The sky cracked like shattered glass.
Alex Graves didn't have time to scream. One moment he was giving orders on the top floor of the Veritas Spire — the tallest structure humanity had ever built — and the next, a deafening groan rippled through the tower's core. A calculated misalignment, a single sabotaged bolt, and everything collapsed in a thunderous chain reaction.
His life's work crumbled with him. Concrete, steel, glass — all falling, all failing.
"So this is it," he thought as the ground rushed up in a blur. Not a war. Not disease. Just a tower that couldn't hold itself up."
The end came quickly. No pain. Just darkness.
And then…
Light.
Warmth.
A ceiling fan spun slowly above his eyes. The air smelled like old books and wood polish — familiar, too familiar.
His limbs felt light. His skin smooth. No pain, no scars, no labored breath from years of stress. He sat up too fast — dizziness swirled — and caught his reflection in the mirror across the room.
A child. Ten years old. Brown hair unruly, eyes wide with terror and awe.
"No," he whispered, voice smaller than he remembered. "This isn't real."
But everything was real. The messy desk in the corner, the half-built Lego bridge, the poster of a suspension bridge he used to admire as a boy.
He jumped from the bed, flung open the curtains. Outside, the narrow street of his childhood hometown lay bathed in morning sun. Rusty fences, cracked sidewalks, a mailman pedaling a clunky red bike.
Twenty-eight years ago.
"I'm... back?"
A flash of light burst in his mind like a star collapsing. A digital chime rang in his ears, mechanical and ancient at the same time.
Ding!
Welcome, User: Alexander Graves
Daily Sign-In Activated.
Day 1 Reward Unlocked: [🔧 Pocket Architect's Compass]
Function: Projects 3D models in AR. Includes built-in scanner and structural analyzer.
Reward stored. System installation in progress…
Synchronizing with Host… 3%… 11%… 27%…
Alex staggered back, holding his head.
"System? What system?"
A panel blinked into existence before his eyes — translucent, blue-white, hovering like a heads-up display in a sci-fi movie. His engineering brain scrambled to understand it, but part of him already knew: this was real. Somehow, impossibly, real.
The system interface was minimal for now:
THE GRAND ARCHITECT'S LEDGER
Sign-In Streak: 1 Day
Current Influence: 0
Unlocked Functions:
– [Inventory]
– [3D Projection Mode: ON]
– [Structural Insight: Level 1]
Next Sign-In in: 23h 59m 48s
He reached toward the glowing icon labeled [Inventory] and thought open.
With a soft shimmer, a small brass object appeared mid-air and dropped into his palm. About the size of a pocket watch, it unfolded into a spinning compass-like device. A hologram projected from its center, forming the blueprint of a two-story house — every beam, nail, and load-bearing wall visible.
He tested a button. The image shifted, rotated, disassembled itself layer by layer.
"Holy hell…"
Footsteps clomped up the stairs.
"Alex!" a familiar voice called. "Breakfast, now! And don't forget your science project, young man!"
It was his mother. Alive. Not sick, not weak like in her final years. Just her voice again made something crack in his chest.
He looked down at his hands. The system pulsed gently in his vision, waiting.
He had come back with everything. His knowledge. His experience. And something more.
The world didn't know it yet.
But he would build it again — better, faster, stronger than before.