War-Maid: Chapter 1 The Last Normal Day (Patreon)

Year 2025

The city was alive as car horns blared endlessly through crowded streets while neon advertisements flickered against the glass walls of towering buildings. Music spilled from open storefronts, conversations overlapped across packed sidewalks, and the smell of street food mixed with exhaust in the cooling evening air gave a slight hunger to anyone who got close.

People moved everywhere, many busy, tired or excited. Among the sea of strangers walked a young Latino man with messy dark hair and tired black eyes hidden beneath the hood of a faded grey sweatshirt. Earbuds rested loosely around his neck while one hand remained buried inside his hoodie pocket.

The other held his phone with absolute focus. His thumbs danced across the cracked screen of his phone, the familiar chime of a "Multi-Summon" fanfare drowning out the grinding gears of a city at rush hour.

Tap. Swipe. Tap.

A small grin appeared on his face. “Come on… come on… give me something better than a two-star girl” He muttered under his breath while staring intensely at the screen, a faint, tired smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. . “Please don’t shaft me again.”

On his phone, colorful lights exploded across the screen as an animation played. A mobile gacha game.

After spending nearly ten exhausting hours working inside the cramped inferno that was a restaurant kitchen, the heat of the kitchen still clung to his skin, the scent of grilled onions and dish soap embedded in the fabric of his grey hoodie, dodging boiling pots and screaming orders, the gacha game was the only world where things felt like they were under his control.

Just music, bright colors and fictional girls trying to take his money. The young man let out a tired laugh. “If this is another duplicate, I swear I’m uninstalling.” The animation slowed dramatically. Golden lights flashed and his eyes widened. “No way…”

SSR PULL ACQUIRED

“YES!” He shouted loud enough to earn confused looks from nearby pedestrians. He pumped his fist into the air. “Finally! Let’s go!”

A few people walking past gave him amused looks while others simply ignored him. The young man didn’t care. After the day he’d had, this tiny victory felt amazing.

His thoughts drifted back to work to his burned hands, endless orders and finally to his manager yelling because someone dropped an entire tray of plates. “…I seriously need a new job,” He muttered tiredly.

Still focused on the game, he absentmindedly continued walking forward.

The pedestrian light had not changed and cars continued to rush through the intersection.

"Hey! Kid! Look out!" The shout was distant, muffled by his headphones. 

But he never noticed as he stepped off the curb, his sneakers hitting the asphalt as his eyes remained glued to the screen as another reward animation played. “Oh nice, free summon tickets too—”

SCREEEECH!!

A sudden chorus of horrified screams erupted around him.

“WATCH OUT!”

“GET OUT OF THE ROAD!”

The young man blinked in confusion and slowly looked up from his phone. His blood instantly froze. His dark eyes widened, catching the glint of polished chrome and the massive, towering grill of a semi-truck. 

The driver’s face was a mask of pure terror behind the windshield, standing on the brakes so hard the tires screamed, leaving black scars on the road.  The driver slammed desperately on the horn.

"Oh... mierda," The young man whispered. 

HOOOOONK!!

The deafening sound echoed through the street.

Inside the truck, the driver’s face had gone completely pale. “MOVE!!” the man screamed while stomping on the brakes. The tires screeched violently against the asphalt. But it was too late. The truck was going far too fast.

Everything suddenly felt slow. The young man was full of pure terror as his body locked in place. He saw the panicked expressions of the commuters on the sidewalk, mouths frozen in mid-scream. 

Useless thoughts soon entered his mind as he realized that he was twenty-one years old, his shift was over, and he was about to become a statistic on 5th Avenue. Later his phone quickly slipped slightly from his trembling fingers as even more of his thoughts exploded through his mind all at once. ‘Oh God, I’m dead.’ His heart pounded so hard it hurt.

People nearby screamed in horror. A woman covered her mouth. Someone quickly turned away.

He braced for the impact—the bone-crushing weight of ten tons of steel. He closed his eyes, his grip tightening.

But the pain never came as blue light erupted around him. A brilliant flash that exploded across the intersection like lightning.vTo the onlookers, it looked as if the air itself had glitched, swallowing the young man whole. 

The truck driver’s eyes widened. “What the hell?!”

The young man gasped as glowing lightning suddenly surrounded his body, spinning rapidly through the air like holographic rings. Strange code-like markings flickered around him while energy crackled against the pavement beneath his shoes.

“What—?!”

The world distorted. The sounds of the city warped into static. The young man felt his stomach violently twist as if reality itself had grabbed hold of him. He felt weightless, his stomach lurching as if he were on a roller coaster that had just crested a hill into an infinite drop. The blue light burned behind his eyelids, smelling of ozone and ancient electricity. 

For a single moment, he saw something impossible. A ruined sky, dark clouds, burning metal. Red glowing eyes in the darkness and finally a beautiful silver haired girl watching over a field of flowers.

Then the light consumed him completely.

BOOOOM!!

The truck tore through the exact spot where he had been standing only a fraction of a second earlier.

But there was no body, no blood. Nothing.

The truck crashed into a nearby traffic pole with a deafening metallic crunch as alarms began blaring throughout the street.

People screamed and stumbled backward in panic.

“What happened?!”

“Where did he go?!”

“He just disappeared!”

The truck driver shakily climbed out of the vehicle, staring at the empty street with horror written across his face. “…No…”

Back in the middle of the intersection, the young man’s phone clattered harmlessly against the pavement.

—--------------------------------------

Year 4500

Beneath the Iron Graveyard, Secret Laboratory, Time Chamber

Blue lightning danced wildly across the massive chamber.

CRACKLE—!!

Arcs of energy exploded from enormous conductors mounted along the ceiling, illuminating the underground laboratory in violent flashes of electric blue. Ancient machinery trembled as alarms blared through the metallic halls while steam hissed from ruptured pipes overhead.

At the center of the room stood the pod, tall, black and smooth like polished obsidian. Its transparent surface glowed with streams of flowing blue lightning while countless tiny spider-like maintenance machines scurried around its base, their mechanical legs clicking rapidly against the metal floor.

Inside the pod, a human silhouette slowly became visible as the storm of energy finally began to fade.

Systems immediately activated.

BIOLOGICAL SCAN — ACTIVE.

TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT SUCCESSFUL.

CELLULAR DEGRADATION — 0%.

NEURAL STABILITY — ACCEPTABLE.

LIFE SIGNS — STABLE.

Soft mechanical hums echoed throughout the chamber as scanners passed over the figure within. Then the young man’s eyes snapped open and his heart hammered against his ribs, he was met with a ghostly, translucent HUD shimmering just inches from his face. 

“Ghk—!” He gasped sharply, immediately sucking in cold air as his entire body jerked violently inside the pod. "What the...?" The word died in his throat. He tried to move, but his limbs felt like lead, heavy and unresponsive from the transition. He looked down and his stomach did a somersault. He was completely naked, suspended in a pressurized glass coffin.

Outside the transparent walls, the world looked like a nightmare designed by a mad architect. The lab was a cavernous tomb of flickering monitors and exposed wiring. Scuttling across the floor and walls were dozens of multi-legged, spider-like drones, their optical sensors glowing with a faint blue light as they worked with mechanical obsession.

Diego Perez stared upward in confusion, his black eyes wide as panic immediately flooded his chest. Strange glowing symbols reflected across the transparent surface surrounding him. For a moment, his brain refused to process what he was seeing.

“…Wha…” His breathing quickened as the last thing he remembered was resurfaced from the truck, the blue light, then nothing. ‘Is this... a hospital? Did I die?’ The thought raced through his mind, fueled by the terrifying silence of the room. ‘No, hospitals don't have robot spiders. Am I being experimented on?’

Diego quickly pushed himself backward, only to suddenly realize something horrifying. “…Why am I naked?!” His face immediately turned red. He looked down in absolute disbelief before frantically covering himself with both hands. “What the hell is this?!” The transparent walls around him made everything worse.

Spider-like robots crawled across the floor and walls with eerie precision, some carrying tools while others welded machinery together in showers of sparks. One of the machines suddenly turned its glowing blue lens directly toward him causing Diego to nearly jump out of his skin.

“AH! Nope! Nope! Nope! Hell no!” He slammed both hands against the transparent surface as panic surged. He slammed a palm against the glass, the sound echoing hollowly in the chamber. "Hey! Get me out of here! Help!" 

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“Okay! Is this some kind of prank?! Real funny! NOW PLEASE LET ME OUT!!” He yelled but no answer came. Only the endless mechanical humming of the chamber. Diego’s heart pounded violently in his chest. ‘This isn’t real. This HAS to be a dream.’ He looked around wildly. “What is this place…?” Diego whispered.

Suddenly WARNING: CHAMBER OPENING.

PSHHHHHHH!!

As if in response, a series of pneumatic hisses erupted from the base of the machine. Mechanical locks disengaged one by one with heavy metallic CLUNKS. The glass shield started retracting, venting a cloud of freezing cryo-mist that swirled around his bare skin, sending a violent shiver through his body. 

Cold air immediately rushed over Diego’s exposed body. The moment the pod fully opened, Diego stumbled forward and nearly fell out of it entirely. He grabbed the side desperately to steady himself while looking around in panic.

The floor beneath him was freezing cold metal. Several spider drones immediately turned toward him simultaneously. Their glowing blue eyes locked onto him.

Diego’s survival instincts screamed as he grabbed the first thing he could find—a loose cloth hanging near the pod and quickly wrapped it around his waist like a desperate improvised towel. “What are there robot spiders?!”

One of the drones suddenly approached him, its mechanical legs clicking rapidly.

CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK—

Diego grabbed a nearby metal tool defensively. “Back up! I swear I’ll hit you!”

The machine stopped, its glowing eye flickered.

Suddenly, the overhead speakers crackled to life, a voice echoed throughout the chamber. “Welcome to the future, Diego Perez… to the year 4500.”

Silence.

Diego blinked once. “…What is this place…?” He asked with a flinch as he tightened the silver thermal cloth around his waist with one hand, his knuckles white, while the other gripped a heavy wrench-like tool like a primitive spear. 

The mechanical voice continued. “The temporal displacement was successful. Biological integrity preserved. Psychological condition… unstable but functional.”

Diego stared blankly into the air. “This is a joke.” His voice came out weak. He shook his head repeatedly, the movement frantic, as he backed away from the shimmering glass of the pod. His breathing became a series of jagged, uneven hitches. “This must be a VR thing or maybe I got hit and I’m in a coma or something…” He looked around, his eyes wide and searching for a camera, a door, a way out. “Someone please tell me what is going on!” 

“Forgive me,” the voice echoed, calmly through hidden speakers. “You are correct; context is required. You are currently located 1.2 kilometers beneath the surface of the Iron Graveyard. In a former military laboratory designation: Sector Zero-Seven.” 

Diego blinked and his jaw tightened. “…That explains absolutely nothing.” He gestured wildly at the cavernous, metallic room. “What’s going on, and why am I naked?!” 

"I am G.O.D, the Global Orbital Database. A planetary management intelligence created by humanity during the early stages of the Final Age."

Diego, hearing this, his arms snapped across his chest in a defensive crouch. “…Right. Evil robot supercomputer. Got it. I’ve seen this movie.” 

“I am not evil.”

“…That’s exactly what an evil robot would say.”

For the first time, the AI paused. The silence lasted exactly 1.4 seconds . “…Statement acknowledged. Logic loop noted. However, the fact remains: you have been pulled across the temporal stream to participate in Project: RECLAMATION. You are the foundation of a grand design to restore humanity to its former apex. Your lack of attire is a byproduct of molecular reconstruction. Organic matter was successfully transferred; but the synthetic polymers do not survive the friction of the stream." 

Suddenly, the air ignited as holographic screens bloomed around the chamber. Images appeared across them ranging from ruined futuristic cities, black contaminated oceans, burning skies and gigantic warships floating above dead landscapes.

Diego’s face lost all color as he was surrounded by a gallery of nightmares: ruined, skeletal cities reaching toward a sky that burned like an open wound; black, viscous oceans choking on their own filth; and hordes of grotesque creatures wandering through radioactive wastelands. And endless machines killing, destroying and hunting anything that moved.

“…What the hell happened to the world…?” He whispered, the tool slipping inches in his grip. 

“Human civilization collapsed 437 years ago,” G.O.D. replied instantly. 

Diego’s stomach dropped.

“Current planetary condition: catastrophic.”

A massive hologram of Earth appeared in front of him, showing that the planet looked scarred, dead. Various toxic storms covered most of its surface. Deep fissures in the crust glowed with a sickly, radioactive red. 

“Human population: critically endangered.”

“…Jesus Christo…” Diego stumbled backward slightly. His mind struggled to process the information. “This… this can’t be real…” Diego watched in stunned silence as entire cities burned beneath black skies. Giant warships bombarded the surface from above while swarms of machines marched through the ruins. Then came the monsters. Mutated creatures. Infected humans. Things that barely resembled life anymore.

“The Final War between superpowered nations resulted in the collapse of human civilization,” G.O.D explained. “Humanity entered terminal extinction approximately 437 years ago.”

Diego slowly looked up, his eyes glassy. “…So everyone's gone.”

“Endangered,” the AI corrected. “But the trajectory is currently absolute.”

The room felt ice-cold now. Diego stared at the black oceans on the screen, feeling the weight of the dead world above his head. He swallowed hard, his throat feeling like it was lined with sandpaper. “…Why am I here?” 

The hologram changed again. PROJECT: RECLAMATION.

“To restore humanity,” G.O.D answered.

Diego immediately pointed at himself. “Why me?!” His voice cracked, rising to a panicked shout.  “Look, I think you have the wrong guy, I’m just a nobody! Just a simple cook that makes tacos and wash dishes. I’m not special. I’m not 'save the world' capable. You need a soldier, or a scientist, or... or a superhero!"  He started pacing around the chamber. “I work at a restaurant! I barely passed college! I still live in an apartment with terrible plumbing!”

“Specialization was not a requirement," G.O.D. countered with chilling, digital indifference. "You being brought here was simply a test to see if the experiment was a success as my search parameters were narrow. You were selected because at that moment in time, you were about to die.”

Diego felt the blood drain from his face. The image of the truck flashed behind his eyes—the screaming tires, the roar of the horn. "I was... about to die?"

“At 16:42 local time, a cargo vehicle traveling at unsafe speed would have impacted your body with fatal force.”

Diego stared blankly ahead. His chest tightened immediately as he realized what was about to happen during that time. “You…” His voice came out quieter now. “You actually saved me…”

“Yes.”

Diego’s thoughts spiraled. ‘I really died…No. Almost died. Or should have died.’ A cold shiver ran down his spine.

“To avoid temporal paradoxes, I selected a subject whose removal would have zero impact on the historical timeline,” The AI continued. “You were, statistically speaking, already dead.”

Diego slowly blinked. “…So humanity’s really gone…”

“Current population estimates remain critically low. Most surviving humans exist in fragmented scavenger tribes with minimal technological capability.”

“And you think I can fix this?”

“I do not,” G.O.D. said, its voice devoid of any comforting lie. “As I stated, you are the first successful summon, a calibration test. To see if the timechamber was possible. Your survival confirms the procedure is viable. Now that the coordinates are locked and the biological cost is calculated… Additional human retrieval operations will commence.” 

“…Additional?” Diego suddenly imagined multiple random people from Earth getting yanked into this nightmare future. “That’s messed up… You’re just going to keep snatching people out of their lives? Just… pulling them into this nightmare?”

“The mission is survival,” G.O.D. replied and before G.O.D could do anything else.

WARNING!!

The chamber lights suddenly turned red.

Diego jumped. “What now?!”

A violent tremor shook the entire laboratory.

BOOOOOOM!!

The walls rumbled violently, sparks erupted from the overhead control panels, raining down in a cascade of white-hot magnesium. Above him, a high-pressure pipe burst with a shriek of tortured metal, spraying scalding steam into the freezing air. 

“WOAH—!” Diego stumbled backward, his arms flailing as the floor tilted. A deafening, discordant siren began to wail.

WARNING: TEMPORAL REACTOR INSTABILITY.

WARNING: CORE OVERLOAD.

The pod behind him suddenly sparked violently. A shower of orange sparks and blue electrical fire erupted from the time-chamber’s control console. The transparent pod Diego had just stepped out of shattered as a secondary explosion rocked the floor. 

CRACKKKK!!

“Oh hell no!” Diego ducked as a nearby console exploded in sparks and flames. Spider drones immediately rushed into action.

CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK—

Tiny machines swarmed across the room carrying extinguishers, tools, and repair equipment while emergency bulkheads began slamming shut throughout the facility.  Fire erupted from one side of the chamber.

“WHY IS EVERYTHING EXPLODING?!” Diego screamed over the roar of the fire and the sirens.

“Oh dear, the temporal displacement chamber has suffered severe structural destabilization,” G.O.D answered calmly. The AI’s voice remained horrifyingly polite, as if it were commenting on the weather rather than a looming meltdown. 

“THAT DOESN’T SOUND GOOD!”

“It is significantly less than ideal,” the AI conceded. 

BOOOOM!!

Another explosion, deeper and more guttural than the last, shook the very bedrock. A massive support beam, tons of reinforced steel, sheared off its bolts and collapsed with a deafening, metallic crash, missing Diego by less than a yard. The impact sent a cloud of dust and ancient soot into his lungs.

Diego scrambled back on his hands and knees, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. He watched in terror as the spider drones ignored him, frantically dragging scorched debris away from the encroaching fire, their welding torches casting eerie, flickering shadows against the smoke.

Done. Tell me what you think and if you have any suggestions?