'A tomorrow that doesn't happen, but happens, is just a day that only my mind remembers. Even if I die right now, my heart still races, my lungs still burn, my nerves still learn, but tomorrow doesn't change, nor the fate.
My heartbeat skipped at the very thought of my unknown power. But the enemy in front me is more dangerous than a calamity.'
'It has already been two hours since I started fighting him… his shoulders should have been drooping by now. Instead, his breaths were already steadying, each exhale measured.'
'Whatever…I'll just give it my all in this final attack.'
As soon as Fabio breathed these words, he extended his fingers directing towards the ground. A glassy pane blinked into existence in front of his eyes, words bleeding into shape on thin air.
[ BRANCHWALKER INTERFACE ]
⬧Select the Rule Fragment :
1.Hell fire (Unavailable).
2.Grave Of Surfboards.
Without time to even glance at the window, Fabio hissed,
"Grave of Surfboards."
He burst sideways past the foe's guard and bounced.
The space snapped. Surfboards-utterly wrong for the ruined courtyard burst into existence in a messy spray, crowding the air and stone around them.
One slid under Fabio's boots as if the ground had spat it out, locking to his feet and yanking him forward. The rest snapped around and shot toward the enemy like bright, spinning bullets.
Fabio lunged forward along with his bastard sword floating on the surfboard making him incredibly agile.
He snapped his sword in a sharp, sideways cut. At that heated moment, Fabio had only wished for one thing-for his blade to shear cleanly through the opponent's neck.
Reality chose differently. His sword met the heavy greatsword and lost, the sharp edge snapping with a shriek of metal. Then the broken arc of steel finished its path, and his own throat opened halfway under the failed cut.
'Pain wasn't what I was unprepared for, the problem was that the Empire's strongest knight just happened to be on the wrong side of my sword. And the annoying part wasn't that my throat was cut. It was that this idiot had already killed me ten times today.'
Without even noticing, Fabio let his last breath slip away. The world around him crumbled, with no exception of the Knight. Everything broke into small glass fragments. Fabio felt his death and yet, somehow, he could still feel himself existing. He heard a notification sound, and suddenly, he was in his room.
Well, he could recognize the irritating hum of his ceiling fan even at death's door. He opened his eyes only to find the glass panel hanging inches from his face, its pale letters already waiting for him.
[ BRANCHWALKER INTERFACE ]
Doomed Tomorrow : 3
Outcome : FAILED
Cause of termination : Cervical trauma – Partial transection
Remaining progress to Final Noon : 0.9%
Fabio sighed as he stared at the panel a second longer than he meant to. For a moment, he wanted to shove all the burdens, the pain, the looping deaths away and just live quietly. But the thought died as quickly as it came, even if he wished for a peaceful life, the world had already decided he didn't get one.
His dull and tidy room made him wonder about his life decisions. Then he remembered how and when this all started, and why he was suffering alone for the world which doesn't even care about him.
A MONTH AGO,
'It had started on an ordinary morning, when I was standing in line outside the Circle authentication hall, just trying to get a few subordinates so I wouldn't have to work myself, and could spend the rest of my life professionally dozing off.'
'Circles are officially noble organizations that uphold order, manage power and guide the future of humanity. Well… unofficially, they are just power obsessed communities with fancy logos and HR departments that can legally stab you. Being in a Circle is like having a surname the universe actually respects. Normal people are born, work, and die. Circle members are born, make messes, and somehow call those messes–tradition. Every Circle has its own glorious history and a rank ranging from the lowest rank - One circle to can even oppose a country rank - Eight circles.'
In front of Fabio, the line barely crawled. The Circle authentication hall just looked like the kind of place that decided your entire future…too white, too tall, which looked more like a holy than a bureaucratic one.
Everyone else was nervous-straight backs, hands tied, and jealous glares everywhere. Only here to get tested, join a circle, get a life, simple.
But this young man, Fabio, was standing in the line on an entire different matter. His thought was only based on a single line - 'Why obey someone's orders when you can give the orders?' and wanted to create a circle with him as the leader.
Just as Fabio moved to the fourth palace in the line, the sky turned off. It didn't go dark, that would have been merciful. The clouds froze mid‑drift. The light flattened, like someone had taken the world's brightness slider and yanked it to presentation mode.
Conversations died one by one, even the guards looked up. Something vast and transparent flickered into existence above the city. At first, it was just a distortion, then lines sharpened and a large rectangular frame stretching from horizon to horizon. A glass panel just scaled up until it could crush mountains hung in the sky.
Words came into existence in thin air.
[ GLOBAL SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ]
People stared. A boy in line tugged at his father's shirt.
"Dad…is this part of the test"
"Shut up", the father whispered.
New lines appeared, one after the other.
[ FINAL NOON PROTOCOL INITIATED ]
"Final… Noon?" someone near the front of the hall repeated, like tasting the phrase might change it.
[ REMAINING PROGRESS TO FINAL NOON: 0% ]
The guards didn't know how to posture at the sky, so they did nothing. Their hands tightened on their weapons. They looked like they wanted to drag people inside, but where do you escort civilians when the sky is the one shouting?
Everyone waited for the usual propaganda. "This is your Emperor, remain calm." "This is a test of the emergency…" that sort of thing.
Instead, the words kept appearing.
[ GLOBAL OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE BEYOND FINAL NOON ]
[ FAILURE CONDITION: COMPLETE CIVILIZATIONAL RESET ]
No one understood 'Final Noon' or 'Civilizational reset,' but everyone understood 'survive. People shifted uneasily. A nervous laugh broke somewhere from the back of the line and died fast.
"It's a joke, right?" a young man in front of Fabio said. "Some illusionist Circle pulling a stunt?"
"If it was an illusion, my Artifact would have pinged," one of the guards snapped back.
The panel pulsed.
[ REGISTERING THE PLANET ]
[ PLANET CONFIRMED ]
The panel slowly dissolved, its last line faded into the colorless sky.
The whole world was still staring upward when Fabio's eyes suddenly widened. His green hair was a mess, but it still looked neater than his thoughts, which had just detonated into pure chaos.
'Am… I… hallucinating?' Fabio stared down at the ground.
A pane of glass hung there instead. Not on the ground, in front of his face. The same rectangular panel that had just filled the sky was now hovering before his eyes, smaller, sharper, and impossible to ignore.
Instinctively, Fabio checked on the others ignoring the panel in front of his face, but everyone seemed to be calmed down from the chaos. He kept his expression flat, pretending he saw nothing, while the smaller pane hovered in front of his eyes like an accusation. If he admitted there was a second panel, questions would follow, then fear, then suspicion. And with no way to know if anyone else could see what he was seeing, Fabio swallowed the truth and stayed quiet.
With no way to ignore it any longer, Fabio finally let his eyes focus on the words. The panel was almost empty, a sheet of glass hanging in the air with only a single sentence carved across its center.
[ BECOME A BRANCHWALKER: (YES/YES) ]
Fabio sighed, 'Is this my fate?'
A few heads turned his way. People stared for a beat, like he was the only idiot trying to make conversation with the apocalypse, then dismissed him with the kind of look usually reserved for street lunatics and drunks.
Fabio slipped out of the line as casually as he could manage, cutting through the murmuring crowd until he reached a patch of wall in the shade, just far enough from the Circle authentication hall that no one would bother looking twice at him. He pressed his back against the stone, heart thudding, the invisible weight of the sky's message still pressing between his shoulder blades.
He glanced around once more to make sure no one was watching, then jabbed a finger at the glowing word. 'Yes.' Nothing happened. The panel didn't flicker, didn't move, didn't even pretend to acknowledge him.
'Seriously?' he hissed. Feeling only slightly ridiculous, he leaned closer and whispered, 'Yes.'
This time, the pane pulsed. The old line dissolved and fresh text spilled down the glass in sharp, clean letters. Light from the interface washed over his face, painting his features in pale glow. Fabio's face became brighter for a second and came to an end at the very next second.