Three-meter waves slammed mercilessly into the side of the wooden boat. Rain poured down, and the wind howled as if it meant to tear the sky apart.
“Dad! Hold on!” Damar shouted, braving the storm to grab his father, who had been flung toward the stern.
Suryanto, his father, lay sprawled on the deck with one leg caught in the anchor rope. His face was pale, blood running from his temple.
“Damar... leave me... save yourself...”
“No way!”
Damar lunged forward, his hand clamping around his father’s arm. One pull, then another. The boat lurched violently as seawater crashed in from the right.
Then everything went dark.
Damar opened his eyes.
The bamboo ceiling above him was familiar. The smell of salt and salted fish wafted in from the kitchen. A rooster crowed, and his mother called to him from outside.
“Damar! Wake up, kid! It’s dawn already. Captain Rustam’s fishing boat is about to leave!”
He jolted awake, his heart pounding. He checked his hands and moved his legs. Whole. No injuries.
“Am I... still alive?”
He turned toward the bamboo window. The sun had just begun to peek over the eastern horizon, reflecting off the calm surface of the sea. No storm. No raging waves from last night.
“Mom!” Damar ran out of the room and found his mother weaving a mat on the porch.
“Why are you yelling? You slept in, you know. Hurry up and take a shower!”
“Where’s Dad, Mom?”
“He’s fixing the fishing net out back. What’s with that face? You look like you just had a nightmare.”
Damar fell silent. He remembered it clearly—his father falling, the storm, the water dragging him down to the bottom of the sea. But now his father was behind the house, healthy and patching the fishing net as usual.
He touched the wooden calendar hanging on the wall. The date displayed was the first day he had officially gone out to sea with his father. The exact same day as five years ago.
“This... is impossible.”
As he stood frozen in front of the calendar, something appeared before his eyes. It wasn’t on the wall or floating in the air—instead, it seemed to be written directly across his vision, like a transparent pane of glass suspended in midair.
**[SEA MISSION SYSTEM DETECTED]** **Host: Damar Nugraha** **Status: Active**
Damar took a step back, nearly hitting the door.
“What the hell is this?!”
The writing didn’t disappear. More lines appeared instead.
**[Welcome, Host. You have been given a second chance.]** **[This system will help you change your family’s fate—with a condition.]**
“What condition?” he muttered, even though he knew the writing wouldn’t answer like a normal person having a conversation.
But strangely, the next lines appeared as if they were answering his question.
**[Every completed mission will grant a reward. Every failed mission will incur a penalty. The choice is yours, Host.]**
Damar rubbed his face. He pinched his own arm—it hurt. This wasn’t a dream.
“Dad! Mom!” he called, half hoping they could see the strange writing too.
His father emerged from behind the house with a fishing net slung over his shoulder. “Why are you yelling, Mar? Come on, the sun’s already up. Captain Rustam doesn’t like to wait.”
Damar stared intently at his father. The man who had nearly died in his hands last night—or five years from now—because of the raging waves. Now he stood in front of him, alive and healthy, wearing an annoyed smile because his son was moving too slowly.
“No, Dad. It’s nothing.” Damar swallowed. “I’m coming.”
Captain Rustam’s small boat left before the sun had fully risen. There were three people aboard—Captain Rustam, Suryanto, and Damar, who was still a teenager in this earlier version of his life but now carried the memories of his twenty-five-year-old self.
“Why are you so quiet, Mar?” Suryanto asked as he arranged the fishing net. “Usually you’re already chattering away and asking all kinds of questions.”
“I’m thinking, Dad.”
“Thinking about what? Fishermen don’t need to think so much. Just get to work.”
Damar gave a faint smile. He remembered those exact words—his father had said them on his first day going out to sea, five years ago. Now he was hearing them again, as if time had truly repeated itself.
The system’s writing appeared again at the edge of his vision, this time smaller, like a notification.
**[Daily Mission #1: Help catch at least 5 kilograms of fish today.]** **[Reward: 50 System Points]** **[Penalty for failure: -10 System Trust Points]**
Damar frowned. Trust Points? He didn’t fully understand what they were for yet, but his instincts told him they were no trivial matter.
“Dad, where should we catch fish today?”
“Same place as usual, near the reef.”
“Let’s head west, Dad. I’ve got a good feeling about it.”
Suryanto turned to him in surprise. “Since when have you had a feeling about the sea? This is your first time out here.”
Damar nearly blurted out the truth. In his other memories, he had gone out to sea for years. He knew exactly how the currents moved and where fish gathered during this season. But here, in the body of this eighteen-year-old, he was supposed to have zero experience.
“It’s just... a feeling, Dad. Let’s give it a shot.”
Captain Rustam, who had been silent until then, nodded. “No harm in trying. Besides, we haven’t thrown out the net yet.”
The boat headed west, following the shoreline lined with mangroves. Damar watched the surface of the water closely. He didn’t know why, but a strange impulse stirred inside him—some kind of instinct that didn’t belong to him.
Suddenly, the system’s writing appeared again.
**[Skill “Fisherman’s Eye” is not yet unlocked. Complete 3 missions to unlock it.]**
“Not yet unlocked?” Damar murmured. That meant there were skills he could obtain if he kept completing missions.
“Mar, you’ve been talking to yourself this whole time,” Suryanto remarked. “Are you possessed or something?”
“No, Dad. I’m just thinking.”
Captain Rustam began casting the fishing net at the spot Damar had indicated. It took some time, but when they pulled the net back in—
“Whoa! That’s a lot!” Captain Rustam exclaimed in surprise.
Indian mackerel and mackerel tuna glittered inside the net, far more numerous than what they usually caught at their old spot.
Suryanto patted Damar on the shoulder. “My boy really is something, huh? It’s your first time out and you’ve already brought us good luck.”
Damar smiled, though deep down he knew this wasn’t just luck.
**[Daily Mission #1 complete!]** **[Reward: 50 System Points received]** **[Total System Points: 50]**
He restrained himself from reacting too strongly in front of his father. But his heart was pounding—this was real. The system was real, and he had just received his first proof.
As noon approached and the boat began turning back toward the dock, the wind suddenly shifted. The sky, which had been clear, began darkening on the western horizon.
“Dad, I think it’s going to rain,” Damar said, narrowing his eyes as he watched the clouds move quickly across the horizon.
“Ah, it’s probably just a drizzle. We’re almost there. We’ll be back in an hour or two.”
But Damar sensed something different. This wasn’t an ordinary premonition—there was a powerful urge in his chest, like a silent alarm going off.
The system’s writing appeared again, this time in a different color. Red.
**[WARNING: Extreme weather detected within a 2-kilometer radius.]** **[Seek shelter or change course immediately.]**
Damar turned toward his father, who was still casually rolling up the fishing net, completely unaware that anything was wrong.
“Dad,” he said firmly, “we have to head back right now. This isn’t an ordinary drizzle.”
“Mar, you—”
Before Suryanto could finish, a huge wave suddenly slammed into the side of the boat, making everyone stagger.
The wind howled. The sky, clear just moments ago, turned dark within minutes.
“This is... just like—” Damar’s eyes widened.
Exactly like the storm that had claimed his life five years ago.