Chapter One: The Day the Sky Cracked
The sky was wrong.
Crow noticed it before anyone else. The air tasted metallic, like the charge before a thunderstorm, and the clouds hung too still, too heavy, as if the world itself was holding its breath.
He stood alone on the rooftop of his crumbling apartment building, the city's endless gray stretching around him. From here, he could see the broken skyline, the rivers of rusted cars, the peeling paint of forgotten walls. It was the same city he remembered, yet it all felt... different.
Because he remembered what was coming.
Three days.
That's all he had.
Crow closed his eyes. Memories flickered behind his eyelids like dying embers — battles fought under black suns, towers taller than mountains, monsters whose names had long since been forgotten by the living.
He remembered dying, too. Cold, alone, with the mocking words flashing across a blood-smeared screen:
[ GAME OVER. CONTINUE? Y/N ]
He chose Yes.
He had been dragged back here, to this moment, to this world.
But it wasn't salvation. It was a warning.
A distant rumble pulled him from his thoughts. He opened his eyes.
Above him, the clouds split apart like shattered glass. A thin, searing line of light tore across the sky, humming, warping the very air around it.
A message appeared before his eyes, burning into reality itself:
[ SYSTEM INITIATING... ]
[ REALITY ADJUSTMENT: 72 HOURS UNTIL FULL INTEGRATION. PREPARE. ]
Crow's heart pounded against his ribs, not in fear, but in something colder — anticipation.
He had three days to prepare before reality fused with the Game.
Three days to get stronger, faster, smarter.
Three days before the monsters came, before the cities fell, before the world turned into a slaughterhouse for the amusement of beings beyond comprehension.
This time, he wouldn't die like a nameless pawn.
This time, Crow would rise.
He turned from the edge of the rooftop, pulling up the hood of his jacket. The wind howled past him, carrying with it the scent of burning ozone.
There was no time to waste.
END OF CHAPTER ONE