As the middle-aged man continued walking through the dark streets, his eyes darted between the passing crowds and the pocket watch in his hand. His gaze was fixed on the clock's hands, which seemed to race unnervingly fast, while he remained trapped in his past. A gentle smile graced his face, but it was far from a sign of happiness. Instead, it was a reflection of a deep sorrow—one he couldn't shake off. Suddenly, the headlights of a speeding car lit up the road, piercing his soul and dragging him into old memories.
In his childhood at the orphanage, he often wondered why he was there. He wasn't like the other kids—intelligent and quiet, shrouded more in darkness than light. Endless questions about his family consumed him: Why was no one looking for him? Why did he feel as though the entire world had abandoned him? When he pondered these questions, he found himself alone, driven to seek a truth that seemed unattainable.
As he grew older, his search continued, despite doors closing in his face time and again. He found no trace of his family, but something within him kept urging him forward. He cared little for the people around him, for the days ahead, or even for the passage of time. He became a ghost among people, possessing nothing but unanswered questions.
Then one day, he met a girl whose smile was all he had ever needed. She made him forget his pain, his loneliness. In her, he saw the hope he had long lost. He began to dream of a shared future with her—of building a family and experiencing the joy of fatherhood. He thought his life had finally come full circle, that he had found his place in the world.
But life was harsher than he had anticipated. In a single moment, all his dreams shattered in a sudden car accident. It was a fleeting moment, but it left deep scars on his soul. Everything he had built crumbled before his eyes, and every ambition that had filled his heart dissolved in a bitter instant.
The car sped mercilessly, as if sent to strip him of everything. The girl who had illuminated his life with her smile disappeared in that very moment, vanishing forever. Then everything went dark—no sound but the fading roar of the engine in the distance. Time itself seemed to freeze, dragging him back to the starting line, where there was no hope, no purpose. Yet, deep in his heart, the memories clung to him, haunting him, inescapable. He had lost a part of himself in that moment.
With all this, he remembered his darkest days again, and the light that had once filled his heart was gone. He had forgotten everything, even his search for his family. He felt as though his life had ended, that he could never escape his solitude. Only darkness surrounded him now.
Lost in these grim thoughts, he arrived at his home. As he neared the door, he noticed a small cardboard box, roughly the size of a book. There was nothing remarkable about its appearance, yet it captured his attention. He picked it up, examining it carefully, but found no information about the sender. "Who left this box here?" he muttered to himself, as if the question stirred something strange within him.
He entered his house, placed the box on the table, and began to open it. Inside was a book, and as he looked at it, he felt something unusual. The title was written in distorted letters, but somehow, those letters glowed faintly. The book looked ancient, its edges worn, as if time had long passed over it. But it wasn't an ordinary book. There was something unnatural about its design, something that drew him in further.
"Rise in the Age of Chaos" was the title.
Suddenly, the man felt something strange in his head. A wave of dizziness swept through his mind, as though his skull was about to burst. He collapsed onto the ground from the sheer pain. It felt as if alien minds were invading his thoughts, memories that weren't his own, foreign ideas coursing through him, as if his mind were devouring itself. He felt as though an ant colony was crawling inside his brain, biting at every corner. Overwhelmed by the pain, he let out a piercing scream before blacking out.
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Darkness always stirs fear in humans, and now it surrounds me.
I don't know where I am; there's nothing but endless darkness around me.
But who am I? Am I a copy of someone else? Am I Eden from Earth or Eden from another world? Or am I a mixture of both? Who am I? What am I? And why is this happening to me?