In 1969, during the height of the Age of Information, Zayn Houren was a prodigy who redefined brilliance. At just twenty, he held 14 PhDs and 9 patents, his groundbreaking work shaping the future of humanity. Despite his accolades, Zayn's relentless pursuit of knowledge left him isolated, his restless mind searching for answers to the universe's greatest mysteries.
One fateful night, as Zayn worked late in his lab, the air itself seemed to ripple. A cold light enveloped him, and a mechanical voice echoed
[System Initiation: Subject identified. A potential candidate for ascension. Your knowledge is way above the masses.]
In an instant, Zayn was ripped from the world he knew and thrust into the trials of a merciless system—a test for godhood where failure meant death, and survival carried a price far greater than he could imagine.
"Where is this!?" Zayn shouted, his voice trembling as he stood among hundreds of strangers, young and old, in a dark, saturated room devoid of light.
Before anyone could comprehend their situation, an eerie voice echoed.
"Welcome, candidates! You are the prime specimens of your worlds, chosen for ascension!"
An eldritch entity, its form shifting with unfathomable horror, emerged from the shadows. Gasps filled the room as it twisted and morphed, shrinking into the harmless shape of a small, cheerful critter.
"You may call me Chibi," it said, grinning, its cute demeanor failing to mask the overwhelming dread it exuded.
"Where are we? What's happening?" someone yelled.
"You've been chosen," Chibi replied, its voice deceptively cheerful.
"Each of you represents the best your worlds have to offer. Your strength, intelligence, or sheer luck brought you here, and now you will compete in the trials. The reward? Godhood. The cost of failure?" It gestured at the remains of a candidate who dared to interrupt earlier.
"Well, you've seen that already."
"Trials?" Zayn asked, trying to keep his voice steady.
"Yes," Chibi said, almost teasingly. "You will be tested—mentally, physically, spiritually. Survive, and you might ascend. Fail, and... let's just say death would be the kindest outcome."
As murmurs of panic and disbelief filled the room, Chibi's cheerful grin turned sinister. "Oh, and one last thing—you'll face the trials alone. It's more fun that way."
Before anyone could react, the floor beneath them gave way. Zayn felt himself falling into an abyss as Chibi's laughter echoed around him. "Good luck, dear candidates!"
Zayn landed hard on the cold stone floor, his head spinning as the world came into focus. He was in a vast maze, its walls stretching high into darkness. The faint grinding of gears echoed around him as the walls shifted, reshaping the labyrinth with mechanical precision. It wasn't just a maze—it was alive, a deathtrap waiting to spring.
The first trap revealed itself quickly. A faint click beneath his foot sent him diving forward as jagged spikes shot up from the ground where he'd been standing. His heart pounded in his chest as he scrambled to his feet, the adrenaline sharpening his senses.
"Think, Zayn, think!" he muttered to himself. The walls were moving again, each shift accompanied by a rhythmic sound. Gears, mechanisms—there was a pattern here, a system to exploit.
He sprinted forward, skidding to a halt as the wall in front of him began to collapse, a razor-sharp blade dropping from the ceiling. Timing it perfectly, he rolled under the blade just as it slammed into the floor behind him. The wind from its descent brushed his back, leaving him breathless.
The maze wasn't done. A faint glow ahead revealed a line of pressure plates covering the floor. Zayn crouched, scanning the tiles. His eyes darted between the plates and the grooves in the walls. Each plate was connected to a series of hidden mechanisms—he could see the faint outline of saws waiting to spring into action.
"One wrong step, and I'm dead," he murmured.
He crouched, squinting as he traced the faint wear on the floor. Certain plates had scuff marks, likely from past victims. Those weren't safe. Instead, he moved with precision, stepping only on the untouched tiles. Each step was agonizing, his breath hitching every time his foot touched the ground.
"I'm still alive?"
Halfway through, the grinding of gears grew louder. The saws weren't waiting for a mistake—they were activating. Zayn's head shot up as the first blade screeched toward him, teeth glinting in the faint light.
He dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the saw, his hand scraping against the stone. The pain didn't matter—he was already moving again, sprinting to the next section before the maze could adjust.
The walls shifted violently, sealing paths behind him and opening new ones. Zayn's eyes darted around, his mind working furiously to map the pattern. He turned a corner just as the floor collapsed into a pit of spikes. Momentum carried him forward, and he leaped, his fingers barely catching the ledge. Gritting his teeth, he pulled himself up, ignoring the burning in his arms.
'So much for being called the genius of the century... I could've died if I hadn't spotted even the slightest difference between those plates. I'd be damned. So far I haven't died,'
After a short rest, he felt this part of the maze shifting, and so he rose when he saw the walls closing near his side. More traps awaited, dart launchers embedded in the walls, pendulums swinging with deadly force, and a sudden torrent of flame erupted from a hidden nozzle. Zayn adapted to each one, pausing when the gears ground too quickly and dashing forward when the mechanisms slowed.
By the time he reached the heart of the maze, he was drenched in sweat, his body aching from countless close calls. There, on a pedestal surrounded by still gears, lay a pocket watch, its surface glowing faintly. From all the gruesome deaths he faced, his complexion worsened, when the young scholar sees the treasure is but a trinket that tells time
Zayn's breath caught as he approached. The moment his fingers brushed the watch, a deep hum resonated through the maze.
[Chronos System Activated: You have obtained one of the relics of the late God of Time; Chronos
Status: You've been designated as the successor of Chronos due to overcoming the trials by your own
Changes: Mission Updated! Ascend to Godhood has been changed to Prevent the End of the World.]
The maze froze, its deadly traps grinding to a halt. Zayn collapsed to his knees, clutching the relic. For a brief moment, he felt relief—but it wouldn't last. The trials were far from over, and his real nightmare had just begun.
'Save the world? I can't even save myself, yet you expect me to be some kind of Hero?'
An unexpected turn of events crowned Zayn, as the sole person to wield the authority of time. Yet after leaving that maze, he felt death creeping his way, and a shadow appeared on his right, and with a swipe, his head flew. He died, at the hands of a candidate, and even as he was beheaded he viewed his body brutally eaten
[Chronos System: The effects of the relic activate upon meeting the requirements.]
'If I knew what I was getting myself into, I wouldn't have picked that damn watch in the first place and just died from that cannibal. After my first death, I managed to fight my way out of the tutorial and even met the fabled hero fated to save the world. But he died, and so did I, by the next regression I found out a truth that I could never avoid, that time wasn't stagnant, it was forever changing,'
2nd Regression
"Where is he!!? Where's your leader?"
At Zayn's, he uses his information and tries to hunt down the group formed by the villain of his 1st regression. Yet he soon realizes that the reason why it took him so long to find them was because it was never formed. The righthand man he interrogated was no more than a weakling and the villain he searched for his entire life was nowhere to be found
'Eventually, the world ends because I didn't search for the new cause of its immediate destruction. The system then informs me of the branches of time, that with every regression I'll get sent to a different timeline. Meaning that all my past information was worthless, secret techniques and all, even the power system of the world changes,'
Zayn was then forced to complete this impossible mission; even killing himself had no effect, as upon his death, he regressed. Eventually, all his deaths, experiences, and the loss of his friends made him numb to the point where his every action was calculated. He placed his existence in saving the world, but he only had one flaw, he couldn't learn any skills except for the ones his system grants, and leveling had no perks for his body eventually resetting him back to zero
[Chronos System: The effects of the relic activate upon meeting the requirements.]
'Damn it... It's been eons, and yet there wasn't a time when I was close to succeeding. Just let me die in peace-'
His vision blurred, and when he awakens, he finds himself back at the tutorial where he's plunged into the maze yet again. This time, he breezes through the maze, and not a single trap is triggered, and at the end, the pocketwatch awaits his grasp. He reached for his relic but this time instead of hearing the system's congratulatory message he heard
[Chronos System: Alert! Your countless regression has created an anomaly in the timeline!!!]