The sky was not blue anymore. It was the color of rusted iron and dried blood.
In the heart of Dhaka, the once-bustling streets of Motijheel were now a graveyard of twisted metal and shattered glass. High above the crumbling skyscrapers, massive rifts in space hung like open wounds, leaking a strange, violet mist. From those rifts, the Void-Beasts descended—monsters that defied the laws of biology and logic.
Aryan, a twenty-six-year-old librarian, lay amidst the rubble of the Central Library. His breathing was ragged, each gasp feeling like he was inhaling shards of glass. His right arm was gone, cauterized by a beam of pure energy from a High-Rank Demon just minutes ago.
"Is this... the end?" Aryan whispered, his voice barely audible over the distant roars of monsters and the screams of a dying civilization.
He had spent his whole life surrounded by books, seeking knowledge. When the Great Descent happened in 2026, he wasn't a hero. He wasn't a warrior with a high-rank 'System.' He was just a 'Support Class'—a simple Librarian who could identify items and read ancient languages. In a world that valued strength, he was useless.
His friends had abandoned him. His guild had used him as bait. And now, the world was ending.
As a shadow loomed over him—a three-headed hound with eyes like burning coals—Aryan's hand brushed against something cold and heavy beneath the dust.
It was a book. But not just any book. It was pitch black, its cover made of a material that seemed to swallow the surrounding light. There was no title, only a silver hourglass emblem on the front.
[Ding!]
A sound, mechanical and cold, echoed directly in his brain.
[Conditions Met: Survival until the Final Hour.]
[Identity Verified: The Last Scholar of Humanity.]
[Activating the Mythic-Grade Artifact: The Chronos Archive.]
"What...?" Aryan's eyes widened. A translucent blue screen flickered into existence before him.
[The World has reached its 'Bad Ending'.]
[Calculating Karma Points... Error. Karma insufficient.]
[Sacrifice detected: The Soul of the Last Librarian.]
[Would you like to rewrite the Doomsday?]
The three-headed hound lunged, its jaws snapping inches from his face. Aryan didn't flinch. He felt a strange warmth spreading from the book into his veins.
"Yes," Aryan rasped, his eyes burning with a sudden, fierce light. "If I get another chance... I won't just read history. I'll write it."
[Request Accepted.]
[Initiating 'System Reboot'.]
[Chronos Archive: Opening the First Page—The Era of Preparation.]
Flash!
A blinding white light erupted from the book, consuming the library, the monsters, and the dying city. Aryan felt his body being torn apart at the molecular level, then pulled through a narrow tunnel of time.
"Hey! Aryan! Are you sleeping again? The shipment of new novels just arrived!"
Aryan bolted upright, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. He gasped, clutching his right shoulder. It was there. His arm was there.
He wasn't in a ruin. He was sitting at a wooden desk, surrounded by the smell of old paper and coffee. Sunlight streamed through a clean window, illuminating dust motes dancing in the air.
"Where...?"
He looked at his phone. January 12, 2026.
"Ten months," Aryan breathed, his voice trembling. "I'm back... ten months before the Great Descent."
Suddenly, the black book appeared on his desk, invisible to everyone else. It opened itself to the first page.
[Status Window]
Name: Aryan
Class: Shadow Archivist (Mythic)
Level: 1
Mana: 10/10
Skills Archived: None
Current Mission: Collect your first 'Power' within 24 hours.
Reward: 500 Archive Points.
Aryan looked out the window. The people outside were laughing, walking to work, unaware that in ten months, they would be meat for monsters.
A cold, determined smile touched his lips. He wasn't the weak librarian anymore. He was the Archivist. And he had a world to save—and a lot of debts to collect.