A pale beam of light fell from the worn-out neon tubes overhead. The air was humid, saturated with dust and despair.
Seo-jin pulled the hood of his jacket tighter, hiding his features. His steps were fast, controlled. It was late, and this district was far from safe.
He couldn't help but feel his heart hammering against his ribs as he approached the meeting point.
"Stay calm," he muttered to himself.
All around, half-collapsed futuristic ruins stood as monuments to a world where strength dictated life... or death.
In this torn society, where ten percent of the population were blessed by divine fragments, it was easy to see who ruled.
Until recently, Seo-jin had been nothing but an insect in this system. Weak, invisible.
But today was different.
Today, he had power.
He finally reached the alley, barely illuminated by a flickering streetlamp. A shadowy figure leaned against the wall a few meters away.
"You Seo-jin?" the man asked, spitting on the ground.
Seo-jin nodded. His throat was dry, but his gaze stayed sharp.
"Heard you got what I want," the man continued, a nasty grin stretching across his lips. "But first..."
The man extended his hand. Seo-jin knew what would follow: a demand, a bargain, and likely a betrayal.
"They always think they can take whatever they want."
He briefly closed his eyes, feeling his fragment stir under his skin. His hand trembled slightly as he extended it, palm open.
A faint vibration rippled through the air.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, an invisible crack tore through the space in front of the man, ripping reality apart.
The fissure was just a fragile line, barely visible — like a cut in the air itself. But its power was real.
"Twist reality."
Seo-jin's fragment was working.
The fissure emitted a sharp crack, like glass breaking.
The man had no time to react.
His chest was slashed by an unseen claw. Blood. Panic. He staggered, trying to comprehend.
"W-What...?"
Seo-jin didn't wait. His fragment was weak — he could only hold the breach for two seconds. But two seconds were enough.
He lunged, clumsily dodging a desperate swing, and drove his improvised blade under the man's ribs.
A grunt. Then silence.
Panting, Seo-jin stepped back, watching the body collapse heavily.
His hands trembled. Not from fear. Not from guilt.
From relief.
"That's how the world works."
It wasn't his first kill. It wouldn't be his last.
A sound behind him.
Seo-jin immediately turned, muscles tense, senses sharp. For a suspended second, his heart seemed to stop.
A girl, no taller than his chest, stared at him with bright, fearless eyes. She wore a jacket far too big for her, and her battered sneakers slipped slightly on oily puddles.
She crossed her arms, unfazed.
"Not bad," she said, shrugging. "Not clean, but effective."
Seo-jin froze. A primal urge to flee surged through him, but she wasn't armed. And she wasn't screaming.
"Who are you?" he rasped.
"Ha-eun. Official mascot of the Lotus guild."
She puffed out her chest proudly, as if expecting applause.
Seo-jin narrowed his eyes. "Guild?"
Ha-eun tilted her head, amused.
"We've been watching you, big guy."
"...Watching me?"
"You've got potential. And," she gestured toward the still-smoking corpse, "you've got guts."
Seo-jin gritted his teeth.
"They saw me... It was inevitable."
In a world where strength was everything, being guildless was like walking naked through a storm.
Reluctantly, he sheathed his weapon.
"What do you want?"
Ha-eun smiled triumphantly.
"Offering you an opportunity. Come with me."
Seo-jin thought quickly.
He was alone. He had a newborn fragment, no experience, no resources. Only a faction could offer him shelter, a platform to climb higher.
But...
"Why me?"
Ha-eun shrugged.
"The boss likes people who can get their hands dirty without making waves."
Seo-jin sighed.
"It's this or become prey."
He nodded slowly.
"Alright."
Ha-eun snapped her fingers, satisfied.
"Awesome! Follow me, partner!"
She turned away, practically bouncing over the cracked pavement.
Seo-jin followed at a distance, casting a final glance at the body behind him.
"Sorry."
In this world, ascension was never clean.
The city sprawled before them, magnificent in its decay. Collapsed towers, open-air black markets, high-energy zones where fragments sometimes manifested spontaneously.
Seo-jin watched silently, taking in the chaos only a few steps away.
Every fragment was unique. Some granted brute strength, others manipulated matter, twisted physics, glimpsed into the future, or even altered souls.
His fragment was rare. Twisting reality.
No fire, no flashy explosions. Just... a subtle shift. An almost imperceptible alteration that, in time, could shatter entire realms.
Ha-eun led him through a maze of alleys to a half-buried structure with rusted doors.
A symbol — a black lotus — was carved into the wall.
"Welcome," Ha-eun announced with a radiant smile, "to Lotus."
Seo-jin felt his stomach knot.
The first step was taken.
But in this world, every step could be the last.
The black lotus logo looked almost wilted under the weather, carved into the crumbling wall. The building was just an old warehouse hastily converted into a headquarters. Cables hung from the ceiling like dead vines, and the air reeked of rancid oil. The metal plates creaked in the wind, the windows coated in opaque grime. Yet, amid this patchwork wreck, there was a strange warmth.
Ha-eun dashed through the rusted doors, her worn-out sneakers splashing through oily puddles.
"Come on, before Old Ko wakes up!"
Seo-jin followed silently, his senses alert. He hadn't forgotten the body he left behind. One mistake, and Lotus could be worse than an enemy.
Inside was just as rough: flickering lights, scavenged furniture, tangled wires everywhere. But there was life. A dozen people talking, grumbling, training. All bore the marks of a harsh world — scars, reinforced gear, wary eyes.
A massive man, arms crossed, stepped out from the crowd. His salt-and-pepper beard, roughly trimmed, only added to his gruff demeanor.
"Ha-eun... what have you dragged in this time?"
Ha-eun puffed out her chest.
"Potential, boss!"
The man grunted, a sound that could mean anything.
"Name?"
"Seo-jin."
The Lotus boss — the "Old Ko" Ha-eun had mentioned — sized him up.
"Hmph. Another kid who thinks a fragment is enough to survive."
Seo-jin didn't flinch.
"I killed to be here."
A brief silence stretched. Then, unexpectedly, Ko smiled.
"At least you've got guts. Welcome to Lotus — as long as you can stay standing."
No contracts, no oaths. In this world, that was better than paper.
They gave him a spot in a converted storage room turned dormitory. Just a thin mattress on some pallets, surrounded by broken crates and makeshift curtains.
Ha-eun plopped down cross-legged by the bed.
"You'll start simple," she explained. "New recruits do scout missions: surveillance, deliveries, object recovery."
Seo-jin nodded.
"No problem."
Ha-eun pulled a battered notebook from her pocket.
"Everything's tied to your 'social class' here. The higher you are, the better equipment you can buy, the harder missions you can take. At your level, even an old revolver would cost a fortune."
She smiled sympathetically.
"But don't worry. Everyone starts at the bottom."
Seo-jin leaned against the wall.
"And fragments?"
Ha-eun shrugged.
"There are thousands. Some light fires, some smash mountains, others change your body... Twisting reality like you? Super rare. But if you can't use it well, it's not worth much."
Seo-jin clenched his jaw. He knew it. His fissure was weak, fleeting. Two seconds of instability, barely enough to create an opening.
"I'll get better."
Ha-eun sprang to her feet.
"Good! Because tomorrow's your first mission."
She skipped toward the door, throwing him a wink.
"Sleep tight, Seo-jin! Tomorrow, you enter the kiddie leagues."
The door creaked shut.
Seo-jin sat for a moment, eyes lost in the darkness. The heavy silence was broken only by the breathing of other survivors asleep around him.For the first time in a long while, he wasn't alone.But he wasn't one of them — not yet.
"Social class." "Fragments." "Power."
Everything revolved around strength.
He pulled a twisted piece of metal — his improvised weapon — from his pocket.
He stared at it long and hard.
"I'll grow strong enough never to be a pawn again."
No regrets.
Only the future.
And for the first time in a long time, Seo-jin felt a spark of hope in his chest.
Far away, in the shadow of a ruined alley, a man in a dark coat watched the Lotus building from afar.
His eyes gleamed with a feline light under his hood.
"Interesting..." he murmured.
He turned and vanished into the night.
Tomorrow would mark the true beginning.