Class A-1.
The classroom hummed with lively conversation as students trickled in, slipping into their seats with the relaxed assurance of those who knew they were right where they belonged.
[Error!]
A crisp mechanical chime rang sharply in Leon's mind, tearing through the haze of sleep like a blade.
Leon blinked awake, disoriented. His forty-minute pre-class nap, an unspoken routine at the back of the room, had been cut short. Groggily, he looked around.
"What the…? Who's messing with me?"
No one responded. No one even looked at him. As usual.
He was the ghost of Class A-1. Invisible. Unacknowledged.
This is The Genesis Academy, the most prestigious in the nation. A fortress of wealth, power, and lineage. He didn't belong, not here. Unlike his classmates, he only had a scholarship, earned by getting the highest score in theory.
It's just like any other day for the underdog.
But something was different today.
---
[Emergency Detected.]
[Force activating the Life Simulator...]
[Detecting biological age...]
[Scanning for inherent abilities...]
[Analyzing physiological anomalies...]
[Unique Trait Detected: Zero-Attribute Body]
[Assessing internal energy reserves...]
[Welcome to Life Simulator 1.0]
[Simulation Operator: Leonardo Gray]
[Simulation Subject: Leonardo Gray]
[Age: 17 | Ability: None | Unique Physique: Zero-Attribute Body | Energy: 825 Units]
---
Leon's heart thudded.
'An Esper ability?'
The lucky ones were born with their abilities awakened. Others discovered their gifts over time. Most manifested their powers by fifteen, the critical age. By eighteen, hope faded.
Leon clawed his way into this academy only because the school administration thought he might have a chance at awakening. And yet two years later, he still hadn't awakened his Esper ability.
He had just one year left. One year before the academy deemed him a failure and tossed him out.
'But now... this?'
Things could turn around with this.
'I've never heard of one like this.'
Esper abilities traditionally fell into five categories. However, rumors had begun to circulate about a new emerging kind, one that didn't quite fit into any known category: Machine-type Espers, seemingly born from technological integration.
'Could this be a tech-type Esper ability?' Leon wondered, watching the glowing display float in midair.
'If this really is one of those, then I'm going to become a completely unpredictable threat.'
[Simulator Introduction: The Life Simulator generates probabilistic projections of future trajectories derived from the user's current state and defined parameters.
Note: Each simulation consumes a set amount of energy.]
'So, a large-scale forecast? Or should I say a lengthy one?'
[Initiating Simulation of Original Life Trajectory…]
'Wait! What? Right now? Here?'
Leon panicked.
An overwhelming surge of information began filling his mind simultaneously. There was nothing visual, nothing audible. It was as if pure data was being violently injected into a device that wasn't meant to receive it.
The density of information expanded his consciousness, giving him the strange sensation that time itself had slowed.
[Age 17: One day at 10 AM, the teacher entered the classroom, waking me up from my nap with her usual scolding. Everyone returned to their seats. Still half-asleep, I noticed a strange light on the floor, a glowing white circle.]
[The teacher yelled at whoever was using an ability in class to stop. But everyone looked just as confused. The light flared and everything went white.]
[I woke up in a dim stone room. Blurry vision. Flickering torchlight. My classmates lay around me. In the distance, armored figures fought someone. It was the teacher, badly outnumbered and overwhelmed.]
[Other students began waking. Some tried to take action despite the teacher's warning to stay back, assuming it was some sort of test. But I felt the desperation on teacher's face, it was too real.]
[Some classmates rushed at the armored enemies, only to realize their Esper abilities had been severely weakened.]
[The battle dragged on until most of the students were knocked out.]
[When the class teacher died, the battle ended.]
[Students were dragged away. I was locked in a cell with other classmates.]
[There were thirteen of us in one prison cell. The walls were made of stone, the iron bars and walls had some sort of inscriptions. It wouldn't bend or break with any Esper ability. I noticed that all the classmates in the cell were those who surrendered. I wondered where those who fought back had been taken.]
[The guards in armor wouldn't speak or answer any of our questions. But when they talked among themselves, they used a language none of us understood.]
[At dawn a group of people came to visit us. They were all armored soldiers guarding a single person wearing rather fancy clothes. The look in his eyes made it seem like he was inspecting some exotic animals in a zoo.]
[This felt strange. People elite enough to command dozens of subordinates shouldn't need protection from those same subordinates. This felt wrong, something that every one of us would have found comical if not for the situation we were currently in.]
[I was dragged out along with two classmates. The others tried to resist, using Esper abilities, trying to break free but failed. I didn't even have that option. Shackled and silenced, we were taken away from the prison.]
[The three of us were dragged out. This was the first time I saw it clearly. A towering castle of black stone, ancient and foreign. This was what I just exited. And the sky... for the first time in my life I saw a clear sky. One that was not gray or black with clouds. It had countless tiny glowing dots, the stars. A round glowing blue moon, and another smaller white moon lit up the whole world.]
[I understood with finality, this was not my world.]
[My vision was covered with a black bag as they placed me into a horse-drawn carriage. Nearly a full day passed before they removed the blindfold.]
[When my sight returned, I was inside a chamber. Stone walls, copper instruments, glowing glyphs. It was unfamiliar, yet unmistakably a lab.]
[The two classmates were restrained nearby. They wore shackles etched with dimly pulsing runes. I could not move. The bed I was strapped to didn't budge. Hooded figures around me seemed wrong, smelled wrong.]
[A thick, viscous fluid was injected into my veins. It moved slowly, unnaturally, like something alive. It clung to the inside of my vessels, writhing as it spread. My limbs felt bloated and foreign. Breathing grew shallow. Vision shimmered, darkening at the edges. Then everything vanished.]
[I woke to the wrong feeling. Something felt wrong inside me. My head lifted instinctively, but only slightly. Restraints held my arms and legs in place. I was on a stone table, cold and wet beneath me. My torso was open. I could see it. Flesh parted. A cavity was exposed. Organs pulsing in the open air.]
[Hooded figures moved around. Some familiar from before, others older, adorned with bone trinkets and stitched robes. One held something wet in his palm. A liver.]
[Their hands shimmered faintly as they worked, not light, but something magical. Symbols drifted briefly across skin and disappeared. They reached inside me again. Pieces were lifted, turned, carved, returned.]
[They talked among themselves. Again, I didn't understand. But the same look of disappointment and losing interest was just the same even in his world.]
[Then darkness came again, sharp and complete. I lost consciousness.]
[When I awoke again, I was locked in a cell. Only now, my body was stitched shut. Movement returned partially, but nothing felt familiar. The sensation in my torso had changed. I had a feeling I would never be the same again.]
[Across from me, another classmate had taken my place beneath the full attention of the robed figures. I watched as they surrounded the body. Tubes, flasks, crystal vials, all prepared with care. They began the same way they had with me, an injection of something unnatural, thick and iridescent. But this time, it reacted. The classmate's body arched, he screamed as if all his bones were breaking each second. The fluid pulsed beneath his skin.]
[They continued on with the next classmate. Dozens of substances were tested, some made the subjects scream, others made them faint. Each time the figures grew more focused, more animated. Their excitement was undeniable. Whatever they were looking for, they believed they had found it.]
[Days passed.]
[The cell containing me was like an empty space carved into the lab. On one side of the wall was a man-made fissure that oozed some sort of slimy substance. It was similar to ration paste, seemed nontoxic and was my only source of food.]
[I stopped keeping track of time, not because I forgot it, but because the patterns became familiar.]
[It was torture every day. For them physically. And I was losing something every day. I don't know what it was. But each day it becomes less bearable. My classmates didn't even stay conscious for a few hours each day. Even when they do they act as if sedated. But I had to bear it all. Witness it all. And felt relieved every day that it wasn't me on that table.]
[One morning, I watched as they removed a classmate's lungs. Strange lights curled around their hands as they manipulated the organs. Strange runes were inscribed. Then, just as precisely, they put everything away.]
[There were replacements too. Many organs were replaced with ones that didn't belong to the original body. A classmate's heart was taken while they were still breathing. I watched as it continued to beat in the open air. Inscribed symbols burned across its surface like brands. They submerged the heart into a jar filled with liquid. And brought forth another larger, heavier, definitely non-human heart as a replacement. It connected with no rejection. It pulsed. It worked.]
[I kept watching. Not because I wanted to. Because that's the only thing I could do. The changes became more visible. I watched as they became less and less human. Their posture slumped. Movements slowed. Their expressions drained. Pain no longer registered. No longer they cried out loud whenever their consciousness returned. One only blinked during a procedure where half of their torso had been opened and then simply chose to look away.]
[I stopped recognizing them. Whatever was human had eroded. Their eyes dulled. Thought was gone. Self was gone.]
[And then, one day, their beds were empty. I never saw them again.]
[The hooded figures also left.]
[I, however, was left alone. Unmodified. Forgotten. Whatever they were searching for, it wasn't in me. My body remained largely untouched. For the first time in my life, I didn't envy my classmates. But I knew my future didn't hold anything better either.]
[Eventually, new people arrived. I was moved again. A new bigger cell. The others here were strangers, locals of this world. Gaunt, sluggish. Most were kept in a drugged stupor. Few spoke. When they did, the words were fragmented, hollow, and I couldn't understand them anyway.]
[Periodically, the door would open. They came for one at a time. Most did not return. The few that did came back quiet. Changed. Something in them had been emptied out. They no longer responded when spoken to.]
[In this place, the question was not if. Only when.]
[I stopped waiting for my turn.]
[Then it arrived.]
[The hallway was familiar. The destination wasn't. A different chamber. A different lab. They were younger. Their robes clean. Their movements careful.]
[I was placed on the table again. Same shackles. My body didn't resist.]
[My eyes were removed first. Detached cleanly. Stored in matching crystal flasks. After that, I saw nothing. But I knew everything. Maybe the brain's own way of compensating for the loss of sight.]
[Then came my limbs. One tank for each. Each joint was separated and stored.]
[My chest was opened. Every organ was lifted out. The heart was held, then sealed in a black container. Lungs, stomach, intestines, all preserved.]
[My brain came last. Extracted slowly. Suspended in golden liquid. Runes carved into the flask. Skull fragments stored separately.]
[The blood, tissue, waste were cleaned off the table. Disposed of quietly.]
[Nothing was left of me. Only parts. They were labeled and preserved. At least they were professional with it, didn't hurt as much.]
---------
[You died.]
[The simulation has ended.]
[You died at the age of 17.]
---------
"What the unholy son of a shit!" Leon couldn't help but curse.
A woman in her thirties appeared in the class, the class teacher. As soon as she entered, she shouted,
"EVERYONE! AT YOUR SEAT!"
A white circle appeared on the floor.
Leon realized the crisis. He jumped and ran towards the back door.
The glow of the white circle intensified.
But Leon calculated that before the teleportation could happen, he could definitely reach the door with his speed. And he did. He opened the door. One more step and he would be outside the circle. But suddenly something grabbed his leg.
Leon shouted in his head.
He turned back and saw a dark purple vine grabbing his leg. He knew who this ability belonged to and looked at her.
"Where do you think you are going during the class?" The class teacher said. "And who is making a mess in the class?"
"UGH! I need to pee. LET ME GO! " Leon growled as he dragged his body while holding onto the wall.
He somehow managed to fall outside the class but only his left leg was inside the circle with a vine grabbing it.
'It doesn't matter. Only one leg is sacrificed.'
But Leon had calculated wrong.
That day the blinding light flashed and everyone from class A-1 disappeared from the face of the world.