The world ended in fire.
Again.
The sky cracked open like glass under pressure, bleeding molten light across the Arctic wasteland. Wind howled through the skeletal ruins of what used to be humanity's last stronghold—Fort Genesis. I lay broken beneath a collapsed steel beam, my body mangled, my vision flickering in and out.
We had lost.
Again.
The last surviving members of Alpha Team were either vaporized or torn apart by the Void Titans. Even my enhanced armor couldn't protect me anymore—not from them. I watched my HUD display die, pixel by pixel, like my dreams of saving this world.
My breath was shallow. My bones were shattered. Blood poured into my lungs like ink.
And yet, I couldn't close my eyes. Not yet.
A soft chime echoed in my mind.
[SYSTEM ALERT: FINAL PROTOCOL READY]
[WORLD-BUILDING SYSTEM: UNLOCKED]
[DO YOU WISH TO RESTART TIMELINE?]
I blinked.
What?
Restart?
This thing had always been a prototype. The "World-Building System" was a joke we used to laugh about in the labs—an abandoned A.I. framework meant to automate terraforming and settlement planning. But in the end, as the world burned, it activated.
Too late to save anyone.
Too late to save her.
A face flashed in my mind—auburn hair, soft freckles, and a crooked smile that could light up even a dying planet. My sister, Maya.
She died in the first wave.
I reached up with a shattered hand.
"Yes," I whispered.
The world went black.
I gasped awake.
Not in ruins. Not beneath twisted metal.
But in a cramped, dusty apartment.
A New York summer breeze drifted through the half-open window. The hum of traffic. The smell of coffee and car exhaust. No screams. No death. No monsters.
I sat up fast, heart pounding like a war drum. I touched my face, my chest—no scars, no battle armor, just an old T-shirt. I staggered to the mirror.
My reflection stared back.
Younger. Cleaner. Whole.
Aiden Cross, age twenty-six.
Not thirty-six. Not broken. Not dying.
"Oh my God…" I whispered. "It worked."
My phone buzzed on the nightstand.
Maya (❤️): Don't forget Mom's birthday dinner tonight. I swear if you ghost again, I'm dragging you there myself.
My chest tightened. I almost dropped the phone.
She was alive.
The entire world was.
But not for long.
I looked at the date on my phone.
April 3, 2033.
Eighty-nine days before the Rift opened in Times Square.
I stood frozen for a full minute.
Then—
[SYSTEM ONLINE: WORLD-BUILDING SYSTEM v0.1]
[WELCOME BACK, USER AIDEN CROSS]
[REBOOT SUCCESSFUL. SYSTEM CALIBRATING TO EARLY-TIMELINE CONDITIONS…]
A translucent interface slid into view in front of my eyes, like augmented reality but cleaner. No clunky headgear. It was… perfect.
[LOCATION DETECTED: EARTH, PRE-RIFT ZONE]
[STARTING ZONE SELECTED: ASHFALL CRATER (INACTIVE)]
[OBJECTIVES LOADED:]
Establish secure base before first Rift
Save minimum 10,000 humans
Prevent Void Breach #1
Reconnect Earth's Core Stabilizers (0/3)
I read the words again.
And again.
This wasn't just a second chance.
This was power.
I spent the next hour verifying every little detail. Calendar, news feeds, geopolitics—it all matched. The world was blissfully unaware that its extinction clock had already started ticking.
But I wasn't.
I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at the HUD hovering in my vision. Then I accessed the Build Menu.
[SYSTEM MODULE UNLOCKED:]
Shelter Construction
Resource Nodes (Locked)
Defense Turrets (Locked)
Research Lab (Locked)
Recruitment Module (Locked)
[AVAILABLE RESOURCES: 0]
[MISSION: GATHER INITIAL RESOURCES TO UNLOCK FIRST SHELTER]
I had nothing.
No money, no tools, no allies.
Not yet.
But I had knowledge.
I knew what would happen, where the first Rift would open, when the first swarm would descend, where the safe zones would collapse.
And more importantly—I knew where the old world's mistakes were.
This time, I wouldn't just survive.
I would build something better.
I walked to the window and stared down at the street. Ordinary people rushed by—coffee in hand, heads down, phones out. Clueless. Innocent.
In three months, half of them would be dead.
In six, the cities would burn.
In a year, the last human continent would fall.
But I had eighty-nine days.
Eighty-nine days to prepare.
To build.
To gather survivors.
To rewrite the ending.
My name is Aiden Cross.
And this time, I'm not just fighting to survive.
I'm building a new world.