The Scenario was supposed to begin only under very specific conditions.
A moment of disconnect, a sudden blackout, crossing an emotional threshold, pushing oneself beyond stress-induced activation, or reaching that subtle boundary where an Archetype hovered on the edge of awakening.
Yet the message echoed anyway.
[ You've fallen into a Scenario ]
But for me, it was none of those.
Instead, it arrived in the most absurd, anticlimactic way possible.
A random trigger during ordinary life. And before anyone makes assumptions, let me be perfectly clear.
Random triggers did exist, technically… but they were so impossibly rare that a single person could live their whole life without ever witnessing one, let alone hearing about it secondhand.
At least, by human standards.
The whiteness, which had stilled for a brief moment, began to fill itself again, as if the place, the themes, the surroundings, the people, every part of the Scenario was still rendering into existence.
And yes, they really were rendering. The shapes around me flickered, shifting in half-formed strokes, as though the world was trying to remember its own shape.
Yet before anything could complete itself enough for someone like a hybrid with a congenital disorder, to make proper sense of it, everything collapsed all at once.
The rendering simply stopped.
[ You have successfully managed to recognize your true Archetype ]
The voice hammered through my head as my surroundings siphoned into a whirl of countless colors, shifting with every passing fraction of a second.
I could not make anything out clearly from those frame-perfect flashes, each one appearing and vanishing before my mind could catch it, but the sensation itself was strangely captivating.
It felt fascinating, almost beautiful in its own chaotic way, although undeniably disorienting, as if my senses were trying to keep up with a world that kept slipping out of their grasp.
[ Your archetype reveals itself as: Orphan, the Shelterless Horizon ]
[ 'The Will' has recognized your existence ]
[ Interpretation: A soul that walks alone, abandoned by every illusion of belonging, yet moves forward all the same.
The world collapses. The warmth disappears. No hand reaches back—and still, you stand. ]
"What? Orphan… seriously now?"
I thought to myself as the voice of the existing hummed in my mind like an unbroken thread.
[ Rank Gained: Recognition ]
[ Those under the Recognition rank have successfully recognized their Archetype, but not mastered it ]
The voice continued its steady ramble, and a wave of disorientation threatened to wash over me.
But, ironically, my disgust for the Archetype rank helped more than anything else to keep me from fainting unconscious.
It wasn't like Recognition rank, the lowest beginning, was trash.
In fact, most people did begin with the Recognition rank.
But I did not fall under most people. Not after the advantage I had received from the Inner Chaos.
Not after recognizing my Archetype in mere seconds, a feat even the main characters of the novel couldn't pull off.
Those protagonists had taken hours to confront their Archetypes, and almost all of them began with a rank higher than Recognition.
Some even skipped immediately to Alignment or reached it within a month. Yet here I was, stuck at the bottom.
For reference, the ranks were divided into five tiers.
Recognition at the lowest.
Then Alignment.
Then Embodiment.
Then Authority.
And finally, the topmost rank, Icon.
I was at the last. And the main cast began somewhere around Alignment… or reached it absurdly fast.
[ The Archetype reveals itself as: The Rebel, the chains you forged yourself ]
[ The Horrendous has recognized your existence as majority too, despite the contradicting natures ]
[ An existence shaped by conflicts, not with others, but with the framework that try to define them.
Their every step cracks expectation, their every breath denies the mold they should've fit into. They are the contradiction that the world cannot stomach. A defiance so still, so absolute, it becomes sacred. ]
"W-wait...two archetypes— is it even possible, I mean, does the world even allow it. I don't recall anyone having more than one archetype, even those full-wished bastards. The most someone had was a twisted version of a single archetype. I guess that makes me special,"
I spoke to myself in a low hush.
[ Rank gained: Alignment ]
[ Those under the Alignment begin to consistently behave as your archetype in daily life. You can create one signature ability or technique ]
"And the things that make me special, are the things that draw me closer towards my aim, doesn't they?"
I completed the words, a wide smug tugging at the corners of my lips for quite some time.
In all honesty it was all unexpected.
I barely managed to brace myself by the sudden announcement of the second archetype revealing itself, but then its rank made me reconsider my choice.
Alignment…
It was the most beautiful rank a beginner could ever wish for.
It was just like a certain level in a game where major plot areas and facilities unlocked in one go, and would prove to be of significant interest till the end.
The sheer usefulness of it made my heartbeat settle into something steady, something sharp.
First of all, it was the second most time-consuming rank to reach at, after reaching from Authority to Icon.
And second, it was the rank where one would gain the access to create their signature ability. The first piece of power that truly belonged to them.
Though it wasn't at all a tough rank, for the beginners who had barely managed to recognize their archetype, it was one hell of a job.
[ You hold the Orphan's stillness and the Rebel's fire, and both the archetype rise without tearing one another apart. No hesitation and no fear. ]
It halted for a moment, as if the world itself had forgotten how to breathe.
Then…
[ You are not supposed to fit two truths. The world expected you to break. You did not. The world expected you to choose. You refused. ]
The space around me grew silent. Not peaceful, but stunned. As if it was wary of something or someone.
[ …Child, what exactly are you? ]