Everything was dark.
There was no light. No sound. No smell. No wind.
Just… nothing.
Jin Haru didn't know if he was sleeping or dead. He couldn't move. He couldn't speak. But slowly, something changed.
His mind, like a candle in the dark, began to wake.
"Where am I…?" he thought.
He tried to open his eyes.
Nothing.
He tried to move his hands.
Nothing.
But he didn't panic.
Why?
Because something felt strange—he couldn't feel pain, or cold, or even his own body. No heartbeat. No hunger. No thirst.
It was quiet… but peaceful.
"Am I dead?" Jin wondered. "Is this what death feels like?"
Time passed. Maybe minutes. Maybe hours. He couldn't tell.
Then, a sound.
Crack.
Like a stone breaking.
Then another.
Crack… crack…
Light slowly appeared. A soft, blue glow. It was far away, like a star in the night.
Jin blinked. His eyes were open now. But everything looked strange. The walls around him were rough and made of stone. He was inside… a cave?
He looked down.
And froze.
His hands… were not hands.
They were made of gray rock. Big. Strong. Heavy.
He tried to speak. His voice was deep, like thunder.
"What… happened to me?"
His voice echoed through the cave.
He touched his chest. Hard. Cold. Like stone.
Then, the memory returned—
The truck.
The pain.
The light fading.
The end.
Jin Haru had died.
But now…
He was alive again.
Not as a man.
But something else.
A stone creature.
A golem.
Jin Haru sat in silence.
The cave was cold and quiet, but he didn't feel it. His body felt… strong. Heavy. Different.
Slowly, he raised his right hand.
It was big—twice the size of a normal human hand.
Made of thick gray rock, rough like a mountain wall. His fingers were square and hard. No skin. No nails. Just pure stone.
He moved his arm. It made a soft grinding sound, like rocks rubbing together.
Then he stood up.
Thud.
His foot hit the ground, shaking dust from the cave ceiling. He looked down. His legs were thick pillars of stone. His chest was wide, like a castle wall.
There was no heart beating inside.
No lungs.
No blood.
Just power. Raw and solid.
He walked slowly to a puddle of water on the cave floor.
He looked into it.
The reflection was not Jin Haru anymore.
It was a creature of stone. Tall. Heavy. Strong. His eyes glowed faint blue like fire trapped in crystal.
He stared at his new face.
No mouth. Just a crack where words could come out.
No nose. No ears.
Only eyes. Eyes that once belonged to a tired office worker.
Now, those eyes were filled with calm.
Jin placed his stone hand over his chest.
"I… became a golem."
He remembered his last wish.
"I want to be a stone… no more pain… no more work…"
And now?
He really was stone.
No pain.
No hunger.
No weakness.
Only silence and strength.
But then a thought came.
"What do I do now?"
He looked around the cave. The walls were old. Some had carvings. Some had crystals glowing faintly. There were broken bones near a wall—maybe from animals.
He was alone. Far from the human world.
And yet…
For the first time in a long while…
He felt free.
Jin stood still.
The cave was quiet again.
He had no plan. No goal. He was just a stone creature in a dark place.
Then—
Ding!
A soft sound echoed in his head.
It wasn't loud. But it was clear.
Like a bell in the distance.
Then, a voice—not a person's voice, but cold and smooth like a machine—spoke inside his mind:
> [System Online… Welcome, Dungeon Core Guardian.]
Jin's glowing eyes widened.
"Dungeon Core Guardian?" he repeated slowly.
> [You have been reborn as a Dungeon Golem, Core Guardian Rank.]
[Race: Dungeon Golem]
[Class: Guardian of the Forgotten Core]
[Status: Active]
More words appeared in his mind, like glowing letters on a screen.
> Strength: High
Speed: Low
Magic: Dormant
Loyalty: Bound to Dungeon Core]
Jin blinked.
"Dungeon? Guardian? This is like a game…"
But this wasn't a dream.
He could feel it inside his mind. A new purpose, deep in his stone chest.
He was not just a golem.
He was something more.
A guardian. A protector. A soul reborn to serve this dungeon.
But… he didn't feel like a servant.
No chains. No voice commanding him.
Just that single message.
Then, everything went quiet again.
The system was gone.
But the words stayed in his heart like fire carved into stone.
Jin looked deeper into the cave.
He didn't know where it led.
But he knew now—
This was his second life.
And it was just beginning.
Jin Haru sat in the quiet cave again.
His large stone body did not feel tired.
But inside, his heart—what was left of it—felt heavy.
He looked at his rocky hands.
Strong. Cold. Hard.
Not like before.
He remembered his life as a human.
The long work hours.
The lonely apartment.
The empty meals.
The pain in his back, his chest, his mind.
He had always been tired.
"I wish I were a stone," he had said once.
And now…
He was.
No pain.
No hunger.
No fear.
But no warmth.
No soft bed.
No voice calling his name.
No one.
Just silence.
"Is this really what I wanted?" he asked himself.
His deep voice echoed through the cave.
He remembered his coworkers laughing while he worked overtime.
He remembered the boss yelling.
He remembered walking home alone in the dark.
And then…
The truck.
The pain.
And finally… this.
A stone body. A monster.
He had lost everything human.
No face. No skin. No tears.
But still, he felt something.
Loneliness.
Jin closed his glowing eyes.
If he could cry, he might have.
But stones don't cry.
He sat there, unmoving, like a statue.
Minutes passed. Maybe hours.
Then he breathed—though he had no lungs.
He opened his eyes.
And whispered to himself,
"Maybe… this is not the end. Maybe this is the start."
He stood.
His heavy feet made soft rumbles in the ground.
"I may be a monster now… but I'm still me."
He looked forward, deeper into the cave.
A new world was waiting.
And Jin Haru, the stone man with a human soul, took his first steps toward it.