Explosions tore through the silent void.
Fragments of shattered armor drifted like dying comets, glowing faintly in the darkness.
Amid the ruins floated a black-silver Star Armor, its surface cracked, its pilot barely conscious.
Tang Lin, the youngest commander of Earth's Guardian Forces, struggled to stay awake as blood seeped through the nano-mesh inside his suit.
> "Damn… I didn't think he had grown this strong…"
Before him stood the being known as The Paradox Sovereign, wrapped in a crimson mecha that pulsed like a living organism.
A monster powerful enough to swallow fleets and collapse entire timelines.
It wasn't a simple alien.
It was a dimensional anomaly—
A destroyer of time.
> "Tang Lin," the creature's voice echoed in his mind, deep and distorted.
"The future of humanity ends here."
A massive blade of crimson energy formed in its hand.
Tang Lin chuckled weakly—
A strange sound for someone moments away from death
.
> "Not yet."
He activated the final, forbidden system inside his armor.
A technology stolen from a collapsed timeline—
Something humanity wasn't supposed to possess.
S.Y.N.C Temporal Overdrive.
There was only one purpose:
To send his consciousness back in time.
> "If I can't win here… then I'll win in the past."
A blinding flash of blue wrapped around him.
The crimson blade descended.
His Star Armor shattered.
His body was destroyed.
But his consciousness—escaped.
— The Past. Year 2150. —
Tang Lin gasped as he woke up in a small, clean room.
No smoke.
No blood.
No battlefield.
His hands were unscarred.
His body young again.
It worked.
He had gone back—
To the era before the Great Collapse.
> "I made it… I returned before everything fell apart."
Memories of the future surged through his mind:
Alien invasions, humanity's defeat, the rise of Paradox Sovereign…
and his own death.
Then a mechanical voice echoed in his head.
[SYSTEM BOOTING…]
STAR ARMOR TALENT LINKED
SPECIAL SKILL UNLOCKED: STAR COPY
> Can copy any Star Armor skill, module, or system from another user
without removing the original owner's ability.
Tang Lin's eyes sharpened.
> "This… didn't exist in the future.
The timeline has already changed."
If he could copy anyone's Star Armor abilities, then—
He could become the most dangerous mecha pilot in the world.
Capable of stopping the alien threat.
Capable of saving humanity.
Capable of killing Paradox Sovereign before it ever rises.
He stood by the window, staring at the futuristic blue sky.
> "The future no longer belongs to them."
"I will rewrite it."
And thus—
The second life of Tang Lin began.
A new war, a new system, and a new destiny.
Chapter 1 ends.