Before smoke filled the sky, and before the earth choked on ruins, this world was teeming with life. Cities flourished, lands were fertile, and the sky was clear. Life was a delicate balance between humanity and nature. People lived in harmony with their environment, developing technologies that served them and opened the doors to the future.
But beneath this prosperity, something dark was quietly infiltrating the world's systems. Unbounded greed and destructive ambitions drove humanity to compete over every resource, even those they didn't need. Governments and major corporations raced to create technologies they weren't ready to handle, until the very tools meant to ease their lives became the harbingers of their destruction.
In the frenzy for power, the world began to show the first signs of collapse. The resources that once sustained the earth started depleting uncontrollably. Rivers dried up, forests withered, and the sky grew polluted until it became a suffocating shroud over life. Technological wars erupted, and humanity stood on the brink of extinction.
Yet this transformation wasn't a surprise to everyone. In every destroyed city, in every dark corner, there were signs that the world had only minutes left before it fell into ruin. What began as a small invention to simplify life became an unstoppable machine of destruction. And now, nothing remains but the ruins of the past, scattered across the horizon like fragments of once-thriving civilizations—now reduced to mere memories.
As Arin wandered through the shattered world, the sky was thick with fog and smoke, his heart weighed down by memories entangled in the haze of days gone by. He drifted through the ruins, his mind caught in a storm of pain, as if life had become a bitter dream seeking vengeance on itself. Each step felt like another passage through an endless path, with every thought erupting in his mind like storms, all circling around one thing: revenge.
Moments of heavy silence passed as he walked beside an old bridge, then a sudden scream echoed from beneath it, shattering the stillness of the ruins. At first, he paid it no mind. He was used to this sound—the wailing of a world in agony around him. There was something greater in his heart than to care about individual tragedies.
But suddenly, he stopped. The sound wasn't like the others. There was a tone in the scream, something that spoke of danger—something beyond the ordinary. For a fleeting moment, a glimmer of the past pierced through the darkness. He didn't know why, but his heart ached at the mere thought of approaching. Was it fear? Or was there something inside him he couldn't escape?
"I'm not responsible for saving everyone..." he muttered to himself, as though the words were an attempt to convince his shattered mind. He knew he should stay away. There was a darkness within him he had lived with for far too long, something he couldn't face. Yet, the fragile line separating him from the unbearable kept slipping away.
Then, as though given no choice, he moved toward the sound. Ensuring the attackers had left, he approached the boy lying on the ground, his pale body trembling. "What's your name?" he asked coldly, his eyes scanning the horizon, as if the world had paused in that moment.
"Kyle," came the weak reply.
"I'm Arin… If you're lucky, it's only because you survived them."
Arin stood at a distance, as though the space between them was all that separated them from another world. The boy looked at him and smiled bitterly, but there was no time for questions. The journey was just beginning.
As Arin moved away from the place, continuing his steps into the unknown, Kyle sat on the ash-covered ground. He closed his eyes for a moment, as though something distant was calling to him. He looked at the gray sky, where the smoke still devoured the horizon.
"This is the beginning of my story... the beginning of my encounter with people I never expected to meet. Will this journey make our lives better, or will it bring us more sorrow? No one knows. The future is unpredictable, but it always carries the unexpected."
He smiled bitterly as he gazed at the dark horizon, as though every word he spoke carried a promise of something… something only time would reveal.
"From here, it all begins… What happens next, only time will tell."