At exactly 11:47 PM, the sky turned black.
Not night.
Black.
Like something had swallowed the stars.
Phones vibrated.
Televisions flickered.
A mechanical voice echoed in every human mind.
Screams began before the countdown reached 50.
The first monster fell from the sky.
It looked like a dog.
If a dog had been skinned alive.
If its bones had been twisted backward.
It crushed a man's skull in the street.
Blood sprayed across windshields.
The countdown continued.
Panic consumed the city.
Zhao Ren stood frozen on the rooftop of his apartment building.
His heart pounded violently.
This wasn't a drill.
He knew it.
Because he had already died once.
In his previous timeline, he lasted 6 hours.
Six pathetic hours.
He remembered the sound of his ribs breaking.
The taste of blood.
The darkness swallowing him.
And then Silence.
Until the voice returned.
He had been sent back.
Ten minutes before the apocalypse began.
This time He wouldn't run.
The countdown hit zero.
The sky cracked open.
Monsters poured out like rain.
Screams.
Gunshots.
Car crashes.
Zhao Ren didn't move.
He waited.
A neighbor tried to run past him up the stairwell.
Something lunged from behind.
A claw pierced through the man's chest.
The corpse fell at Zhao Ren's feet.
The monster turned toward him.
It was fast.
Too fast.
In his last life, this creature tore through the entire building.
This time
Zhao Ren stepped forward.
He picked up a broken steel pipe.
The monster lunged.
He sidestepped.
Swung.
Crack.
Bone shattered.
The creature collapsed.
Still twitching.
He didn't hesitate.
He smashed its skull in.
Silence.
Heavy breathing.
Blood dripping.
Then
He placed his hand on the corpse.
The system responded instantly.
Zhao Ren froze.
His pulse slowed.
His breathing stabilized.
He felt it.
Power.
Not imagined.
Real.
He looked at the dead neighbor beside him.
Slowly
He touched the human corpse.
The system pulsed again.
His eyes darkened.
The apocalypse wasn't extinction.
It was selection.
And he had just found the shortcut.
Above the city The sky split again.
Something much larger began descending.
Zhao Ren smiled for the first time.
"Good."