The sky changed at exactly 11:43 AM.
At first, nobody noticed.
People were busy with their own lives. Cars moved through crowded streets, vendors shouted in roadside markets, and students sat half-awake in classrooms pretending to listen to lectures.
Arjun Mehta was one of those students.
He sat in the back row of his college classroom, staring blankly at the whiteboard while his professor explained something about economic policy.
None of it made sense to him.
His attention drifted toward the window beside him.
Something felt… strange.
The sunlight looked different.
Not dim.
Not dark.
Just wrong.
Arjun leaned slightly closer to the window.
The sky wasn't blue anymore.
It had turned metallic.
A faint silver sheen spread across the clouds, making the entire sky look like a giant sheet of polished steel.
"What the…?" he muttered under his breath.
A few students near the window also began whispering.
"Is it about to rain?"
"That doesn't look like rain."
"Maybe pollution or something."
Before anyone could figure it out, every electronic device inside the room suddenly turned off.
Phones.
Laptops.
The projector.
Even the ceiling lights.
The classroom instantly fell into silence.
"Power cut?" someone asked.
But the lights outside the window were also gone.
The traffic signals in the street below had stopped working.
Then something impossible happened.
A voice echoed across the world.
It didn't come from speakers.
It didn't come from televisions.
It came from everywhere at once.
From the sky.
From the air.
From inside people's minds.
[GALACTIC EVALUATION SYSTEM INITIALIZING]
The classroom erupted into panic.
"Did you hear that?!"
"Where did that come from?"
"Is this some kind of prank?"
Arjun felt his heartbeat slowly quicken.
Outside the window, glowing letters began appearing across the clouds.
Massive words stretched across the sky like a cosmic announcement.
[Planet Identified: Earth]
[Civilization Rank: F]
[Population: 8,042,671,920]
The entire class stood up and rushed toward the windows.
Even the professor stared upward in disbelief.
"What kind of technology is that…?"
Another message appeared.
[Earth has been selected for Galactic Evaluation.]
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then someone laughed nervously.
"This has to be a movie promotion."
"Yeah, probably some marketing stunt."
"Hollywood is getting crazy with advertisements."
But Arjun didn't feel like laughing.
Something about the voice felt too real.
Too cold.
Too… mechanical.
Then the sky displayed another message.
[Evaluation begins in 60 seconds.]
A giant countdown appeared above the clouds.
60
People across the world froze.
59
58
Inside the classroom, panic slowly spread.
"What evaluation?"
"What does that even mean?"
"Is this a hack or something?"
Outside, drivers stopped their cars in the middle of the street to stare upward.
News reporters pointed cameras at the sky.
Governments scrambled to respond.
But nobody had answers.
The countdown continued.
41
40
Arjun suddenly felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.
He frowned.
"That's impossible…"
Electronics had stopped working.
Slowly, he pulled the phone out.
The screen had turned completely black.
Then white text appeared.
[Individual Compatibility Detected]
Arjun blinked.
"What?"
The next message appeared instantly.
[Commander Candidate Identified]
His chest tightened.
"Commander…?"
Another message followed.
[Binding Galactic System to Host]
A sharp pain exploded behind his eyes.
Arjun grabbed his head as the world around him blurred.
Information flooded his mind.
Star maps.
Unknown languages.
Weapon systems.
Alien warships.
Battlefields among distant planets.
He collapsed to his knees.
"What is happening to me…?"
Outside, the countdown reached zero.
0
The sky shattered.
Massive glowing cracks spread across the atmosphere like broken glass.
Through those fractures, something enormous appeared.
Ships.
Thousands of them.
Black structures the size of small cities descended slowly from the cracks in the sky.
Each one was covered with glowing red lines that pulsed like veins.
People everywhere screamed.
"ALIENS!"
One of the ships stopped directly above the city.
A massive opening formed beneath it.
Something dropped from the darkness.
A creature slammed into the street with a thunderous impact.
The ground cracked beneath its weight.
The creature slowly stood up.
It was nearly thirty feet tall.
Six legs.
Four clawed arms.
Its body was covered in black armor-like plates that looked like molten metal.
Glowing blue eyes scanned the street.
Then it moved.
With a single swipe of its claw, it ripped a bus in half.
Cars flipped like toys as it walked forward.
Screams filled the air.
Inside the classroom, students backed away from the windows in horror.
"Oh my god…"
"What IS that thing?!"
Arjun slowly lifted his head.
The pain inside his mind disappeared.
In its place, a calm mechanical voice spoke again.
[System Integration Complete]
A transparent interface appeared before his eyes.
GALACTIC COMMAND SYSTEM
Host: Arjun Mehta
Commander Rank: F
Planet: Earth
Civilization Rank: F
A new notification appeared.
[Emergency Mission Assigned]
Arjun stared at the screen.
"Mission…?"
The system responded immediately.
Mission Objective:
Eliminate Hostile Entity — Unit A1
Reward: System Authorization Level 1
Failure Condition: Host Death
Arjun slowly turned toward the shattered window.
Outside, the monster continued destroying everything in its path.
The military hadn't even arrived yet.
The system displayed another option.
[Commander Equipment Available]
Combat Drone — Basic Unit
Plasma Rifle — Military Prototype
Adaptive Combat Suit — Mark I
A prompt appeared.
Deploy Equipment?
YES / NO
Arjun looked at the terrified students behind him.
Then he looked at the monster tearing apart the city.
His hand moved.
He selected YES.
Light exploded around his body.
Black armor formed across his chest and arms.
A sleek plasma rifle materialized in his hands.
A small hovering drone appeared beside his shoulder.
Arjun stared at the weapon.
Then at the monster below.
He took a deep breath.
"Alright…"
He stepped onto the broken edge of the window.
"…let's see what this system can do."
And then he jumped straight toward the battlefield below.