The last Scenario ended without applause.
No cheers.
No divine voice.
Just a line of text hanging in the sky like a verdict.
[All Scenarios Cleared.]
[Humanity Eligible for Ascension.]
Piter Hall stood alone beneath it.
The chamber was empty. No throne. No final enemy. No reward chest. Just a smooth white floor and a door that never opened.
Ascension.
That was the word the System loved to use.
Piter exhaled slowly. His hands were still shaking from the final clear, but not from exhaustion.
From certainty.
"So this is it," he muttered. "The lie at the end."
The timer hit zero.
The world folded inward.
Not exploded. Not erased.
Folded.
Like reality itself was being turned back to an earlier page.
Pain didn't come immediately. First came pressure. Then heat. Then something digging into his thoughts.
Memories were being pulled out.
Ripped away.
Piter screamed.
He woke up gasping for air.
A familiar ceiling stared back at him. Cracked paint. A cheap fan spinning lazily above his head.
His room.
His old room.
His phone buzzed on the desk.
Piter froze.
Slowly, he reached out and picked it up.
09:17 AM
April 3rd
His fingers tightened.
"No," he whispered.
He sat up too fast, dizziness crashing into him. The world felt wrong. Too solid. Too quiet.
Then he saw it.
A thin translucent outline hovering at the edge of his vision.
Inactive.
Watching.
The Interface.
Not activated yet.
That meant—
Piter laughed. A short, hoarse sound that didn't belong in a peaceful morning.
"They reset it," he said. "They reset everything."
Except him.
The calendar confirmed it.
Day 0.
In six hours, the first Scenario would open.
In twelve, the tutorial would kill thousands.
In three days, trust in the System would become a death sentence.
Piter swung his legs off the bed.
Last time, he cleared every Scenario.
Last time, he played perfectly.
And last time, the world still ended.
"This time," he said quietly, "I'm not clearing anything the way you want."
The air shimmered.
[Interface Initialization Pending…]
Piter smiled.
"Go ahead," he said.
"Lie to me again."