"Sigh…"
Sitting on the floor, Kian leaned against the wall, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie as he sighed and glanced around the small room he was in.
It was a dimly lit room. The dirty floor had cockroaches crawling freely, and the walls were cracked and stained with strange colors.
A barred gate sealed off one side of the room completely, preventing anyone from leaving while revealing a narrow corridor with a faint light at the end, calling out to freedom.
Well, it was exactly what one would expect of a cell.
From the corner of his eye, Kian watched the only other presence in the room: a man curled up, lying in the corner.
He was turned to the wall, his long, greasy hair spread across the floor while a cockroach walked through it.
"What is it, kid? Lose something?" the man asked without bothering to look at him.
"No. It's nothing, I'm sorry," Kian replied, quickly averting his gaze.
Sigh, another idiot.
From experience, he knew that provoking this kind of person would only bring unnecessary pain.
All he needed to do was give them a reason to start a fight.
Hurry up already, I need to get home.
Burying his head against his knees, he kept counting the minutes, barely able to wait for the moment he could finally go home and fulfill his long-time dream.
He would become Awakened, today of all days! But for that, he needed to get home quickly.
Come on, come on, come on.
"So, kid, have you reflected enough?" a voice called from outside, the jingling of keys ringing in his ears like a marvelous melody.
Looking up, Kian saw a middle-aged policeman with brown hair and an unshaven beard. Dark bags under his eyes stood out beneath his stern gaze.
Feeling his heart race, Kian stood up quickly, barely able to contain the smile tugging at his lips.
***
Back at his apartment, Kian paced around the sofa in circles, his eyes fixed on the door, waiting for his future to arrive.
Checking his phone, the time read only 2:09 in the afternoon.
"Tsk," he clicked his tongue, shoving the phone back into his pocket.
Come on, hurry up.
His plan was simple: awaken and make money.
He would awaken, obtain the System, discover his class, hunt the monsters on the frontier.
Then he would grow stronger and sell whatever he could to get rich and live a better life.
It wasn't that Kian's family was exactly poor or living in misery.
Sure, they got by well enough. They never had luxury, but he had never lacked anything either.
But that wasn't what Kian wanted.
He wanted to be rich, to have so much money he could buy whatever he wanted while lounging around all day watching TV or playing games.
Damn it, I've never even had a console!
He needed to buy one and spend the whole night gaming while stuffing himself with junk food.
He needed it.
"Damn it, why are they taking so long?" he muttered, pulling out his phone again to check the time.
It was 2:14. Only five minutes had passed…
"Tsk!" he grumbled softly, continuing to pace around the table, unable to do anything but wait.
After what felt like years, three knocks echoed through the door of room 109, and a smile spread across Kian's face as he ran to open it.
"Good afternoon, good afternoon, delivery man, how can I help you?" Rubbing his hands together, Kian asked, his eyes hungrily fixed on the small box in the courier's hands.
"Uh, Kian Blackwood?" Feeling like he was standing in front of a hungry predator, the poor worker shakily pulled out the delivery slip.
"Yes, yes, that's me," Kian said, signing quickly and reaching out for the package. "You must be tired from work, would you like a glass of water?"
"R-really? Actually, I—"
Snatching the package, Kian darted back inside, leaving the confused delivery man outside.
Feeling like he was carrying something extremely fragile, Kian went straight to his room and set the package on the bed.
Before locking the door, he couldn't help but notice a small yellow post-it stuck on the wall with a note.
'I left food in the fridge. Don't forget to eat properly, okay?'
"Don't worry, I'll be eating very well from now on," he muttered, peeling it off as he shut the door.
"Finally, my Awakening." Rubbing his hands, Kian carefully opened the package, as if one wrong move might make it explode in his face.
It wasn't a large package, just a white box stamped with the ARA's symbol, a circle divided into four parts.
"A-ha, it's really official," he grinned at the logo of the Agency of the Awakened as he opened the box.
Of course it was official. After all, he had spent a small fortune on this.
Every bit of hard work over the past few years, saving every cent, had been for this very moment.
"Well, maybe it would've been cheaper if I'd bought it directly from the ARA, but then I couldn't be Awakened," he murmured, opening the box.
Since he was still a minor, Kian would need his guardian's authorization, along with several psychological tests, to become Awakened.
And since Kian simply didn't want to wait any longer for the System, that left him with only one option: to buy through a reliable black-market intermediary.
In this case, the Red Butterfly.
"Which also means I'll be an irregular Awakened from today on. Practically a criminal," he sighed, tossing aside the instruction manual.
The box itself contained a thick instruction book and a small glass case with a cosmic-looking diamond inside.
Kian's eyes lit up at the sight of the dark object, streaked with countless white points connected together like neurons.
Setting the manual aside, he sighed as he stared at the small core.
There was no other choice. This was the only path for him, the ideal one. It was the best route he could take, even if it was against the law.
"Well, whatever. As long as I don't get caught."
With trembling hands, he opened the little case and lifted the diamond.
In his fingers it felt like it weighed a ton, as if even the faintest breath could shatter it.
Relax, man, it's not a dandelion.
It was nothing less than the peak of human invention: the core of an Awakened, the source of classes and abilities, the so-called System.
Wait—what if I get a useless class?
He froze for a moment, staring at the core, feeling his dreams slipping away.
"No, relax. Even if that happens, I should still manage somehow. No class is truly useless," Kian muttered, shaking his head and lowering his gaze with a sigh.
"It's simple, Kian. You can't mess this up. Just press the tips and insert it. Really simple."
Slowly, he pressed the two tips of the diamond, feeling them give way slightly before pressing the core against the back of his neck.
It was instant.
"A-argh," he groaned, collapsing face-first onto the bed as his body convulsed.
A cold, thin sensation spread over him, like thousands of tiny tendrils piercing the back of his neck into his spine, racing through his nerves across his entire body.
W-what the hell is this?
It wasn't exactly painful, but it was far from comfortable.
Rolling around on the bed as the chill consumed him, suddenly his eyes grew heavy and his consciousness blurred.
Unable even to form a simple thought against it, he passed out.
***
"D-damn it," he muttered upon waking, the first thing he noticed was the pain in his stomach, which growled loudly in the dark room.
As if someone had carved a hole through his gut, an overwhelming hunger gripped him, urging him to eat something immediately.
"Hell, did it work?" he muttered, rolling in bed, his clothes clinging to his sweat-soaked body.
Staring into the darkness, his heartbeat quickened as excitement surged through him.
The hunger was a positive sign, a symptom every Awakened reported feeling after inserting the core.
Still, there was an easier way to be sure.
"Status," he called, his voice echoing in the dark.
Then, a blue interface lit up before his eyes, revealing countless details.
And among them—his class.
"I-is that…? Could it be legendary?"