Ch. 1: Another World Encounter

The Ruined City

The city stretched endlessly—towering structures as vast and numerous as the ones once rising in Tokyo, but now all twisted, fractured, and ghostly. Where once life must have flourished, now only silence ruled. A haunting skyline pierced the gray clouds, as if the earth itself had grown tired of standing.

This was no ordinary place. For centuries, those trapped inside had tried to escape its iron grip. But beyond the edge lay only ocean—black, endless, and unforgiving. And guarding the edge like mythical sentinels were colossal machines, monstrous robots of impossible scale, programmed to destroy anything that dared approach the city's perimeter. No one had ever returned from the outskirts. No one had reached the center either. Rumors whispered that the truth of this nightmare lay hidden there, at the heart of this decaying giant.

Chapter 1. Another World Encounter

Leo was just an ordinary young man—twenty, quiet, thoughtful, returning from the corner store with a bag of groceries. The sun had just begun to dip when he noticed a small girl, no older than ten, crossing the road but then frozen in fear in the middle of the road. A truck hurtled toward her, horn blaring, driver trying to break, but the truck not stopping…

He didn’t think. He ran. Dropping his bags on the ground, sprinting ahead and jumping in. Then—silence.

Leo laying unconsciously the kid saved, people around calling the ambulance and trying to help, but his vision faded. All dark.

…

When Leo opened his eyes, the sky was gone. Instead, he found himself inside a decaying room, its ceiling cracked open to the sky. Dust drifted lazily in the light filtering through a broken window. Everything was in shambles—walls crumbling, furniture overturned, vines growing through fractures in the floor. “Is this the hospital?...” He questioned.

But as he looked around more “it can't be, why would a hospital be this worn down…?” He thought. “What… is this place, or where is this place?” he whispered to no one.

There was no answer. He stood up, looked around the room, there was no one. He tried to look for an exit. Pushing through the ruined corridors, he eventually reached the building’s exit. What he saw stole the breath from his lungs.

A city—titanic in scale—spread out before him. Skyscrapers stood in every direction, some leaning, others hollowed out like forgotten husks. It was as if the city had died, and its skeleton was all that remained.

No birds. No cars. No people.

Only wind, weaving through the ruins like a ghost.

Leo’s heart pounded. As he remembered the truck, the girl, the moment of impact. The people rushing him to the hospital and the doctors operating, he remembered all. But not what happened after.

“Did I die?” he said aloud. “Or am I imagining this…” The words felt unreal.

Was this the afterlife? Os is this a start of a long dream he wondered. Or... had he been reincarnated into a different world?

It didn’t make sense—but nothing else could explain it. Wherever he was now, it wasn’t the Earth he knew of. It was like an alternate version of it. Which seemed to have better technology to be able to build this huge city, but also it had fallen in ruins. Maybe it was the technology that caused it or some factors.

His thoughts then drifted to his family. His friends. Are they grieving? he wondered. Do they even know what happened?

He felt a wave of sorrow, deep and heavy. His mind being overwhelmed with so many things, But it quickly passed—because there was no changing what had happened.

He had to survive. In this what he assumed was another world.

…

Leo wandered the empty streets, trying to piece together the story of this broken city. How could something so enormous be so utterly abandoned? Who built it? What destroyed it? Are there any people left? How did it got destroyed? And many more thoughts crossed his minds.

He has wondered far from where he first woke up. Wondering the streets, crossing through buildings and seeing the scale the city had. He was searching for people, if there were any. But he knew he couldn't survive this world alone.

He was sure, even if large cities collapsed there will be still some people who managed to survive.

Walking for long his stomach growled. Hunger gnawed at him now. He wondered what food can he find, there were no animals in sight or a tree in this city. He searched through empty cafes and stores, but found only dust, he searched through what looked like big warehouses but found nothing.

Then—movement. He saw something move in the distance.

Far down the street, something shifted.

Hope lit in his chest. Maybe an animal? Or better a person he thought.

He sprinted towards the movement.

But when he turned the corner, he stopped dead in his tracks.

It was not a person. Not an animal.

But it was a robot—massive, sleek. Its face was smooth metal, its limbs covered in layers of weaponry. The machine turned. Its glowing red Lazers locked onto him.

A high-pitched hum began—charging.

Leo’s heart dropped.

It had seen him.

And it was about to shoot. Leo started running and panicking. The robot following closely.

He knew he can't get away, he saw his fate coming the robot fired it's shots… Leo bracing to die the second time. His vision faded.

A beam of red light surged toward him, but something inside Leo snapped.

Time slowed.

A blinding white flame burst from his chest, and the world erupted.

The scream of metal being torn apart echoed across the empty street as a surge of raw, invisible force exploded outward. The robot disintegrated mid-attack, followed by several others hidden in the nearby ruins. They were reduced to nothing more than scrap and fire.

And then—darkness.

Leo collapsed where he stood, his breathing shallow, surrounded by the smoldering remains of machines built to kill.