Noah sat on the edge of the curb, his body leaning against a metal wall.
He had his sleeve pressed against his nose, trying to stop the blood from flowing out. He was already pale enough.
While the other pressed against his side to keep his ribs from shifting. Every breath felt like a serrated knife scraping against his lungs.
Injuries were not new to him; if anything, he was actually getting tired of being beaten. So, instead, his eyes moved frantically from one face to another.
"What ya looking at, beggar?" A teenage boy, flanked by two beauties, noticed him and jeered. "Ain't no change for ya." His teeth shone white as he laughed, pulling girls closer as they all showed him mocking grins.
There was always an idiot who came to show off their dump just because they owned that factory.
Noah jerked his head away. The laughter faded into the background, and only the translucent screen was still hovering there, indifferent to the mockery and the filth. It was clear now. No one could see it.
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE AWAKENED.]
"This is so weird," Noah croaked, but only a groan followed, muffled in his jacket.
He had heard fragments of stories about the awakened. They were supposed to experience a vision—a glimpse of their own glorious future. All Noah saw were the literal stars dancing in his blurred vision from the punch, and there was nothing glorious about them.
If seeing stars meant awakening, he should have become a god years ago.
His mind flashed to the rider.
Had that handsome bastard been the one meant to receive this? Had he left this gift behind by accident?
But even the universe couldn't be that cruel. No one was unlucky enough to be born on the same cursed day as Noah. And in the same year on top of that?
"Like hell he was." And he hadn't heard anyone awakening other than on their twentieth birthday.
He lifted his gaze to the massive poster of the Awakened looming over the street. He'd seen some of their powers—how they could level buildings or move faster than the eye could see.
'Maybe this is a trick,' he thought, his jaw tightening. 'Maybe one of them is bored and playing a prank on a nobody like him.'
His body shuddered. The idea of them even laying their eyes on him was terrifying, but there was nothing they would get from him. They should have already known that.
He discarded that possibility too. His thoughts kept drifting to absurdity, but he couldn't blame himself. He, awakened, was just ridiculous.
Awakeneds were supposed to save the world. If anything, he should be on the other side.
"But what the fuck is this thing?" He had never heard anything like this before. And it certainly did attach to him, moving along his body.
But if what was written on this was true... if he had actually, in some twisted way, awakened, then...
"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"
The screen was a hazard. It obscured his view, a glowing blind spot that would only lead to more beatings if he walked into the wrong person again.
He tried to take a deep breath to steady himself, but a sharp pain exploded in his chest. That bastard rider hadn't just kicked him; he'd tried to fold him in half.
Frustrated and hurting, Noah reached out to swat the text away, wanting to tear the hallucination out of the air.
As his fingers brushed the light, the screen shattered into a thousand shimmering fragments of square blocks.
Noah froze, his heart skipping a beat. The shards didn't vanish, though. They swirled in a chaotic storm of light before re-forming into a new, denser window.
[Name: Noah. —(Lv. 6)
Class: Common. —(0%)
Title: None
Race: Human
–Str: 5
–Agl: 6
–End: 7
–Dex: 6
–Focus: 8
–LP: 100
Ability: Vital Conversion (Active) ]
Noah stared at the numbers, his mind racing to make sense of the glowing labels. But he didn't have time to process it. The moment his eyes locked onto [LP: 100], the screen flickered.
Something from deep within him pulled out, warm as it spread over his body. Instead of receiving, a hollow feeling appeared.
Suddenly, the agony inside his ribs disappeared entirely. He gasped as a sickened grinding echoed in his ears. His ribs crawled back into place like sluggish worms as they mended miraculously.
The warmth on his lips dried instantly, the skin sealing over his broken nose as if the injury had never happened.
He was supposed to feel pain, but it happened so quickly, it barely registered in his mind, mostly because he was still trapped in that hole it left.
But what relief it brought was a ruse.
As the pain vanished, a sense of emptiness enveloped him, filling itself by consuming his soul. A heavy, hollow fatigue slumped over him. His muscles turned to lead, and a wave of nausea hit him, as if he'd just run a marathon on an empty stomach.
"H—holy shit," stunned, Noah checked his nose. The bridge was straight. No blood was leaking. No ache. He looked back at the screen, his eyes widening as the numbers shifted.
[LP: 85]
He didn't move for a long time. He didn't know how to feel. His eyes fixed at the name.
"That's... my name, right?"
If he wasn't awake now, he might as well drop dead, and if this was what being chosen looked like, then…
Noah looked at his trembling hands, then at the grey, uncaring sky. He was sure of one thing now: God didn't exist. And if they did, then they weren't a god at all.
God wasn't supposed to be an idiot, after all.
"I am awakened," a grin curved his lips. The weakness in his limbs began to dissipate slowly, replaced by a cold, hard clarity.
With his mind clear of doubts, he started to think of the useful thing.
The ability.
Every awakened was born with one—some also received other gifts, like healers; those money-grabbing thieves received the blessing of some animal, sacred or whatnot, but it was the ability that decided the future of an awakened.
And he apparently had one.
He focused on the bottom of the screen, moving to swat it away, but another window simply popped up.
[Ability: Vital Conversion (Active)
Description: Life Points (LP) represent the vitality sustaining the user. The user remains alive as long as LP does not reach zero.
Effect: External energy sources can be consumed to restore LP. ]
His hand froze midair as he read the description again.
A cold sweat broke out across his neck. He looked at his stats, then back at the description. There was no need to wonder what the mysterious thing was that had left his body.
Life Points. LP. It wasn't going to refill on its own.
His hand tightened around the curb—then loosened.
He swallowed.
Reaching out, he pressed his finger against a sharp, jagged edge of the metal curb. He pushed until the rigid alloy sliced into his skin. A tiny red line appeared.
Before the blood could even drip, the skin closed. The wound vanished, replaced by a wave of dizziness that buckled his knees.
He glanced at the screen.
[LP: 84]
Noah stared at the number with a sense of disbelief.
He was a chosen one, alright.
He had been given the power to survive. Provided he had enough of his own life left to pay for it.