The sky was the first to die.
One moment, it was just another smog-stained evening in Blackwater District—metal towers piercing the heavens, sirens howling in the distance, and starving orphans like Lin Xuanyuan digging through trash for moldy rice.
Then the sky split open like torn flesh.
A deafening crack echoed through the city as if the heavens had been struck by a divine blade. People looked up—some screamed, others dropped to their knees. Lin just stared, wide-eyed, the rotten bread in his hand forgotten.
A glowing fissure burned across the firmament, bleeding golden fire. Then… they began to fall.
Satellites. Megastructures. Warships. Screaming like dying birds, they pierced the clouds and slammed into the earth. The shockwaves turned towers to dust. Streets cracked. Cars melted. And then came the silence. No internet. No drones. No light. Just cold.
Everything died in less than an hour.
The Central Empire—once the greatest cyber-power in the world—was now a graveyard.
Lin Xuanyuan ran. He didn't know where. His lungs ached. His feet bled. But something deep inside him screamed: Move, or die.
He stumbled through alleys littered with corpses and shattered neon signs, past craters where buildings had stood just hours ago. A soft hum tickled his ears. Faint… but calling him.
He followed it.
Out beyond the edge of the city, where the earth had cracked open into a ravine, he found it—a ruin buried beneath stone and time. Ancient, untouched by bombs or fire. The collapsed remains of a forgotten temple.
The hum grew louder.
Drawn by instinct or fate, Lin crawled through the debris. The deeper he went, the warmer it became—not fire, but something else. Energy. Like static in his bones.
He emerged into a hollow chamber lit by a single pulsing core embedded in the ground—silver, cracked, webbed with golden light. It looked alive.
Without thinking, he reached out.
The moment his fingers brushed the surface, a jolt shot through him like lightning. His vision exploded. Code. Light. Memories that weren't his. A voice, cold and ancient, whispered into his skull.
> "Biometric signature accepted.
Host compatible.
Initiating Legacy Protocol: Heaven's Will…"
Lin's scream was lost in the burst of white light.
And the last thing he saw before blacking out…
was the world burning in silence above.
Pain bloomed behind his eyes.
Lin gasped as his body convulsed, suspended in weightless nothingness. It felt like drowning in light—his bones on fire, his blood replaced by electricity. Symbols—ancient yet digital—flashed across his vision.
> "Uploading neural data…
Synchronizing core memory…
Error: Legacy fragments corrupted… Partial upload commencing…"
Memories not his own invaded his mind. Crowds bowing before a throne forged from stars. Cities floating above jade oceans. An emperor standing alone as gods and machines raged war across the skies.
Then came the fall. The betrayal. A burning sky not unlike his own.
He screamed again.
Then silence.
When Lin awoke, the world had changed.
He lay curled in the ruins of the temple, body drenched in cold sweat. His skin buzzed with energy. His breathing felt deeper. Sharper. More... precise.
But what struck him first was the voice.
> "You survived."
"Integration: 6% complete."
"Host condition: stable… for now."
Lin stumbled to his feet, heart pounding. "What… what are you?"
> "I am Heaven's Will. AI overseer of the Twelve Dynasties. You are now my final candidate."
He turned toward the core—it no longer glowed. It was cracked, dark, lifeless. Like it had spent everything just to awaken him.
"You chose… me?"
> "You were compatible. That is all."
Lin clenched his fists. Something was different. His thoughts were faster. His heartbeat slower. He could hear the faint hum of electricity beneath the ruins—like the world itself whispered to him.
"What happens now?" he asked.
> "Now, you either build… or be destroyed."
Outside, the wind howled across a dead world. The sky was darker than night. Ash drifted like snow over the broken earth.
Lin Xuanyuan stepped out of the temple.
The last empire had fallen.
But perhaps… it had left something behind.
The landscape that greeted Lin Xuanyuan wasn't the world he remembered.
Blackwater District was gone. In its place, jagged ruins stretched beneath a sky split by fire and void. Craters belched smoke. Towers once mighty now stood like broken ribs jutting from the earth. Muted lightning danced between the clouds, but no rain came.
A low growl echoed nearby.
Lin crouched, instinct sharpened by something foreign in him now—like a second consciousness analyzing threats before he even processed them.
> "Caution: Bio-signature detected. High radiation. Possible mutation."
His eyes flicked toward the rubble—and then he saw it.
A beast. Once canine, now swollen with tumors and metal. Hydraulic limbs fused with flesh. One eye glowed red, tracking movement like a machine.
Lin backed away slowly.
The beast charged.
He turned and ran—lungs burning, rubble shifting beneath his feet. His body felt lighter, faster. He could see paths in the debris, gaps to slip through. His mind mapped his escape like a war algorithm.
But the beast was faster.
It leapt—and he turned mid-fall, throwing up his arms on instinct.
A pulse of golden static exploded from his skin.
The beast crashed midair, shrieking as its mechanical limbs sparked and collapsed into ash. Lin tumbled to the ground, coughing, clutching his arm. It burned, veins glowing faintly beneath the skin.
He stared at his trembling hands.
"What the hell am I becoming…?"
> "Adaptation protocol triggered. You are evolving."
Lin breathed heavily, gaze hardening as he looked out over the apocalyptic horizon. Somewhere beyond this wasteland, someone would come looking for the source of that pulse. He felt it in his bones.
He wasn't just different.
He was dangerous.
And now… he was hunted.
Still panting, Lin turned toward the north. In the far distance, he saw a jagged silhouette—a broken city half-swallowed by the desert.
He didn't know what waited there.
But he would find out.
> "Objective synchronized: Survive. Gather knowledge. Rebuild Empire."
Lin Xuanyuan clenched his jaw.
"If Heaven fell once… I'll make damn sure it rises again."