Yuna opened her eyes.
Soft light filled the room.
For a moment she did not move.
Her mind was still trapped in the void of Floor one hundred. The endless darkness. The faceless mask breaking apart. Victor's voice whispering beside her ear.
Then she realized something was wrong.
There was no pain.
The blade that had pierced her chest was gone.
Slowly, she sat up.
A familiar ceiling greeted her.
White plaster. A faint crack in the corner she remembered staring at during sleepless nights.
Her bedroom.
Her heart began to beat faster.
She swung her legs off the bed and stood up too quickly. The sudden movement made her dizzy.
The room looked exactly the same as she remembered.
Her desk by the window. Her phone lying on the table where she had left it the night before everything changed.
Her breathing grew shallow.
"No," she whispered.
Her hands began to shake as she grabbed the phone.
The screen lit up.
The date stared back at her.
June 3rd. Yuna froze.
Her mind raced through the memories of the previous timeline.
June 4th. That was the day the sky split open. The day the Tower appeared.
She slowly lowered the phone.
"This... already happened."
Her chest tightened.
She stumbled back and sat on the edge of the bed. For a long moment she simply stared at the floor.
Floor one hundred. Victor's knife.
The system message. Regression Protocol Activated.
Her fingers slowly curled into fists. "I'm alive."
The words felt strange. Unreal.
If the date was correct, then the Tower had not appeared yet.
None of it had happened. The cities had not burned.
The monsters had not poured out of the gates.
Lily was still alive. Diego was still alive.
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Her breath caught. And Jin. Jin had not died yet.
Yuna closed her eyes.
The memory of Floor ninety nine surfaced again.
Jin standing before the guardian alone.
His back to her.
His voice calm even though death stood in front of him.
I can only walk with you this far.
Her chest tightened painfully.
In the previous timeline they had fought side by side for years before that moment.
Through battles. Through disasters.
Through countless nights where survival was never guaranteed.
Somewhere along the way, she had fallen in love with him.
And now...This Jin had never met her.
The thought frightened her more than the Tower.
Yuna stood up and walked to the window.
Morning sunlight covered the city outside.
People walked to work.
The world looked peaceful. Normal.
She remembered this morning.
Everyone had gone about their day like nothing was wrong.
Then the sky had broken.
Her phone vibrated in her hand.
Yuna blinked and looked down.
Her parents.
The contact name sat quietly on the screen.
In the previous timeline she had not spoken to them that day.
The Tower appeared before she had the chance.
They had never known what happened to her.
Her throat tightened.
Without thinking she pressed the call button.
The phone rang twice.
Then her mother's voice answered.
"Yuna? Is everything alright?"
The familiar voice almost made her cry.
"I'm fine," Yuna said quickly, though her voice trembled slightly.
"I just wanted to hear your voice."
There was a small pause.
Her mother laughed softly.
"You sound tired. Did you stay up all night again?"
Yuna looked out at the peaceful street.
Something inside her chest loosened.
"Maybe," she said.
Her mother chatted casually for a few minutes. Just normal conversation.
What she planned to cook tonight.
How her father had forgotten where he left his car keys again.
Ordinary life.
The kind of life the Tower would destroy.
After the call ended, Yuna stood silently by the window.
She could not stop the Tower from appearing.
She knew that much.
Humanity had tried everything in the previous timeline.
Nothing had prevented it.
The Tower was inevitable.
But this time things would be different.
She knew the floors.
The traps.
The monsters.
The disasters waiting ahead.
More importantly, she knew how people died.
Her phone suddenly vibrated again.
A loud alert appeared on the screen.
Emergency Global Broadcast
Yuna's heart stopped.
She slowly tapped the notification.
Every television channel had switched to the same broadcast.
The camera showed the sky above the city.
The reporter's voice sounded confused.
"We are receiving strange reports from multiple locations around the world."
The sky cracked.
It looked like invisible glass shattering across the heavens.
Something enormous began to descend.
A massive tower formed from golden light slowly appeared in the sky.
People in the streets began shouting.
The reporter's voice trembled. "What... what is that?"
A deep voice echoed across the world. Calm. Emotionless.
Every human being heard it inside their mind.
The Tower of Evolution will open in twenty four hours. Prepare.
Yuna stared at the sky.
The beginning had arrived again.
And somewhere in this city...
Jin Lee was still alive.
