Jin Ayora – or just Jin – was twenty-four years old, painfully ordinary, and hopelessly passionless.
He lived alone in a cramped apartment in Seoul, South Korea, stacked between hundreds of other identical little rooms housing identical little nobodies.
His small fridge hummed constantly, the only sound competing with the anxious tapping of his fingers as he stared blankly at the old television screen.
The news anchor's voice burst through the static, energetic and loud, as if bored people like Jin needed reminding that the world outside was wild and extraordinary.
"Breaking news! A new S-rank hunter has cleared a Mythical-rank Tower in under one hour, setting the new world record for this year! His name is – Daniel Seok!"
Cheers erupted from the audience behind the camera.
Clips flooded the screen: a young man with silver hair walking out of a shining tower gate, reporters screaming questions, fans crying, the global ranking boards updating in real time. The world loved hunters.
Worshipped them, even. They were celebrities, soldiers, and walking disasters all at once.
Hunters – the awakened – were everything Jin was not.
He sighed and leaned back on his squeaky couch.
"What a joke. Some people have everything handed to them…"
His voice was small, swallowed by the empty apartment. Then, under his breath, he whispered,
"I wish I could become a hunter too."
It wasn't just jealousy. It was longing.
Because Jin Ayora, the boring guy with no ambition, lived in a world built by ambition.
Around 150 years ago, the first Towers appeared – mysterious structures piercing the skies across the globe, followed by the monstrous System that changed the shape of humanity.
From that day, people began awakening different abilities – elements, summons, enhancements, distortions, transformations, and thousands more. They were graded from E up to S+, and hunters used those abilities to conquer Towers and defend against Gates that spewed monsters into reality.
Humanity adapted fast
Guilds formed. Families fought for power.
Cities became warzones and fortresses.
Now, more than 20 million Awakeners lived around the world, and the official global rankings listed the top 10,000.
But awakenings almost always happened between the ages of 15 to 17.
Jin was seventeen once. And he had never awakened.
He was one of the leftover humans – powerless, unremarkable, invisible.
"This world…"
Jin muttered as the TV showed Daniel Seok shaking hands with reporters
"is so unfair."
His eyes drifted to the ceiling.
"Ah… I really wish I could live another life."
The lights flickered.
His TV cut to static.
His phone vibrated once, then shut off. A strange silence wrapped around him – thick, heavy, electric.
Then, in front of him, blue text materialized out of thin air.
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
Requirement fulfilled: Strong, persistent desire detected.
Awakening status: SUCCESSFUL
Rank: S+ (Inborn)
Skill Acquired: DEVIANT
(No description available)
Jin's jaw dropped. "W–wait what? Huh?! S… S+? Me?!"
This had to be a dream. Most skills came with detailed descriptions, functions, stats, usage conditions – everything. But his didn't. Just a name.
Ability Name: Deviant
Description: …
Description: …
(No data)
"That's impossible,"
Jin whispered.
Every awakened ability always had text. Everyone knew that. It was one of the System's absolute rules.
Yet he had none.
He barely had time to panic before instinct took over. Awakeners were required to register within 72 hours, so he threw on his jacket and rushed out of the apartment, heart pounding.
He never made it to the testing center.
Halfway down the street, sirens wailed.
Cars screeched to a halt.
Shouts and screams erupted as cracks tore open in the air – an expanding hole of darkness near the intersection.
A Gate Breakout.
Beasts spilled out: wolves with jagged bone armor, creatures with too many eyes, hunched figures crawling on all fours. Civilians ran in every direction.
Jin froze. He had never fought anything in his life. Yet, in that chaos – his System pulsed again.
[DEVIANT: ACTIVE]
Power flooded through him. A burning – no, devouring – heat ignited in his chest and surged down his arms.
Dark blue flames erupted from his hands, coiling around his fingers like living shadows.
Gasps filled the street as monsters lunged toward him.
Jin didn't think.
He moved.
The flames roared, consuming the creatures, not with normal heat, but with something deeper – Soul Flame, the System whispered into his mind for the first time.
Monsters burned from the inside out, bodies collapsing into ash without a scream.
"Holy–! I can actually fight!"
Jin gasped, adrenaline drowning his fear.
He wiped out the wave easily.
Civilians stared, mouths open, cheering shakily. He was still catching his breath when a final monster behind him lunged, claw raised.
Jin spun and struck.
Blue fire burst–and the world shattered.
Everything went silent and cold.
Darkness swallowed his sight, his memories, his victory
–and then he woke up.
In a classroom.
Seventeen years old again.
His uniform tight around his shoulders.
His hands empty. No flames. No power.
No S-rank body.
Jin stared at his reflection in the window, heart pounding, mind racing.
"…I… regressed?"