The sky broke at 3:17 PM, and Arjun noticed it before anyone else did. At first, it was subtle—just a strange flicker, like reality itself had blinked. The sunlight dimmed for a fraction of a second, the wind stopped brushing against his skin, and the endless noise of the city vanished without warning. No car horns. No conversations. No footsteps. Just silence. The kind of silence that didn't belong in a living world.
He frowned and looked up. The clouds were wrong. They weren't drifting naturally anymore. Instead, they shifted in jagged intervals, snapping from one position to another like a corrupted video. A chill ran down his spine. He blinked rapidly, rubbing his eyes, hoping it was exhaustion or some weird illusion. But when he lowered his hand, the sky was still broken.
Then the world stopped.
A man in front of him froze mid-step while crossing the road. A stray dog hung suspended in the air, forever caught in the middle of a jump. Even dust particles floating in sunlight were trapped, perfectly still, like time itself had been paused. Arjun's breath grew shallow as panic slowly crept into his chest. He waved his hand in front of the frozen man's face. No reaction. No blinking. No movement.
"What… is happening?" he whispered, but his voice sounded too loud in the dead silence.
Then a sharp sound echoed inside his head.
Ding.
Arjun staggered back, clutching his temples. The sound hadn't come from outside. It had come from inside him. A faint blue glow appeared in front of his eyes, forming a translucent rectangular screen floating in the air. He stumbled backward in shock, his heartbeat hammering wildly.
Words began appearing on the screen.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING…]
[Host Detected]
[Compatibility: 99.97%]
[Final Candidate Confirmed]
His mouth went dry. He slapped his cheeks hard, once, then again, trying to wake himself up. The sting was real. The screen didn't disappear.
"No… no, this isn't real," he muttered, but the words felt hollow.
The text changed.
[Welcome, Last Survivor.]
[The Tutorial Will Now Begin.]
A cold weight settled deep in his stomach. Survivor? The word echoed in his mind like a distant warning bell. As if responding to his fear, the sky above cracked.
It didn't shatter loudly. It fractured silently, like glass breaking in a dream. Thin glowing lines spread across the heavens, forming a massive web of fractures that pulsed with a faint crimson light. Arjun felt his knees weaken as he stared upward, unable to look away.
Then he heard it.
Screaming.
Not from nearby. Not from far away. It came from everywhere at once, layered and distorted, like echoes bleeding through dimensions. He covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut, but the sound wasn't entering through them. It was inside his mind.
"Make it stop…" he begged under his breath.
The system continued mercilessly.
[Earth has entered Phase Collapse.]
[Reality Stability: 12%]
[Estimated Human Survival Rate: 0.0003%]
The numbers made no sense, yet he understood them perfectly. A crushing realization pressed down on him. This wasn't a prank. This wasn't a dream. Something was ending.
The ground trembled beneath his feet. The frozen people around him began to flicker like broken holograms. One by one, they started disappearing. Some vanished instantly, dissolving into particles of dim light. Others twisted unnaturally before fading into nothingness, as if reality itself was deleting them.
A small child standing a few meters away blinked out of existence.
Just like that.
Something inside Arjun snapped. "STOP IT!" he screamed, his voice cracking through the still air. For a brief moment, everything went quiet again, as if the world had paused to listen.
Then the screen flickered violently.
[Emergency Protocol Activated.]
[Granting Starter Ability…]
[Error Detected.]
[Error Detected.]
[Unknown Interference.]
The blue interface glitched, distorting into jagged lines. The calm system voice vanished, replaced by something deeper. Older. Colder.
[WARNING.]
[Foreign Authority Detected.]
[A God is Watching.]
Every muscle in Arjun's body locked.
A presence descended upon the world. Heavy and infinite, like the sky had suddenly gained weight. It wasn't just fear—it was instinct, the primal certainty that something far beyond human comprehension had noticed him.
Not humanity.
Not Earth.
Him.
The cracks in the sky widened slowly, stretching open like a wound. And then something looked through.
A massive golden eye formed between the fractures, its pupil burning like a dying star. The moment it focused on him, reality warped. The air thickened. Gravity twisted. Arjun couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. He couldn't even scream.
The system began breaking apart.
[Host in Danger.]
[Overriding Protocols.]
[Selecting Forbidden Option…]
The blue screen shattered into fragments of light. A new interface replaced it—black, silent, absolute.
One final line appeared.
[Do you wish to live?]
YES / NO
Arjun stared at the words, trembling. His mind screamed at him to wake up, to deny everything, to run from the nightmare unfolding before him. But deep down, he understood the truth.
This was real.
This was the end.
And somehow, he was standing at the center of it.
Above him, the golden eye widened, watching patiently.
Waiting.
Judging.
Arjun clenched his fists, tears blurring his vision. "I… don't want to die," he whispered.
And with shaking hands, he chose—
YES.
The world went dark.
And somewhere in the endless void, something smiled.
