The rain hadn't stopped for hours. It poured from the iron-colored sky, soaking the broken tiles of the ruined village of Kaelstone. The scent of ozone mixed with scorched metal and damp earth. In the distance, faint arcs of electricity cracked over the floating spires of the Helix Towers—evidence of the skygrid barrier that separated the borderlands from the heart of civilization.
Aiden lay face down in the mud.
Consciousness returned slowly, like wading through digital static. His vision glitched momentarily, sharp lines of light flickering across his retinas. For a heartbeat, the world around him looked pixelated—grayed-out outlines of buildings, red silhouettes flickering in the distance, and a dull throbbing warning tone echoing in his ears.
Then it all vanished, like a system reboot.
"...ghh."
He groaned, lifting himself up on shaky arms. His head was pounding—no, more like buzzing, as if a swarm of data bees were crawling behind his eyes. He blinked, and in the reflection of a broken mirror shard at his side, he saw something unfamiliar.
His eyes were glowing.
Not brightly—just a faint pulse of digital blue, like corrupted code peeking through a terminal. A warning sign? A curse? Or… was it real?
[Trait Awakening Detected]Initializing CodeBreaker Protocol...
Trait: CodeBreakerAbility Unlocked: Echotrace (Passive/Active)—Lifeform Detection Enabled—Threat Assessment Calibrating...
Aiden reeled as the floating text scrolled across his vision, translucent but unmistakable. Not that he didn't recognize the format—he did. Every child in the Five Realms knew what the awakening screen looked like. It was the dream of every young teen to see it on their fifteenth birthday during the Grand Awakening.
Aiden had never seen his.
Until now.
"I'm... seventeen," he muttered to himself, voice hoarse. "Why now?"
His hand clutched his chest instinctively. Two years. Two whole years of humiliation, of being considered "unawakened." A statistical anomaly. Pitied by strangers, rejected by guilds, whispered about in the streets of his own home. He had watched his childhood friends receive traits like Flamebrand or Stormtongue, drafted into academies or recruited by minor guilds. Meanwhile, Aiden was left behind. A nobody.
He thought it would never happen.
But now, as the reality set in, Aiden felt... strange. His body wasn't pulsing with raw elemental energy like the fire-wielders. Nor did he hear divine whispers like those blessed with celestial traits. Instead, he felt aware. As if the very rules of the world had become visible.
The passive element of Echotrace activated without his conscious input. Faint red glows flickered through the walls around him. Moving—alive. Three... no, four life signatures. Humanoid. Red meant high threat. Behind them, pale blue—civilians. Trapped?
The world's colors had shifted. A HUD-like overlay detailed outlines of the buildings, and living creatures glowed with color-coded light. It wasn't overwhelming, but it was... precise. Efficient.
A strange confidence filled him. He could see threats. He couldn't fight them—yet—but he knew where they were.
Level: 1XP: 0 / 100Status: Awakening InitializedMission Assigned: System Calibration
Objective: Assist trapped civilians and escape Kaelstone's quarantine zone.Reward: System Sync - Trait Functionality Enhanced
Aiden clenched his fists. His limbs still felt heavy, but the command was clear. His first mission. A test from the trait system, perhaps. Or something else. Either way, he had no time to waste.
The village was mostly in ruins, its protective wards long since shattered. Fungal growths and ethereal wisps floated where monsters had breached during the last Rift Surge. Kaelstone was a quarantine zone now. Left to rot at the border of the wildlands, it was the kind of place guilds used as target practice or trials for low-rank parties.
And yet... he was here. Alone. Unarmed. And something had triggered his awakening.
Suddenly, movement. A red silhouette turned sharply. The figure was large—armored. A mercenary? No, not quite. As the red outline shifted, Aiden recognized the posture. Poised. Aggressive. Corrupted.
Aiden ducked low, heart pounding. "Too soon," he whispered. "I just woke up... I can't fight."
He didn't have combat skills. Not yet. No weapon. Just sight. But he could plan. That's all he had, and it had to be enough.
As he inched toward the building where the civilians were marked in pale blue, he recalled how he'd ended up here.
His memory was still fragmented—most of the last 24 hours a blur. But he remembered the edge of the wildlands, the ambush, the desperation. His village had traded with Kaelstone before, but things had turned bad after the last Rift Surge. Refugees. Fugitives. Then betrayal. Someone had turned on them.
Then the pain. And light. And static.
Was that what triggered it? The trauma? Or was his system simply... delayed?
He reached the corner of the crumbled tavern wall. The red figure passed again, unaware. The corrupted mercenary's face was half-covered in synth-armor, the other half blackened with runes of void exposure. Aiden swallowed the bile rising in his throat.
He focused on the civilians again. Three children, one elderly man. All huddled, hidden under what looked like a reinforced trapdoor. He could see them clear as day through the rubble.
[Active Echotrace: Trap Structures Detected]Cooldown: 30s
Aiden activated the secondary effect. A wireframe overlay traced the mechanisms above the trapdoor. A trigger line connected to a pressure rune. Old tech. Pre-awakening era. Still functional.
He crawled forward and jammed a rock into the side of the mechanism, disrupting the rune's flow. The lock released with a faint hiss.
"Hey," he whispered. "Come on. Quick."
The children flinched at the sight of him, until the old man stepped forward, squinting. "You're... you're not with them?"
Aiden shook his head. "No. I can get you out. But you'll need to be quiet."
They didn't ask how he knew where they were. Most people didn't question awakened abilities. When the System chooses you, it changes you. They simply followed, and Aiden guided them through the safest route he could calculate from his Echotrace overlay.
By the time they slipped past the village edge, a shrill alarm blared from the center square. The corrupted had noticed.
Aiden turned, chest heaving. Not from exertion—but from something else.
For the first time in years, he didn't feel helpless.
He didn't feel forgotten.
He felt alive.
Mission Complete.Trait: CodeBreaker - Sync Progress: 12% XP Gained: 80
Level Up: 1 → 2New Ability Available: Pending Unlock
Aiden's eyes narrowed as the text scrolled by. More was coming. And he was ready for it.