The digital clock on the warehouse wall was a heartbeat of red light.
00:03:12
00:03:11
Kaelen Voss sat on the edge of a steel crate, his matte-black gauntlet resting on his knee. He wasn't moving. He wasn't even breathing deeply. He was simply waiting. In his past life, he had been at a gala dinner when the sky broke—clueless, terrified, and weak. This time, he was the only man on Earth who knew exactly what the first sound of the end would be.
It wasn't an explosion. It was a hum. A frequency so low it made the teeth ache and the stomach turn.
[System: Mana Density detected at 1.0%. Initializing World-System Integration.]
[Warning: Reality Anchor failing. Dimensional Rifts opening in 120 seconds.]
Kaelen stood up and walked toward the "Wraith-Bike" he had spent the last four hours re-engineering. The scrap-metal machine now looked like a predator crouching in the shadows. He swung his leg over the seat, and the bike hummed to life, not with the roar of gasoline, but with the quiet, dangerous whine of a Mana-turbine.
"Connect," Kaelen commanded.
A blue holographic wire extended from the bike's console and snapped into his gauntlet. Immediately, his vision was flooded with data. He could see the structural integrity of the warehouse, the energy levels of his core, and—most importantly—the heat signatures of every living soul within a two-mile radius.
He checked the city map. Most people were still asleep. Some were driving home from late shifts. None of them knew that in sixty seconds, their world would become a buffet for the things lurking behind the veil.
00:00:05
00:00:04
Kaelen gripped the handlebars. "This is it."
00:00:00
A sound like a thunderclap, but deeper, shook the very foundation of the Earth. Outside, the night sky didn't turn to dawn. It turned into a bruised, pulsing violet. Great jagged cracks appeared in the air over the city center, as if the atmosphere were a sheet of glass being struck by a hammer.
[System: Global Mana Inversion Complete.]
[The Tutorial Period has begun. Objective: Survive.]
From the largest crack over the Central Plaza, a creature dropped. It was a "Crawler"—a Tier-1 beast with long, spindly limbs and skin like wet leather. It landed on a parked car, crushing the roof, and let out a shriek that shattered every window on the street.
Then, another fell. Then ten. Then a hundred.
The screams started. First one, then a chorus of terror as the monsters began their harvest.
Kaelen didn't flinch. He kicked the warehouse doors open with his bike's front wheel. He didn't head toward the Plaza to save people. He had a different target. The first "Specialized Mana-Drop" was landing near the old shipyard a piece of tech that would eventually become his fortress's main power source.
"Boost," he whispered.
The Wraith-Bike's rear tire glowed blue. With a surge of gravity-defying power, Kaelen shot out of the warehouse, leaving a trail of blue sparks on the asphalt.
As he sped through the streets, he saw a Crawler cornering a young woman near a bus stop. The monster raised a clawed hand, ready to peel her like a fruit. In his past life, Kaelen would have died trying to help her. In this life, he didn't even slow down.
'I can't save everyone,' Kaelen thought, his eyes cold as he leaned the bike into a sharp turn. 'If I try to play hero now, I die. If I die, Marcus and Elena win.'
A Crawler noticed him, leaping from a rooftop to intercept the bike. It was fast, a blur of grey limbs and teeth.
"Sub-Routine: Kinetic Blast," Kaelen muttered, pointing his gauntlet mid-air without looking.
[System: 2% Mana Expended.]
A bolt of concentrated blue force erupted from the gauntlet. It hit the Crawler in mid-air, not just killing it, but vaporizing its torso. The creature's remains splattered against a nearby wall like black ink.
[System: First Kill Confirmed. +10 XP.]
[You have leveled up! Level 9 -> Level 10.]
[Skill Unlocked: Structural Analysis.]
Kaelen felt the surge of power hit his spine. Level 10. The threshold. He was now officially the strongest human on the planet, at least for the next few hours.
He twisted the throttle, the bike screaming as it broke the sound barrier on the empty highway. The sky continued to bleed, and the city began to burn.
"The game has started," Kaelen said, a dark smile finally touching his lips. "And I'm the only one who knows the cheat codes."