Volume 1 — Merger? A New Planet.
Chapter 1 – Day of Life on Earth
Part 0 - A day dream
I dreamed of four women. Their faces were blurred, just shadows and light—impossible to recognize—but their voices were clear, echoing around me in unison.
"Vash… Vash… Vash… Vash… wake up."
I stirred, heart pounding, a strange warmth in my chest. Then my eyes snapped open—real world.
Tears streaked down my cheeks, wet and hot against my skin.
I blinked, trying to steady myself. It was just a dream… nothing more. Yet why were my tears still falling?
Because of him—my father. Because even in sleep, I couldn't escape the weight of his expectations, his scorn, his absence of understanding.
Part 1 — What is the Meaning of My Life?
I'm eighteen. Middle-class family. A house full of problems that never take a break.
Money troubles. Endless arguments. School failures stacked on top of each other like a tower ready to collapse. Life feels like a loop—a glitch in the system that never fixes itself.
We're a small family: mother, father, my little sister—only eight—and me. Three genuinely care about me. One… doesn't.
My father.
Why? Because I've been careless.
I just finished school with a pathetic fifty-five percent. Fifty-five. Far below my classmates. Far below my potential. Far below his expectations.
And now he refuses to let me go to college. Not because we can't afford it—he simply doesn't believe I'm capable of anything worthwhile.
Maybe he's right.
I spend my days hiding in anime, romantic movies, fantasies of meeting a beautiful actress from my country. She is only 21.In my daydreams, I'm her friend… maybe her husband. My mind dances in scenarios that will never exist.
And deep down, I know it. Fragile, pointless dreams.
I am… nothing but a slave to circumstances.
"Some people are slaves of their circumstances. Some make circumstances their slaves."
I've always been the first kind. Trapped. Helpless. No matter how much I wish for change, nothing happens.
Last night, my father made a decision without asking me. Tomorrow, I'd have a job. Today—three hours ago—he found one.
Not good. Not at all. A cage dressed as responsibility.
Yet… I have to go. For my family. For my sister's future.
And yet… tears keep sliding down my cheeks.
Why? Because he never asked me. Never considered my wishes. Never cared when I said I wanted to be a painter instead.
When I protested, he slapped me and called me a burden—on him, on life, on the world.
I ran to my room.
My mother… tried to soothe me, as always. My sister… came to me, little hands trying to gather the fragments of my broken spirit.
"Don't worry, big brother," she whispered. "You know how dad really is."
Yeah. I know. Too well.
My father is… handsome. Black hunter eyes, a barely-trimmed beard, long black hair, sharp features. Even in our middle-class neighborhood, girls swooned over him.
And yet… none of that changes the pain he can inflict.
Sometimes I wonder… do I even matter to him?
I have his blood. His eyes. His hair. I train, I work out, I try to make myself strong. Maybe stronger than him. Only difference… height. Five-eleven versus my five-eight. Life, I guess.
My sister descends the stairs, probably thinking I've completely lost it. I glance out the window—and freeze.
Part 2 — The Phenomenon Begins
The sky.
It's… red. Not a soft sunset red. Crimson. Heavy. Unnatural. My clock says three o'clock. Something is very wrong.
A tremor runs through my chest. A building—a twelve-story monstrosity a kilometer away—shudders. Cracks spider across its concrete skin.
No.
It collapses. Dust, screams, and chaos swallowed everything.
Instinct pushes me forward. I climb to the terrace.
There. My mother, pale and trembling. My sister clinging to our father as if letting go equals death. My father… stiff, holding my mother's hand, trying to hide fear he can't quite mask.
I try to reach them. But the earth betrays me.
The sky splits. Day and night clash. Sun glares. Moon looms. Stars—no, comets—plunge like spears into the earth.
Buildings crumble. My own house groans beneath me.
"Vash!"
My mother's scream pierces the air. I run—but the terrace gives way.
Thirty-five seconds stretch into eternity. My sister's hand trembles, hanging in the void. I reach… almost too late.
"Big brother…"
A blinding white light consumes everything. Vision, body, world—gone.
Part 3 — Where Am I?
Huh… wait… sister? Where are you?
"Big brother…"
Her voice echoes in my skull. I awaken.
Sky above: vast, cruel, endless. Desert stretches endlessly around me. Silence. Nothing.
Pain shoots through me—sharp, relentless. Blood seeps from deep scratches. My muscles scream. My head feels split in two.
I force myself to stand. Legs trembling. Mind screaming.
Before me… nothing. Dark sand to the horizon. No life. No sound. Nothing.
"…What is this place?" I whisper to the wind.
A cold gust bites at my skin, crawling into my bones.
And somewhere deep inside… a voice. Soft. Persistent. Unnatural.
"Could this… really be the beginning of something new?"
A faint shimmer flickers in the corner of my vision—a black, floating screen, pulsating with glitches.
Flux. I feel its presence before I even know what it is. Like it's watching me, waiting, measuring.
Something tells me survival here isn't just a matter of legs and lungs. This world… it has rules. Strange, cruel, and completely unlike anything I've known.
And somehow… I think I'll have to obey.