August 8th, 2031
A man sat at a desk, head in his hands.
'I-I can't do it... I should give up before I go insane.'
The man seems to be in his late teen years, already losing it after studying time manipulation and Revelations for half a decade. The man yells, slamming a fist on his desk and causing the lamp to go out, leaving the moonlight coming in through the window to be the only source of illumination. Swiping everything off of his desk and letting it all crash to the floor, he wraps his hand around the knob of the desk's drawer, tearing it open.
Inside of the drawer lay a dark revolver with a gray chamber, and a bullet rolling around violently after its sudden disturbance.
Kade erupts with choked sobs. The wailing almost seems to make the very building shake. He looks down at the weapon with blurry and teary eyes before grabbing it, opening the chamber, shoving the bullet into a slot violently, and closing it. Pressing the cold steel of the barrel against his temple, he closes his eyes.
'Let's see if I get lucky.'
Letting his trembling hand squeeze the trigger, he feels the gun jolt, and before he can even hear the shot or express his relief, the world is black.
Crash!
The papers, books, and lamp smash into the floor, Kade jolts as he looks around frantically.
'I-I'm..?'
"ALIVE!?"
Kade cries out, filled with rage that the shot didn't kill him, before realizing that he somehow didn't feel any pain, his head felt clear. Touching a finger to his temple he felt intact skin, and there wasn't any liquid present. A realization somehow dawned on him almost instantly.
'I-i-'ve.. gone back in time!'
Joy flooded him, and a chime rang out in his head, followed by words uttered by an emotionless yet soft voice.
"Congratulations, Kade Banner, you have come into possession of the first and last Time Savior ability, use it wisely."
'T-time savior? Sounds pretty... full of responsibility.'
Kade had become Improved by completing the unknown checklists he had been given. In this world, people are given a bunch of lists by the Noctis, a weird phenomenon that began about 50 years ago. The Noctis assigns lists to about 50% of people, keeping track of them until the person completes one of the checklists, whether it be doing household chores, to killing another human, the lists are random with a semi-random amount of tasks.
Once one of the assigned lists is fully complete, the Noctis grants them a supernatural ability and a Cost, which is usually related to the ability. Sometimes, the Noctis will provide a person with the right to complete more than one list. people who complete one are called the Improved, Two would be the Great, Three is the Blessed, of which there are less than 100 on Earth, and Four, which only one person in existence has managed, is the Emperor.
As what was seemingly a balancing factor, Doors began opening around the world, which are rifts or portals that connect to other worlds, allowing creatures to attack through them. Doors can only be closed when the Key Holder is defeated, a strong figure that is often considered the boss of the Doors. These rifts can let anything through, from demon hounds to giants, even armies of intelligent beings with awakened of their own. Once, 32 years ago, a Door opened, and out came an army of humans with their own Improved, speaking a language people couldn't understand, they were hostile, and the Improved were forced to kill them all, but not before half of a country was reduced to ash.
Information appeared in Kades' head as if it were common knowledge, he knew that his ability would send him back 15 seconds every time he died, and he also knew the title of his Cost. His Cost was called "Timeline shift", though its exact meaning was unclear to him.
About 12 minutes later, a lanky figure clad in jeans and a blue T-shirt could be spotted at the top of a cheap apartment building, his face filled with suppressed fear. Looking down at the street below, Kade ponders the passing cars. He would use the revolver again, but there is more to notice here, such as the wind, time, and other things. Plus, he already did the revolver, if he's going to learn, he wants to know what it's like to die of terminal velocity. He had pondered this death a lot recently, but now that was behind him, he had finally reached his goal. With that, Kade took a step forward and began to plummet.
'Shit. This is terrifying!'
Kade thought he wouldn't be scared knowing about his ability and such, and immediately his instincts told him he was an idiot for thinking that as his mind filled itself with fear.
People looked up at the building and began screaming, for obvious reasons.
'The drop isn't very high, I didn't want to have it last longer than 15 seconds, that wouldn't be good.. so I should hit the ground in about 8...7...6..5- oh.'
Kade saw the ground get much too close, and then, again, he saw nothing.
Then, He opened his eyes. The city street was below him, and he was breathing again. He took the chance to look up and down, studying everything significant, but he didn't notice anything.
'weird, I guess I misunderstood it'
Walking back into the building and down to the floor his apartment was on, Kade failed to see that a car below was now blue, while it had been cyan before.
'Anyways! Time to empty my fridge! I have to be gone by tomorrow!'
All people who went through Revelations were to head to a camp as soon as one was ready to accept new Improved. Training and teaching lasts about 8 weeks in all of these camps, and luckily one nearby had just ended their course yesterday and was going to be starting up tomorrow.
'Well, looks like I've gotta go back to school.' Kade chuckled to himself.