Chandel_Neetu

The world ended in fire, tsunamis, and endless catastrophe. Just when humanity faced total annihilation, the last survivors were forcibly transported to isolated islands—each left alone, with nothing but a broken hut and a cryptic system demanding their survival.

Lena, cunning, ruthless, and unyielding, refuses to be controlled. She will carve her own path, build her own strength, and rise higher than anyone expects. But she soon realizes this world is far from empty.

Something stirs beneath the surface. Something watches from the shadows.

He is powerful. Intelligent. Dangerous. And unlike anything—or anyone—she has ever encountered.

He doesn’t belong to the shattered world she left behind. He doesn’t belong to humanity at all.

Their meeting is inevitable. Their fates tangled in ways neither of them understands.

But on an island where the system decides who survives and who perishes, some threats don’t come with claws and teeth. Some are far more seductive. And far deadlier.

Islands of the Forsaken

The forced upgrade ripped through her system, sending violent pulses of heat and static through her veins. Her heartbeat slammed in her ears, too fast, too heavy—like her body was trying to keep up with something it wasn't built to handle.

For a moment, she wasn't standing on the ruined island.

A sunken city. Towering structures swallowed by the ocean, their surfaces covered in the same markings from the ruins.

The sky above wasn't a sky at all—just endless shifting symbols, glowing like dying embers.

And in the distance—figures standing in the water.

Lena tried to step forward, but her body wasn't hers anymore.

A voice—glitching, layered, almost human.

"You were never supposed to wake up."

Lena gasped, snapping back into her body.

Riven was in front of her, sword drawn.

Alek was grinning, but his stance was tight, calculating.

Hundreds of them, their hollow eyes pulsing, their bodies shifting unnaturally.

For a second—just a split second—she saw something beneath her skin.

Her stomach twisted. (What the hell did the system do to me?)

But there was no time to figure it out.

Because the echoes were attacking.

Riven moved first. A blur of golden light and sharp steel, cutting through the creatures with impossible speed.

Wherever his blade sliced, the echoes reformed.

Alek cursed under his breath. "Yeah, that's not ideal."

Lena clenched her fists, pulse still off, her vision still flickering. But she forced herself to focus.

The echoes weren't alive. They were remnants. Fragments.

Which meant—they weren't meant to fight back.

(The upgrade. The visions. The system forcing an evolution—did it just make me... like them?)

She didn't have time to dwell on it.

Because one of the echoes turned toward her.

Chapter 21: Rewritten Code