The Night the Core Chose Me
Rain fell like needles from a fractured sky.
Kairo Vale stood beneath a flickering streetlight, hands buried in his hoodie pockets, pretending he couldn't hear the laughter behind him.
"Look at him. Always alone."
"He's rankless trash."
Kairo kept walking.
In this world, strength determined everything.
At the age of sixteen, people awakened their Cores — mysterious sources of power that turned them into Hunters. The strong rose through the ranks. The weak disappeared into the background.
Kairo had awakened nothing.
No Core.
No talent.
No future.
At least… that's what everyone believed.
Thunder cracked across the sky.
Then reality glitched.
The rain froze midair.
Sound vanished.
The world turned silent and colorless, like a paused screen.
Kairo's breath caught in his throat.
A black cube materialized before him.
It wasn't falling.
It wasn't placed there.
It simply existed.
Crimson veins pulsed across its surface like living arteries.
His heartbeat began to match its rhythm.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
A voice echoed directly inside his mind.
[Host Candidate Detected.]
Kairo stumbled back. "W-What is this?"
The cube split open without making a sound.
Inside it floated a sphere of condensed darkness, swirling like a miniature galaxy.
Cold energy spread through the air.
[Atomic Shadow Core initializing…]
The words appeared in glowing blue text in front of his eyes.
This wasn't a dream.
He could feel it.
[Do you accept the Atomic Shadow System?]
YES / NO
His mind screamed at him to run.
But run where?
He had spent his whole life being powerless.
Ignored. Mocked. Ranked below everyone else.
If this was a hallucination…
It was the best one he had ever seen.
His finger trembled.
Then he pressed YES.
Pain exploded through his body.
Not burning.
Not freezing.
Evolving.
Dark mist erupted from the sphere and slammed into his chest.
His veins turned black for a split second.
He fell to his knees as something rewrote him from the inside.
Then—
Silence.
The world restarted.
Rain crashed down again.
Sound returned.
Cars moved.
But something had changed.
A translucent blue interface hovered before his eyes.
Name: Kairo Vale
Level: 1
Rank: F
Core: Atomic Shadow (Dormant)
Abilities Unlocked:
⚫ Shadow Shift (Lv.1)
⚫ Absorb (Locked)
⚫ Atomic Pulse (Locked)
Kairo stared at the screen, his breathing uneven.
He wasn't powerless anymore.
He had a Core.
And not just any Core.
A system.
A shadow moved behind him.
He turned sharply.
The alley at the end of the street had grown darker than it should have been.
Too dark.
Something inside it opened glowing eyes.
A distorted growl echoed from the void.
And above his interface, a new message appeared:
[Threat Detected — Survival Probability: 12%]
Kairo swallowed.
His new life had just begun.
And it was already trying to kill him.
🔥 End of Chapter 1 🔥