The Archiverse world series

*"Not your average isekai or is it?"*

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Architect Series Web Novel

Prologue: Chapter 0 — Earth, 2025

April 2025.

Oliver sat hunched over his laptop, answering yet another string of pointless "personality" questions—over 60 of them—just to apply for a basic retail job at Target. He clicked through four-minute training videos no one cared about. It was the same dance every day. Apply. Wait. Hope. Get ignored.

At 27, he still lived with his parents in Tampa, Florida. College was a distant memory, and his degree? Useless. No one cared about it. Employers wanted "skills" and "experience," not someone who knew the water cycle or geometry. All those years in school had taught him nothing applicable—nothing creative, nothing hands-on. No animation, no writing, no real-world survival. Just outdated lessons regurgitated for generations.

> "Do well in school, Oliver. Be responsible. Get a good job, a car, and an education," they used to tell him.

He did everything right—or so he thought. Now, in a society accelerating toward automation and instability, doing things "right" felt like a curse. The system was broken, decaying under the weight of its own traditions.

He stood up, wincing slightly as his lower back ached under his weight. At 5'7" and 210 pounds, the sedentary lifestyle wasn't doing him any favors. Brown hair, fair skin, an unshaven beard, and a worn black-and-red jacket over a plain white tee—he looked like someone halfway between a burnout and a survivor.

Just last month, he had a job. But that ended when new tariffs were imposed by President Trump—reelected in 2024. The aluminum market tanked, and the manufacturing plant Oliver worked at shuttered half its operations. He was one of the first laid off.

Now? No rent money. No YouTube channel. No following. No prospects. Just applications, frustration, and the crushing weight of irrelevance.

But something was about to change—something that would take Oliver far beyond the crumbling Earth of 2025… and into a world where architecture, creativity, and survival weren't optional—they were everything.