Ashvale District was the kind of place forgotten by God — the kind of place where broken dreams clung to the air like cigarette smoke and even the sky seemed ashamed to look down.
The rain came like punishment — relentless, cold, unforgiving.
A seventeen-year-old boy limped through the narrow alley behind an old scrapyard. His name was Kai Velair, and tonight, he had nothing left to lose. A deep cut above his brow bled into his right eye, but he didn't bother to wipe it. His breath came in foggy bursts, legs shaking beneath him. His backpack had been stolen hours ago. His last food card? Gone.
And his name?
Expelled. Again.
This time from Ravencliff Institute — the only scholarship he'd earned from cleaning classrooms after midnight and acing every damn exam in a place that hated him for existing.
"He's trash — just like his father.""Street rats don't belong in our school.""Bet he cheats — or steals."
He heard those voices more often than he heard his own thoughts.
Further uptown, in the glittering towers of Trystan Heights, a young man leaned back on a leather chair, watching the rain through a crystal wall.
Eron Valtier, heir to the multi-billion credit Valtier Consortium, tapped his tablet's screen and enlarged a surveillance feed of the alley.
There was Kai, dragging his half-conscious body past an old dumpster.
"You told me he'd be dead last year," Eron said coldly.
A woman across from him exhaled a thin stream of smoke. Her crimson jacket bore the logo of a defunct biotech company, and her eyes shimmered like polished metal.
"Assassination contracts are messy," said Dr. Sura Lang, exiled geneticist turned black-market mercenary. "But he's… interesting. The data shows he's survived multiple neural scans. His threshold readings? Off the charts."
Eron narrowed his eyes. "Then track him. If he triggers anything divine, I want it first."
Meanwhile… beneath the city.
Far below Ashvale's crumbling subway lines lay the Catacombs of the Forsaken Gods — an ancient zone buried under layers of time and silence. There, amidst shattered stone and forgotten altars, a faint golden spark shimmered to life.
A stone statue — broken at the waist, one arm missing — began to glow. A deep hum resonated through the chamber like a heartbeat.
Then came the voice.Cold. Mechanical. Divine.
[ Scanning Host: Status… Critical. ]
[ Divine Reversal System Initiating. ]
[ Host Detected: Kai Velair ]
[ Compensation Triggered: Maximum Humiliation Threshold Reached. ]
[ Reward Level: Extreme. Initializing Transformation Protocol… ]
Back in the alley, Kai collapsed beside a rusted dumpster. A stray mutt crept forward and curled next to him, shaking from the rain.
Kai managed a tired chuckle. "Even dogs have better instincts than people."
His breath slowed. His vision blurred.
Then it happened.
A flash of gold beneath his skin. Heat — not from outside, but from within — poured through his bones, his veins, his mind. His limbs seized. His chest arched upward.
Lightning cracked across the sky.
Time stuttered.
[ Divine Skill Unlocked: Passive Compensation – Wealth Accrual (Lv. 1) ]
[ Condition: For every act of public shame, you gain 1 Divine Credit. ]
Kai's body hit the ground again. The rain felt warm now.
He didn't understand what had just happened — only that something inside him had changed.
Miles away, aboard a sky-yacht hovering above the cloudline, a woman in silk robes placed her wine down.
Councilwoman Liora, third seat of the Order of Twelve, turned to the silent man across from her.
"A divine protocol was activated," she said.
The old man's eyes flickered — completely black, save for a ring of silver light. He wore a robe stitched from patches of writhing souls.
"Another child?" he asked softly. "They're choosing broken vessels now?"
"No," she whispered. "They're choosing vengeful ones."
Back at the alley.
Kai slowly pushed himself up on trembling arms. The rain had stopped. Or maybe it hadn't — but he no longer felt it.
Everything around him was… clearer. Sharper.
He could see the names on the peeling posters. Hear a rat scurrying behind a wall two meters away. Smell the spice trail from a restaurant five blocks down.
And in his mind — a screen. Not visual, but intuitive.
He "knew" that he had something called Divine Credits. And that those credits were directly tied to his suffering.
It was cruel. Twisted. But in a city like Ashvale?
It was perfect.
He stood. Slowly. Deliberately.
A rusted van screeched to a stop at the alley's edge.
Three boys jumped out, bats in hand.
"Look who didn't die after all," the tallest sneered. Zayn — a dropout from Kai's former school. He'd once broken Kai's ribs for refusing to hand over lunch tickets.
The other two — Judo and Marks — flanked him.
Kai said nothing.
He didn't need to.
[ Threat Detected: Danger Level Moderate. ]
[ Trigger Opportunity: Let them humiliate you publicly to gain maximum Divine Credits. ]
[ Or… retaliate. New skill available for 3 credits: Karmic Echo (Lv. 1) – Reflects pain to attacker ×1.2. ]
Kai smiled for the first time in weeks.
"Go ahead," he whispered.
Zayn blinked. "What?"
Kai raised his chin. "Make me bleed."