It was the year 2069. What a year to be alive! To anyone who had been fortunate enough to survive this long, to weather the storms and catastrophes that had reshaped the very fabric of existence, they were truly and undeniably lucky.
The Earth of today stood as an almost unrecognizable testament to human resilience and adaptation, looking vastly and remarkably different compared to the world that had existed a mere forty years ago.
If one were to gaze across the planet's sprawling metropolitan centers and transformed rural landscapes, taking in the sights that would have seemed like pure fantasy to previous generations, they would witness marvels beyond imagination.
Flying cars weaved through designated aerial highways with casual ease, their passengers barely glancing up from their devices as they soared above the roadways below.
Illnesses that had plagued and tormented humanity for countless centuries, diseases that had claimed billions of lives throughout recorded history, were now nothing more than distant memories preserved only in medical textbooks and historical archives.
And space travel—the once impossible dream of poets and visionaries—had become something as commonplace and utterly unremarkable as drawing breath into one's lungs.
There was so much to behold on this transformed and evolved world, so many wonders that demanded attention and sparked amazement in equal measure. But the most remarkable and awe-inspiring sight of all were the individuals soaring through the open air without the aid of any vehicle, device, or technological apparatus whatsoever, propelled solely and entirely by abilities that belonged to them alone, powers that had become as natural to them as walking or speaking.
One could observe some using roaring columns of flame that erupted from their hands and feet to rocket through the sky at tremendous speeds, leaving trails of heat and light in their wake. Others bent the fundamental force of gravity itself to their will, floating serenely or accelerating with impossible momentum as they pleased. And there were countless more displaying powers too varied, too numerous, and too wondrous to ever fully catalogue or comprehend.
This was all thanks to the cataclysmic and world-altering event that had unfolded approximately forty years prior, a cosmic catastrophe that had forever changed the course of human history. It began when this universe and another universe started to collide and gradually devour each other, two realities grinding together in a slow apocalyptic merger that threatened to annihilate everything.
Humanity had been forced to take up whatever arms they could muster and march to war in desperate defense of their very reality, their home, their entire plane of existence. The battle that followed was something mankind had never anticipated in their wildest nightmares or most paranoid preparations, for their enemies wielded weapons and abilities that existed far beyond mortal comprehension.
But it was alright, at least in those initial chaotic days, as humanity responded in the only way they knew how—by hurling nuclear bombs at the invading forces with reckless and desperate abandon.
Not even magic, that mystical and seemingly omnipotent force that the enemy wielded with such terrifying proficiency, could allow those otherworldly beings to withstand the absolutely devastating fury of a nuclear explosion. The temperature at the center of such blasts burned at intensities five times hotter than the blazing core of the sun itself, vaporizing everything caught within the blast radius in microseconds.
But still, despite such overwhelming and apocalyptic firepower being unleashed again and again, the conflict had ground to a frustrating and bloody stalemate. Their enemies were adapting with frightening and almost impossible speed, studying each attack and developing sophisticated countermeasures and defensive techniques against humanity's most powerful arsenal.
Meanwhile, the only strategy mankind possessed, the only card they held in this cosmic game of survival, was to continue throwing bomb after bomb at the encroaching threat and pray it would be enough. Sooner or later, inevitably and terrifyingly, humanity was going to exhaust its finite supply of such devastating weapons.
Yet their desperate and costly actions had not been entirely in vain, for they had bought their universe precious and invaluable time. Time enough for their universe to devour something from the other universe, a mysterious power into their own realm.
This was what caused humans all across the globe to suddenly and inexplicably awaken systems. These miraculous interfaces, these gifts from the universe itself, appeared in the minds of countless individuals and allowed them to transform the deadlocked and seemingly hopeless battle into a decisive and overwhelming victory.
Those who awakened systems centered around scientific principles and technological innovation immediately set to work creating newer and far more devastating weapons than anything that had come before.
Those blessed with systems specifically built for direct physical combat stepped boldly and fearlessly onto the front lines, becoming living weapons of unprecedented power.
In what felt like no time at all compared to the grinding stalemate that had preceded it, humanity was finally and definitively winning. Even as the enemy universe desperately funneled its remaining power and dwindling resources into its dying and defeated people, hoping against all hope to somehow turn the tide of the conflict, at most this final desperate measure only managed to drag out the inevitable conclusion for a few extra grueling years.
Eventually, their universe was completely and utterly devoured, absorbed into the reality that humanity called home.
That terrible and transformative war had lasted a grueling and exhausting total of thirty years, three decades of constant conflict that had shaped an entire generation. Afterward, in the wake of victory, the past ten years had been a time of healing, rebuilding, and unprecedented growth.
During this period of recovery and renewal, new organizations were born and rose to prominence—some righteous and noble in their intentions, dedicated to helping others, while others proved evil and self-serving in their ambitions.
Heroes and villains alike emerged from the ashes of the long conflict, individuals who would shape the new world order for better or worse. Earth itself was rapidly restored and revitalized as many system holders possessed genuinely kind hearts and sincere desires to make a meaningful and lasting difference in the recovering world.
But let us turn our attention away from the grand sweep of history and focus instead on our protagonist, a man who stood as a singular anomaly in this transformed world—the only systemless person remaining among the billions who had awakened.
And this whole cosmic upheaval, this miraculous event that had elevated humanity to new heights of power and potential, had honestly and completely destroyed his life beyond any hope of repair.
While others thrived and flourished in this new era of limitless possibility, reaching heights of success and happiness they had never dreamed possible, his own existence had crumbled to dust and ash around him.
His wife had divorced him without hesitation or remorse, severing their bond as though their years together had meant nothing. His children had abandoned him without so much as a backward glance, erasing him from their lives with cold efficiency.
The business he had built from nothing with his own two hands, constructed through nothing but sweat, tears, sleepless nights, and relentless determination over years of struggle, was ripped away from him by those he had trusted most. And that was merely the beginning of his suffering, the first drops in an ocean of pain.
Before the war had begun, before the universes had collided and changed everything, he had possessed everything a man could possibly want from life. Now he was nothing more than a homeless vagrant, a forgotten soul surviving day to day in a desolate and toxic junkyard.
This particular stretch of ruined land had been abandoned by humanity entirely due to the devastating battle that had scarred and contaminated this place during the long war.
While waiting for the poisoned and irradiated earth to slowly heal itself over the coming decades, people dumped their refuse and unwanted garbage here without a second thought or moment of consideration. It was the only place he could find to settle without being driven away, the only location in the entire world he could call anything resembling a home.
Currently fifty-eight years old in terms of the calendar, he appeared as though he had already reached his eighties or even beyond, his body broken and aged far past its actual years. It was a tragic and heartbreaking sight to behold, especially considering that with the extraordinary power now flooding and saturating their world, the average person in humanity could live far longer lives than ever before while remaining perpetually in their physical prime and peak condition.
But without a system to sustain and protect him, combined with the absolutely wretched and toxic conditions he endured on a daily basis, his body had aged and deteriorated at a horrifyingly rapid pace that seemed almost cruel in its acceleration.
At this very moment, as the sun traced its path across the sky above the junkyard, the old man lay at death's door, his final hours upon him at last. After years upon years of consuming contaminated food scavenged from the refuse around him, after dwelling continuously in this polluted and toxic land saturated with poisons and radiation, his health had inevitably and completely collapsed under the accumulated strain.
He lay sprawled on the cold and unforgiving ground, his frail body positioned among the garbage and debris that had become his world. His tired eyes gazed upward at the clear blue sky stretching endlessly above him, that beautiful expanse that seemed to mock his suffering with its serene perfection.
Slowly, with the weight of exhaustion and approaching death pressing down upon him, his eyes drifted closed. His wandering mind began to travel back through the winding corridors of his past, revisiting memories both precious and painful.
He had once possessed everything a person could desire from their time on this earth. A loving wife who had shared his dreams and ambitions, who had stood beside him through struggles and triumphs alike.
Children, he would have given the entire world just to witness their innocent smiles, kids he had loved with every fiber of his being and would have sacrificed anything to protect.
Parents who had felt more like cherished friends than distant authority figures, people he could talk to about anything without judgment or reservation.
Siblings who had been his closest companions and most trusted confidants throughout his life, bonds he had believed would last forever.
But when the systems descended upon humanity and he alone failed to awaken one, when that cosmic lottery passed him by without so much as a consolation prize, he found himself systematically abandoned by every single person he had ever loved or trusted.
They called themselves the System Holders now, proclaiming with pride and arrogance that they represented the next glorious stage of human evolution. He was someone deemed insufficiently evolved to join their ranks, a throwback to an inferior age.
He was someone who simply could not function normally or contribute meaningfully in a world now overflowing with extraordinary power and superhuman capability. He was trash, to put it in the simplest and most brutal terms possible.
In this new era where everyone rushed frantically to demonstrate their usefulness and accumulate whatever benefits and advantages they possibly could, he had become nothing more than a burden, dead weight that no one wished to shoulder or support.
Be it his wife who had once sworn to love him forever, his parents who had raised him and claimed to love him unconditionally, or even his own flesh and blood siblings who had grown up alongside him—none of them could bear the weight and social stigma of continued association with him.
So naturally, inevitably, they each turned their backs on him one by one and focused solely and exclusively on their own survival and advancement. It was something he could understand on a purely rational level, a cold logical calculation that made perfect sense in this harsh new world. But that intellectual understanding did absolutely nothing to lessen the raw and overwhelming agony that tore through his heart every time he remembered their abandonment.
Back then, in those years before everything fell apart, when he had first started his business from nothing but an idea and determination, he had used every spare dollar the growing venture generated to help his struggling family.
He paid off their mounting debts that had accumulated over years of hardship, debts that would have crushed them without his intervention. He even funded his siblings' education completely, ensuring they could finish their schooling and build better futures for themselves. Even as his business thrived and expanded beyond his initial dreams, growing into something truly successful, he kept zero dollars in his own pocket for personal luxuries or savings.
He operated on the fundamental belief that family helped one another without question or hesitation, that blood ties meant something sacred and unbreakable. How could anyone prosper and succeed in this world while callously leaving behind those closest to them to suffer?
Although his wife had frowned upon his endless generosity back then, expressing her pointed disapproval at every available opportunity and urging him to think of their own household first, he had refused to listen or change his ways.
To him, helping his family was simply doing what was obvious and morally right, what any decent person would do in his position. Perhaps he should have heeded her warnings and saved something for himself, built some security for the dark days ahead.
Then again, even in his darkest imaginings, he never could have expected or predicted that his own wife would turn her back on him so completely and ruthlessly when his moment of weakness arrived. She had forcefully and legally seized complete ownership of his thriving business, the enterprise he had built from nothing, and cast him out into the cold streets without remorse.
His children... the thought of them brought the sharpest pain of all. He had believed himself to be the perfectdevoted father, a man who had given everything for his kids and asked nothing in return.
Yet how could they act as though he had never existed in their lives, as though all those years of love and sacrifice meant nothing? How could they so eagerly and happily leap into the welcoming arms of their mother's new man, calling a stranger father while pretending their real father had simply vanished from the earth?
He did not even want to recall or revisit the depths of pain and humiliation he had endured in those dark days after the abandonment. The mockery hurled at him from every direction by people who saw him as less than human. The physical beatings he had suffered simply because people needed someone weak and defenseless to vent their frustrations and anger upon. No one had spared a single thought or moment of concern for a systemless user like him, a relic of the old world with no place in the new.
It was difficult, perhaps impossible, to put into adequate words the sheer magnitude of suffering he had experienced over these long and lonely years. How does one properly describe the pain of plummeting from a perfect and blessed life, a life filled with love and purpose and meaning, to becoming a homeless man abandoned and surrounded by nothing but refuse and decay?
How does one articulate with mere language the searing and unforgettable betrayal of discovering that your best friend, someone you trusted with your deepest secrets, has become your own children's stepfather, sleeping in your bed and raising your kids as his own? How does one express or convey the utter devastation of watching the family you supported selflessly through their darkest and most desperate hours, people you sacrificed everything for, suddenly and coldly pretend that you never existed at all?