This Time [chapter 1-3.1] Apr 2026

The clock struck midnight. The terminal didn't glitch. The world didn't reset. Elias stood on the balcony of the site office, watching the sun rise over the installation. He had rewritten the history he thought was set in stone. This time, the structures would hold.

Elias didn't waste a second. He knew the structural integrity of the base would fail during the upcoming tremors if the seismic coefficients weren't updated immediately. He bypassed his supervisor and went straight to the lead engineer, Sarah. This Time [Chapter 1-3.1]

Sarah looked up, skeptical. "Elias, that update isn't even official yet. How do you—" The clock struck midnight

"It will be," he interrupted. "And if we don't fix it now, the foundation won't hold." Elias stood on the balcony of the site

The terminal blinked with a steady, rhythmic pulse. of the Structural Code was open on Elias’s screen—the section on seismic design values that he had ignored three years ago. Back then, he had signed off on the OCONUS installation project without double-checking the UFC 1-200-01 standards.

The room went quiet. Sarah studied the math. For the first time in two lives, Elias saw the moment the disaster was averted before it ever began.