RE:DO — Prequel Novel
In a world where you are a hero or be the one who saves the world, there was a man named Rei and he was a legend beyond legends.
He never missed a shot.
He never failed.
He never stopped.
But legends are not born whole. They begin like anything else.
Cold. Small. Forgotten.
Rei's beginning was no different.
Sector 7: The Concrete Cradle
The world outside was always buzzing—machines crawling across rooftops, neon drones scanning the streets, and surveillance screens flashing endless warnings:
"Report rogue automatons. Protect humanity. Glory to the Core."
Rei lived in a rundown apartment block that smelled of rust and oil. His mother worked in the lower levels repairing mech limbs for food credits. His father ran diagnostics for weaponized AIs.
But they didn't talk to him. Not really.
They weren't cruel. They weren't violent.
They were just... busy. Always tired. Always distracted.
Rei learned to cook his own food before he was seven.
He learned to stop asking questions before he was eight.
And by nine, he stopped waiting to be noticed.
The Day the Sky Bled Metal
It happened on a Monday.
Not a dramatic day. Not a stormy one.
Just gray.
A sky cruiser crashed into the edge of Sector 7 dragging with it a wave of rogue sentient bots, twisted scrap-things built to feel and fear and fight.
Rei saw it from the school window.
The first scream. The panic. The blinking alerts.
By the time he ran home, the building was gone.
Crushed. On fire. Bodies inside.
His parents were declared "non-recoverable."
The military bots came to clear the wreckage within an hour. Cold. Efficient.
Rei didn't cry. He didn't scream. He didn't even ask "why."
He just stared.
A Promise Without Grief
"Are you angry?" the soldier asked, a tall man with gray gloves and a datapad.
Rei looked up, eyes empty.
"...No."
"You don't have to be brave, kid. Losing your family to a breach is—"
"I'm not sad," Rei said flatly. "I didn't know them very well."
The soldier blinked.
"...Do you want to stay with your relatives? We can relocate you to—"
"No," Rei interrupted. "I want to join the training programs."
"Combat? You're too young."
"I'll wait."
There was no hatred in his voice. No fire. Just a strange... stillness.
That night, Rei sat alone in the ruins of his home, staring at the stars between cracked metal beams.
And he made a promise.
"I'll kill them all. Not for revenge. Not for justice. Not even because I lost anything."
"I just want to play the game."
"And I'll win."