u/Bradin_Argos

**[LitRPG / Progression Fantasy] Trying to identify a regression novel **

I think the word "Level" was in the title. Here's everything I can remember:

**Opening:** The MC, around 79 years old, comes out of the bunker he's been living in and walks down to the beach to die. He's the last person alive. Earlier in life he developed a magic-blocking illness (he could use magic when he was younger, but lost the ability later — he's the only one this happened to). Because he couldn't fight in the war, he spent it doing research in the bunker, contributing that way. The world was destroyed by the war and by magic running wild. Some long stretch of time passed between the end of the war and the day he walked out at 79 to die.

**The goddess:** After he dies on the beach, he's met by a woman — possibly a goddess — with white hair and galaxies in her eyes. She offers him the chance to live his life again to stop the world from being destroyed.

**Regression:** He wakes up at age 12, in his own younger body, at school. He's just been knocked out by the school bully. With all his 79-year memories intact, he goads the bully into hitting him again and easily beats him.

**More details I remember:**

- It's a magic school / academy, and age 12 is his second year there. He still has working magic at this age — the illness comes on later in life.

- MC's name starts with "Adam" but the audiobook narrator pronounced it oddly (maybe Aden / Adan / Adain / Aedan / Aydan).

- His best friend is named **Sam**. In the original timeline, Sam killed himself after bullies showed a humiliating video of him to the whole school in which he was naked. Preventing Sam's suicide is one of the MC's stated goals.

- The MC has a personal leveling / experience system that's unique to him — he treats it as a new element of the world that only he has. He gains stats and levels as he uses magic and fights. Other people don't have this.

Any help is appreciated!