"This is third and final chance. If you fail to awaken this time, there won't be a next time — you will spend the rest of your lives as ordinary humans, like the other 90% of humanity. All of you already know this anyway, since this is your third time undergoing this ceremony, so I expect you've all already vented your emotions on that."
The principal's voice entered Rohan's ears, snapping him out of his disillusioned state. His shoulders slumped down, with realisation settling back in him.
'That's right, there's no need for any excitement or expectations. This is my third time going through the awakening ceremony. The chance of a successful awakening on the first time is 15%, only 1.5% on the second, and a measly 0.15% on the third and last try… With less than 1 in 666 chance, it's likely none of us will awaken this time.'
He lifted his head and glanced at his surroundings, noting that everyone was pulling the same dull face as him — they understood their situation just as well.
Right now everyone stood in attendance at their school sports hall, about 400 of them overall. They were all third years, all 18 years old.
On the stage in front, a man between 40 and 50 years old was currently speaking into the microphone, his voice as monotone and dull as the rest of the atmosphere in the sports hall.
At the moment, his speech comprised mostly about Earth's history after the opening sentences had already been taken care of.
Nearly a hundred years had passed since the cataclysm that had struck Earth and upended everyone's lives out of nowhere. Revealing a mysterious new dimension called the Origin Realm, bringing with it rifts and portals that tore through Earth's lands, calling forth destruction everywhere they appeared.
Humanity was facing extinction and had become extremely close to it, but thankfully the Origin Realm threw them a lifeline.
Individuals who had 'Awakened' gained access to the Origin Realm, and returned with individual power far surpassing anything humanity had ever thought possible.
By killing the otherworldly beasts on the other side, they were able to extract their genes and infuse them with their own, taking on the power of the beast the gene originated from and become a genetic fighter.
These genetic fighters were able to fight back against the invading beasts and races from the rifts and reclaim the Earth, which led to the present day — and thankfully the end of the principal's sleep inducing speech.
"Finally, as you are all fully aware, only those aged between 16-18 years of age can undergo the awakening ceremony, only once per year to allow your bodies to fully recover from the previous attempt, should it be unsuccessful."
Everyone there knew this already, as they had to listen to the principal's same speech the previous two times as well. For some reason, either the principal was too lazy to change or shorten the speech for those who'd already been through the process before — or simply didn't care enough about them to do so.
"We'll now begin calling you up at random."
The whole room heaved a collective sigh of relief with the principal's finishing words. Finally, they could move on to the actual ceremony!
Now, nervousness was easily seen on a few student's faces — perhaps they really might awaken this time?
There were both optimistic and pessimistic people in the hall, and Rohan was of the latter bunch. His luck had already proven to be awful; if he couldn't even awaken from a 15% and 1.5% chance the first two times, then there wasn't even a reason to entertain the thought with his current chance.
"Alright then, come up to the stage if your name is called. The awakening ceremony will commence now. First up is Rowland Green!"
The principal's words brought the room back to reality. Rohan lifted his gaze to meet the back of the student currently walking up to the stage, bunching his hands into fists in an attempt to stop his shaking, full of nerves.
"Don't be nervous, you've done this twice before, remember? You know what to do — sit down in the device's seat and try to sense the genetic energy entering your body."
The student, Rowland Green, nodded his head at the principal and did as instructed, after which he closed his eyes to focus.
After the introduction of the Origin Realm came Genetic Fighters; however, there was only one way to Awaken as one — the use of a special crystal dropped from rifts.
In the early days these enabled ordinary people to awaken just through physical contact with the crystal — though through scientific developments over the last century, more efficient methods had been deduced.
The air in the sports hall felt thick while Rowland sat in silence in the awakening chair. People watched with bated breaths as a needle containing a liquid substance created from the Awakening crystals entered Rowland's arm.
After a short while, the principal looked down at his watch and spoke in the same monotone manner as before.
"Alright, that's enough. It's been a minute already. There's been no reaction, and you haven't been able to sense the genetic energy flowing through you, so you have failed the awakening. You can go back now."
When Rowland opened his eyes and heard this, he was unable to stop the tears from flowing. This was his third and final chance of awakening — never would he get the chance again. Despite knowing the chance of awakening at this point was abysmal, the fact there was a chance still left some hope in him.
But that was gone now, and he walked back to the crowd below in disappointment.
The atmosphere in the sports hall always turned bleak at this point.
"We'll be lucky if even 1 or 2 of you awaken today. Don't harbour too much hope for success; keep your expectations low, and you'll never be disappointed."
Rohan couldn't help but laugh inwardly at the principal's expert way of killing the atmosphere even further.
"Next, Owen Mills."
***
The Awakening ceremony continued, and just as the principal had said, there wasn't even a single success amongst the students who had been called up.
Over an hour later and 60 students had finished the ceremony, yet none had awakened.
Rohan was already at the point of boredom, just wishing he wasn't amongst the last batch of students to be called up.
Every student has 1 minute to see if they can awaken, and with over 400 students in attendance, the awakening ceremony would last the whole school day.
"Rohan Roy."
The principal called Rohan's name not long after. Rohan could feel every gaze in the sports hall landing on him as he stood up and walked onto the stage.
The principal's attitude toward him was just as indifferent as how he treated every other student.
The man just gestured towards the awakening chair with his gaze and arms; he'd long given up repeating the same instructions over and over again when every student had heard it dozens of times already.
Rohan nodded and sat down, closing his eyes as the needle neared his arm.
The cold sting of the needle entering his arm barely registered — no person in this day and age was a stranger to needles.
Rohan kept his eyes shut, just as he had done in the previous two years.
'Try to sense the genetic energy entering your body.'
That's what they were always told.
But how exactly was someone supposed to "sense" something they had never felt before?
The first time, he had tried imagining warm currents flowing through his veins, yet nothing came of it.
The second time, he had focused on his heartbeat, attempting to detect anything unusual between the thumps of blood in his ears.
But still, both times were unsuccessful.
Now on his third and final attempt, he didn't even know what he was meant to be looking for.
The sports hall was as silent as always except for the faint hum of the awakening device beneath him.
He focused on his breathing, as that was all he could do in that moment.
Yet still, he felt nothing after 40 seconds had already passed.
'Maybe that's the point.' He thought bitterly.
'Maybe there's nothing to feel unless you're one of the lucky few.'
The silence stretched on.
Just five seconds remained before his turn was over, and the principal was already staring down at his watch, waiting for the last few seconds to tick down.
However, just as resignation had settled into Rohan's mind, a strange sensation crept across his skin.
An itch, a sudden irritating itch, spreading across his arms.
The itch spread rapidly, crawling up his neck, across his chest, and down his legs. It felt so uncomfortable, like thousands of ants skittering beneath his skin.
The humming beneath the chair abruptly grew louder, with faint lights flickering along the edges of the device.
"Alri—"
The principal, who had already raised his gaze towards Rohan to dismiss him, paused.
The awakening device let out a sharp beep, shattering the sports hall's silence.
The screen attached to the side flickered to life, displaying a few simple words.
"Genetic Awakening successful."
However, while the principal and everyone else were focusing on those few words, speechless, Rohan's gaze was occupied by something else.
[Name: Rohan Roy]
[Rank: F]
[Genes: Evolution Gene]
[Genetic Armaments: —]
'Evolution Gene? What's that? Ah what the heck, that's for later!'
'I've actually done it! I'm an Awakened now!'
Rohan's excitement was off the charts, feeling as if a weight had been lifted off of his chest — one that he didn't realise was there until now, but there was one disparity that confused him.
However, his expression quickly took a downturn as a realisation dawned upon him.
Now that he had awakened, he had just 24 hours until he was forced into the Origin Realm. Yet he had no abilities, no weapons, no genes other than his starting gene and most importantly — which itself didn't seem like one that would help him in a fight just from reading its name — but most importantly, he only had 1 life…
'I better prepare myself, and quick!'