In this Second Chance at Life, where I can see skills as clear as day, everything feels like a breeze. And to make it even better, I’m spending my days joyfully with my First Love. - Chapter 00

“Ugh…”

A sharp, excruciating pain surged through the back of my head, as if I’d been struck with a metal bat. My knees buckled, and I crumpled to the floor. My name is Sashima Yasushi, and at that moment, I knew—this pain was the kind that spelled the end of a life.

(C-call an ambulance…)

I had to call for help! The thought screamed in my mind, but my body wouldn’t obey. My hand refused to move toward the smartphone in my right pocket.

So, this is it… I’m going to die.

“Hah!”

I jolted awake, my chest heaving and my breath shallow. I had just experienced something terrifying.
In the dream, a man in a black suit trudged to work on the first train of the day, his face lifeless, and returned home well past the last train. A zombie. He worked for a soul-crushing “black company,” endlessly typing text into a computer in a monotonous, spirit-numbing cycle.

Looking back, the man in my dream had always gravitated toward solitude. He disliked thinking too much and found comfort in repetitive tasks. In middle school, he spent hours running alone in the track club. In high school, his part-time jobs were all solitary endeavors—slicing cabbage, assembling artificial flowers, and washing dishes. Always tasks where he could work in silence.

This man’s cold, mechanical existence ended with his death from overwork after enduring 18-hour days.

Even now, the fear and pain of that death clung to me. And then it hit me—the man in my dream was no stranger. He was me.
But this wasn’t just a dream. It was too vivid, too full of details I had no way of knowing. My heart raced as cold sweat soaked my back. I opened my eyes wide, greeted by darkness.
Is it night? The faint glow of a streetlamp outside filtered into the room.

Then I noticed them—the curtains. Their pattern was unmistakable, a relic from my childhood. But they shouldn’t exist. They’d been thrown away years ago.

(Why… why are these here? They were supposed to be gone.)

I shot upright. Beneath me was a tatami mat. Above, a sliding paper door. My confusion deepened. My apartment had wooden floors, and I slept on a bed. And yet, I knew this place instinctively.

“Yasukun, what’s wrong? Do you need the bathroom?”

“Mom!?”

Her voice and figure—they were so young, impossibly young. My mother, who should’ve been in her fifties, now looked barely past thirty. She was also taller than me. No, that wasn’t it—I was smaller.

“Mom… what day is it today?” My voice shook.

“The 15th of December… oh, wait, it’s past midnight now, so it’s the 16th.”

The date was correct. December 16th was the day I collapsed at work. But then I asked the question that confirmed everything.

“What year?”

“What year? It’s the year 2000, of course. Why?”

The year… 2000?! It was supposed to be 2020. Twenty years into the Reiwa era. But as much as I wanted to deny it, I already knew the truth. I’d gone back to my six-year-old self, 20 years in the past.

My heart raced as I stared at my trembling hands. That’s when I saw it—something impossible.

Name: Sashima Yasushi
Level: 1
Job: None
Skills: [Appraisal Lv. 1]
Unique Skill: [Repetitive Trial]

A glowing status window hovered before me, just like something out of a video game.

“This… this isn’t real,” I muttered. “My mind must’ve snapped after all those years of overwork.”

I sighed deeply, a bitter laugh escaping my lips.

“I always wished for a chance to start over, but dreaming something like this? I must be completely broken.”

If this was a dream, I’d wake up soon. If it wasn’t, then it was either a miracle or the delusions of a dying man.

I flopped back down onto the tatami mat. Whatever it was, it could wait until morning. Sleep was far too precious to waste.

“Goodnight.”

“Eh? W-what?” My mother, standing there bewildered, watched as I pulled the covers over my head. But I didn’t care. For now, all I wanted was sleep.