Chapter 1
[Would you like to reverse time?]
[All stats and abilities will be reset.]
[Please pick a date.]
“February 28th, 1985. The day I was born.”
I stated the date while clenching the old and bloodstained talisman.
***
This constant rhythm that heralded the beginning of my world was my mother’s heartbeat, and it was her amniotic fluid that covered my naked body.
So, the darkness that spread in front of me when I opened my eyes was comforting rather than foreboding, as the dungeons had been.
I was in my mother’s womb.
Her heartbeat gently carried away my memories of the grim days and the despair that forced me to reverse time and escape to the past.
Since mothers will always be mothers, my eyes grew heavy, just hearing the sound. It had been such a long time since I was able to do so.
I felt a deep pleasure as my mind grew dim, and the thought of finally being able to sleep pleased me. Until this moment, sleep had eluded me. I tried to hide my eyes with both hands to fall asleep again.
However, my tiny arms and legs were out of my control, and they touched the walls of my womb. My mother’s voice was a mumble, and her heartbeat was louder than her words.
Still, from the lightness of her tone, she probably woke my father to boast the strong movements their baby had made.
***
The reason I chose the day I was born instead of the next day or after I had grown to go back was because of the trait he had. The process of gaining a rare achievement was a secret more important than life.
I had discovered what he had kept hidden. He had Awakened in advance in his mother’s womb. He had to be the only individual who had the memories of being a fetus and a pre-Awakener. I knew of his achievement and the power of Overcoming Adversity. This achievement had made him the most powerful of the Eight Evils and Eight Virtues.
However, the mechanism of achieving this trait was not something anyone would go through since it was the process of being pushed out of a mother’s womb through the birth canal. The distinction of having accomplished this achievement was whether one could overcome the hardship and pain involved.
No one remembers when they were born. Even the one who Overcome Adversity, who had the memories of being a fetus, could not remember the details of the agony of their birth.
He was the same, as he had spoken that the most painful moment of his entire life was when he was being pushed through the birth canal, and if people could remembered that moment, we would be as inevitably self-centered as he, after going through such an ordeal to be born. This was the reason for his extreme narcissism despite his plain face.
Was going through the birth canal such a painful experience?
***
Something had to be going wrong. I knew that this would be a painful experience, but everything went awry.
The pressure that was suffocating me from everywhere overwhelmed my senses.
There was little left of the amniotic fluid that would have protected me. Also, my body had grown to fill my mother’s womb since I was just about to be born.
I was being crushed in this narrow space since I had to endure it as a frail fetus. I thought my fat was melting, my muscle were being shredded, and my bones were being crushed.
He had not been lying.
My soft flesh which burst under even the slightest pressure did not protect me and was on fire as I was going through the birth canal.
I knew that screaming would waste all my efforts without anyone telling me so. However, I was about to open my mouth to scream when something fluidlike threatened to fill my lungs.
I would have committed a sin if I had opened my mouth to scream. It was not about me dying, but my mother’s life also hung in the balance.
My mind grew white.
I knew only pain, and I believed I would ally with the Eight Evils and Eight Virtues if I could escape from this hell a moment earlier.
The pain when my skull was compressed at the end of the canal was above anything I had imagined. My head was going to be crushed, and I would die, feeling my brain squeezed out through my nose and eyes. The only way to end this pain was to wrap my neck with the umbilical cord.
It was that moment I heard my mother cry softly.
Hello, mother.
***
I did not think more than thirty minutes would have passed in real-time. However, it felt like more than thirty hours to me, as the endless pain slowed down my sense of time.
Maybe something really went wrong. How can birth be this painful? Did everybody go through this hell just to be born?
I could not believe humanity continued on in this fashion. The only reason I did not give up was because of my mother. I could feel the pain of giving birth from not only her moans but from the walls of the womb.
I was not alone in this fight. My mother was with me.
My mother pulled together her strength with tears, and the direction of the pressure that threatened to kill me was suddenly reversed. I added my own power in the do-or-die moment that pushed me onward, despite it being the feeble attempts of a new-born baby.
The moment my skull escaped the clutches of the birth canal, I let out the scream that I had been repressing for the pain.
I could now cry. The world became brighter. Mother, I thank you with all my heart.
“Gaa, gaa.”
[You have accomplished the achievement of “Overcoming Adversity.”]
[You have gained the trait “The Man Who Overcome Adversity” as the first-time bonus.]
This was the obscenely powerful trait that would make an S class to an SS class!
[The Man Who Overcome Adversity(Trait)
Effect: The moment you are incapable of fighting, all stat levels and skill classes increase by one rank. Also, there is a minor healing effect, and you will feel no pain until the duration ends.]
The additional system messages such as duration time and cooldown timer appeared in front of my mother’s face.
Editor: Userunfriendly, the Regressor.