“Reboot:The Unexpected Hero”

[SYSTEM STATUS: TERMINATED]

Host: Ethan Grey (formerly Peter Benjamin Parker)

Level: N/A

Powers: None

Current Status: Anchored – Permanently bound to a single timeline.

Legacy Quest: "Echoes of Eternity"

Objective: Unknown

Threat Level: UNKNOWN

Queens, New York – Present Day

The world had moved on.

Ethan Grey woke up to the sound of city life outside his small apartment window—car horns, distant sirens, the rhythmic pulse of New York breathing in and out. It was comforting, mundane… and a constant reminder of everything he'd left behind.

Gone were the days of cosmic battles, system notifications, and reality-bending powers. No more Kang. No more anomalies. No more paradox.

Just… Ethan.

He worked a boring IT job, lived alone, and tried to forget that he'd once saved the multiverse.

But some things refuse to be forgotten.

The Glitch Returns

One evening, as Ethan stared at his cracked phone screen—more out of habit than interest—a faint flicker of blue light caught his eye.

At first, he thought it was a glitch. Just bad pixels.

Until the light formed words.

[SYSTEM REBOOT: PHANTOM PROTOCOL ACTIVE]

Legacy Detected: Paradox Host (Ethan Grey)

New Threat Identified: ANOMALY 0-∞

Objective: Respond to the Echo.

Ethan's heart stopped.

"This isn't possible," he whispered, dropping the phone.

The system was gone. He had destroyed it. Chosen a normal life.

And yet… here it was.

A faint pulse echoed in his chest—like a heartbeat he thought he'd silenced forever.

A Visitor from the Void

Later that night, as rain painted streaks on his apartment window, Ethan heard a knock at the door.

He opened it cautiously.

Standing there, drenched but defiant, was Nova.

But not the Nova he remembered.

Her eyes glowed faintly with fractured light, her form glitching around the edges as if reality couldn't fully hold her.

"You didn't really think it was over, did you?" she rasped.

Ethan's jaw clenched. "The system is gone. Kang is dead."

Nova stepped inside, dripping water onto the worn floor. "Kang was just the start."

She held out a small device—a black cube, pulsating with the same blue light Ethan thought he'd left behind.

"This isn't about Kang anymore," she whispered. "It's about you."

The New Threat: The Architect

Nova explained everything in rushed, fragmented words.

Kang's death had created a power vacuum in the multiverse. But something—or someone—had stepped in to fill that void.

An entity known only as The Architect.

Unlike Kang, The Architect wasn't interested in controlling timelines.

It wanted to erase them.

"All of them," Nova whispered, her voice trembling. "Complete annihilation. No past. No future. Just… nothingness."

Ethan shook his head. "I'm done. I gave up that life."

Nova grabbed his wrist, her fingers cold with urgency. "You don't have a choice. You're still the paradox. You're the only one who can stop this."

Ethan yanked his arm free. "I'm not a hero."

Nova's eyes burned with frustration. "You're not a hero, Ethan. You're a constant. The only thing in existence that doesn't belong anywhere… which means you belong everywhere."

A Flicker of Power

That night, Ethan stared at the cube Nova had left behind.

It pulsed faintly, as if it were alive, waiting for him to decide.

His reflection in the window didn't show Peter Parker anymore. It was just him—Ethan Grey.

But beneath the tired eyes and scars, something still flickered.

A spark.

With a shaky breath, Ethan reached out and touched the cube.

[SYSTEM UPDATE: PHANTOM PROTOCOL SYNCHRONIZED]

New Status: Echo of the Paradox

Ability Restored: Fragmented Reality – Access to limited multiversal anomalies.

Objective: Hunt The Architect.

Ethan closed his eyes.

So much for a normal life.

Final Scene – The Architect Watches

Across the fabric of reality, beyond space and time, The Architect observed.

A being of pure entropy, shifting between forms—a thousand faces, none of them real. Its voice wasn't spoken; it was felt, like a ripple in existence.

"The Paradox stirs…" it whispered to no one.

And the multiverse trembled in response.

[TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 13: "The Echo of the Paradox"]