The silence lingered.
It didn't breathe.
It pressed.
Elias remained seated at the desk, fingers loosely coiled around the unlit candle, eyes steady on the matchbox as if it might suddenly grow legs and explain itself.
Then it happened.
A sound—not heard, but injected—slipped into his consciousness.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: TRANSFER COMPLETE. USER ELIAS KAINE—IDENTITY, MEMORY, AND MORAL FRAMEWORK—STABILIZED. SOUL ANCHORING CONFIRMED.]
The words echoed through his mind like a bell ringing underwater.
He blinked.
Once.
Twice.
His breath hitched mid-exhale.
[SELECTING APPROPRIATE STRATEGIC SYSTEM FROM UNIVERSAL INTEGRATION POOL...]
There was no mouth.
No source.
Just the sterile certainty of something too vast, too mechanical, to care what it was doing to him.
Then came the sound.
A mechanical click.
Then another.
Then hundreds—like marbles tumbling through brass tubes.
The unmistakable cadence of a roulette wheel spun by the hand of God, each segment clicking into the next, faster, louder, heavier.
Elias clutched the edge of the desk.
[ANALYZING USER PROFILE: GAME HISTORY, LEADERSHIP PATTERNS, ETHICAL BIAS, CONTROL PREFERENCE... MATCH FOUND.]
The wheel's cadence slowed.
Click... click... clack...
Silence.
[SYSTEM SELECTED: COMMAND & CONQUER.]
Elias barely had time to process the words before the agony returned—not a migraine, not a seizure, not pain in any human sense—but a destruction.
It came from within, like his bones were being vaporized atom by atom.
He screamed.
His voice cracked raw, echoing off the stone walls.
He collapsed from the chair, his body convulsing as if every nerve had become a conduit for white fire.
He clawed at his chest, his throat, his eyes, anything to feel something that wasn't this impossible tearing.
His skin felt as though it was being peeled, slowly, with surgical precision.
Stripped not just of flesh, but of memory, doubt, humanity.
His thoughts shattered into flashes—podcast moments, family photos, battlefield overlays from Red Alert, election ballots smeared with coffee, the taste of cheap tea.
He felt his soul.
And it was being rewritten.
[WARNING: SYSTEM BINDING IN PROGRESS. PLEASE REMAIN STATIONARY.]
He howled again, no longer in words, just animal noise, guttural and ragged.
He smashed his fist into the floor, again and again, trying to root himself in the physical world.
The floor didn't move.
Nothing gave.
Not even mercy.
[UPLOADING TACTICAL DATABASE... LOADING FACTION PROTOCOLS... INSTALLING BASE STRUCTURE FRAMEWORK...]
A sickening jolt surged through his spine.
His muscles seized.
A new pain.
Not from removal—but from insertion.
Command structures.
Unit hierarchies.
Economy scaling systems.
Resource generation matrices.
Satellite uplinks.
Orbital strike parameters.
Each one slotted into his mind like steel plates into soft flesh.
[INSTALLING RED ALERT SCENARIO TREE... INSTALLING TIBERIUM CONFLICT MODELS... INSTALLING GLOBAL DOMINION OVERLAY...]
Elias wanted to die.
He didn't know if he still could.
His mouth foamed.
His body convulsed.
Blood dripped from his nose onto the wooden planks that made up the floor of the room.
The candle rolled off the desk with a dull thud and didn't break.
He didn't see it.
He saw nothing—his eyes wide but blind, bathed in data, systems, neural architecture not meant for human minds.
[TUNING COGNITIVE LIMITERS... REMAPPING STRATEGIC IMPULSE CONTROL... FINALIZING INTERFACE INTEGRATION...SYSTEM LIMITERS ENGAGED.]
Then, like a switch thrown in a dark room, the pain stopped.
He gasped for air, every breath like breathing glass.
He was shaking—every muscle twitching in rebellion—but he could feel again.
And beneath the agony, the nausea, the sweat and grit and fire—
Clarity.
He wasn't broken.
He wasn't sane, either.
He was something else, something created out of all of that pain and anguish.
And then, the voice returned—still mechanical but smoother, like the AI interface that assisted players within the remastered games.
[Installation complete. Welcome to the Command & Conquer Strategic Interface. Congratulations on receiving your system Supreme Commander.]
A pause.
A breath, almost theatrical.
Supreme Commander...
That was one of the title given to players of the Red Alert Series under the Command & Conquer games.
Elias, still collapsed on the floor, managed to lift his head slightly.
His lips were split.
Blood pooled in one ear.
His hand twitched toward the desk.
He laughed.
Believing he had truly gone insane, but at the same time being so exhausted from enduring the pain he'd been delivered that felt like it had gone on for hours.
After managing to pull himself up into a seated position he turned his head round looking for any signs of the voices source.
A person, a window, hell even a speaker grill if possible but to no avail.
Aside from the endless messages while he was being tortured there was no other message delivered save the last more calm one.
'Uh, System?'
'Yes Supreme Commander!'
'What are you?'
'The system is a perk granted to assist you on your mission!'
'A perk? ... wait what mission?'
'Yes Sir! Some would consider the C&C system to be a cheat, or Golden Finger in terms of the novels from your memories sir! And affirmative, you have been given the mission to right the wrongs of the past, and set the world on a better route to true peace and prosperity!'
Hearing the systems response Elias was stunned.
Mission, i mean that was just a caller, how could that caller do anything to me?
I use a VPN when i stream so no one can locate me, and aside from my name i never reveal anything to personal to keep my relative anonymity.
But what if...
Just what if that caller was actually god, or one of humanities various deities?
As he scrambled around he finally got himself up to his feet and barrel out of the room he found himself in.
Setting food outside he found that he was outside, but the sight before him was shocking.
Dirt Roads everywhere he saw, no traffic lights... hell no lights at all.
In the distance he could see the flicker of candlelight here and there through the shapes of what were most likely houses in a hamlet or village.
The night sky was clearer than ever he'd seen it before, the stars twinkling over head, no presence of the moon at all in the sky.
Just then a gust of wind blew past and bringing with it was a newspaper.
Acting swift Elias caught the flying paper before dusting it off and pulling it up to look at the front page.
Great Britain grants independance to Transvaal in South Africa
Canada sees sweeping fire destroying thousands of building in Montreal.
Sweden Anti-Jewish riots break out in Stolkholm.
United States of America, Dem Franklin Pierce elected 14th President.
Newly founded Principality of Montenegro adjusting to conversion from Prince-Bishopric.
The paper was unlike any he'd seen, it was full cover to cover in text, with dozens of different stories all over, and not a single picture, until finally his eyes wandered up to the top.
Podgorica, Monday, January 1, 1853,-TEN PAGES
1853...
Seriously im holding a relic?
By why's it just blowing down the street.
The more he thought about what was going on the more he came to realize his true situation.
He'd become a time traveller, he was in the year 1853, a time when electrics were becoming known but had yet to find a market for consumers, while modern amenities were a thing to dream of.
Turning round he fled back into the single room shack he'd awoken into closing the door behind him.
Righting the chair and taking a seat at the desk, placing the newspaper folded down before him.
'System.'
'Yes Supreme Commander.'
'Is it really the year 1853?'
'All evidence suggests that to be the case Sir.'
'Hooooooooo, ok so if you're my cheat or whatever, what exactly can you do?'
'The Supreme Commander can access the command interface simply by speaking 'interface' or by thinking to open the menu, from the menu you can order troops, armor, or building construction. Additionally you can enter command mode granting you a top down eagle view of the battlefield.'
'So i can buy troops and the like just like in the game? If thats the case do i get any starting credits?'
'Yes Sir! Purchases can occured exactly like in the game, and currently you have 2,000 Credits to begin with, along with an HQ construction set.'
2,000 credits, that pretty low...
If i recall the cost of an ore refinery would exactly 2,000 credits as well so unless there's an alternate way to obtain credits in the world guess i need to save all i have for now until i find a place to build the refinery.
Next he needed to find out where he was located, if he was really in the 1800's then location was key, since much of the world was highly volatile with animosity lingering across the planet, with numerous wars just waiting to get started to avenge old slights.
But even with a system how is he supposed to maneuver this day and age?
If he had an army behind him could he command as a mercenary force until such a time that his power increased to rival the great nations?
Or should he just go for it and start building up an empire in the shadows while the great powers are too distracted growling at one another?