Chapter 2
Two days had passed since Tariq's return, since the moment the voidlink had forcefully initiated a temporal authority and hurled him back into his younger body.
In that brief stretch, the weight of decades of suffering clashed with the fragile reality of his new found youth. The days blurred together in a haze of recovery and thorough preparation.
He had spent every waking hour scouring the outskirts of the junkyard and the nearby locations, searching for signs of the early anomalies, those small, bleeding cracks in reality that heralded the oncoming collapse. He found two. Both were Blue Spawn Rats, mutated and pulsing with blue core energy, stronger than the first. Each fight left him bruised, breathless, and aching to his core. But he won. Barely. His body was slow to recover—young, but still adjusting to the vibrant Void Energy coursing through in his veins.
Every hour was precious, every breath a reminder that the Blue Star's reawakening was drawing closer. And now, with the sky on the edge of turning, that countdown had reached its final moments.
The junkyard was quiet, as usual, just the way Tariq like it now.
He exhaled slowly, steam puffing from his lips in the early morning chill. He sat perched atop a collapsed bus, its rusted frame creaking beneath him. The sunrise was sluggish today, hesitant, like the world itself was holding its breath.
His muscles ached.
Every inch of his body protested movement, and his ribs still burned from the blow that one of the Blue Spawn Rats had landed on him the night before. A surprise second wave as it had underwent its mutated stage and had produced a lot of mini-clones mid-battle. He barely survived, and only because of his years of experience and grit.
He clenched his hands slowly. The trembling hadn't stopped.
Void Energy still whipped through his body like it wasn't a very familiar part of him anymore. It responded to him, yes, but not like it had before. Not like in the end, when entire battlefields had drowned in void-fire beneath his hands.
Now?
It was like shaping fog with bare fingers.
The system's voice flickered again behind his thoughts, ever-present.
[Voidlink System Status:]
Lvl: 3
STR: F
AGI: F
DEX: F
VE: E
[SKILLS:]
[PEAK] (E)
[VOID TRACE] (E)
[VOID ENERGY] (F)
Those brutal encounters hadn't been without reward. Each victory fed the Voidlink System with energy, unlocking fragments of its former capabilities. Tariq had leveled up—twice—reaching Level 3. The Void Energy within him remained stubborn and wild, like a beast leashed too long, but it was slowly becoming more responsive. More importantly, his skill PEAK—once a crude, flickering glimpse into his enemy's surface details—had ranked up from F to E. Now, it offered clearer insight, identifying weaknesses, energy patterns, and subtle behavioral cues that he could exploit in battle.
It wasn't much, but it was the beginning of a foundation. Each level, each upgrade, brought him one step closer to reclaiming even a fraction of the power he had wielded before betrayal.
Tariq leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "Three days ago I was thirty-five, battle-scarred, and bleeding out on top the dead body of the red star Godking," he muttered. "Now look at me. Brawling with rats in a junkyard"
He glanced at his hands—still slim and unscarred. He felt like a stranger in his own body.
But he had done everything he could in the time he was given.
He had scouted the location of the first dungeon breach. Cleared the initial anomalies that would've multiplied. Hoarded rations, fashioned weapons, prepared fallback points. He even carved a makeshift training dummy from a pile of old tires to help regain his combat rhythm.
It wasn't enough. It never would be.
But this time, he wouldn't be caught flat-footed.
The memory of his death,the betrayal, the blade,still lingered like a phantom ache in his chest.
He rubbed his eyes. The Blue Star would fully rise today. That was the trigger. That was when everything changed.
He had hours. Maybe minutes.
"Tariq?"
A voice stopped him cold.
His head snapped around.
There, just beyond the rusted hood of a half-buried delivery truck, stood a boy. Tall-ish, skinny, messy hair, bag slung over one shoulder. A wide, easy grin stretched across his face, and he looked like he hadn't changed at all.
Time stopped.
It couldn't be.
"Zuberi," Tariq whispered.
The boy blinked and gave a small wave. "Hey! Where have you been!"
Tariq stared at him, breath caught in his throat.
Zuberi Onasi.
His friend. Maybe his only real one in that entire past life.
They had met in high-school. Laughed over stolen snacks and bad grades. Zuberi had been the lighthearted one, always cracking jokes, chasing after dreams of becoming a filmmaker, a traveler, anything but a fighter.
He had died the day the gates opened.
Torn apart by something he didn't even see coming.
Tariq hadn't thought about him in years. The war had dulled so many memories. And now, here he was, grinning like the world wasn't on the verge of collapse.
"You good?" Zuberi asked, slinging his bag down and flopping onto a nearby pile of tires. "You look like you haven't slept in a week."
"I…. haven't," Tariq replied quietly.
Zuberi laughed. "Classic Tariq. Always so dramatic."
The sound of his voice was like warm light in a cold tunnel. It tugged at something deep inside Tariq ,something so raw and that had been buried for a long time. For a second, just a second, he allowed himself to remember who he had once been.
"So," Zuberi said, kicking a loose bolt across the ground. "You been hearing the rumors?"
Tariq raised an eyebrow. "Rumors?"
"About monsters, man!. there a screenshots of weird Shadows in alleys. Weird animal attacks. Even some old man down at District-C Market said he saw a Giant rat running across the street."
Tariq's chest tightened. "and…What do you think?"
Zuberi shrugged. "People love scary stories, don't they? Especially when there's nothing else to do. But between you and me…." he leaned in conspiratorially, "…I think something's actually happening. Like… cosmic horror movie kinda happening."
Tariq smiled, a small, pained thing.
"well,…You're not wrong."
Zuberi chuckled, oblivious. "Well, if the world's gonna end, at least I've been making progress with Zara."
Tariq blinked. "Zara?"
"You remember her. New hire at the store. Killer smile. Curvy waist. I got her to watch a K-drama with me last night. Very romantic stuff"
"Right."
"And bro—she laughed. Like, genuinely laughed at my jokes. I think I'm so in."
Tariq stared at him.
At the way he moved. The way he joked. The way his eyes lit up like he hadn't seen hell, hadn't waded through blood and ashes like Tariq had.
This boy… this light… had died screaming in his last life. Just collateral damage.
Not this time.
Tariq reached out, placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, and smiled. A real one.
"I won't let you die this time, Zuberi."
Zuberi blinked. "huh? What the helly?"
Tariq shook his head, still smiling. "Nothing. Just… happy to see you."
Before Zuberi could respond, a sudden stillness fell over the world.
The wind stopped.
The birds, the hum of distant cars, the rustle of trash — all silenced in an instant.
Tariq stood up sharply.
[huhuhu~, it's here Tariq] The void jested.
"Hey…, you feel that?" Zuberi asked, frowning. "Like the air just… dropped?"
Tariq's gaze turned upward.
There, in the sky—cutting through the clouds like a blade of sapphire fire—was the Blue Star.
It pulsed once.
Then twice.
And then it glowed.
The entire sky turned dark blue.
The light bathed the junkyard, the city, the world. Traffic crashed. Planes fell. Screens flickered and exploded in homes across continents. Oceans trembled.
And then the voice came.
It was not loud, but it was everywhere. Not a sound, but a pressure in the mind. Ancient, arrogant, cruel.
Tariq staggered slightly as it stabbed through his brain like glass.
He knew that voice.
He knew it better than his own.
"BE THANKFUL, PITIFUL INHABITANTS OF SOL'S THIRD STONE," the voice boomed across every living consciousness on Earth. "FOR YOUR INSIGNIFICANT WORLD HAS BEEN DEEMED… WORTHY."
Tariq grit his teeth, his fists clenched so hard his nails dug into his palms.
"YOU SHALL NOW PARTICIPATE IN THE GREATEST GAME IN THE COSMOS, A CONTEST OF BLOOD, AMBITION, AND ASCENSIONNNN!!!."
Zuberi clutched his head. "T-Tariq? What—what's happening—what is that?!"
Tariq didn't respond.
He couldn't.
"REJOICE!, FRAGILE MORTALS. FOR YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN. THE ERA OF IGNORANT PEACE ENDS NOW AND THE ERA TO CLAIM YOUR GLORY BEGINS."
It ended with a final pulse.
Then silence.
The light faded from the sky.
The Blue Star remained — now visible at all hours, a second sun that never set.
Zuberi fell to his knees, gasping. "What… was that?"
Tariq turned to him slowly.
"The beginning."
He looked at the sky again, heart hammering.
He had lived through this before.
And now, he gets to do it again at maximum experience.