In this world, miracles aren't free.
Any "impossible" act—moving faster than the body should allow, surviving a fatal blow, seeing what should not be seen—is recorded as an operation. And every operation creates debt.
For a long time, people didn't understand what was happening… until some of them started seeing an interface. It isn't a game.
It's survival.
On the inner screen, the title is always the same:
LEDGER
The Heavenly Book of Debts
It doesn't appear to everyone. Usually, it shows up at the moment a person should die—yet stubbornly chooses to live.
From that point on, you become "Awakened," and you see rules the rest of the world cannot.
1. DEBT
The amount you owe the Heavens for power, luck, and interference with fate.
2. CREDIT LIMIT
The maximum debt allowed. Reach it—and COLLECTION begins.
3. INTEREST
The more often you use your abilities, the faster your debt grows. The rate is different for everyone.
4. COLLATERAL
What you pay when the Heavens initiate collection.
Collateral isn't always "life." Most of the time it's worse: memory, sight, voice, years, your name, your freedom.
5. COLLECTION
The event when the Heavens take payment. It isn't negotiated. It simply happens.
Power in this world is credit.
And creditors don't forgive.
So people wouldn't break the system too quickly, the Ledger introduced CLEARANCE RANKS—a level of permission for operations and abilities. It isn't "talent."
It's access.
CLEARANCE RANKS:
D → C → B → A → S → SS → SSS
At Rank D, you receive a basic ability and a tiny limit.
At Rank S, you can break cities—yet the Heavens collect in ways that make survivors envy the dead.
There's one more category almost no one talks about.
You can't spot them with ordinary eyes, but every Awakened can feel them.
COLLECTORS
They don't just borrow power. They touch other people's debts.
They can transfer, rewrite, or cancel the operations of other Awakened—if their rank allows it.
The Heavens tolerate them because they maintain order.
But a Collector pays more than anyone.
Because the Ledger never gives authority for free. First, it tests what you're willing to sacrifice.
And if you accept that first line of credit, the Book records your first collateral.
Sometimes it's years of your life.
Sometimes it's memories.
Sometimes it's everything that makes you "you."
…On the day a courier named Lin Ren's heart stopped for twenty-seven seconds, the Ledger opened.
And it showed him a line almost no one ever gets:
Status: COLLECTOR
Clearance Rank: D
Limit: 100
Interest: 5%
Debt: 0
Collateral: not assigned
Collection: not assigned
If this were an app, he could have closed it.
But it was a contract.
And at the bottom, the first button was already flashing:
"Emergency Credit: survival for the next 10 seconds."
At that moment, he still didn't understand the most important thing:
the scariest collateral isn't death.
The scariest collateral is when the world stops remembering your name.
A new entry appeared at the bottom of the Ledger.
"FIRST PAYMENT ACCEPTED. COLLATERAL: YOUR NAME."
And then—one more line, cold and calm:
"COLLECTION SCHEDULED."