He began to come to his senses. His eyes fluttered open, heavy and slow—then suddenly widened. What he saw wasn't something he expected. No, it wasn't money or fame. It was something he had once fantasized about, something he had desperately wanted to be real.
A system.
Yeah. A fucking system.
Right in front of his eyes.
Not wealth. Not power. But something that could give him both. The world worships money because money controls everything, but this... this could rewrite the rules entirely.
For a moment, he just stared at it in shock. Then, slowly, a crooked smile crept across his face. It wasn't joy. It was the smile of a man who had waited too damn long—who had suffered too deeply—to finally see the first crack of light.
The interface floated mid-air, digital yet surreal. A prompt appeared:
> [Enter your name to proceed.]
He entered it: Nocten Vale.
And just like that, the system vanished.
Gone. No explanation. No guide.
He blinked. Tried to summon it again. Nothing.
He tried everything—calling it out loud, thinking about it, touching the air where it once floated. For an entire day, he obsessed over it, skipping food. But no matter what he did, it wouldn't reappear.
> "Was it just my imagination?"
Just as he started to doubt himself, a strange memory surfaced—the accident.
He had been in it. He remembered the chaos, the blood, the wreckage.
But not... the pain.
> "Wait. Why didn't I feel any pain?"
He needed to be sure.
Grabbing a small fruit knife lying near the hospital tray, he lightly cut across the skin of his hand. Blood began to seep out immediately.
But the pain never came.
His eyes widened.
And then—the system popped up again.
> [Warning: Excessive blood loss may result in death.]
It vanished again after the message. But now Nocten understood—it hadn't disappeared.
It was tied to his awakening. And it responded to real threats.
He quickly bandaged the wound. The panic faded, replaced by focus.
> "So I don't feel pain… but that doesn't mean my body can't be damaged. My nerves are just shut down or dulled. Good to know."
He decided not to test anything further—for now. If this was real, he needed to understand it slowly, and cautiously. He figured he could experiment more once he got home.
But first, there was the matter of hospital bills.
Technically, he could stand and leave right then. He wasn't injured anymore. But that would raise suspicions. So he stayed in the hospital for a week, acting normal.
The bills were paid with a loan—he had to mortgage the house just to cover it.
During that week, he observed how the system worked. He learned that he could now summon it at will by simply thinking about it. It wasn't fully awakened yet, but it responded more reliably the more he used it.
It even sent him warnings before danger. Though not all dangers could be avoided...
---
He was back at work. His superior—a man who always looked through people like they were tools—was scolding him.
> "You should've informed me earlier. Do you know how worried I was?"
Nocten said nothing. He knew the truth: this man didn't care about him.
He only cared about the project he was working on.
Later, his colleagues asked him what happened, how he was doing. They smiled with concern, but Nocten could see the truth behind their eyes.
> "They're not worried. They're satisfied. They're happy I broke."
He gave a fake smile and said its fine and left. Finished the project. Submitted it.
Then left work.
> "Finally. Free."
At home, he sat down and summoned the system again.
It appeared immediately.
Level 1. One skill available.
> [Feel No Pain] – Currently Equipped
> "So that's why I didn't feel pain after the accident…"
Curious, he unequipped it.
Pain hit him instantly—burning, overwhelming, brutal. He gritted his teeth, trembling, then quickly re-equipped the skill.
> "Fuck... so the damage is real. I just don't feel it."
He took a few days to rest. Though the pain was now suppressed again, the injuries were deep.
Looking at the system, he noticed dozens of locked slots.
> [Every 5 levels unlocks a bonus skill.]
> "So I level up... and I get more skills. Just like a game."
Then he found a new tab.
> [Quests Available]
He smirked.
> "Missions, XP, levels, rewards... sounds easy."
He clicked the first quest.
His smirk vanished.
What he saw was not just unexpected.
It was unthinkable.
---