"What the hell do you think you are doing?!"
The voice sliced through the chaos like a blade. Sharp. Cold. Maternal.
Aidan froze.
Standing in the middle of his wrecked bedroom, he blinked past the smoke rising from the scorched carpet and stared at the small flame dancing merrily in the palm of his right hand.
His left hand trembled slightly, still half-raised in what he had thought was a safe, anime-inspired "let's try this out" pose.
Across the threshold, standing like a judge at the gates of hell, was his mother, Natalie Black—also known as Nat the Not-So-Nice, depending on the day.
She wasn't yelling anymore. That was the scariest part.
Her mouth hung open slightly. Her eyes, usually warm or tired or stressed or some combination of all three, now held only disbelief.
She'd rushed upstairs after hearing a bang and what sounded like a small explosion. She had expected her son to be messing around with his speakers, maybe knocking over his gaming chair.
She had not expected to see her seventeen-year-old son wielding actual fire like some kind of wizard from a shounen anime.
"Oh…" Aidan croaked, throat dry. "Hey, Mom."
---
Ten Minutes Earlier
---
Aidan Black did not expect to awaken supernatural powers before lunch.
He didn't even expect to awaken before ten.
The day had started like every other day during school break—bleary-eyed, sluggish, and fueled by caffeine-free determination to do absolutely nothing productive. His parents had both left for work at the crack of dawn as usual, leaving behind two slices of toast and a sticky note with a smiley face and "Don't burn the house down!" written in his mom's familiar loopy handwriting.
He'd rolled out of bed, thrown on his hoodie, and powered up his aging gaming laptop. The goal was simple: check if Heavenly Void Emperor's Journey Through 3000 Realms had updated.
Spoiler: it hadn't.
In fact, he discovered it had been officially dropped.
Aidan sat still, staring at the screen. "You mean I read 1,127 chapters for nothing?!"
He leaned back and sighed dramatically.
The kind of sigh that held all the regret of a man who had wasted half his life chasing a happy ending that would never come.
And then… the voice came.
> [Detected: Host has come in contact with something supernatural.]
[Connecting… 1%... 50%... 99%... 100%]
[Connection Successful. Binding with Host.]
[Congratulations, Host. You are now bound with the Myriad Worlds Power System.]
[To see your status, think or say "Status."]
He froze.
The screen had gone black.
The voice was inside his head—clear, neutral, distinctly female. It had the tone of a GPS crossed with a gacha game tutorial character.
Aidan's first thought: I've finally snapped.
Second thought: I'm dreaming.
Third thought: Okay, but what if I'm not?
He tapped his forehead. "Maybe I shouldn't have skipped breakfast…"
Still, as any true otaku would, he had a responsibility. He had read enough novels and seen enough webtoons to know how this went.
Speaking out loud would be shameful. So, mentally and with dignity, he thought:
Status.
A blue screen flickered to life in front of him, floating mid-air like a sci-fi HUD.
---
[Status Panel]
Name: Aidan Black
Age: 17
Class: None
Superpowers: None
Novels: 0
TV Shows: 0
Movies: 0
Anime: 0
Skills: None
Awakener Rank: F-
Remarks: The weakest Awakener of all time, but if you open your newbie gift maybe you'll be less useless.
---
"…Excuse me?!"
He read the screen twice. Then a third time.
"I've read over 500 novels. Watched 200 anime. I've memorized half the Pokedex! And you're telling me I have no skills?! What is this—an insult system?!"
> [Reminder: You have not yet claimed your Newbie Starter Pack.]
"Oh. Right. That makes sense."
He blinked, then thought the words: Open Newbie Pack.
The screen shimmered and changed:
---
> [Newbie Pack Unlocked!]
Skill: Flame Seed (Level 1)
Title: [Otaku Instinct]
Passive Ability: World Affinity - Anime
System Function: World Travel (Locked)
+5 All Stats
1x Random Gacha Ticket (Unclaimed)
---
Aidan's heart skipped.
"…Flame Seed?"
As if on cue, his right palm began to tingle. Then burn. Then glow.
A swirl of red-orange light gathered in his hand, and before he could even panic, a small flickering flame hovered above his palm.
His jaw dropped.
Then, as if in slow motion, the flame sparked outward—straight into the curtain.
WHOOSH.
"OH GOD, NO!"
He spun, flailing at the fire with a blanket. The curtain caught. The wall got scorched. His bookshelf toppled. His chair broke. His monitor cracked.
His floor now had a black patch the size of a pizza.
He stood in the wreckage, panting, hand still glowing faintly.
And that's when the door burst open.
---
Back to Now
---
"Mom," he said slowly, trying to smile. "I can explain."
"You can explain," Nat repeated, her voice rising with the intensity of a volcano that had been warned once too many times by the fire gods.
"I was… uh… just trying a new… meditation technique. Flame-style."
"You lit the wall on fire."
Aidan's hand twitched. The flame vanished.
"Small accident."
"Small accident?!"
She marched in, eyes blazing. "Your room looks like a battlefield! What—how—what even is this?!"
"Okay, hear me out—"
She snatched his wrist. "You're burning up."
"No, no, that's just my mana reacting to my first power channeling. Totally normal."
She stared at him. "Your what?"
Aidan gulped. "Mom. I… I think I awakened. Like, powers. Real ones. Like in the news."
Silence.
Nat stepped back, looking at the ruined room. At her son. At the faint sparkle still clinging to the air.
Her mouth opened. Then closed.
She slowly sat down on the edge of his bed—which creaked dangerously.
"…Well," she said finally, rubbing her temples. "I guess this means I'm calling in late."
"Huh?"
"You think I'm letting you leave the house when you've just turned into a walking fire hazard?" she snapped. "You could burn down the supermarket!"
"I won't—"
"And you're grounded."
"What?!"
"For awakened recklessness," she said firmly, as if this was now a standard parenting rule.
> [System Notification: Congratulations! Host has survived Parental Awakening Response. Achievement Unlocked: 'Mom Approved… Kind Of.']
Aidan slumped onto the floor.
This was not how his system journey was supposed to begin.