All Chapters of Reborn to take over the stage : Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

Ethan stared at the invisible doorway.The voice on the other side sounded exactly like him.Not similar.Identical.“What do you mean, you're the reason I was born?” Ethan demanded.A quiet laugh came from beyond the boundary.“You still think your life began when you opened your eyes as a child.”Ethan's arms tightened around his son.“My consciousness began somewhere. My parents were real. My childhood was real.”“I never said otherwise.”“Then tell me who you are.”The voice fell silent.Behind Ethan, Elena looked as though she had seen a ghost.Richard noticed.“Elena?”She shook her head, unable to answer.Ethan turned toward her.“Do you recognize that voice?”“I recognize the pattern,” she whispered.“What pattern?”“The one Richard and I discovered in the original Project Beginning records. Before we understood consciousness, before we knew about Origin, there was a repeated signal.”Richard's face tightened.“We believed it was an error in the equipment.”“It wasn't,” Elena

The First Chooser's words hung in the air.You were supposed to remain forgotten.Elena began to cry.Richard turned toward her. “You know who that child is.”She shook her head, but the denial lasted only a moment.“I know what we found in the records.”Ethan stared at his mother.“Tell us.”Elena drew a trembling breath.“Before Project Beginning, Richard and I discovered references to a consciousness that appeared in the earliest experiments. It had no body, no measurable age, and no consistent identity. Every time we tried to observe it, the records changed.”“The first possibility?” Seren asked.“No. Something different.”Elena looked at the doorway.“The records called it Subject Zero.”The Witness closed its eyes.“That designation was never meant to survive.”Richard frowned. “You knew about it?”“I knew the designation,” the Witness answered. “I did not know what the researchers intended to do.”Ethan's patience snapped.“Stop speaking in fragments. What happened to Subject Z

Ethan stared at the child.“What do you mean, it's hiding in the life I already lived?”The child glanced at the newborn, then back at Ethan.“You remember your life as if it happened in a straight line. You were born, you grew up, you suffered, and you made choices. But some memories have another layer beneath them.”Ethan frowned.“Are you saying my memories aren't real?”“No. I'm saying something may have happened before them.”The Witness approached.“Memories can contain traces of possibilities that never became lives. That doesn't mean those possibilities secretly controlled everything.”“Then how do we find the Unmade?” Richard asked.The child pointed at Ethan.“He has to look at the moment he first chose himself.”Ethan's expression hardened.“I've made thousands of choices.”“Not that one.”A strange silence settled over the field.Ethan remembered his earliest days, the confusion surrounding his existence, and the battles that had forced him to question whether he was truly

Again.The newborn’s whisper silenced the entire field.Even the wind seemed to stop.Ethan tightened his arms around his son, staring at the tiny face that had suddenly become so serious. The golden points on the baby’s palm flickered like distant stars, while the black circle at their center remained unnaturally dark. What do you mean by again? Ethan asked softly.The baby looked toward the open memory.They did it before.A cold sensation traveled down Ethan’s spine.Before he could ask another question, the image inside the memory began to move again. The laboratory lights flickered. Monitors displayed unfamiliar symbols, and the machine at the center of the room hummed with a sound Ethan felt rather than heard.Young Elena stood beside it, holding a newborn wrapped in a white blanket.Richard was several feet away, watching the monitors.Neither of them appeared to know that someone was standing behind the glass partition.Someone who looked exactly like Ethan.Not the dark dou

Ethan couldn't move.The man standing outside the chamber had his face, his height, and the same dark eyes he saw every morning in the mirror.But the expression was wrong.It carried a stillness that belonged to someone who had watched centuries pass without ever being allowed to live a single day.The man looked at Ethan's trembling hands.Then he smiled.Daddy.Ethan's heart lurched.That was his son's voice.The man took one step forward. You took your time finding me.Ethan forced himself to breathe. Where is my son?The man's smile disappeared. I'm standing right here. No. You're not.A strange silence followed.Then the man looked down at his palms.The five golden points shone beneath his skin. At their center, the black circle slowly opened and closed. You still don't recognize me, he murmured.Ethan approached the chamber, keeping his eyes on the stranger.I recognize my son. He is a baby. He chose to be born. He has a name, even if he hasn't told us what it is yet. And