Rain in Sector Z isn't a weather event; it's an industrial byproduct. It falls from the upper platforms of the Towns and Cities, gathering engine grease and dungeon dust, arriving in Block 17 as a cold slime that tastes of sulfur.
There were thousands of us. A sea of hunched silhouettes, huddled in the black mud of the central plaza.
«Perimeter analysis: four thousand units. Oxygen availability: saturated by toxic vapors. Probability of ascent: 0.08%».
My brain processed the scene with a frozen dysthymia. My mind had broken years ago under the weight of this concrete sky, leaving in its place a calculation mechanism that didn't know how to stop spinning. I felt no fear, only a deep irritation at the inefficiency of that human mass trembling and praying to gods who had never looked this low.
The Bronze Altar
At the center of the plaza stood the Altar. A monolith of dark metal, etched with blue runes pulsing to the rhythm of the System. It was the interface between our mud and the world of Skills. It was the eye that decided who would become a warrior, a craftsman, or a simple biological battery.
«Next!» barked the Enforcer.
He was a Percentile 68. His armor was Grade C loot, plates of magic iron glowing with a dull light. To him, we weren't people; we were just "NIL," zeros in a column of waste.
I saw Elias, my shack neighbor, step toward the monolith. Elias was the perfect example of fragility: his hands vibrated, wasting kinetic energy in a useless tremor. He touched the cold surface. A white flash, aseptic and violent, tore through the gray rain.
[IDENTIFICATION COMPLETE] > [STATUS: D-RANK — CONSTRUCTION WORKER] > [SKILL UNLOCKED: PASSIVE ENDURANCE (LV. 1)]
Elias burst into tears. It wasn't joy; it was the relief of someone who had just been granted permission to be an official cog instead of refuse. He'd spend the next twenty years digging tunnels in low-level dungeons until his lungs filled with magic dust, but at least he had a name in the register.
«Inhabitant #9.122. Step forward.»
It was my turn.
The Silence of the System
I walked through the mud, feeling the weight of the others' gazes. The stares of those who hope you fail just to feel less alone in their own abyss.
I reached the Altar. It smelled of ozone and an ancient magic that my brain analyzed as an out-of-phase frequency. I closed my eyes and pressed my palm against the bronze. I tried to remember the fable of the Radiant Monarch, the only one who, according to my father, had climbed without asking permission.
The monolith's hum changed. It wasn't the crystalline sound that had welcomed Elias. It was a dirty vibration, a metallic rattle, like a gear slamming against a logical error. The blue runes flashed a blinking red, then died out entirely.
[IDENTIFICATION... ERROR] > [POTENTIAL EVALUATION... NOT DETECTED] > [STATUS: NIL] > [CLASS: NONE] > [SKILL: NONE] > [LEVEL: 0]
The System hadn't read me. To the logic of Classes and Skills, my intelligence wasn't an asset; it was background noise. I was a biological bug.
The guard gave me a brutal shove with the butt of his rifle, hitting me with surgical precision between the shoulder blades.
«Move, Zero. Don't waste the time of those with a future.»
The First Reaction
I fell into the mud but didn't utter a sound. I remained motionless as the next number was called and the System's machine resumed grinding lives. Around me, the indifference was absolute.
I stared at my reflection in an oil puddle. A nineteen-year-old face that already looked like a relic. I was a NIL. No skills, no powers, no protection.
In that moment, I felt the last part of my empathy snap for good. But it wasn't painful. It was as if a complex calculation had finally reached its solution. If the System considered me a Zero, then I was the free variable. If I couldn't have the System's skills, I'd use my own.
I stood up slowly, wiping my face with a methodical gesture.
«Fine», I thought, as my brain began mapping every weakness in the Enforcer's armor, every crack in the block walls, every possible trajectory upward. «If the world is a dungeon designed to crush me, I will become the only monster you haven't classified».
I left the plaza without looking back. I was no longer seeking a blessing. I was seeking my first tool. And I knew exactly where to find it.