The last thing Alan Walker remembered was the sound of the world tearing apart. The screech of rebar, the thunderous groan of concrete, and then—darkness. He had been buried under the remains of his university library, the weight of a thousand books and several floors of masonry crushing his lungs.
He had closed his eyes, expecting the end. Instead, he opened them to a canopy of emerald green.
Alan gasped, his lungs filling with air that tasted of pine and damp earth instead of dust and death. He scrambled to his feet, checking his limbs. His jeans were torn, his hoodie was frayed, but his skin was flawless. No scars, no blood—not even a bruise from where a support beam had pinned his leg moments before.
[System Initialized][Status: Healthy][Current Points: 0][Objective: Establish Survival Foothold]
A translucent blue interface flickered in his peripheral vision. Before he could process the impossibility of it, a low, mechanical hum vibrated through the air. He pushed through a thicket of ferns and stopped dead.
In a clearing lay a graveyard of rusted metal. He saw the distinctive, boxy chassis of a burnt-out Coyote buggy and the twisted remains of a Resistance Torrent launcher. But the centerpiece was unmistakable: a massive, twin-barreled Mammoth heavy tank, its treads snapped and its artillery cannons rusted into a permanent skyward stare.
Alan's heart skipped a beat. He knew these silhouettes. He had spent hundreds of hours staring at them on his phone screen.
"Art of War 3?" he whispered. He raised a hand and slapped his own forehead, his palm meeting his skin with a loud thwack. "You have got to be kidding me. I got isekai'd into a mobile RTS game? I'm going to die in a carpet bombing."
He facepalmed again, harder this time, dragging his hand down his face. He knew this world. It wasn't just a war; it was a global meat grinder between the Global Confederation and the Resistance.
Four hours later, Alan stumbled upon a settlement. The village was a patchwork of corrugated metal and salvaged Resistance-style plating. Sentries armed with weathered assault rifles watched from watchtowers built into the trees.
Alan was intercepted by a man named Marek, whose hand rested warily on a holster. Alan knew he needed a story—something that explained his youthful appearance and his knowledge of the high-end tech this world fought over.
"My name is Alan Walker," he said, keeping his voice steady. "I was a Senior Researcher for the Global Confederation's Advanced Bio-Tech Division."
The mention of the Confederation caused a ripple of murmurs. Alan raised his hands. "I grew tired of the corruption. I stole a prototype Rejuvenation Serum, used it to mask my identity by turning myself back into a student, and fled. I've been hiding in the forest ever since."
The lie was a masterstroke. To these villagers, the Confederation was a cold, bureaucratic monolith. The idea of a genius scientist choosing exile and youth over a life of comfortable tyranny made him an instant hero in their eyes.
Marek took him in, but the village was in trouble. Their old diesel generators were failing. If their power died, their electronic camouflage—the only thing keeping Confederation Satellite scans from finding them—would flicker out.
"If the lights go out," Marek sighed, "the Confederation will see our heat signature. They'll send a Hammer squad to 'civilize' us."
Alan looked at the rusted junk in the village workshop. The System pinged.
[Blueprint Available: Compact Fusion Micro-Generator][Requirements: Salvaged Copper, High-Grade Steel, Electronic Scraps]
"I can fix this," Alan said.
For three days, Alan worked like a man possessed. To the villagers, it looked like magic. He was taking the same scrap they used for Coyote repairs and turning it into something far more advanced.
On the fourth evening, he flipped the switch. The micro-generator hummed—a sound so pure it was almost silent. Suddenly, every light in the village flared to life. The radar screens cleared. The cloaking field hummed with newfound strength.
[Item Created: Fusion Micro-Generator][Points Awarded: 5,000][Knowledge Unlocked: Advanced Power Management]
The villagers gathered around, their faces illuminated by the steady blue glow. They looked at Alan with a mixture of awe and terror.
"You really are a genius," Marek whispered. "But Alan... if the Confederation finds out you're building this for us, they'll burn the whole forest to get you back."
Alan looked at his interface. With 5,000 points, he could unlock so much more. He wasn't just a refugee anymore. He was the most dangerous man on the planet.
"Let them come," Alan thought. "I know their entire tech tree."
Two weeks had passed since the blue glow of the fusion generator first lit up the village. In that time, Alan hadn't just been a mechanic; he had been a student of this fractured world.
Through salvaged Resistance Radio chatter and intercepted Confederation broadcasts, the picture became clear. The Global Confederation weren't cartoon villains; they had brought a fragile peace to a world once consumed by world wars. But it was a peace with a price. If you lacked "merit"—be it through genetics, luck, or lack of resources—you were cast into the "Globalist Pitfall," a life of poverty and servitude.
The Resistance, meanwhile, were the "good guys" only in their own propaganda. For every Confederation base they destroyed, a nearby village was caught in the crossfire or looted for supplies. They were freedom fighters who thrived on chaos, but they offered no plan for what came after the war.
"We're stuck in the middle, Alan," Marek said one night, staring at a map of the surrounding forest. "We use their Coyotes and Jaguars because it's all we can find, but we aren't soldiers. If a real Resistance commander comes by, they'll 'requisition' our food. If the Confederation finds us, they'll 'relocate' us to a labor camp."
Alan looked at his System interface. He had been hoarding his points, waiting for the right moment.
"Then we stop being victims," Alan said, his voice echoing in the small workshop. "We aren't Resistance, and we aren't Confederation. We're going to build something that actually protects people."
[New Objective: Found the 'Sentinel' Organization][Required: Unify 3 Neighboring Neutral Settlements][Knowledge Unlocked: Civil Infrastructure & Defense Systems]
Alan spent his 5,000 points wisely. He didn't buy bigger guns—not yet. Instead, he invested in "Automated Resource Logistics" and "Non-Lethal Crowd Control."
Under his guidance, the village began to change. He didn't just build weapons; he built Hydroponic Labs to ensure no one went hungry and Medical Drones to treat those the war had broken. He taught the villagers how to use Confederation-style organization to manage their resources, but with a focus on the human rights both sides had forgotten.
Word began to spread through the forest. There was a "Rogue Scientist" in the valley who wasn't looking for soldiers, but for citizens. A man who could turn a pile of Mammoth scrap into a water filtration system.
But Alan knew the peace wouldn't last. To protect this new ideal, he needed more than just doctors and farmers. He needed a way to fight back without becoming the very monsters he was trying to avoid.
"Marek," Alan said, looking at a hologram of a modified Shield Unit. "Send word to the settlements in the North and West. Tell them the Sentinels are forming. If they want a world that doesn't force them to choose between a cage and a battlefield, they need to come to us."
[System Notification: 2,500 bonus points for Diplomatic Milestone]