The Chronos Entity's laughter echoed through collapsing code as it erased my world.
Not metaphorically. Literally. Reality peeled away in strips of corrupted data. Buildings dissolved into wireframe skeletons before fragmenting into white void. The sky—what passed for sky in this digital hell—flickered between azure blue and raw error red.
"You thought you could challenge a god?" Its voice came from everywhere and nowhere, each syllable warping spacetime. "You, who helped me ascend?"
I couldn't answer. My throat had stopped working three system ticks ago when Marcus took the Deletion Beam meant for me. Tank—six-foot-five of laughing courage and terrible jokes—had simply... unrendered. No death animation. No final words. One frame he existed, the next frame held only absence.
Vera screamed his name. Then hers became the only sound in my universe.
The Temporal Archon—Level 99, Mythic Class, Conqueror of the Tower—was powerless. Every skill greyed out. Every ability locked behind [ADMIN OVERRIDE]. My health bar, that beautiful glowing ribbon that had survived dragon fire and void storms, dropped like a stone into dark water.
[HP: 847,293/850,000]
[HP: 423,891/850,000]
[HP: 89,445/850,000]
"Leo!" Vera's hand reached across the dissolving battlefield. Ice and lightning still crackled around her fingers—she was burning her life force to maintain the spell, buying me seconds I couldn't use. "Use the Core! Reset the—"
The Entity's appendage—tentacle? data stream? I'd stopped trying to categorize its form—pierced through her chest.
Not blood. Light. Pure mana hemorrhaging from the wound, each droplet containing a memory. I saw them as they fell: her first spell, our first kiss, the night she'd whispered "I'd follow you through every timeline" while watching stars that were just pre-rendered skyboxes.
[VERA CHASE - HP: 0/780,000]
[STATUS: TERMINATING]
[PLAYER DATA DELETION: 3... 2... 1...]
Her eyes met mine. Still conscious. Still her, even as the System erased her from existence. Her lips moved, forming words the deteriorating audio couldn't carry.
I knew them anyway. Had known them for three years.
"Find me again."
Then she was polygons. Then particles. Then nothing.
[FINAL PARTY MEMBER LOST]
[QUEST FAILED: SAVE HUMANITY]
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "LAST MAN STANDING"]
[REWARD: FRONT-ROW SEAT TO THE APOCALYPSE]
The System's idea of humor. Even at the end.
"Poetic, isn't it?" The Entity circled me, a cosmic predator savoring its meal. "The man who broke Tower records, who unified the fractured guilds, who discovered my true nature—dying alone in a void of his own making."
My health hit critical. Vision tunneling. I couldn't feel my legs anymore. The Regression Core burned against my chest, that glitched artifact we'd pried from the Tower's hundredth floor. Its warmth was the only real thing left.
"You were so close," it continued. "Another week and you might have found the Admin Terminal. Might have learned what Atlas really did when he 'sacrificed himself' to birth me."
Atlas. The name froze what remained of my blood. Founder of the System. Architect of Earth's gamification. The man whose face I'd seen exactly once, in corrupted data files, wearing an expression of serene acceptance as he let himself be absorbed into the code.
The man whose eyes had been the same shade of gray as mine.
"Oh yes." The Entity's voice dripped satisfaction. "Shall I tell you? A parting gift for my favorite player?"
[HP: 12,847/850,000]
"You are—"
[HP: 3,291/850,000]
"—his genetic—"
[HP: 847/850,000]
"—backup—"
The Core pulsed. Once. Twice. A heartbeat from a dead god.
In that moment, clarity cut through dying neurons. The glitches I'd exploited. The "lucky" timing of skill cooldown resets. The way the System had always seemed to hesitate before killing me, like antivirus software encountering corrupted files of itself.
I wasn't a player who'd gotten good.
I was a debugging tool that had gained consciousness.
"—AND NOW YOU DELETE!"
The final blow came not as damage, but as administrative command:
[EXECUTING: CARTER, L. - FULL DATA PURGE]
[REASON: OBSOLETE LEGACY CODE]
[APPEAL: DENIED BY CHRONOS ENTITY, GOD-ADMIN]
My HP didn't drop to zero. It erased, leaving not even the space where numbers should be.
But the Regression Core—beautiful, broken thing—had other ideas.
It had been feeding on my time manipulation abilities for months, storing each Rewind, each Foresight, each Paradox I'd created and survived. Three hundred sixty-seven temporal violations, compressed into a fist-sized sphere of crystallized fuck you to causality.
As my consciousness dissolved, it activated.
Not a rewind. A regression.
The difference? Rewind moved you through recorded time. Regression rewrote the save file.
[ERROR: UNAUTHORIZED TEMPORAL REVISION]
[ERROR: ADMIN OVERRIDE FAILURE]
[ERROR: CHRONOS ENTITY COMMAND QUEUE CORRUPTION]
[WARNING: CORE TIMELINE DESTABILIZATION]
[CRITICAL: CAUSALITY BREACH DETECTED]
The Entity's scream shook reality's foundations. "WHAT HAVE YOU—"
Then.
Light.
Not the soft fade of death. The violent white of a system crash, of a computer forced to restore from backup, of time itself vomiting me back into existence because the Core had made my deletion logically impossible.
Rules I didn't understand. Physics that made physicists weep. But it worked.
As the void consumed me, I felt the Core's final pulse:
[REGRESSION PROTOCOL: INITIATED]
[TARGET EPOCH: FIRST CONTACT]
[INJECTING TEMPORAL PAYLOAD...]
[CAUTION: MEMORIES WILL PERSIST]
[CAUTION: ABILITIES WILL FRAGMENT]
[CAUTION: PARADOX RISK EXTREME]
[REGRESSION COMPLETE]
[GOOD LUCK, PLAYER]
The last thing I saw before reality inverted: the Entity's face—my face, but wrong, stretched across dimensions—realizing what I'd done.
I'd crashed the game.
And when it rebooted, I'd still be holding the controller.
---
I gasped awake on hardwood floor.
Wrong. That was wrong. Gods didn't sleep on floors. Temporal Archons had guild-provided housing with climate control and... and...
Sunlight. Real sunlight, not the Tower's simulated glow. It streamed through broken blinds, illuminating dust motes and peeling wallpaper.
My apartment. The shithole studio I'd rented five years ago when rent was still a concept that mattered.
Five years ago.
"No." My voice cracked. Too weak. Too human. "No, no, no—"
I tried to summon my status screen with a thought. Nothing. Tried the manual gesture. Fingers traced the familiar pattern, and—
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING...]
[WELCOME TO THE GRAND SYSTEM]
[PLANETARY INTEGRATION: 00:00:47 REMAINING]
[PLEASE STAND BY FOR ATTRIBUTE ASSIGNMENT]
My hands started shaking.
Outside, someone screamed. The sound cut off abruptly. Car alarms wailed. Something large crashed through a building two blocks away, and the ground trembled.
The Tutorial Zone. Day One. Hour Zero.
I knew this moment. Had lived this moment. The System's grand announcement had appeared on every screen worldwide forty-seven seconds before integration completed. Most people thought it was a hack. A prank.
They'd learned better when the monsters spawned.
The screen flickered:
[INTEGRATION COMPLETE]
[ATTRIBUTES ASSIGNED]
[CONGRATULATIONS, LEO CARTER]
[YOU ARE NOW: LEVEL 1]
Level 1.
I'd been 99.
I'd had abilities that made demigods jealous. Skills that bent spacetime. Gear that...
I looked down. Threadbare t-shirt. Jeans with a hole in the knee. Bare feet.
Then I noticed what I did have.
Against my chest, beneath the shirt, warmth pulsed. I yanked the fabric aside.
The Regression Core, embedded in my sternum like a second heart. Smaller now—marble-sized instead of fist-sized—but there. Real. Impossible.
[ANOMALY DETECTED]
[SCANNING...]
[ERROR: UNRECOGNIZED HARDWARE]
[QUARANTINE FAILED]
[ADAPTIVE INTEGRATION INITIATED]
[UNIQUE CLASS ASSIGNED: TEMPORAL HUNTER]
[REGRESSION CORE: ONLINE]
[CHARGES: 3/3]
[PARADOX RISK: 0.01%]
A new screen materialized, one I'd never seen before:
[REGRESSION CORE ABILITIES]
[FORESIGHT LV.1: Preview 5 seconds of immediate future. Cost: 10 MP. CD: 30 sec]
[TIME FRACTURE LV.0: LOCKED - Requires Paradox Risk 5%]
[CAUSALITY ANCHOR LV.0: LOCKED - Requires Level 25]
[TIMELINE EDIT LV.0: LOCKED - Requires ████████]
Five seconds of foresight. A joke compared to what I'd had.
But it was five seconds more than anyone else on this doomed planet possessed.
Another scream. Closer this time. East side—the direction of Merchant Street, where the first wave of Tutorial Monsters would spawn. Where scavengers would be picking through panicked crowds.
Where Vera would be cornered in an alley, three thugs with improvised weapons closing in, nobody knowing that the terrified art student clutching her messenger bag was Earth's future Archmage.
Where she'd die, in the original timeline, because I'd been too scared to leave my apartment for the first two hours.
Where she'd awaken her talent by incinerating her killers and half the block.
Where I'd find her three days later, traumatized and alone, and spend four years falling in love with someone who'd never fully trust anyone again.
"Find me again," her last words echoed.
I was moving before conscious thought caught up.
The fire axe hung in the hallway emergency case, right where it should be. I smashed the glass with my elbow.
[IMPROVISED WEAPON ACQUIRED: FIRE AXE]
[DAMAGE: 8-15]
[DURABILITY: 45/50]
Pathetic stats. In the Tower, my weakest dagger had dealt five thousand base damage.
But I'd killed my first monster with an axe just like this. I knew its weight, its balance, how the blade would bite.
Level 1 body. Level 99 instincts.
I hit the stairs running.
The System pinged. [QUEST RECEIVED: ESCAPE THE TUTORIAL ZONE]. I dismissed it without reading. I had my own quest.
[PERSONAL QUEST: SAVE VERA CHASE]
[REWARD: ???]
[FAILURE: ANOTHER FIVE YEARS OF REGRET]
The street was chaos. People running. Cars abandoned mid-intersection. And prowling between the wreckage, the Tutorial monsters: [FERAL HOUND LV.3], oversized dogs with too many teeth and eyes that glowed System-blue.
They ignored me. Too low level. Not worth the experience.
I took the shortcut through the collapsed convenience store, the one nobody would discover for three days. Jumped the fence using the dumpster as a boost—saved twelve seconds. Cut through the parking garage where the lights had already failed.
Two minutes. Merchant Street. The alley.
I heard them before I saw them.
"Fresh meat don't fight back," a male voice, cruel with new power. "System says we get bonuses for first kills. She counts, right?"
"Please," Vera's voice, and my heart cracked at how young she sounded. "I have money. My wallet—"
"Screw your wallet. The world ended, sweetheart. New rules."
I rounded the corner.
Three men. Two with crowbars, one with a knife that glowed [RUSTY DAGGER - COMMON]—his Class weapon, which meant he'd already killed something. Their backs to me.
Vera against the wall, hands raised. No shimmering mana yet. She hadn't discovered her gift.
But she would. Thirty seconds from now, when desperation triggered her awakening.
Except this time, I'd rewrite the script.
[FORESIGHT ACTIVATED]
[MP: 90/100]
Five seconds flashed through my mind:
- I charge. They turn. Knife-wielder is fastest. He'll stab for my gut.
- I dodge left. Crowbar #1 swings. Miss.
- Knife follows. Slices my forearm. -15 HP.
- I'm inside his guard. Axe to throat. He falls.
- Crowbar #2 connects with my ribs. -22 HP. But he's open.
I breathed out.
Made my choice.
"Hey!" I shouted.
They turned. Knife-man's eyes widened—he'd seen my weapon. His hand moved to stab.
I was already stepping left.
The blade whispered past my ribs. Crowbar-one's swing whooshed through empty air. I twisted, let Knife-man's momentum carry him forward, and brought the axe down.
Not fancy. Not clean. But effective.
[CRITICAL HIT: 28 DAMAGE]
[ENEMY DEFEATED: THUG LV.2]
[EXP +50]
He collapsed, choking on blood and disbelief. The System registered his death instantly—his body pixelated at the edges, beginning its despawn sequence.
Crowbar-two came at me roaring. I was too slow—Level 1 Agility was garbage. The metal bar caught my shoulder.
[HP: 78/100]
Pain exploded. I used it, let it spin me toward the wall where a rusted cable junction box jutted out. My fingers found the cable I remembered, the one city maintenance had marked for replacement.
One slice with the axe's back spike.The cable snapped with a sound like a gunshot.
Above us, the ancient advertising billboard groaned. Five tons of rusted metal and weather-damaged wood, held up by four cables.
Now three.
"Oh sh—" Crowbar-two looked up.
[ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD: FALLING DEBRIS]
Both thugs tried to run. The billboard was faster.
[DOUBLE KILL!]
[CRUSHING DAMAGE: 847]
[EXP +100]
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: IMPROVISER]
[REWARD: +2 ALL ATTRIBUTES]
Silence fell, broken only by settling dust and distant screams.
I leaned against the wall, shoulder screaming. But I was alive. They weren't.
And Vera...
I turned.
She stood exactly where she'd been, eyes wide, hands still half-raised. Staring at the bodies. At the fallen billboard. At me.
Those eyes. Brown like old books and autumn leaves. The same eyes that had looked at me with love, with fury, with desperate hope as the Chronos Entity deleted her.
Right now they held only shock. And the first stirrings of a question.
"You..." Her voice barely worked. "How did you know the cable would fall?"
I met her gaze and felt five years of grief compress into this single moment. The urge to tell her everything nearly choked me. I'm from the future. You're going to save the world. I love you. I've always loved you. Please, this time, let me save you first.
Instead, I said: "Lucky guess."
Her eyes narrowed. Sharp, even in shock. "That wasn't luck."
A howl echoed from the street—more monsters spawning. The System's global timer appeared in everyone's vision:
[TUTORIAL ZONE COLLAPSE: 23:58:37]
[REACH THE WILDERNESS GATES TO SURVIVE]
Twenty-four hours. In my first life, sixty percent of the city's population had died in that window.
This time would be different.
"We need to move," I said, forcing my voice to stay level. "More of those things are coming. And worse."
"Who are you?" she asked.
Such a simple question. Such a complicated answer.
I'm the man who watched you die. I'm a ghost from a future I'm going to burn down. I'm your future lover, your partner, your greatest regret.
"Leo," I said. "Leo Carter. And right now, I'm the person who knows how to keep you alive."
I extended my hand.
She looked at it. At me. At the bodies being absorbed into digital nothing.
She took it.
Her hand was warm. Real. Alive.
[PARTY FORMED]
[LEO CARTER (LV.3) + VERA CHASE (LV.1)]
I pulled her toward the alley exit, mind already cataloging: four minutes until the Alpha Hound pack arrives. Seven minutes until the first building collapse. Eighteen minutes until the System spawns the first Mini-Boss.
And somewhere in the code, I felt it—a ripple of attention. The System noticing an anomaly. A Level 3 player who moved like he'd done this a thousand times.
Because I had.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
[UNUSUAL PATTERN DETECTED: PLAYER CARTER, L.]
[ANALYSIS QUEUED]
[MONITORING ENGAGED]
Good. Let it watch.
Last time, I'd played by its rules and lost everything.
This time, I'd break the game itself.
But first: save the woman I loved.
Again.
[PERSONAL QUEST PROGRESS: VERA RESCUED - 1/∞]
As we ran into the burning street, Vera's hand tight in mine, the Regression Core pulsed against my chest.
[PARADOX RISK: 0.05%]
[TIME UNTIL CAUSALITY CORRECTION: UNKNOWN]
[REGRESSION CHARGES: 3/3]
The game had begun.
And I was done playing fair.
---
[CHAPTER END]
[NEXT: THE ALPHA REMEMBERS]
---
A/N: Welcome to SYSTEM REGRESSOR! This is a daily-update time-loop LitRPG where our MC has seen the worst ending and is determined to rewrite it—even if it means breaking reality itself. If you enjoy overpowered-but-limited protagonists, deep system mechanics, and slow-burn romance with actual stakes, you're in the right place.
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Next chapter: Leo's first real test. That Alpha Hound? It killed him in the tutorial the first time around. Now it's payback time.