The slums never slept.
Even when the sun dropped behind the towers of the upper city and shadows swallowed the cracked alleys, the noise lingered: the coughs of the sick, the muffled arguments of neighbors crammed into too-thin walls, the restless shuffling of children whose stomachs never felt full. To Kai, seventeen years old and already older than most of the people he knew, the noise was a blanket. Ugly, frayed, but familiar. It kept him grounded. It kept him human.
He sat on the roof of a half-collapsed shack, knees drawn close, eyes fixed on the neon shimmer that bled faintly from beyond the wall. The wall divided the city into two worlds: above, where the rich lived under surveillance drones they didn't know about, and below, where scraps were fought over like gold.
Kai's eyes, a shade of gray so sharp they often looked silver in the right light, followed the glow. People called them cold eyes. They said he didn't blink enough, didn't flinch enough, didn't act like a boy his age should. The truth was simpler. In the slums, you either learned to notice everything, or you died before you had the chance.
A rat squeaked below, digging into a trash bag. His ears picked the sound out instantly, the scurrying claws, the small, wet rip of plastic. Most wouldn't notice. Kai always did.
He rested his chin on his palm, expression unreadable. He wasn't handsome in the way the stories painted heroes. His hair was a dull black, always a little messy from sleeping in corners too small for comfort. His jaw had grown sharper over the years, but hunger kept his frame lean, almost wiry. Hands scarred from fights he didn't want but couldn't avoid. In the slums, scars were the only tattoos you could afford.
Tonight should have been just another night. Survive until morning. Avoid trouble. But trouble had a way of finding him.
It began with the static.
A soundless hum, crawling under his skin. At first, he thought it was exhaustion, the kind that made your vision blur and your ears ring. But this felt different. Sharper. Almost like a whisper brushing against his skull.
[System initializing…]
The words weren't spoken. They appeared, burned into the back of his mind in pale blue light. He jerked upright, eyes darting around the rooftop. Nobody. Only the dark and the endless coughing city below.
Kai pressed his palms against his temples. He'd heard stories of people losing their minds down here starvation, sickness, grief. Maybe it was finally his turn.
But the words came again.
[Searching for synchronization…]
[Compatibility found: 100%.]
[Watcher System awakening…]
His breath caught. The word "Watcher" stabbed at something buried deep inside, like a memory blurred at the edges. He didn't know why, but his chest tightened at the sound of it.
He whispered to himself, voice low, almost afraid someone else might hear.
"…What the hell?"
The screen or was it a hallucination? didn't vanish. It grew. Lines of faint text scrolled across the inside of his head, as if his mind had become a projector.
[User: Kai Arven]
[Age: 17]
[Status: Active]
Abilities:
Skills:
[Basic Protocols unlocked.]
He blinked. Once. Twice. The text stayed.
His heart began to hammer against his ribs. It felt too real. Too detailed. Not the sort of thing hunger or fever could conjure. Still, instinct told him not to accept it blindly.
People in the slums didn't survive by believing in miracles.
Kai pinched the skin of his arm until it hurt. He smacked his cheek once, hard enough to sting. Nothing faded.
The blue letters pulsed faintly, like they were mocking him.
"…This isn't real."
The moment he said it, more text appeared.
[Voice detected. Command input possible.]
Command input?
His throat went dry. "Open… status?"
The screen shifted instantly.
[Status Window]
Name: Kai Arven
Level: 1
Health: 100/100
Stamina: 100/100
Energy: 0/10
Abilities: None
Skills:
– Perception (Passive) Lv.1
– Analyze (Active) Lv.1
System functions: Limited. More functions unlock through growth.
Kai stared, unblinking. The rat below squeaked again, but he barely noticed.
Skills? Level?
This looked like something out of the broken VR games kids in the higher city used to laugh about. But here it was, floating inside his skull, responding to him like it was alive.
His pulse refused to slow. Fear twisted in his gut, but so did something else. Something sharper, something he hadn't let himself feel in years.
Hope.
He bit it down before it grew. Hope killed faster than hunger.
Instead, he tested. "What's… Analyze?"
The letters rippled.
[Analyze Lv.1: Focus sight on an object or being. Basic data will be revealed depending on level difference.]
His hand trembled. He turned his gaze to the rat gnawing below. The second his attention locked, words overlaid the creature.
[Mutated Rat – Tier 0 Beast]
[Health: 20/20]
[Threat level: Minimal]
Kai exhaled a sharp breath, almost a laugh. It worked. It actually worked.
But that wasn't the part that chilled him.
Mutated beast.
Those words weren't foreign. They were the whispers the slums carried in the night, the monsters that crawled out of dark places. They were supposed to be rare, only fought by…
The word hit him again. Watchers.
Why did it feel familiar? Why did the letters of this so-called system cut like they belonged in his blood
His stomach twisted. Too much. Too fast.
He closed his eyes and lay back on the cracked rooftop. The smell of rust and damp wood pressed around him. The screen still hovered in the dark.
He whispered again, softer this time. "…Why me?"
As if waiting, new text appeared.
[Because you were chosen.]
His eyes snapped open.
For the first time, the words didn't feel like cold text. They felt like a voice. Quiet, distant, but alive.
He bolted upright, chest heaving, scanning the rooftop. Still empty. Still silent, except for the city's endless noise.
"…Hello?"
No answer. Just the faint pulse of the system, like it had gone back to sleep.
But the damage was done.
Kai wasn't alone anymore.
And somewhere, in the hidden corners of the city, unseen eyes stirred. The Watchers, who had monitored him for years without his knowing, felt the ripple of energy that slipped from his awakening. Small. Fragile. But enough.
For the first time in a long time, they turned their gaze fully toward him.