2025-07-28 23:51:41Rain slapped against the windows like it had a personal grudge. Jared Lin sat on the edge of the hotel bed, dressed in an ill-fitting tuxedo that wasn’t even his. His shoes were borrowed, the collar too tight, and the smile he’d worn at the wedding a few hours ago had already vanished.
The room still smelled like roses — fake ones, plastic and perfume-heavy — leftovers from the Bai family’s low-budget wedding reception. But no one cared. Not really. Least of all his new wife, Elena Bai, who hadn’t looked him in the eye once since they said “I do.”
“You’re still sitting here?” Her voice came from the bathroom doorway, cold as the marble floor beneath his feet. “Aren’t you going to take the trash out before you sleep in it?”
Jared didn’t flinch. He just looked at her. So beautiful. So sharp.
In his past life, he would’ve done anything for her. He had. He’d taken a bullet for her. Shielded her from a monster. Died trying to save her family — the same family that never stopped calling him “that useless son-in-law.”
And what had it earned him? Abandonment. Betrayal. A shallow grave while they ran.
Now, somehow… he was back. Ten years ago. On the first night of his pathetic marriage.
“I’ll do it,” he said quietly, standing. “I wouldn’t want to ruin your beauty sleep.”
Elena scoffed and turned back into the bathroom. She didn’t even bother closing the door.
He walked out of the suite, plastic trash bag in hand, rain biting at his face as he stepped into the alley behind the hotel. The stink of wet garbage, gasoline, and sewage filled the air.
In his past life, this exact moment had passed like nothing. But now, it carried weight. Because three days from now… the world would end. Just like before.
[System initializing… Loading host consciousness.]
Jared froze.
The air shifted. It wasn’t a voice in his ears—it was in his head. Sharp, mechanical, and emotionless. A digital chime followed.
[Welcome, Host: Jared Lin.]
[You have been selected to activate: APOCALYPSE PREPARATION SYSTEM.]
[Do you accept?]
His heart nearly stopped.
In his last life, this system… this power… had belonged to someone else. Someone who used it to crush entire cities. A warlord who rose from the ashes of civilization and ruled with fire and fear.
The man Jared had tried to stop. The man who killed him in the end.
Now the system was offering him a chance?
He didn’t hesitate. “I accept.”
[Binding complete.]
[Initiating first mission.]
[Mission 001: Acquire one plot of land (minimum 500 square meters) outside city limits within 48 hours. Reward: 1,000 system points. Unlock: Inventory tab.]
Jared let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. It was real.
This time, the game started early—and he had the controller in his hand.
“Now,” he muttered, eyes narrowing, “let’s see who the real trash is.”
By the time Jared returned to the suite, the lights were off. Elena was already curled in bed, a fortress of pillows separating her from his side. She didn’t stir when he walked in.
He looked at her for a long time. In the last life, she’d watched him die. Cold, blank. As if a man giving his life for her family meant nothing.
But in the years that followed, he remembered something. In the final days… she cried for him. Whispered apologies to the wind. Too late.
This time, he wouldn’t hate her. Not yet. But he wouldn’t beg for her love either.
Not anymore.
He lay back on the bed, staring at the cracked ceiling. The Bai family was already planning how to use him. Tomorrow, there would be breakfast with Father-in-law, who’d call him “boy” and talk like he was doing Jared a favor by letting him mop the company lobby.
Fine. Let them think he was still that spineless fool.
They’d find out soon enough that the apocalypse wasn’t the end — it was the beginning.
Ding.
[System Alert: Auction listing nearby — rural land in outer district, reserve price: $3,000. Ends in 22 hours.]
A slow smile curved his lips.
Perfect.
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Chapter 85- What the World Is Becoming
POV: JaredI go farther than I ever meant to.It starts small. A longer walk. One more hill. A place I used to avoid because there was nothing there and nothing is dangerous when you are used to things breaking.But the nothing is gone now.There are paths.Not carved. Not forced. They curve the way feet prefer to move, the way water would choose if it had legs. I follow one and realize I am not deciding where to step. The ground already knows.I pass a frame of something that might become a shelter. Three walls leaning into each other, patient. No tool marks. No signs of hands. Just intention, paused mid-thought.I touch the surface. It is warm. Alive in that quiet way stone sometimes is when it remembers heat.There are people.Not echoes. Not visitors who vanish when you look too closely.People with packs and stories and tired eyes that have learned how to hope without making noise about it. They move carefully, like the world might change its mind if they rush.When they see me,
Chapter 84- Proof of Life
POV: JaredThe visitor returns on a morning that feels undecided.Not stormy. Not kind. The sort of morning that could become anything if pushed hard enough.They do not come alone this time.There are two of them now, standing where the ground still remembers Emma’s footsteps. One waits farther back, respectful or wary, I cannot tell. The other holds a narrow case against their chest. Not sealed. Not dramatic. Just carried like something that has already been opened too many times.I do not ask why they are here.I think part of me has been expecting this since the footprint by the river.They kneel. Open the case. Push it toward me.“There’s no point bringing images,” the visitor says. Their voice is softer than before, like they learned something since last we spoke. “Those can lie without knowing they’re lying.”Inside the case are three things.They are arranged without ceremony. No labels. No explanation. Just objects, trusting me to recognize the truth on my own.The first is a
Chapter 83- The Day the Journal Changes
POV: JaredI notice the journal first.Not because I am looking for it. It has learned how to find me on its own. It sits where it always does, near the window, catching the part of the morning light that feels undecided. I pick it up the way I always do, careful, familiar, like my hands remember rules my head did not make.I read the same page as yesterday. I am sure of that. I even remember where I stopped, the way her handwriting slanted when she got tired, the tiny pause before the sentence broke off.That is why my eyes trip.There is a line that does not belong.Not a new page. Not an ending. Something threaded in, quiet and precise, as if it had always been waiting for space.The ink is darker. The letters are steadier. Cleaner than the rest, like her hand did not hesitate even once.I read it again. Slower.I remember more when I’m farther away.The room feels smaller for a second. Or maybe I do.I flip back a page. Then forward. I check the margins, the binding, the spine, li
Chapter 82- Staying Still Means Trusting
POV: JaredTime does not pass the way I expected it to.It does not rush at me. It does not circle back to hurt me on purpose. It moves like the river does when no one is watching. Forward, uneven, sometimes quiet enough that I forget it is working at all.The first days are the hardest. Not because of pain. Because of habit.I keep turning to speak to her. I keep saving thoughts like spare coins, planning to hand them to her later. When I realize there is no later yet, my chest tightens, then loosens. Over and over. Like a muscle learning a new job.I do not break.That surprises me.Instead, I learn the shape of loneliness without panic. I learn that missing someone does not mean I am losing them. It just means there is space now, and space can be lived in.I talk. Out loud.At first it feels foolish, then it feels necessary.I tell the tree by the river about my dreams. The ones where the world glitches and she laughs like it is nothing. The river gets updates too. I explain my day
Chapter 81- The Goodbye That Isn’t One
POV: JaredEmma did not disappear.That was the lie I had been preparing myself for. Light. Noise. Some dramatic tearing of space that would give my grief something sharp to hook onto.Instead, she packed slowly.Not with bags. With pauses.She touched things like she was checking they were still real. The edge of the table. The wall where the shelter leaned a little to the left. The river stone she liked because it fit perfectly in her palm. She left it where it was.I stood a few steps away and did not help. Not because I did not want to. Because helping would have meant participating in the leaving, and I was not ready to be that honest.When she was done, she walked.No announcement. No speech. Just forward, toward the place where the air thinned and the world felt less certain. The visitor waited farther ahead, out of respect or strategy. I did not care which.The grass bent under her feet. Then sprang back up.Every instinct in me screamed to follow.I had chased her across coll
Chapter 80- Emma Chooses Something New
POV: JaredShe did not say it like a sacrifice.That was the first thing that scared me.Emma said it while folding her sleeves, like she was preparing to wash her hands. Calm. Thought through. Already lived with the idea long enough that it had softened around the edges.“There’s a third option,” she said.I waited for the catch. There was always one.She would go with the visitor. Not forever. Not to save everything. Just one breach. One place that was still tearing itself apart. She would help them stabilize it, show them how to listen instead of forcing fixes, teach them how to let broken systems breathe.Then she would come back.No vows attached. No guarantees smuggled into the sentence.Just intention.I opened my mouth and nothing came out.I wanted to argue. I had the words ready. I had them memorized. I could list risks and probabilities and timelines like scripture. I could tell her how fragile this world still was, how fragile she was, how every separation felt like tempti
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