[System Notice: New Trait Evolving]
[Cause: Emotional Disintegration Detected]
[Trait Evolution: From "Adaptive Resilience" Endurance Through Suffering"]
[Effect: Gains strength proportional to emotional and physical pain endured.]
I stood still as the red letters hovered before my eyes.
My whole body ached. My lip was cut, my fists bruised, my knees scraped raw from whatever fall had dumped me on the academy's edge. And yet—
I felt alive.
Strangely alive. As if every rejection I'd ever swallowed had hardened into steel inside my bones.
> "Endurance Through Suffering," huh...?
I didn't laugh.
Not because it wasn't funny.
But because I didn't have the energy to fake laughter anymore.
Instead, I stood and took a slow, painful breath. The city lights burned in the distance, blinking like they always did — so far, so unreachable. But now\... they didn't seem untouchable. Just… delayed.
For the first time, they felt like something I could eventually *take.*
---
The next morning came faster than I wanted.
Students passed me on the way back into the academy. Most ignored me. Some stared and whispered. Word of my "failure" had spread faster than fire in a trash heap.
> "He's the guy with no system, right?"
> "Why's he even back here?"
> "Maybe he's hoping someone left behind a pity badge."
I didn't say a word. I didn't need to.
Because they were wrong.
I had a system now.
Not a clean, polished, gift-from-the-gods kind.
Mine was forged from the kind of darkness they'd never understand.
And as I walked past the front gates, my system whispered again.
> \[Daily Pain Sync: Incomplete]
> \[To level up, emotional or physical pain must exceed current threshold.]
>
> \[Threshold: 12%]
> \[Progress: 6%]
"...You want me to hurt more?"
> \[Correct.]
What kind of twisted system was this?
---
"Jin Ravel?"
I froze.
A tall figure in a black suit stepped from behind the front office.
Slick hair. Dead eyes. A badge that read: **Acolyte Division: Observation Branch.**
> "You've been summoned to the observation wing."
"What? Why?"
He didn't answer. Just turned and walked.
I followed.
---
The Observation Wing was silent. Cold. Too clean.
The kind of place where people like me don't belong unless they're being kicked out. Or worse — studied.
Inside, an older man in a gray uniform sat behind a desk made of crystal. He didn't smile. He didn't blink much either.
> "Sit."
I did.
> "You touched the Awakening Crystal. It rejected you."
"Yeah."
> "And yet... your vitals are unstable. Your brainwave patterns have changed. You vanished from our internal scanners for three full minutes. Then reappeared outside the academy border, bleeding."
"So?"
> "You have two options," he said calmly. "Submit to a scan, or be expelled permanently."
> \[WARNING: Hostile Scan Detected]
> \[Result: System Exposure Risk 94%]
> \[Recommendation: REFUSE.]
I met his eyes.
> "Expel me."
His brow twitched.
> "You're aware what that means?"
"I am."
He didn't push further. Just pressed a button.
> "You have five minutes to collect your things."
---
I didn't collect anything.
What was there to take? A cracked locker full of nothing? A room that never felt like mine?
I walked out of that academy with the same thing I came in with: nothing.
Except this time… I had something they couldn't touch.
---
That night, I slept behind a broken vending machine in a forgotten alley. Rats scurried nearby. The moon didn't rise.
And still...
> \[Daily Pain Sync: Complete.]
> \[Level 1 Achieved.]
> \[New Skill Unlocked: Iron Within.]
> \[Skill: Iron Within]
> \[Effect: The lower your health, the stronger your defense.]
>
> \[Passive Bonus: 3% Defense Increase per 10% HP Lost.]
I stared at the text above me.
> "You're really serious about the whole pain = power thing, huh?"
The system didn't reply.
But I felt it.
The warmth in my muscles. The sharpness in my vision. My senses weren't just sharper — they were alive, crackling like wires stripped of their cover.
Then a second screen appeared.
> \[New Target Acquired.]
> \[Nearby Hostile Threat Detected.]
I shot up.
From the corner of the alley, a low growl echoed.
Two yellow eyes blinked in the darkness.
A Night Demon.
Thin, crawling on all fours, its skin like ash and oil — one of the lesser variants, but still deadly.
The academy had entire squadrons trained to kill them.
I had a bruised body and a hunger stat flashing red.
> \[Initiating Combat Trial.]
> "Wait, what?!"
But it was too late.
The thing leapt.