Death is not beautiful.
It does not smell like "ozone". Feel like "falling asleep". It smells like the waste in your body when you are scared and it feels like a hot iron rod being pushed through your lungs.
I was stuck to the metal of a collapsed building my boots hanging three hundred stories above a city that had become a graveyard. A Rank-S Shadow Stalker. A monster made of darkness and hate. Had its claw stuck in my chest.
I looked at the creature. It did not have a face a dark hole where a soul should be. It was waiting for me to stop moving so it could start the harvest.
Ten years I thought, my vision becoming blurry. I spent ten years eating rats and sleeping in sewers just to die like a piece of meat on a hook.
I had reached the Rank-A 'Master' level. In any time I would have been a god. In this time I was a slightly tougher insect.
If I could go back... One month... I would burn this world down before I let those things touch it.
The Stalker moved its head feeling my heartbeat getting weaker. It made a sound like breaking glass.
Then everything stopped.
SNAP.
The sound of a hitting paper echoed in my ears.
I did not wake up screaming. I did not gasp for air. I simply opened my eyes. Stayed perfectly still. In the apocalypse screaming when you wake up is the way to get your throat cut.
I was not on a building. I was sitting in a chair that cost more than my first three sets of armor. The air did not smell like rot; it smelled like perfume, printer ink and the faint smell of a cleaning ladys spray.
"Han Chen! Are you deaf well as useless?"
The voice hit me like a punch. It was high-pitched, arrogant and full of the kind of entitlement that only exists in a world that has not met a monster yet.
Manager Wang.
I looked up. My neck cracked. A sound that felt too loud in the office. Wang was standing over me his belly hanging over a belt that cost three hundred dollars. In the future I watched this man give his daughter to a group of bandits just for a half-empty bottle of warm water.
Seeing him now alive and fat made my stomach turn.
"I'm talking to you Han!" Wang slammed a stack of folders onto my desk. The vibration made my coffee splash against the rim of the mug. "The Q3 reports. I told you I wanted them by noon. If they are not on my desk in ten minutes you can pack your things. Go back to whatever gutter you came from."
I did not answer. I looked at the computer screen.
April 1 2026. 11:46 AM.
Thirty days.
The "Descent" began on May 1st. On that day the sky did not just open; it shattered. Every person on Earth was forced into a "System" that treated us like characters in a horror game. We were Level 0. The monsters were Level 20.
It was not a war. It was a slaughter.
"Are you ignoring me?" Wangs face turned a shade of purple. He reached out to grab my collar. A move he had done times to intimidate me in the past.
I did not think. My body moved before my brain could even process the intent.
I caught his wrist.
Wang froze. He expected me to flinch. He expected me to apologize. Instead he met my eyes.
I have looked into the eyes of things that eat planets. I have stared down demon kings while holding my intestines in my hands. Compared to that Manager Wang was less than a shadow.
"Let go " Wang hissed, though his voice wavered. "You are hurting me you freak."
I did not let go. I squeezed.
In this time my body was weak. I did not have my Rank-A attributes yet.. I knew exactly where the nerves were. I knew how pressure it took to make a mans vision go white.
CRACK.
A small wet sound came from his wrist.
Wang let out a strangled yelp dropping to his knees. The office, a hum of keyboards and hushed gossip went dead silent. Fifty people stopped what they were doing to watch the "office doormat" crush the managers hand.
"I am done with the reports Wang " I said. My voice was flat. Empty. "In fact I am done with everything in this room."
I stood up pushing the chair back. I felt light. For ten years I had carried the weight of survival on my shoulders. Now I felt like a ghost walking through a world of cardboard.
I walked toward the window.
"Someone call security!" Wang screamed from the floor cradling his arm. "He is going insane! He is a psycho!"
I ignored him. Looked at the sky.
The sun was bright. Too bright.. As I narrowed my eyes I saw it. High above the atmosphere the blue was beginning to fray. It looked like an error, a tear in the fabric of the sky.
Then the numbers appeared.
Vast, translucent and blood-red. They stretched across the horizon visible from every corner of the planet.
[29:23:53:11]
[29:23:53:10]
The world stopped.
Down on the street cars began to swerve as drivers looked up. In the office my coworkers crowded the windows their phones coming out to record the "prank".
"Is it a drone show?"
"Is it a hack? Look at the size of it!"
I watched the seconds tick down. They could not see the truth. They thought this was a spectacle. They did not know that every second that passed was a closer to their children being eaten and their homes being turned into dungeons.
Then a sound vibrated in my skull. Not a beep. A heavy resonant chime that felt like a bell made of gold.
[Ding! Soul Regression Confirmed.]
[Analyzing Temporal Anomaly...]
[Matching Host with Primordial Origin...]
[Legacy System: 'The First Sovereign' is Activating.]
A screen appeared in front of my eyes. It was not the blue interface everyone would get in a month. This was glass, etched with veins of flowing gold.
User: Han Chen
Class: None (Legacy Locked)
Trait: [He Who Has Seen the End]
Global Status: Pre-Apocalypse (Peaceful Era)
Your Status: The Only Awakened.
[Current Mission: Secure the Foundation]
Objective: The worlds first "Sign-In" location is active.
Location: The Museum of National History (Distance: 4.2km).
Time Remaining: 23:59:59.
Reward: SSS-Rank Mystery Box (Legacy Grade).
I let out a breath I did not know I was holding.
In my life the "Systems" were given to us by the invaders. They gave us "Warrior" classes and "Mage" classes that had built-in limits. We were cattle being fed so we could be harvested.
This... 'The First Sovereign.' This did not feel like an invaders tool. This felt like a weapon.
"Han... What... What is happening?"
I turned. Sarah, a girl, from accounting who used to share her snacks with me was standing nearby. Her face was pale her eyes fixed on the numbers outside.
"The world is changing, Sarah " I said. I grabbed my jacket from the back of my chair. "If you want to live go to the store. Buy much salt, medicine and clean water as
The elevator ride down was the minute of my life. I stared at my reflection in the chrome doors. I looked really young and weak. My skin looked pale because I was always under office lights not out, in the sun and getting dirty.
I need to get moving I told myself.
The SSS-Rank Mystery Box was waiting for me. In the future an S-Rank item could buy a city.. An SSS-Rank item? That is enough to change the fate of a species. The SSS-Rank Mystery Box is what I was thinking about.
I stepped out into the lobby. The chaos was already starting. People were standing in the middle of the street blocking traffic so they could take selfies with the countdown. Some people were crying. Most people were just really confused.
I did not look at them. I started running. The SSS-Rank Mystery Box and what it could do was all I could think about.
I had thirty days to build a fortress. I had thirty days to become a monster. The SSS-Rank Mystery Box is what will help me do that.
It all started with the Museum.