:
The sky was gray—
as if it had stopped a century ago.
The air didn't move, and the city hung between silence and rust.
On a broken wall sat a sixteen-year-old boy, staring at the glowing watch strapped to his wrist.
The numbers were ticking down slowly:
00:00:03… 00:00:02… 00:00:01…
He whispered wearily:
> "Time's up."
His name was Eren —
no one remembered where he came from, and no one cared when he would leave.
In the lower slums of Crown City, people weren't measured by their age,
but by the number of seconds left to live.
When the counter reached zero, their hearts simply stopped.
No pain, no scream — just eternal stillness.
But this time… Eren didn't die.
When his timer hit zero, something strange happened —
not death, but complete stillness.
The air froze, the light stopped, even the drifting dust hung motionless,
like statues made of gray ash.
> "Did… time stop?"
He stood slowly, his heart beating in a motionless world.
The city around him was frozen — people caught mid-step, unmoving.
He took one step forward, and a voice whispered deep inside his head:
> [Welcome, Temporal Error #013.]
[System rebooting… The Lost Clock is awakening.]
He gasped, looking down at his watch —
the numbers were gone, replaced by hands that turned backward.
Then suddenly, he was somewhere else —
a black corridor that stretched endlessly,
filled with broken clocks and hands spinning without rest.
From the shadows emerged a faceless figure, whispering in a fractured voice:
> "He who owns time… no longer owns himself."
Before he could speak, everything collapsed.
He awoke lying on the ground — the world moving again.
But something had changed.
Time… had gone back one minute.
He had returned to the moment before his death.
He lifted his head, trembling, whispering in fear and disbelief:
> "I… came back? Did I reverse time?"
Then, glowing blue text appeared before his eyes:
> [You have activated the Temporal System.]
[Ability unlocked: Minute Reversal.]
[Warning: Each use consumes one memory.]
A chill ran through his chest,
as if something had been torn out from deep within.
He could no longer remember…
his mother's face.