Chen paused mid-step, his boots crunching over the brittle, blackened soil of the Anomaly Zone.
The air here was thick with the scent of ozone and decay, the remnants of a world torn apart. The trees, twisted and skeletal, reached toward the sky like the fingers of the damned. Shadows clung to the earth, shifting unnaturally, as if the land itself was alive—watching, waiting.
Something felt… off.
His mind, which had been confidently sorting through memories of his past life, suddenly hit a wall of doubt. A realization flickered—cold and unwelcome.
"Wait… this doesn't add up."
He narrowed his eyes, replaying the timeline in his head.
The Anomaly Zone was discovered ten days after the walls between worlds crumbled. Back then, Earth was already a battlefield. Demons and beasts from the fused planets tore through civilization like wildfire. Humanity was barely clinging to survival. The Challenger Association had collapsed. Governments were ash. Blood ran thicker than law.
