The Awakening Hall smelled like burnt ozone and cheap disinfectant, and hundreds of eighteen-year-olds stood in neat rows under flickering fluorescent lights, waiting for the crystal orb at the center to decide their futures.
In Elysium, this was the day that separated the gods from the garbage, and I already knew which one I was.
My name is Kai Voss. I was orphaned at six and adopted by a family that only wanted the government stipend that came with housing a minor, so I'd spent the last twelve years being treated like furniture by the people who were supposed to care about me.
My step-mother Clara ran me like a live-in maid while Elise and Mia found their own ways to fill the gaps. Elise kept it clean with sharp words and humiliating social media posts, and Mia preferred the hands-on approach, tripping me in hallways or spilling things on me whenever she felt like it.
School wasn't much better with Rex Harlan around. Tier 2 fire awakener, star of the combat club and a six-foot-three wall of muscle and ego who had made it his personal mission to remind me daily that I didn't belong in his world.
The only real bright spot in any of it had been Lena Moreau, my girlfriend for two years and the only person who ever looked at me like I wasn't invisible. She awakened last month as a Tier 1 Illusionist, nothing flashy but enough to get recruiters whispering and enough to make Rex notice her, which turned out to be enough to make her leave.
The line moved and one by one kids stepped up to the orb, which lit up differently for each of them as the proctor read out results in a flat bored voice.
"Tier 2 - Wind Manipulation." Cheers.
"Tier 4 - Spatial Compression." Screams of joy, someone's parents crying near the back.
"Tier 0 - No Talent Detected." Silence, and then laughter rolling through the hall like it was the funniest thing anyone had heard all year.
That was me. I stood there with my palms slick with sweat, staring at the dull gray orb while the proctor didn't even look up from his tablet. "Next," was all he said, and I walked off the platform to a chorus of snickers with someone yelling "Welcome to the trash tier, Voss!" from somewhere in the crowd. I kept my head down and pushed through until I was outside.
The rain had started, cold and greasy, soaking through my thin jacket in seconds. I pulled my hood up and started the long walk home since there was no bus fare for Tier 0s. Halfway there my phone buzzed with a photo from an anonymous number showing Lena on Rex's lap at some rooftop party, his hand under her skirt and her head thrown back laughing. The caption just said: she upgraded. My stomach twisted and I deleted it, but the image stayed burned behind my eyes for the rest of the walk.
When I got home Clara was in the living room with a wine glass, watching one of those tier-glorifying reality shows, not even glancing up when I came in.
"You're late. Kitchen's a mess, clean it before you eat, if there's anything left." Elise was lounging on the couch beside her already smirking at her phone. "I heard you got zeroed today, already trending in my stories." Mia sauntered in from the hallway and flicked a balled-up napkin at my head as she passed, mentioning she'd spilled soda in the sink just for me.
I didn't answer any of them and just went to the kitchen, grabbed a rag and started scrubbing like I always did.
Hours later after they'd all gone to bed I collapsed onto the thin mattress in the basement room they called mine.
My ribs still ached from where Rex had slammed me into the lockers earlier that week and my knuckles were split from where Elise had shut the door on my hand the day before.
I stared at the cracked ceiling thinking about Lena's laugh in that photo, Rex's smug face, the video Elise would probably post tomorrow, and how every single person in my life treated me like I was already dead.
And then something impossible happened.
A soft chime rang inside my skull, like a notification but louder and clearer, coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and a translucent blue screen materialized above my face hovering in mid-air like a hologram only I could see.
[Ding!]
[You have Awakened The Lucky Draw System!]
[Due to extreme misfortune accumulation and perfect despair conditions, you have been selected as host.]
[Do you wish to draw a talent? Y/N]
My heart slammed against my ribs hard enough that I thought it might crack one. This had to be a hallucination, stress or a concussion or something, but the screen didn't vanish when I blinked so I swallowed hard and let the word come out hoarse in the dark.
"Yes."
The screen spun like a slot machine and golden light flared across the basement ceiling.
[Drawing...]
[...]
[Ding! Congratulations! You have awakened SSS-Rank Talent: "Hypnosis."]
[Talent Description: Allows the user to dominate the minds of others. Implant commands, alter perceptions, rewrite memories, control actions and desires. Effect strength scales inversely with target's tier and willpower. Base range: 10 meters. 100% success on willing or submissive targets. Verbal, eye-contact, or thought-based activation possible. No known upper limit with sufficient practice.]
[You can now take over the minds of others and do as you wish with them.]
[First-time bonus: One free Draw Ticket remaining.]
[Daily Quest unlocked: Perform your first successful hypnosis. Reward - Range +5m and minor stamina boost.]
The screen faded slowly and left only the afterimage burned into my retinas as I lay there breathing hard in the dark with my hands shaking.
"What the hell..."