Chapter1

"Vitality extraction complete. Host discarded."

The mechanical voice shattered my consciousness. My vision faded fast, but my final sight was burned into my memory: Max, wiping my blood off his tactical combat knife onto his leather jacket. Behind him, Chloe couldn't even meet my eyes, yet her knuckles were white as she death-gripped the supply bag that rightfully belonged to me.

The next second, blinding sunlight slashed through the darkness like a blade.

I snapped my eyes open and lunged up from the sofa, gasping for air as if I'd been drowning. The AC blasted chilled air from the ceiling vent, raising a rash of goosebumps across my skin.

The screen of my phone on the coffee table glowed. The time read: August 12th, 2:00 PM.

Exactly three days before the apocalypse.

Before my racing heart could even settle, a frantic pounding echoed from my front door.

"Ian! Open up! You gotta see what I just dug up!"

It was Max.

My pupils contracted. I dug my fingernails into my palms until it hurt. Taking a deep, shuddering breath to shove down the boiling hatred, I walked over and swung the door open.

Max stood in the hallway, caked in dirt. In his hands rested a dark-gray metallic block covered in strange, intricate veins. Chloe was right beside him, frowning in disgust as she dusted off her trench coat.

"Just pulled this out of the downtown construction site. It’s freaky—feels warm to the touch." Max pushed his way into the entryway and shoved the artifact directly toward my chest. "You study ancient geology at the university, right? What do you make of this..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the veins on the metal pulsed with a faint, eerie blue light.

In my previous life, this was the exact moment I took that fatal piece of metal from his hands.

This time, I smoothly took a half-step back and shoved my hands deep into my jeans pockets. "No idea. Looks like industrial scrap to me."

The blue light abruptly flared. Like a living organism, the glow slithered up Max's arm.

"Ah shit—what the hell?!" Max yelped. He violently shook his hand, trying to drop the object, but the metal block was already melting, seeping directly into the pores of his palm.

"Binding sequence initiated. Genetic signature recorded. Welcome to the Doomsday Evolution System."

The synthesized, mechanical voice echoed through the living room.

Max froze. A few seconds later, a wild, uncontainable fanaticism erupted in his eyes. He spun around and snatched a heavy stainless-steel spoon off the open kitchen's breakfast bar.

Without seemingly using any force, he squeezed. The thick steel yielded like soft clay between his fingers, effortlessly twisting into a mangled knot.

"Superpowers... Ian, did you see that?! I have superpowers!" Max’s voice was trembling with euphoria as he shoved the mangled spoon in my face to show off.

Chloe’s expression instantly morphed from disgust to absolute awe. She immediately latched herself onto Max’s arm, not even bothering to spare me a second glance.

"It... it actually chose you," I mumbled, lowering my head. I forced my voice to sound dry, squeezing out just the right amount of bitter disappointment. "I was supposed to use that for my thesis."

"Hey, it’s just luck, man." Max patted my shoulder, his tone dripping with a newly found, condescending superiority. "Don't worry, your bro will look out for you from now on. Come on, Chloe. Let’s go down to the alley and see what else this system can do!"

Bang. The apartment door slammed shut.

The mask of disappointment vanished from my face in an instant, leaving behind cold indifference.

I walked into the bathroom, cranked the faucet, and splashed freezing water onto my face. Staring at my sharp, refocused eyes in the mirror, I exhaled a long, heavy breath.

I pulled out my phone and opened my contacts.

Max: Block. Delete.

Chloe: Block. Delete.

After completing that simple routine, an unprecedented wave of relief washed over my entire body. That thing wasn't some "god-tier cheat." It was a gluttonous parasite that fed on the flesh and sanity of its host. And now, Max had swallowed that ticking time bomb all on his own.

I pulled the blinds shut, cutting off the outside light, and sat down at my desk. I pulled out a notepad. The pen scratched rapidly against the paper as I jotted down a few key phrases:

[Extreme Cold] — In three days, temperatures will plummet within a two-hour window. The unprepared will die in droves.

[Spores] — In half a month, hallucinogenic, mutation-inducing particles will drift up from beneath the ice.

[Collapse of Order] — Official communications will go dark. The National Guard will be completely paralyzed.

[Rise of the Underground] — Whoever controls the supplies and the shelters becomes the new king.

With the final stroke finished, I flicked my lighter and burned the page to ash.

Since I'd been given a second chance, I was opting out of the whole bizarre parasitic system game. In this man-eating apocalypse, only two things could guarantee survival:

An impenetrable bunker, and weapons that could blow a hole straight through a skull.

I looked up, my eyes locking onto the computer monitor. Displayed on the screen was a detailed map of the San Lodo Port District. Over there was the one person I desperately needed to find right now.