Fifteen years ago, we did not know magic. We thought we were entirely alone in this vast, dark universe.
That was how the Director of Vanguard Academy, an old man with a gray beard and a deep scar across his face, began his annual speech. He stood on a raised stone platform, looking down at a courtyard swarming with hundreds of nervous students no older than eighteen.
I stood in the very back row, watching this repetitive scene with absolute coldness. I knew this speech by heart, yet every time I heard it, a phantom chill crept down my spine.
The Director continued, his booming voice echoing across the wide courtyard. Then, on a quiet, perfectly normal day, that entity appeared. It was not a terrifying monster, nor a fleet of invading spaceships. It was just a child. A human child floating in the sky above every city on Earth simultaneously. That child looked down at us from his high altitude, yawned with extreme boredom as if we were mere insects disturbing his nap, and spoke the words that burned into your parents' minds forever.
The Director paused for a moment, as if summoning that ancient terror from the depths of his memory, then mimicked the child's cold, indifferent tone.
World 404404, I truly hope one of you survives to ascend to the cosmic realm. If you want to protect yourselves, prove your worth. If you want revenge, prove your strength. If you want the truth, seek it.
A heavy silence fell over the hundreds of listening students.
The Director went on. Then a giant blue window appeared in the sky across the entire planet, bearing a single message.
[ Primitive System Activated. Loading... ]
Humanity lived through a full hour of absolute terror, watching the counter tick up with agonizing slowness from zero to one hundred. When the loading was complete, the child said his final sentence.
The mission is complete. I wish you good luck, because you will desperately need it before your planet is conquered and wiped out completely.
Then, simply, he vanished into thin air.
The Director struck his thick wooden staff against the stone floor with a force that jolted the students out of their tense daze.
He shouted at the top of his lungs.
[ Primitive System Installed. Welcome, inhabitants of Planet 404404. Survive, or hand over your world. ]
That was the System's first and last message to us! The Director's voice cracked like thunder. The dungeons and gates you will enter are not divine blessings, they are brutal testing grounds! The System is not helping us, the System is testing who among us deserves to stay alive! Today, you will place your hands on the Awakening Stone. Today you will find out if you will become weapons to protect the Earth, or just an extra burden upon it!
I looked around at the faces of my fellow students. Some were weeping from the sheer intensity of the speech, while others trembled with undisguised fear. The children of nobles and major guild families stood with puffed-out chests, wearing fine light armor and silk garments even before awakening their magical classes.
As for me, Arien, I did not have the luxury of enthusiasm or fear for the fate of the planet. I wore a faded cotton shirt and worn-out shoes, and I was thinking about one thing only: how I was going to pay off the gang threatening to kick me out of my rotting room in the Lower City and throw me to the stray dogs.
I did not care about the planet, the mysterious cosmic child, or the invading alternate worlds. I just wanted to survive today. I needed a strong combat class, a class that would allow me to join at least a mid-tier guild, to earn enough gold coins to live another day without having to sleep with one eye open.
The roll call began. Students stepped forward one after another toward the Awakening Stone, a massive black rock pulsing with veins of blue light in the center of the platform.
The son of the Silver family, Caion, placed his hand covered in a luxurious leather glove on the stone. The stone glowed with a blindingly bright golden light for a few moments.
[ Name: Caion Silver ] [ Class: Light Swordsman - Rare ] [ Level: 1 ]
Cheers of admiration and applause erupted from the stands, and the Director smiled with obvious satisfaction. This was how the elite were, born with silver spoons in their mouths, awakening to find swords of light waiting in their hands to lead armies.
The process continued. Mages, fighters, and healers, until the proctor called my name with a voice devoid of any interest.
Arien, from the Lower District.
I stepped toward the platform. I felt the stares of contempt and pity following me from every direction like tiny needles. An orphaned street rat with a frail build, what could he possibly awaken? A farmer or a porter class at best.
I stood before the black stone. I took a deep breath, wiped my sweaty hand on my worn pants, and placed it on the cold surface.
Nothing happened at first. Absolute silence.
Then, instead of the usual blue, golden, or green light, a pale, gloomy, and suffocating gray light emanated from the stone. A light that resembled the sky of an industrial city polluted with smoke.
The holographic system screen appeared in front of me and everyone else to read.
[ Name: Arien ] [ Class: Debt Collector - Uncommon ] [ Level: 0 ] [ Strength: 2 ] [ Agility: 3 ] [ Endurance: 2 ] [ Physical stat ceiling locked. Cannot be increased through direct physical training. ]
A dead silence covered the courtyard for a moment, before hundreds of students erupted in roaring, hysterical laughter.
A debt collector? Caion Silver shouted, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes and turning to his friends. Did the street rat awaken to become a bank clerk? Look at his pathetic stats! Strength 2? Even toddlers have a strength of 5! If a strong wind blows, it will snap his neck!
I felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over my head, washing away all my hopes. Strength 2? A locked ceiling? This meant I would never be able to lift a heavy sword, and I would never be able to run away from even the lowest-ranking monster. This was not a magical class, it was a slow death sentence in a world ruled by the strong, where the weak were prey.
The Director sighed with obvious disappointment, waving his hand at me as if swatting away an annoying fly.
Summon your system spirit, boy, and get off the stage immediately. We have many students to process and no time to waste.
Summoned spirits were entities bound to the System, born with the Awakened on the day of their awakening to serve as guides, assistants, and companions in battle. Fighters summoned fiery wolves, mages summoned wise owls and demonic cats.
What would a weak, failed debt collector summon? A calculator?
I focused my pitifully small magical energy deep within me, wishing for a miracle from the bottom of my desperate heart. Perhaps a massive iron golem to compensate for my horrendous physical weakness and protect me in battles?
A summoning circle appeared at my feet. Thick black smoke billowed from it, and I heard a strange sound coming from the center of the smoke. It was not the roar of a predator, nor the shriek of a bird of prey. It was a very familiar and annoying metallic sound.
The clinking of coins.
The smoke cleared to reveal a small creature standing on the stone floor. A crow. But it was not a normal crow made of flesh, blood, and feathers. Its body was entirely covered with old, black metallic coins stacked on top of each other like tiny, precise scales. Its eyes were like two pale red rubies, and its beak resembled pointed golden tweezers.
The metallic crow shook its body, and the coins that formed it made a loud noise resembling a full purse dropping onto a wooden table.
The metallic crow looked at the laughing students, then raised its head to look at me, opening its beak to speak in a hoarse voice that sounded like an old man who smoked heavily.
You look incredibly poor, master. I truly hope you plan on making some profits soon, because I never work for free. I am Coin, your karmic auditor.
The laughter in the courtyard doubled until some students fell to the ground clutching their stomachs.
He summoned a talking piggy bank! someone shouted from the back.
I felt my blood boiling in my veins, the humiliation burning my face and stabbing my pride. I picked up Coin and placed him on my shoulder, where he settled with an annoying metallic clink with every step, and walked off the platform quickly, trying to escape their mocking gazes that were tearing me apart.
As I walked back to my place in the back, Caion Silver, the noble with the Light Swordsman class, deliberately stepped forward and stuck his foot in my path.
I did not have the agility to dodge his sudden movement. I tripped and fell hard onto the rough stone floor of the courtyard. My hand scraped against the sharp stones, the skin tearing instantly, and bright red blood began to bleed from a deep cut in my palm, staining the ground.
Watch where you step, garbage collector, Caion said, looking down at me with arrogant contempt. Do not dirty my clean boots with your cheap blood.
I tried to get up, angry words crowding in my dry throat. I wanted to stand and punch him with all my might in his arrogant face, but with a strength stat of 2, I would break my hand and bones without even scratching his magical armor.
I was weak. I was completely helpless. I was the perfect victim in this sick world.
But suddenly, Coin cawed on my shoulder with a loud, terrifying sound that resembled the creaking of the gates of hell, and the black coins on his body vibrated violently.
A system screen, red as blood, appeared directly in front of my eyes, hiding Caion's mocking face and the entire courtyard from my view.
[ Critical System Alert ] [ You have taken intentional physical damage from Entity: Caion Silver ] [ Health points deducted. Blood has been spilled. ] [ Based on the absolute laws of the Debt Collector class, a Blood Karma Debt has been registered against the aggressor. ] [ Law of Restitution is now available. ] [ Available options to settle the registered debt: ] [ 1. Confiscate 50 percent of the opponent's strength stat for 24 hours and transfer it to yourself. ] [ 2. Confiscate his first active skill (Light Strike) permanently, making it your property until the debt is paid in full. ] [ 3. Reflect the physical damage you received, multiplied by ten, directly to the aggressor's heart. ] [ Please select a collection method, Master. ]
My breath caught in my chest, and my pupils dilated.
I read the red screen again, then looked at Coin, who tilted his head and looked at me with his pale red eye, as if smiling a demonic smile overflowing with cunning.
This was the karmic exchange. I am weak, yes. I can never initiate an attack, yes. My absolute physical weakness and helplessness force me to take the hits, fall, and bleed like a helpless lab rat in front of everyone. It is a death trap if I take a fatal blow.
But, the moment I touch pain, the moment someone dares to hurt me and register a debt in my black ledger... this weak rat transforms into an absolute ruler who controls their fate with the push of a button.
I stood up very slowly, wiped the blood from my injured hand on my pants, and looked at Caion Silver, who had turned around to return to his friends, laughing with the confidence of a victor.
I no longer felt angry at all. Instead, I felt a dark, cold euphoria climbing up my spine, calming my nerves.
I whispered in a very low voice that only the metallic crow perched on my shoulder could hear.
Option two, Coin. Confiscate his skill. Let us see what the genius Light Swordsman will look like when he discovers in his next battle that he is bankrupt and has no light to shine with.
The crow cawed cheerfully, and I clearly heard the sound of a heavy coin dropping into an empty chest deep within my soul.
And the game began.