to live.

'This will be a gamble; it's a matter of life and death.' 

Rimuru steadied himself, setting his balance as he stood without a flinch. He already had a plan; now he had to take the risk for it to succeed.

Yet, the question of 'Will it really succeed?' made him conscious of the drastic measures in case he failed. It made him anxious, he tried to think of the answer, but nothing was certain. 

It was a pure gamble, with his own life on the line. It was a whole-life risk, where winning meant living and losing meant dying.

The woman sprinted in his direction, gripping her sword tightly as she accumulated force and power to strike the blue-haired youth, who seemed to not flinch at the sight of her deadly intentions.

"Dead End Rainbow!" She roared as she applied the accumulated energy to the sword, then brought its point in front to pierce through the target's heart.

Rimuru's thought acceleration increased dramatically, as did his skill acting on it's own to take drastic measures and protect it's master at all costs.

His body couldn't keep up with the woman's thunderous speed, yet his mind could see her every action.

His eyes, which seemed to not move, were actually focused on the sword. His mind counts every second, measures the distance, and then calculates both to grasp the perfect timing.

"Awaken, Gluttony!"

{ Understood,  now executing command. }

The woman's sword point almost reached his heart, with only one second left until it pierces through his skin. But with someone's or something's calculation, it was possible to live with the perfect plan. With perfect execution in action.

The perfect execution which leads to...

[!]

[You have died.]

[You have gained the favor of ?????? ]

[Transmigration has been activated]

failure.

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5:00 AM - Seoul, South Korea

At the time where the Sun was meant to rise, a boy woke up with a loud gasp and heavy breathing.

For some reason, his heart felt like it was pierced by a blade. Although he didn't experienced that beforehand, he could tell  what it was like.

'What was that?!'

He jumped off his bed after easing the pain on his chest with a grunt.

'Was it a dream?..'

He looked at the clock, it was still 5:00 am. The sun didn't even fully risen up yet, nor the aircon was off. But why was he sweating in the early morning and cold room?

He wiped his sweat and sighed, then turning his head to the side and saw his own reflection through the mirror.

At first glance, he could tell it was him. But with a blink, his reflection was replaced by someone else.

He stumbled backwards while maintaining his stare at the mirror, the reflection did the same. It took him a few seconds to ease his tensed body, then realized who it was.

'Isn't that the person in my dream?.. am I half awake?..'

He slowly took steps closer, while the reflection copied his little movements. As they touched the mirror, there was silence.

"Is this a prank?.."

Not until the silence was broke off by a loud sharp sound in his head. The mirror broke to tiny pieces, and he could see his life flashing before his eyes.

His past life flashed right before his eyes.

''What the!!.."

Memories started to flow into his mind.

Rimuru sama!, you should wear this.

A pink haired girl with horns said.

Rimuru sama!, I made lunch for you.

A purple haired woman with horns said while holding a disgusting piece of something that was far from being called lunch.

Different people called out to one person.

'Rimuru sama!'

The boy stumbled on the ground while holding his head. Too much memories were flooding in, too much voices called out to someone.. They called out to him.

"I... I'm.." He stuttered. His eyelids felt like it was carrying a weight that couldn't bear. His mind felt like it was melting, his body felt like it was burning.

''I am Rimuru Tempest''

The boy fainted

Three days later

It's been three days since rimuru got his memories back. He was fast to adapt in this world since it was similar to his former one before he got reincarnated as rimuru.

This world was earth, he was sure of it. But his country was different, yet he was able to speak their language very well.

'I'm currently in South Korea. It was surprising to be back on earth, but I wished I was in Japan...'

Rimuru thought solemnly while treading through the halls.

'Anyways, I'm currently 13 years old. I looked a lot like Shizue, but a boy version of her.'

Suddenly, Rimuru remembered a bigger problem.

'Great Sage isn't here anymore.. and I have to go back to that world.., I must go back to Tempest and help my friends.. but I don't know how.. Great Sage isn't here to help me anymore...'

Rimuru frowned at his thoughts. But he clenched his fists to gather his courage and sighed heavily.

'I shouldn't rely on Great Sage too much.. I have to be independent..'

Rimuru stopped at the classroom's doorstep. He was a new student, so he needed to introduce himself.

He waited a few minutes, until the classroom door was opened by the teacher.

''Come in''

The teacher said with a welcoming smile, finally he can introduce himself.

Rimuu stepped inside and stood in front of the class, while the teacher followed him behind.

"Class, this is your new classmate. Please get along." The teacher clasped her hands and bleamed a smile.

"Introduce yourself now."

Rimuru nodded and faced everyone. He was kind of nervous to introduce himself.

'I hate this...'

"My name is Han rimuru, pleased to meet all of you."

Rimuru bowed his head.

'It's better if it's short....'

Everyone looked at Rimuru with admiration, it was due to his beauty even though he's a boy, some of them thought he was a girl.

"Is that all?" The teacher asked.

"And I'm a boy."

All of them got dumbfounded by rimuru's words.

'Hes a boy!!'

Everyone in the room except Rimuru, screamed internally.

'Typical anime character chair.'

Rimuru thought as he took the seat last row beside the window.

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9:30 AM - Classroom

It's recess time and rimuru took out his food and started to eat. He took a bite from his pie and chewed it cutely, not aware of how many kids were looking at him.

As he continued eating, he looked forward and saw everyone staring.

His mouth was open and he held his food closely to it, supposedly to take a bite. But due to everyone's staring, he closed his mouth slowly and placed the food on the table.

'Why are they looking at me like that?!. Am I some kind of a rare pokemon?!'

He started sweating due to the embarrassment. He looked again at everyone and they were still looking at him.

"Umm... Do you want some?.."

Rimuru ended up offering his food to his classmates, which caused admiration from everyone.

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After school, Rimuru went to the rooftop and was admiring the view of the sunset .

'It feels like a new beggining is near..'

Rimuru took a deep breath, then sighed heavily.

'its probably my imagination..'

Rimuru shook his head and chuckled, remembering someone who would say that he was imagining things.

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11:00 PM - Arcade

It's evening, but rimuru was still in the arcade stuck with a man who's playing nonstop.

He was supposed to go home at 7, but he got too engrossed on playing mortal combat and waited for it too load. He ended up falling asleep while waiting for the game to start.

Now, he woke up due to the loud noises of game. He rubbed his eyes and narrowed them, only to see the arcade had been closed and he was still inside.

There was still noises of clicking and game background sounds. He looked around and saw a man playing there loudly.

He wasn't exactly shouting or saying something to be described as loud, rather, he was quiet. But the way he used the board and joystick were too loud, as if he's desperate to win a hard game.

"Mister, why are you still here?" Rimuru approached the man and started a conversation.

"I should be the one asking you that."  The man replied without looking at him.

"The game was logging.. I waited and ended up falling asleep." Rimuru said and sighed, then looked at the game the man was playing.

The sound of the system notification in the game declared [You have died.], And another one came.

[Do you want to restart?]

After a couple of seconds, the man spoke.

"Should I restart again?..."

Rimuru looked at the man with a curious expression. He didn't understand the man quite well.

"Hey.., if you were me, would you accept restarting your life?" The man asked.

'...' Rimuru was in deep thought, thinking on how he will answer the man's question.

'Oh, boy.. Should I tell you about how I reincarnated two times?.'

"Yeah.. I think so." Rimuru answered.

"You're not sure." The man said blankly, his face was covered by a green hoodie.

Rimuru raised his brows and looked closely, but still failed to see the man's face.

"I am." Rimuru answered and looked away. He gave up trying to see the man's face.

"Why?.. And how?.."

That question made Rimuru think again, about his life, his death, and life, and death, and now.

"Death.. Let's say that it's like sleeping. Restarting your life, would be like waking up in a dream... Then die again, and wake up in another one."

Rimuru himself wasn't sure what he was saying, but he felt the urge to say these words.

"It's like sleeping, then waking up on the same place, yet different."

The man didn't say anything and just listened.

"Why I accept restarting my life, you ask?.. Well, because I don't want to stop living... And how?, I'll have to live differently."

It was as if time has stopped between the two of them. Silence along the game's background sounds.

"How about you, Mister.. Umm.."

"I don't know." The man answered quickly.

That made Rimuru look at him, then sighed.

"Why do you want to restart your life, Mister?.. What's the main reason for it?.."

The man didn't say anything.

"Why do you have to restart to begin with?.. How did you get yourself in that situation where you have to start again?.."

Rimuru threw question after questions, yet the man didn't answer any of them. Then after what seemed like a jour of silence, the man spoke.

"I don't know."

'After that long silence, this is what you'll say?!'

Rimuru wasn't sure if he was supposed to empathize or get angry at the man.

"Then go find the reason... Restart your life and search for answers along the way."

Long silence filled again, and Rimuru was getting impatient.

"Mister.., if you're talking about failure then you should just learn from it, you can do better by learning from your failures...."

"...It is the reason why you kept moving forward despite being in the same place again. The more you fail, the more you keep moving forward..."

Rimuru paused and thought for another line to say.

"Having these failure doesn't mean you actually failed, you just have to find some ways to make things right. Try finding the reasons of why you restart, and if you find it, ask yourself, why you did it and for what reason.."

Rimuru said while looking at the screen, he was still confused about the game the man was playing.

The man took his turn to look at Rimuru's face.

"Thats all I can say mister, I don't think my words can be helpful, but something relating to what I said might be a clue of solving some of your problems, I'm going home now, wish you good luck"

'the truth is... I didn't understand what I just said. Even though I kinda relate of that guy..'

Rimuru held his embarrassment internally and outside while leaving the arcade, not looking back at the man behind.

And on that day, the man kept trying many rounds, many outcomes, many failures, and many progress. He didn't gave up and continued, until he found the answer to his own problems. He finally beated the game.

After the hardest game was beaten, the man who used to play was now gone...

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Four Years Later - School

Four years after Rimuru got reincarnated in this world and he was now 17. He was sitting on his chair listening to the teacher.

Then suddenly, something occurred.

{M*#*°%}

'Huh!?'

He heard a familiar robotic voice in his head

{Ma*#°r}

'!!' Rimuru felt something filling inside him, as if his powers were slowly returning to him.

The lights turned off and on.

Bzt!

Bzt!

[The free service of planetary system 8612 has been terminated.]

[The main scenario has started.]