Nobody on Earth really understood what triggered the catastrophe, people argued online about solar activity, secret experiments, even divine punishment, but none of those explanations mattered once the black rifts started appearing above major cities and creatures nobody could identify began tearing through civilization like it was paper.
For Xue Ren, the end of the world arrived with bad timing and very little dignity.
He wasn’t some elite soldier or hidden genius preparing for disaster in advance, honestly, he could barely manage his own life properly before everything collapsed. Lazy when he could afford to be, reckless when he shouldn’t be, and carrying the kind of personality that usually attracted trouble, Xue Ren was the last person anyone would expect to survive for long after the invasion began.
Yet somehow, the monsters seemed strangely interested in him.
Not in the normal way either.
Again and again, creatures ignored easier prey just to chase him specifically, as if they could sense something inside him that even he didn’t understand yet. The closer danger came, the stronger the strange changes within his body became, his senses sharpened unnaturally, his strength started increasing beyond reason, and fragmented instincts surfaced during combat that felt less learned and more remembered.
That was the part that unsettled him most.
It felt familiar.
As society collapsed into chaos and survivors fought desperately over resources, hidden truths about Earth slowly began surfacing. Humanity had never been alone, and the beings invading through the rifts were only a small part of something much larger. Beyond Earth existed countless realms, ancient factions, and terrifying entities treating entire worlds as pieces on a board most humans couldn’t even see.
Unfortunately for Xue Ren, he somehow ends up dragged directly into the center of it.
The mysterious power hidden within him is connected to something otherworldly enough that even powerful beings begin paying attention, some out of greed, others out of fear. From that point onward, survival stops being simple. Every battle reveals another piece of a truth he probably would have been happier never learning, while strange visions and half-familiar memories continue blurring the line between who he is now and whatever existed before.
And through all of it, Xue Ren still feels painfully human compared to the monsters, gods, and ancient beings surrounding him.
Which honestly might be the only reason he hasn’t completely lost himself yet.
