Am I going to die?
The thought haunted Arjun as he sat curled up in the corner of his darkened room. It had been a week since the world outside collapsed, and he had barely survived on instant noodles and whatever fast food he had hoarded. The electricity had been out for days, and his supplies were running low. Only a few bottles of water remained—just enough to last a couple more days.
The city outside was no longer the one he knew. The zombie apocalypse had torn through it, worse than anything from movies or television. These creatures weren't slow, stumbling corpses. They were fast. Unnaturally fast. The sun, the night—it made no difference to them. They never rested, never hesitated.
And killing them? Nearly impossible. A single bullet or stab wound wasn't enough. Their bodies had to be completely destroyed or their heads severed. Anything less was useless.
Arjun let out a dry, humorless chuckle. Who was he in all this? Just a struggling novelist, someone who had never managed to write a successful book. And yet, ironically, his failed writing career had kept him alive. In his desperation to finish a novel, he had stocked up on food, locking himself away from the world. That was the only reason he was still breathing.
The apocalypse had begun the very day he sat down to write. There had been no warning. One infected person turned into ten, then a hundred, then thousands. Within hours, the city had fallen.
And of all places to be trapped, he was in Bangalore—a city of over 14 million people. A sprawling tech hub, once filled with endless crowds and buzzing streets. Now, those same streets crawled with the undead. Unlike the survivors in books and movies, Arjun had no weapons, no plan, no courage to step outside and fight.
And it's not like he had a family to rescue. His parents had died when he was small, and he didn't have any friends to care for.
He forced himself to glance out the window. The view was suffocating—thousands of zombies roamed below, their hollow eyes searching, their bodies twitching at the slightest noise. If he made even a single sound, they would swarm his building in an instant.
His hands trembled as he pulled away from the window. His back pressed against the cold wall, knees drawn to his chest. Maybe this will pass. Maybe the military will step in. Maybe I'll wake up, and this will all be a bad dream.
Then, without warning, something happened.
A sharp, dizzying pain shot through his skull. His vision blurred, the world around him tilting and spinning. His entire body went numb, a crushing force weighing down on him.
And then—darkness.
Weightless, Arjun floated in an endless void. Then, in the farthest reaches of the abyss, a tiny speck of light flickered into existence.
BOOM!
A silent explosion erupted. The dot expanded, stretching across the void, birthing stars and planets in an instant. Galaxies spun into motion, nebulae glowed like celestial storms, and alien worlds flickered with life—rising, thriving, vanishing.
Time blurred. Stars ignited and collapsed. Civilizations rose and fell in fast acceleration. The cosmos unraveled before him, a never-ending cycle of creation and destruction.
Arjun gasped, the afterimage of a universe burned into his mind. His heart pounded as a soft chime echoed in the void.
[Activating Genesis...]
Arjun's eyes widened as he read the text.
"Genesis?" he muttered.
The screen shifted, displaying more details.
[Genesis]
[User: Arjun Mehta]
[Energy: 1000]
[World: None]
[This is a space where an Architect can design the world they desire.]
He stared at the words, trying to make sense of them.
"Design? Architect?"
His mind raced. Is this asking me to build a world? Like some kind of god?
It sounded absurd. Yet, here he was.
Could this... help him survive the apocalypse?
He had no answers.
He looked around, the endless void stretched before him.
Only emptiness. A vast, silent abyss stretching endlessly before him.
A flicker of unease settled in his chest. What do I need to do ?
The darkness felt suffocating, pressing in from all sides. His mind raced, searching for something—anything—to hold onto.
Without realizing it, a thought crossed his mind. If only there was some light…
And then—it appeared.
A small, flickering glow ignited in the void. Arjun's eyes widened. He hadn't created it on purpose. It had simply appeared the moment he wished for it.
The tiny sphere floated before him, glowing softly without a source, defying all logic.
His heart pounded. Did I… do this?
He reached out instinctively, but his fingers passed through the light like it wasn't even there. Is this pure energy?
His wonder was quickly replaced by alarm as he felt something pulling from within him.
A strange force, something deep inside him, was being drained—flowing into the light. The more it took, the brighter it burned.
His breathing grew ragged. It's feeding off me!
Panic gripped him. If this kept going, what would happen? Would he disappear into this endless void?
Stop! Disappear!
The moment he thought it, the light vanished.
Darkness swallowed everything again. The strange pull inside him stopped.
Arjun gasped, his body trembling. He pressed a hand to his chest, feeling the rapid thumping of his heart.
That was close. Too close.
But now he understood. This place reacts to my thoughts.
He saw at the interface showing.
[ Energy: 950 ]
" What it took 50 energy points? Its too much "
He thought, the light had been created because he wanted it. But it consumed him because it wasn't self-sustaining. He needed to create something better—something that could last on its own.
And then, the answer struck him.
The sun.
The sun was the foundation of life. Without it, there would be no warmth, no energy, no cycle of day and night. If he wanted a world that could sustain life—one that could thrive—he had to create a celestial body that could burn indefinitely, radiating its own energy.
Can he create the sun ?
Genesis—that's what it called itself. The explanation had been clear. He was meant to build a world from nothing.
But before that…
His thoughts shifted. How do I get out of here?
The moment the thought crossed his mind, his surroundings changed. In the blink of an eye, he was back in his room.
A rush of disbelief surged through him. He looked down at his hands, then at his reflection in the nearby mirror, patting his chest just to be sure. Everything felt normal. He was still himself. Still here.
"I'm back…" he muttered under his breath.
His heart pounded as he closed his eyes, focusing on that strange space once again. A second later, he vanished—only to find himself floating in the endless void once more.
His lips parted in amazement. "Woah…"
This wasn't a dream. This wasn't an illusion.
He had power.
A thought crept into his mind. Could I use this to fight the zombies?
It was a tempting idea, but after a moment of contemplation, he shook his head. He didn't know how—at least, not yet. And right now, survival was more important than anything else.
His gaze drifted across the vast, empty expanse around him. A blank slate. A universe waiting to be shaped.
"Maybe… I don't need to go back at all," he mused. "I can create my own Earth. My own world. A place to live, away from all of that chaos."
The thought settled in his mind, growing stronger by the second.
Yes. This was the best plan. He would leave that crumbling world behind and start anew. But before he could escape, he had to make this space habitable. He needed land, water, air, civilization. A place that felt real.
He chuckled, a strange sense of excitement bubbling within him.
"In this world, I am God."
His fingers clenched into a fist. His power was real. His will would shape this place.
And the first step to creation?
The sun.
He had read about how stars worked. Unlike planets, the Sun wasn't solid. It was a massive sphere of hydrogen, constantly undergoing nuclear fusion to release energy. If he could replicate that process, he could create his own star.
Arjun focused, picturing an immense cloud of hydrogen gas. A surge of energy pulsed from his body, and suddenly, an enormous mass of hydrogen appeared before him, drifting like a cosmic mist in the void. He estimated that it made up about half the hydrogen content found in the Sun's outer layers.
But just having hydrogen wasn't enough. For fusion to begin and remain stable for millions of years, the gas had to be compressed to extreme densities.
He willed the hydrogen to contract. Slowly, the vast cloud began to shrink, collapsing inward under an unseen force. The molecules packed closer and closer together, their movement intensifying. The pressure mounted, the heat rising rapidly.
Yet, it still wasn't enough. He needed to push further.
The mysterious energy within him flared, weaving an invisible net around the hydrogen, forcing it into a tighter and tighter mass. The gas compressed so much that it almost solidified, glowing from within like molten metal.
But Arjun felt the strain. The energy fueling this process was draining fast—if it ran out before ignition, all his effort would be wasted. Seconds ticked by, each one depleting his reserves further.
Then, at last—it happened.
A spark ignited at the core. The immense heat and pressure triggered a chain reaction. In a fraction of a second, the entire hydrogen mass erupted into nuclear fusion.
BOOM.
A brilliant burst of light flooded the void, waves of energy radiating outward. A newborn star was born.
For a moment, Arjun instinctively flinched, expecting to be blinded by the overwhelming brightness. But then he realized—he could look directly at it. He wasn't just watching from afar; he was part of this cosmic event.
He took a deep breath, staring at the massive burning sphere floating in the darkness.
It worked.
He had created a Sun.
[ Energy : 0 ]