I sat back on the bed, fingers tapping against my knees.
No, I couldn't just sit here. I had to know. Had to.
"Okay…" I muttered under my breath, jaw tight. "Let's see… did they at least give me a system? A gift? Something? Anyone listening up there—hell, whoever dragged me into this mess—are you even trying?"
I shook my head, annoyed at myself. "Hey! System… Hola, system… Abracadabra…" The last one almost made me cringe out loud. I felt ridiculous, like some idiot talking to thin air. But desperate times.
Nothing.
I clenched my fists. "Of course. Why would I get a system? Why would anyone bother giving me a starter pack in this hellhole?" My voice was low, bitter, nearly a growl. "Fucked up world, fucked up rules. Whoever brought me here… yeah, thanks a lot. Really. You did a great job. Totally appreciate it."
Silence. Nothing but the faint crackle of the candle.
I tried again, calmer this time, more deliberate. "Open Status."
And then it happened. A faint blue glow, almost hesitant, emerged in front of me. Like it had been waiting for me to stop swearing at it.
<———————————————>
★𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑻𝑼𝑺★
Name: Nex Calder
Age: 17
Race: Human (pure, unadulterated 100% human)
Potential: B+
Blood-line: None
Tier: F-
Strength F
Agility F-
Vitality E+
Intelligence A+
Charm B+
Affinity ★Ice, ★??????
Skills:
Void Trance: numbs emotions, induces hyperfocus and calms mind during stress (not synchronized)
Spatial Pocket: grants 20m x 20m storage space inside pocket dimensions
Icial Barrage: creates icial projectiles (to be unlocked)
<———————————————>
I blinked.
"Fucked." I whispered it, barely audible. "I'm… fucked. Utterly doomed."
No strength, no agility, nothing remotely combat-ready. Just… bottomlight potential. And that intelligence. Maybe enough to survive if I played smart.
I leaned back, staring at the ceiling. The faint pulse in the walls almost felt like it was judging me.
And yet… even here, even in this impossibly clean, alien room, I felt it. That subtle trace of memory. Faded, almost painful: the warmth of home. Mom hugging me so tight it hurt, my sister laughing at something dumb, Dad's hand on my shoulder like he knew I could handle anything.
It hit harder now, the contrast. Faces I remembered, faces that had made me feel real, and yet no memory of myself, no name. Only fragments. Only echoes.
I pressed my palms into my eyes. "Alright," I muttered, finally meeting the glow of the status screen again. "No system. Nothing handed to me. That's fine. Then it's just me. Me, my brains, and… whatever this body's history has left for me to find."
I rose, slow, deliberate. Every movement felt foreign. The body was mine, but not really. Wealth, habits, resources… someone had lived here before me. And if I wanted to survive the bloodbath this world promised—six families, SSS-tier prodigies, and the X-tier monster the mc, in human form—I had to understand it.
Step one: erase my potential cap. If I didn't know how strong I could become, I couldn't plan.
Step two: figure out this body, its history, its connections.
Step three: get into N.E.X.U.S Academy. That's where all the threads of the story converge, where the children of the great families clash and prove who belongs at the top.
I swallowed. The weight of it settled in my chest like a stone.
Six arcs. Six hundred chapters. Full of blood, chaos, death. Violence in purest form. And I had to survive it all.
No system. No cheat. Just… me.
And maybe, just maybe, my memory of those warm faces could be enough to keep me human when everything else tried to eat me alive.