Darkness.
Kei's senses returned one by one, like a broken machine rebooting. His head ached, his throat burned, and his body felt heavy, as if he'd been buried alive. The last thing he remembered was…
Wait. What was the last thing he remembered?
His eyes shot open. White walls. A metallic floor. A single blinking red light in the corner of the ceiling. He sat on a cold metal chair, restrained by thick cuffs that clamped onto his wrists. Across from him, a large screen flickered to life, displaying a faceless figure cloaked in static.
"Kei Hoshino, you have been sentenced under the Digital Correction Act for the crime of mass murder. As per Article 13, you will now enter Chrono Prison to serve your sentence." The distorted voice spoke.
"Mass murder? I didn't kill anyone!" his mind was confused, too much. But before he could protest, the chair beneath him collapsed, and he was falling, disintegrating—into a void of blinding light.
Then came the pain.
A thousand volts of electricity surged through his skull, erasing, rewriting, resetting. He wanted to scream, but his voice had already been taken.
Then, silence.
---------------
"DAY 1: NEW INMATE – KEI HOSHINO"
Kei gasped awake, his lungs sucking in air like a drowning man breaking the surface. He was no longer in a metallic room. The world around him had changed.
A massive city stretched endlessly in every direction, skyscrapers scraping a gray, sunless sky. Neon lights flickered, but the streets were eerily empty. A red holographic sign hovered above him:
"SURVIVE TO EARN TIME."
His heartbeat thundered in his ears. He had no idea where he was, no memory of getting here… only the echo of something being erased from his mind.
A voice came from the sky, mechanical:
"Welcome to Chrono Prison. Your time begins now."
Then, the ground beneath him trembled. Something was coming.
And Kei had no idea if he had faced it before.