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 105- She Doesn’t Know Me
POV: JaredJared forgot how to breathe.Emma was standing three steps away from him.Alive.Not a projection flickering across a broken monitor. Not a figure made of golden light. Not a fragment of consciousness trapped inside the system. Not someone he had to chase through another reality or reach through a wall of memories.Just Emma.She stood beside the old computer with one hand resting against the edge of the desk, her dark hair falling loosely around her face. The glasses were the same. The slight crease between her eyebrows was the same. Even the way she tilted her head when she was trying to understand something was painfully familiar.There were no glowing threads beneath her skin.No strange distortion around her body.No system interface hovering in the air.Nothing separated her from the world.She was flesh and blood.Jared’s chest tightened so suddenly that he almost doubled over.“Emma.”Her name came out broken.He took a step toward her.Then another.He wanted to la
Chapter 104- The First Jared
POV: JaredThe screens came back one by one.Jared stood in the middle of the server room, unable to move.Every monitor showed him.Not the same him.Different ones.A boy with a missing front tooth.A teenager sitting alone in a classroom.A young man wearing a military uniform.An older Jared with silver in his hair.One version had blood running down the side of his face.Another was lying motionless on a hospital bed.Another was standing beside a woman Jared didn’t recognize.Another was holding a child.Another was laughing.Another was screaming.Some were dead.Some were clearly alive.Some looked like they had lived completely different lives.Jared walked closer to the screens.He saw one version of himself standing in a kitchen, barefoot, cooking breakfast.Another was sitting behind a desk in a company office.Another was running through a burning city.Another was wearing the same clothes Jared had worn during one of the loops.He remembered that one.He remembered dying
Chapter 103- The Man Behind The Glass
POV: JaredThe man stood behind the glass wall.Jared didn’t move.Neither did he.For a few seconds, the only sound in the room was the low hum of the servers.The emergency lights washed the man’s face in a dull white glow.He looked ordinary.That was the first thing Jared noticed.No glowing eyes.No strange markings.No unnatural movement.No golden light surrounding his body.Just a man.Older than Jared remembered him.Maybe in his late fifties.His hair was mostly gray, neatly cut. He wore a dark shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. His hands rested loosely at his sides.He looked like someone Jared could have passed on the street without noticing.And somehow, that was worse.Jared knew that face.Not from one memory.From hundreds.Fragments.A voice speaking through broken speakers.A silhouette standing inside white corridors.A man appearing whenever the system reached a point Jared wasn’t supposed to survive.A man who always seemed to know what Jared had done be
Chapter 102- Run 37
POV: JaredJared was out of bed before the figure could take another step.“Emma?”The woman stood at the end of the hallway.She didn’t answer.Jared’s heart slammed against his ribs.Every part of him wanted to believe it was her.The face was right.The hair was right.Even the slight tilt of her head was familiar.But the eyes were wrong.Emma’s eyes had always moved when she thought. She looked away when she was uncomfortable. She narrowed them when she was trying to understand something. She rolled them when Jared said something stupid.This woman simply stared.Jared stepped into the hallway.“Who are you?”Nothing.He took another step.The figure turned.Then she walked away.“Wait.”Jared followed.His bare feet hit the floor hard as he moved through the hallway.He reached the corner.Nothing.The hallway was empty.Jared stopped.He checked the stairs.The living room.The kitchen.The front door.Locked.The back door.Locked.Nobody.He searched every room in the house.
Chapter 101- The Life That Never Happened
POV: JaredJared went home the next morning.He almost expected the world to resist him.It didn’t.The drive from the hospital was painfully ordinary.Cars moved through familiar streets. People crossed roads with shopping bags in their hands. A bus stopped too close to a traffic light, and the driver leaned on the horn when the car behind him refused to move.Nothing was burning.Nothing was collapsing.There were no infected people wandering through the streets.No alarms.No strange lights in the sky.No invisible pressure pressing against Jared’s skull.The city simply existed.And somehow, that frightened him more than the apocalypse ever had.He stared through the passenger window as Elena drove.Three days ago, he had been standing beneath a tree in a world that should not have existed.Three days ago, he had watched Emma become something larger than one body.Three days ago, he had made the hardest decision of his life.Now there were traffic jams.Now there were advertisemen
Chapter 100- After She Let Go
POV: JaredJared woke to the sound of a machine beeping.Once.Twice.Again.It was annoyingly ordinary.For several seconds, he didn’t open his eyes.He waited.There was always something waiting for him when he woke.A voice.A warning.A command.A strange pressure behind his eyes.Sometimes there had been pain.Sometimes there had been light.Sometimes he had opened his eyes in places that should not have existed.He waited for the familiar sensation to arrive.Nothing did.Jared frowned.He opened his eyes.A white ceiling stared back at him.A fluorescent light buzzed above his head.There was a curtain beside the bed. Pale blue. Slightly wrinkled.An IV line ran into the back of his hand.He stared at it.Then at the monitor.Then at his other hand.Nothing.No golden light beneath his skin.No faint lines moving under his veins.No threads stretching beyond the room.He swallowed.The air felt different.Not cleaner.Not safer.Just…Empty.Jared slowly pushed himself upright.
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