Level 999 Returned to Day One

2

Chapter 2 — Proof of the Future

I spent the rest of the morning writing. Dates, Names, Locations. Everything I could remember. At first, the memories came slowly. Then they started flooding back. Dungeon locations, Hidden rewards, Boss appearances, Shelter collapses. The names of future heroes, names of future traitors. Within an hour, my notebook was half full. Within two hours, my hand was cramping. I stared at the pages. I had lived through ten years of hell. I had died, and somehow I was back. Logic told me it was impossible, but logic had stopped mattering the day those monsters fell from the sky.

I needed proof, Real proof. Not memories, not feelings, just real evidence. I grabbed my phone and opened a news app. If my memories were real, then the future should still be following the same path. At least for now, my eyes scanned the headlines. Nothing unusual, just Politics, sports, Celebrity gossip, normal things. The kind of things nobody would care about once the System arrived. Then I remembered. A commercial airliner. Flight 702, Engine failure, Emergency landing, no casualties.

It had dominated the news for three days, and if my memory was right…It would happen today. I checked the date again. June 30th. Yes, Today. I glanced at the clock. 11:43 AM. The incident should happen around noon. Slowly, I leaned back in my chair and waited. Twelve minutes passed, then twenty, then thirty. Nothing. A small seed of doubt crept into my mind. What if I was wrong? What if this wasn’t regression? What if everything was just some dying hallucination? Then my phone buzzed.

Once…., Twice, then Three times. Breaking News. My eyes immediately locked onto the notification. I opened it. The article loaded instantly. My heart stopped.

Commercial Flight 702 Performs Emergency Landing After Engine Failure

Every word matched my memory. The location. The timing. Even the photographs. The same. For several seconds, I simply stared at the screen. Then I laughed. Just a cold, short, disbelieving laugh, not because it was funny cause it wasn’t, because it was real. All of it. The apocalypse. The System. The monsters. My death. My return. It was all real. I wasn’t crazy, I wasn’t dreaming. I had truly come back.

The smile vanished from my face…Because if this was real…Then so was everything else. The first dungeon. The first monster wave. The first city to fall. The first million deaths. My fingers tightened around the phone. No. Not this time. I pulled the notebook closer and flipped to a clean page. Across the top, I wrote two words.

Survival Timeline

Below it, I began listing every major event I could remember. Day 1. Day 7. Day 30. Month 3. Month 6. Year 1. My pen moved rapidly across the paper. Every event was a chance. Every event was a danger. Every event was something I could change. By the time I finally stopped, the sun had begun to set. The page was filled with names, dates, and warnings. A roadmap to the future, or at least…The future I remembered.

I stared at the notebook, then at the city beyond my window. Thirty days. That was all humanity had left, but this time…I intended to be ready long before the countdown reached zero. I didn’t stop after that. My pen kept moving across the page, faster this time, like something inside me had finally accepted what my mind was still struggling to process. It wasn’t just the flight…It couldn’t be just the flight. I flipped back through my memories. There were too many details I had ignored in my past life. Too many moments I only understood after it was already too late. A red alert that never got taken seriously. A missing person case that later turned into the first confirmed dungeon disappearance. A military base that went silent three days before the first monster outbreak in its region.

My hand paused slightly. I remembered that one clearly, because in my last life, I had been nearby when it happened. Back then, I thought it was just chaos, but now I knew better. I wrote it down immediately.

Day 3 — Military Zone Blackout (First Hidden Dungeon Emergence Point)

My grip tightened on the pen. So it really hadn’t been random. None of it had ever truly been random. The System didn’t just “appear.” It had been watching, preparing, waiting. My eyes drifted to the window again. The city outside still looked the same. Still alive, still had time. I almost pitied them.

Almost.

Because I remembered what it felt like when the first dungeon opened. The sky splitting, the soundless pressure, then screaming after. People running in every direction with no idea where to go, the first monster stepping out. I closed my eyes briefly. That’s Enough, Focus. I forced myself back into the present. Thirty days. That was my only advantage. If I wasted even one of them, I would risk repeating the same ending again. I pulled out my phone and started typing notes instead of writing. Time was not something I could afford to lose to handwriting anymore.

Resources List

• Food (long shelf life only)

• Water filtration systems

• Portable generators

• Medical kits (advanced trauma, not basic first aid)

• Batteries, fuel, and charging systems

Then another section.

Survival Zones

In my previous life, some areas survived longer than others. Some cities became strongholds. Others became graveyards within weeks. I began marking them from memory. Safe zones, Collapse zones, Early dungeon hotspots. My eyes narrowed as I worked. The pattern was there; it had always been there. I just hadn’t known what I was looking at. A system, A structured apocalypse. Not chaos, just design. My breath slowed.

“Who built you…” I muttered under my breath.

For the first time, I wasn’t thinking of it as some random catastrophe anymore. This was something intentional, Something structured. Something that could be understood. And if it could be understood…It could be broken. A vibration cut through my thoughts. My phone lit up again. Another message from school.

Bro, you sure you’re not coming? Attendance is important 😭

I stared at it for a second. Then I exhaled slowly through my nose. Important, Right? Cause In thirty days, attendance would be the most important thing on Earth. I rolled my eyes, typing back.

I’m busy.

My attention returned to the notebook. Survival timeline, Resources, Locations, Events. Everything was starting to connect. I leaned back slightly in my chair, staring at the ceiling. Thirty days. This time…I wouldn’t just survive the System…I would prepare for it. Properly and Completely. Before it even had the chance to begin. I kept staring at the notebook long after I stopped writing. A survival route through the end of the world. But something still felt incomplete.

In my previous life, I hadn’t survived alone. No one did. Even the strongest hunters formed groups eventually. Even I had relied on others, whether I admitted it or not. Slowly, I flipped to a new page. A different kind of list this time. Names, not enemies, not locations. People. Future survivors, Future monsters. Future heroes… and future disasters. My pen hovered for a moment before I wrote the first name.

Sophia Reyes

She had been one of the first to truly awaken talents in the early chaos. In my last life, she died too early, killed before she ever reached her potential. This time, I could change that. Then another name.

Ethan Drake

A fighter who would later become strong enough to stand at the front lines of humanity’s defense. Loud. Reckless and incredibly Loyal. The kind of person who died young because he never knew when to step back. My pen slowed. Saving them wasn’t just about power; it was about stability. The stronger the early survivors, the longer humanity lasted. And the longer humanity lasted…The more time I had to prepare. A faint ache settled in my chest. I didn’t like how familiar this feeling was….Responsibility. It always came back, no matter how many times I tried to bury it. I exhaled and closed the notebook halfway. Then I heard a sound.

[SYSTEM STABILITY CHECK…]
 [UNKNOWN VARIABLE DETECTED…]

My hand froze instantly. The notebook slipped slightly, but I caught it before it fell. My eyes narrowed.

“…Now?”

It shouldn’t be happening yet. Not thirty days early, not before activation. Just as suddenly, the chime was gone. I slowly closed the notebook completely. Had I imagined it? No, I clearly heard it. My expression hardened. Something about me had changed enough to trigger it early.

I walked to the window again and looked outside. The city was still calm. “…So you noticed me,” I muttered. A pause. My voice lowered. “Good.” Because now I knew for sure.

This time…I wasn’t the only one preparing for the end of the world.