A grey screen floated directly in front of Liam's eyes.
It was not particularly beautiful. There were no elaborate designs or bright colours, only a dull gradient that darkened towards the edges. Still, he could not seem to ignore it. Whenever he tried to look elsewhere, the screen remained fixed within his vision, following his gaze without actually moving.
Liam blinked several times.
He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, wondering whether the exhaustion had finally become too much for him. Perhaps he had already fallen asleep on the bench and had not realised it yet.
When he lowered his hand, the screen was still there.
Faint letters began appearing across its surface, forming one after another as though someone unseen were writing them.
[SCANNING ORIGIN POINT…]
[RESULT: NULL.]
[ORIGIN LOCATED OUTSIDE STORY BOUNDARY.]
[NARRATIVE CONSISTENCY COMPROMISED.]
[ATTEMPTING REINTEGRATION…]
[5%… 23%… 34%…]
[FAILED.]
Liam stared at the words.
He understood most of them individually, but together they made almost no sense. The only part he understood completely was that something had failed.
"What?" he whispered.
He tilted his head, reading the lines again in the hope that they might become clearer the second time.
They did not.
"Hey, kiddo. You doing all right?"
Liam flinched and turned sharply towards the voice. It belonged to the officer from earlier, who had stopped a short distance away from the bench.
The screen remained in front of him even when he looked at the man.
Liam hesitated, his attention flicking between the officer and the floating words. He did not know whether anyone else could see them, and asking seemed like an excellent way to make the officers even more convinced that something was wrong with him.
"I'm fine," he said, perhaps a little too quickly.
The officer studied him for a moment. "You looked like you were talking to someone."
"I wasn't."
His reply came out more defensive than he intended. Liam shifted on the bench and straightened his back, suddenly aware of how small he must have looked with his feet hanging above the floor.
The officer's expression softened.
"All right. You don't have to talk if you don't want to. I was only checking on you."
He glanced towards the front desk before continuing.
"We're still trying to process your information. Someone should be able to take you somewhere safe for the night soon."
"Okay. Thank you, mister."
The officer nodded and returned to the desk.
Liam watched until the man was no longer paying attention to him, then focused on the screen again.
The previous messages disappeared.
[SIDE MC DESIGNATION CONFIRMED.]
[PROTOCOL ACTIVATED: FOURTH WALL SYSTEM.]
Liam gasped before he could stop himself.
Several people glanced in his direction. His shoulders stiffened, and he hurriedly covered the sound with a cough, turning his face away as though something had caught in his throat.
My System.
His heart began beating faster.
He had suspected the messages might be connected to his Awakening, but seeing the word System made the possibility feel real. Whatever had happened inside the portal, he had awakened something.
Liam looked down at his hands, then towards the officers scattered around the station. He needed somewhere private. Somewhere he could examine the screen without anyone interrupting him or deciding that he required even more help.
He slid towards the edge of the bench.
"Mister?" he called.
The officer looked up again.
"Could I use the toilet?"
"Yeah, of course. Down the hall, first door on the left."
Liam nodded his thanks and slipped off the bench. He forced himself to walk at a normal pace, though his steps became quicker once he reached the hallway.
The toilet was plain, like most of the station. White walls, grey floors and harsh lights that made everything look slightly dull.
Liam closed the door behind him and looked at his reflection in the mirror.
His face was pale and tired, while his blue eyes were still slightly red from crying. The hair he had carefully brushed that morning was now tangled around his shoulders, and his formal clothes had become wrinkled after an entire day of running, falling and sitting around the station.
He looked awful.
Normally, that would have bothered him. At the moment, he hardly cared.
Liam hurried into an empty stall and locked the door behind him. Only when the latch clicked into place did he allow himself to breathe properly.
He lowered the toilet lid and sat down. His feet hung above the floor, swinging faintly beneath him.
"Okay," he whispered. "Think."
The grey screen remained suspended before him, unaffected by the stall walls.
Liam stared at it for several seconds before lifting one hand uncertainly.
"System?"
He felt slightly ridiculous speaking to an empty toilet stall.
"Can you hear me?"
The screen flickered.
[COMMAND RECOGNISED.]
[VOICE INPUT ACTIVE.]
Liam's mouth fell open.
It worked.
"You really can hear me," he whispered.
[USER UNDERSTANDING LEVEL: CHILD.]
[PRIORITISING SIMPLIFIED RESPONSE FORMAT.]
Liam's eyebrows drew together.
"Rude."
The screen did not respond.
He shifted on the seat and tried to arrange his face into the calm expression his etiquette instructors were always demanding from him. He even placed his hands neatly on his knees.
The attempt lasted only a few seconds.
"So I really awakened a System?" he asked, leaning forwards. "Does that mean I have a talent now? No, wait, I should already have one. Are you my talent? Did the Awakening Ceremony create you? Did the portal send me here? Can you take me home?"
The questions spilled from him so quickly that he barely paused between them.
The screen remained blank for a moment.
[WARNING.]
[HOST EXPERIENCING INFORMATION OVERLOAD.]
[RECOMMENDATION: CALM DOWN.]
"I am calm."
[STATEMENT ANALYSED.]
[RESULT: FALSE.]
Liam stared at the response.
"Excuse me?"
The screen remained unchanged, but something about the blunt answer felt almost insulting.
Liam puffed out his cheeks. "You are definitely rude."
His complaint was ignored.
[HOST: LIAM VELRODI.]
[AGE: 10.]
[STATUS: DISPLACED.]
[PRIMARY DESIGNATION: SIDE MC.]
[FOURTH WALL SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY: 98%.]
[CURRENT MENTAL STATE: CONFUSED, STRESSED, EXCITED.]
Liam read the final line twice.
Heat crept into his face.
"Stop reading my mind."
[DENIED.]
"What do you mean, denied?"
The frightened child who had cried alone on the bench had disappeared for the moment. Liam now looked exactly like what he was: an irritated ten-year-old arguing with a floating screen in a toilet stall.
The interface flickered.
[WOULD HOST LIKE TO BEGIN BASIC SYSTEM TUTORIAL?]
His annoyance vanished immediately.
"Yes."
He paused, then added more eagerly, "Yes, please."
[BEGINNER TUTORIAL INITIATED.]
Liam straightened so quickly that his legs swung forwards beneath him. His fear had not completely disappeared, but curiosity had taken firm control of his attention.
A second panel opened below the first.
[STEP ONE: UNDERSTANDING THE FOURTH WALL SYSTEM.]
[THE FOURTH WALL SYSTEM ALLOWS THE HOST TO PERCEIVE INFORMATION BEYOND STANDARD WORLD LIMITS.]
Liam read the sentence several times.
He did not understand exactly what standard world limits were, but anything beyond them sounded important.
"So…" He chose his words more carefully this time. "You can tell me things I am not supposed to know?"
[CORRECT.]
Before he could ask another question, the tutorial continued.
[STEP TWO: BASIC FUNCTIONS.]
[1. STATUS VIEW.]
[2. INFORMATION SCAN.]
[3. NARRATIVE READING.]
[4. EVENT INTERPRETATION.]
[5. SYSTEM INSTRUCTION ACCESS.]
Liam's gaze moved slowly down the list.
He understood the first option. The second sounded simple enough too. The remaining functions were less clear, particularly narrative reading, but he was already beginning to suspect that his System was unlike any talent he had studied.
"What does Status View do?"
[STATUS VIEW ALLOWS HOST TO INSPECT PERSONAL DATA, CURRENT CONDITION AND ABILITY RECORDS.]
Liam nodded, although he only understood part of the explanation.
"Can I see mine?"
[OPENING STATUS WINDOW.]
The interface expanded.
The grey screen became larger and clearer, its scattered messages arranging themselves into a structured page. Liam leaned forwards, his excitement making him forget that moving closer would not actually help him read it.
[STATUS WINDOW.]
[HOST: LIAM VELRODI.]
[AGE: 10.]
[TALENT: ERROR.]
[STATUS: DISPLACED.]
[CURRENT CONDITION: UNSTABLE BUT FUNCTIONAL.]
[PRIMARY DESIGNATION: SIDE MC.]
[SYSTEM INTEGRATION: 98%.]
Liam's excitement faded.
His eyes returned to the third line.
[TALENT: ERROR.]
"Error?" he whispered.
That could not be right.
He leaned closer, hoping he had misread it. The word remained exactly where it was.
Talent was the most important result of the Awakening Ceremony. It would shape his education, his future Path and the responsibilities he would eventually inherit. His parents, tutors and half the noble families surrounding Astravia had spent years wondering what rank he might receive.
Now his status screen could not even identify it.
"There must be a mistake," Liam said quietly. "Ortheon is my world."
The screen changed.
[CAUSE: DATA CONFLICT.]
[SUBJECT PARAMETERS DO NOT MATCH STANDARD ORTHEON RECORDS.]
Liam's fingers curled against his knees.
The explanation sounded worse than a simple mistake. According to the System, something about him no longer matched the records of his own world.
"That doesn't make sense," he whispered. "I was born there."
[VOICE INPUT NOT REQUIRED.]
Liam blinked.
"What does that have to do with—"
[THOUGHT INPUT ACCEPTED.]
He stopped speaking.
Thought input?
[CORRECT. HOST MAY COMMUNICATE INTERNALLY.]
Liam looked around the stall, though there was nobody nearby to see him. The discovery was convenient, but knowing the System could hear his thoughts was also deeply uncomfortable.
So you can hear me like this?
[YES.]
The answer appeared immediately.
Liam pressed his lips together.
Then fix it. My talent, I mean. If there is a conflict, can't you correct it?
The screen remained still for longer than usual.
When the response came, the words appeared slowly.
[FORCEFUL REALIGNMENT POSSIBLE.]
[TALENT PARAMETER RECALIBRATION AVAILABLE.]
[WARNING: PROCESS WILL CAUSE PAIN.]
Liam's stomach twisted.
He did not like the warning. He had scraped his knees, fallen during combat lessons and once broken a finger after ignoring Mathilda's instructions not to climb the western courtyard wall. None of those memories made him feel any more prepared to choose pain willingly.
However, the System had said it could fix him.
If he left his talent marked as an error, he had no idea what would happen when he returned home. Perhaps he would never receive a proper rank. Perhaps the priests would believe something was wrong with his System Core.
Perhaps his parents would look at him differently.
[FINAL CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.]
Liam stared at the message.
He was frightened. Pretending otherwise would not change that.
Still, he had already entered the Gate alone, survived the strange city and spent hours trapped in a world nobody else seemed to know existed. He could not allow everything to end with his talent listed as a mistake.
He drew in a slow breath.
"Yes."
For a second, nothing happened.
Then the grey screen shuddered.
Its calm surface rippled like water, and a thin line of white light split across the centre. Liam barely had time to react before an invisible pressure crashed down on him.
He gasped.
At first, it did not hurt. It pressed through his skull, chest and spine, leaving him unable to tell whether the force came from inside his body or somewhere beyond it.
His fingers jerked against his knees.
Then the pain arrived.
A searing jolt tore through him, so sudden that his back arched away from the toilet seat. A strangled cry escaped before he could hold it back, and he grabbed the walls of the stall to keep himself from falling.
His vision flashed white.
"Ah—ngh!"
Liam bit down hard, terrified that someone outside might hear him. Tears filled his eyes anyway, blurring the cramped stall around him.
This was nothing like being struck or injured during training. The pain was deeper. It felt as though invisible hands had reached inside him, pulled something apart and begun forcing the pieces into a different shape.
His hands clawed against the edge of the seat, knuckles whitening as his whole body shook.
The System flickered violently.
[RECALIBRATION IN PROGRESS.]
[REALIGNING TALENT CORE.]
[ERROR RATE: CRITICAL.]
Liam's breathing broke into short, uneven gasps. He tried to remain quiet, but small sounds kept slipping through his clenched teeth.
The edges of his vision darkened.
For several seconds, the floating screen was the only thing he could see clearly.
Then the pressure changed.
It sank further into him.
Liam could not have explained the sensation, even if someone had asked. It felt as though something fundamental was being erased and rewritten before it had finished forming, like an unseen hand correcting him while he was still alive enough to feel every change.
His body tensed sharply.
The edges of the interface began to distort, bending and rippling as though whatever it had found inside him exceeded what it had been built to contain.
[RECALIBRATION: FINAL STAGE.]
[INTEGRATING HISTORICAL SIGNATURE.]
[WARNING: SINGULARITY-CLASS TALENT DETECTED.]
Liam could barely read the words.
Sweat ran down his temples, and his head dropped forwards as the pain continued to build. His fingers slipped against the smooth edge of the toilet lid before tightening again.
He wanted it to stop.
For one frightened moment, he nearly begged the System to undo his decision.
Before he could form the thought, something inside him snapped.
Liam's entire body went rigid.
A silent shock passed through him, locking every muscle in place. His eyes squeezed shut, and the world vanished into a vast white emptiness.
Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the pain disappeared.
Liam slumped forwards and caught himself with trembling hands. His lungs dragged in air in short, uneven pulls while he waited for the pain to return.
It did not.
His body felt strangely light and distant, as though it belonged to him but had not yet settled properly into place.
A soft chime sounded.
[RECALIBRATION COMPLETE.]
[CORE STABILISATION SUCCESSFUL.]
[SSS-RANK TALENT FULLY INTEGRATED.]