Unholy Player Chapter 1: Prison Planet Theory
This Chapter is the prologue. You may skip it if you wish, but I recommend reading it. It's quite engaging and won't take much of your time.
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The "Prison Planet Theory."
In essence, this hypothesis suggests that our world is nothing more than a celestial dungeon—a cage where human beings are confined within a perpetual cycle of reincarnation.
The theory posits that upon death, a person's soul is stripped of all memories before being thrust back into this realm, condemned to endure a life devoid of true purpose or significance.
While most academics would dismiss such an idea with a scoff, one particular researcher chose to investigate it deeply, truly earning the "mad scientist" reputation bestowed upon him by both the public and his peers.
Driven by an obsessive need to reveal whatever truth might be masked by the theory, he launched his investigation.
His outlook had always been unconventional.
As others looked toward the stars, captivated by the mysteries of the deep cosmos, he traversed the land, searching for signs hidden beneath the open sky.
While humanity constructed rockets to reach far-off planets, he pored over ancient scrolls, seeking the lost lore of civilizations that spoke of realms beyond our own.
While they used technology to map the galaxy, he wandered through crumbling ruins, listening to the echoes of antiquity, convinced that the solutions were closer than anyone suspected.
Finally, after years of grueling work, the depletion of his fortune, and the sacrifice of his entire life, he discovered the object of his quest.
Whether it was an invention or a discovery mattered little in the end.
The significance lay in the fact that he had located a tiny rupture in the world's fabric, resembling a hairline fracture in the walls of a cell.
It was a gateway leading to the far side of existence.
Having spent the better part of his life hunting for this rift, he was now determined to spend his remaining days exploring what lay on the other side.
However, before he could set out, there were two vital questions he felt compelled to answer, regardless of the price.
Unfortunately, he never received the opportunity to find those answers, as events took a sudden, catastrophic turn.
Nobody—not even the mad scientist himself—could comprehend how or why it began, but the world changed in a heartbeat.
One moment, the heavens were streaked with countless bolts of light, racing across the sky like falling stars and leaving luminous trails in their wake.
The next moment, those streaks slammed into the earth, vanishing in blinding flashes just before the ground was torn apart by massive explosions.
The end had arrived.
A global conflict was unfolding.
This time, the battle was not fought with blades, but with the most terrifying weapons humanity had ever devised.
Nuclear warheads.
Until that point, no one had doubted the ruinous power of a single nuclear missile.
No one questioned the devastation that the detonation of thousands would inflict upon the world.
And yet,
They were forced to endure this nightmare as their new reality, as if to confirm what was already known.
In a single night, great cities were crumbled into debris, and homes were transformed into graves for those inside.
Lakes and rivers evaporated, leaving nothing but scorched craters behind.
Great forests became infernos, incinerating everything within them.
The initial moment was pure hell, and the days that followed were no less cruel.
Governments collapsed, nations fractured, and the social order was utterly annihilated. While many died in the initial blasts, millions more perished in the ensuing years, falling to starvation, exposure, and the horrific plagues spawned by radiation and the chemical agents that poisoned the soil.
Humanity had orchestrated its own destruction. Yet, by some miracle, the light of hope was not entirely snuffed out.
Man has always been a creature that learns from catastrophe, matures through hardship, and rises once more from the wreckage.
This era proved to be no exception.
After many years, survivors began to crawl out from their bunkers. Among them, twelve individuals rose to prominence. They possessed more than just the foresight to build underground refuges; they held the wealth, power, and leadership necessary to restart human civilization.
Within a world marred by scars and drained of resources, each of them claimed a region. Utilizing every tool available, they built fortified shelter cities, reinstating order and providing a sanctuary where humans could once again live as a society.
Decades passed, and under the guidance of these figures—who would eventually be titled the City Managers—life on Earth slowly regained a sense of normalcy, though the world of old was gone forever.
Monuments were erected everywhere, and daily lectures were held to remind the populace of past errors and the oath to never repeat them.
Yet, there was something that had slipped from their collective memory.
The once-renowned mad scientist had faded into obscurity, vanishing just as he had during the explosions of that terrible day.
No one knew the full extent of his findings, and no one had the chance to solve the two riddles he had posed to himself:
Is the Earth truly a dungeon designed to hold humanity for all eternity?
And,
If Earth is indeed a prison for our souls, what crimes or choices led to our incarceration here?
Until...