[Congratulations. Your system has been unlocked.]
[For unlocking the system, you have received your first skill.]
Jay stood there, mouth hanging open, staring at the translucent blue window floating in front of him. His arms still ached. His hands were sticky with drying blood.
'Don't tell me I finally snapped.'
He raised a trembling hand and reached out, half-expecting his fingers to pass through nothing. Instead, they brushed against the bluish surface. It felt cold. Real.
"Okay… that's not normal," he muttered.
[Skill: Possession (F)]
[Allows the system to fight in your place. The higher the rank, the stronger the effect. After each use, the skill will become unavailable for an indefinite amount of time.]
"Possession?" Jay frowned. "That actually sounds… kind of strong."
His heart started beating faster, not from fear this time, but from something else. A cautious excitement he didn't dare trust yet.
[By killing demons, you will level up and gain skill points.]
[You will receive a new skill every 10 levels and an item at a random level.]
"Huh? Other skills too?" Jay said aloud, voice echoing slightly in the narrow alley.
[Each skill is evolvable. You can upgrade them using skill points.]
"Damn it," Jay scoffed. "Upgrading skills is supposed to be impossible."
He glanced down at the trash scattered across the ground. Among the debris from the overturned bin, a crumpled newspaper caught his eye. On the front page was the image of an Awakened, smiling confidently, surrounded by headlines.
'Multiple skills? The maximum number an Awakened can have is three.'
His fingers tightened around the paper.
"Does this system even have a limit?" he asked quietly.
Jay stood up, grabbed a few loose pages from the newspaper, and wiped the blood off his hands. The red stains smeared across the ink, but he didn't care.
'If I'm not hallucinating, this thing could change my life.'
A short, breathless laugh escaped him. Then another. Soon he was laughing openly, shoulders shaking, the sound half-hysterical.
'Ah… please. Please let this be real.'
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
'I need to test it.'
[Congratulations. You have received an item.]
[Item: Mask of the Unknown]
[When equipped, your voice, scent, blood type, fingerprints, facial features, weight, and height will be undetectable and concealed.]
"Whoa—what the hell is this…?" Jay whispered.
His head snapped up.
'Huh? Footsteps?'
He heard someone approaching the alley. Without waiting to see who it was, Jay turned and ran toward home, heart pounding, clutching the reality of his new chance as tightly as he could.
He reached his street and walked toward his front door. His hand was already moving to open it when—
A noise came from the neighboring garden.
'Huh? Who's there?'
It was his two neighbors. The same women who criticized him behind his back and smiled warmly whenever they saw him. Their voices were low, careless, confident they were not being heard.
Jay stopped. He stayed still and listened.
"I'm telling you, if I were his mother, I would've disowned him and thrown him out."
"Don't even start. I'd have done the same."
"Having such a useless child… I pity his mother."
"The poor woman wakes up so early and comes back so late just to feed that parasite."
"And that little bastard keeps fantasizing about the Awakened world, as if someone as incompetent as him could make a living as an Awakened."
"Right? He still doesn't get that being Rank F without a skill is basically the same as being a normal human."
"You think he has any awareness? Arden's son awakened at Rank F and immediately gave up. Now he runs three supermarkets."
"Oh, such a sensible and respectable son. I envy Arden. At least my son earns good money instead of being a lazy bastard like that one."
Jay stood there, frozen, listening to every word.
His fists clenched so tightly his nails dug into his palms. His breathing stayed quiet, controlled. He didn't move.
Then he turned and went inside his house without making a sound.
In his room, he slid down and sat against the wall. The room felt smaller than usual. Too quiet.
'Even if I hate it… they're not wrong. If I had abandoned that stupid dream earlier, maybe I'd be earning a normal living by now.'
He picked up a frame from the small table beside his bed. It held a photo of him and his mother, taken years ago. She was smiling. He wasn't.
'Sometimes I wonder if I'm even human. Why didn't my mom throw me out? No… why am I still here, living like a parasite?'
Tears slid down his face before he noticed they had started.
'What did I believe? That the world was a fairy tale? That perseverance alone would make me succeed? What the hell was I thinking?'
His grip loosened and the frame rested against his chest. His shoulders shook.
Jay lay down on the cold floor, staring at nothing. Tears kept falling, soaking into the fabric of his clothes, unstoppable, silent.
For the first time that day, he didn't fight them.
Ding dong.
Someone rang the doorbell.
"Jay, are you there?"
It was a young girl's voice.
Jay didn't answer. He remained lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling, his body heavy, as if standing up required more strength than he had left.
"Jay, I know you're there. Answer me."
He kept looking into the void, eyes unfocused.
'Lydia? My only friend… I wonder if she thinks the same thing about me.'
His hand slowly slid along the floor, reaching toward his pocket out of habit. He stopped halfway.
'Right. I smashed my phone.'
"Damn it."
Outside, after waiting a few more seconds, Lydia sighed softly. Her footsteps retreated. The doorbell never rang again.
The silence that followed felt worse than the insults that had come earlier.
'Should I give up on everything?'
The thought lingered, heavy and tempting.
Then..
[Your item has been placed in the inventory.]
Jay's eyes widened.
"Ah... the system!"
For a moment, he had completely forgotten about it. About everything that had happened in the alley.
"So it's still here… I didn't hallucinate."
He pushed himself up, his muscles protesting. His head felt clearer than before, even though his chest still ached.
'I have one last chance.'
He stopped, doubt creeping back in.
'Wait. Even if this is all just a hallucination… I have nothing left to lose by trying.'
Jay walked over to his desk. It was old, the surface scratched and uneven. He opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of papers, some folded, some worn at the edges.
Among them was a map.
He unfolded it slowly, eyes scanning the markings. His finger traced along familiar streets, then further out, toward danger zones marked by color.
His breathing steadied.
"Let's try this…" he muttered.
He tapped a specific area on the map.
"In a blue zone."
For the first time that night, the weight on his chest lifted just a little.