The light didn't so much fade as it simply stopped — one instant I was standing in ROB's impossible office, the next I was up to my knees in cold river water, the current tugging gently at legs that had never touched a river in their short existence.
Georgia. Somewhere near King County, if the world had dropped me where it said it would. The riverbank stretched out on either side, quiet, wooded, empty — no walkers yet, no Rick Grimes coughing awake in a hospital bed somewhere. If the timeline held, I had a full month before any of that started. A month to get my footing before the world I'd chosen turned into the meat grinder I remembered from the show.
A soft chime rang directly inside my skull, not a sound so much as a presence.
[System Initialization — 100% Completed]
[Welcome, Host.]
I straightened up in the water, grinning despite myself. Showtime.
"System," I said aloud, mostly for the novelty of hearing my own voice in this new body, "from now on, you'll be named EVE. And you'll call me Ryan."
[Yes, Ryan. Acknowledged.]
"So all my powers — Creation, Travel, everything — I access all of it through you?"
[Yes, Ryan. Tell me what you need, and I will get it done.]
I could have wept from relief. No manual. No cryptic tutorial quest. Just a genie who did exactly what I told her.
"EVE. Create the following abilities, items, and skills for me." I listed them off like a grocery order, because in a sense, that's exactly what it was. "Adaptable Body. Infinite. Instant Mastery. God of War and Weapons. Super Soldier Serum. Smart Phone. Black Card — infinite money."
[Everything is created, Ryan. Items are stored in Inventory. Due to 'Instant Mastery,' all abilities and skills have reached MAX level.]
Max level. On day one. I laughed out loud, and the sound scattered a bird somewhere in the treeline.
I didn't waste time. I waded further out until the water reached my chest, then pulled a small vial from the inventory EVE had just handed me access to — the Super Soldier Serum, glowing faintly gold even underwater. No dramatic countdown, no second thoughts. I pressed the needle to my arm and pushed the plunger.
Heat rolled through me first, starting at the injection site and spreading outward until it felt like my blood had been replaced with something molten. My vision sharpened; the individual ripples on the water's surface resolved into crisp, distinct lines. My muscles didn't just ache, they rebuilt, fibers knitting themselves into something denser, more efficient, more dangerous — and through all of it, not a flicker of pain. Whatever "Adaptable Body" actually did under the hood, it meant my body simply refused to suffer for the privilege of getting stronger.
When it was done, I stood in the river for a long moment just breathing, feeling my own pulse like it belonged to someone else — someone considerably more capable.
I swam back, dried off on the bank, and pulled a set of clothes straight out of the inventory — dark jeans, a plain black tee, boots that fit like they'd been broken in for years. Small mercy, considering I'd arrived in this world with nothing on but the body I'd designed.
"EVE," I said, buttoning my jeans, "walk me through your functions. All of them."
[Yes. I have the following functions:]
[Status — tracks your data.]
[Inventory — infinite storage space. Items are arranged into boxes; similar items stack automatically.]
[Multiverse Shop — purchase items, pets, weapons, vehicles, summons, and more.]
[System Space — a living space structured like a universe, expanding infinitely in all directions, filled with infinite materials and energy.]
[Harem — once you climax inside a woman during consensual sex, she is added to your harem with fixed 100% loyalty. If the encounter is non-consensual, you may instead choose to convert her into a sex slave, also with fixed 100% loyalty.]
[God's Hand — any person who freely accepts a gift from you, with nothing asked in return, may be converted into a slave with fixed 100% loyalty, at your discretion.]
[These additional features were shaped according to your own desires, Ryan.]
I let out a slow breath, half admiration and half disbelief at my own past self's priorities. "Well. I don't have to keep a mental spreadsheet on who's actually loyal to me anymore. And the — " I paused, grinning, "— recruitment tools are exactly what I hoped for. Looks like I'm going to have a lot of fun in this world."
[The Multiverse Shop is available whenever you require it, Ryan.]
That was all the invitation I needed. I pulled up the shop in my mind's eye — rows of currency displays, conversion rates, a running balance that currently sat at a laughably small starting number. I applied Infinite to it the same way I might flip a light switch, and watched the counter blow past every digit limit I could imagine before simply reading ∞.
Money problems: permanently retired.
I scrolled through vehicles until I found something suitably unremarkable for a world about to go to hell — a matte-black Land Rover Defender, armored trim, the kind of SUV that wouldn't draw a second look outside a supermarket parking lot and could probably survive driving through a wall if it had to. I bought it, watched it materialize on the dirt road above the riverbank like it had always been parked there, and climbed in.
King County by nightfall was smaller and quieter than the show ever made it look. A gas station, a diner, a bar with a flickering sign that couldn't decide whether it said OPEN or CLOSED. I parked the Defender outside the bar and went in — partly out of curiosity about how this world's version of "normal" people acted before everything ended, and partly, if I'm honest, out of simple boredom.
That's where I saw her.
She was sitting alone at the far end of the bar, nursing a drink she clearly wasn't enjoying, dressed like she'd left the house intending to have a calm night and gotten furious somewhere between the door and the parking lot. Dark hair, sharp cheekbones, the kind of composed beauty that looked like it belonged on a magazine cover rather than a barstool in a town this small. But what struck me most was how uncannily she resembled Kareena Kapoor in her 30s from my old world — the same striking features and sleek, size-zero frame, though this version somehow boasted a curvier figure with fuller breasts and a plumper ass that strained against the fabric of her skirt.
"EVE," I murmured under my breath, "who is she?"