Married For Now - Chapter 8: FIRST THINGS FIRST

When Ryujin wakes up in the video game he use to play, Espers of the World, he quickly realizes something terrifying: this isn’t a game anymore—it’s reality.Stripped of his identity and renamed Kaidren, he must now survive as a low-profile orphan with a mysterious past and a future controlled only by power. The world around him mirrors the game’s setting, yet the rules are no longer bound by code. The television works. The phone updates in real time. Events that never occurred in the original storyline unfold before his eyes.The NPCs? They’re real people now—with real emotions, real consequences, and real power.As Kaidren struggles to adapt, he’s haunted by memories of a trauma-stricken life and an overwhelming detachment from emotion.But the deeper he explores this so-called game world, the clearer it becomes—this reality is unpredictable, unscripted, and far more dangerous than he ever imagined. And to stay alive, he’ll have to confront what it means to be human... and what it means to be powerful.Because in this world, the line between player and pawn no longer exists.

In the vast and boundless continent Cangtu, there were ancient sects governing the Ten Old Domains, unworldly immortal clans beyond the Blue Sky, and primordial demon gods dominating the dark abyss that together created a great number of brilliant stories over the long course of the history.

Eighty years ago, the Abyss suddenly descended upon Yan Luo's world. Humankind was shocked to discover that their most proud weaponry struggles to kill even the weakest demons from the Abyss.The birth of Engravings is a silver lining, which enables humans to harness magic power, drastically enhancing their personal combat abilities against demons.Yan Luo, who determines to be a demon hunter since he was young, however, finds himself unable to imprint any Engravings, but he still decides to embark on his demon-hunting journey even without magic power.“...That can't be right, you haven't gone through the Engraving yet. I see no record of it here, and you're leaving already?”“Quickly register me. I need to reach the exploration town before nightfall.”“Kid, come back if you can't handle it! No one will laugh at you!”

The first time I realized that I ‘couldn’t die’ was during a practical training exercise in my third year as a hero cadet.A beast suddenly leaped out of the bushes and tore into my neck.‘How did I come back to life?’Yes, I came back to life. I didn’t die.And now, after hundreds, even thousands of years, I was still alive. Only I had survived.“But now… it’s finally over.”After wandering for millennia, I thought I could finally put an end to this long existence…“Dale! Dale Han! How dare you sleep during my class? You’ve got some nerve, don’t you?”“…Huh?”But what awaited me at the end of my long existence wasn’t a period, but a repeat sign.