The cold night air was thick with the scent of damp concrete and cheap, salty ramen. Jin pushed open the creaking wooden door of his home—a basement room so cramped the low ceiling felt like it was constantly pressing down on his shoulders. The walls were stained with patches of mold, and the only light came from a flickering, yellow bulb.
In this world, since the appearance of the "Gates," humanity was subjected to a process called "Awakening." At age eighteen, an individual's mana core is measured and categorized from Rank S down to Rank E. Rank F didn't originally exist; it was created to describe "Nulls" with mana so low it couldn't even power a basic shield—the very label branded onto Jin.
Jin possessed a single skill called [Analyze]. To the Hunter's Association, it was a useless F-rank skill that only displayed basic data. But Jin had never seen the world like others; since he was a child, he caught glimpses of digital flickers over objects, as if reality was a "program" with hidden technical errors.
From the dark corner of the room, a weak, trembling voice called out: "Brother? Is that you?"
Jin forced a weary smile, wiping the freezing rain from his forehead: "Yeah, Mi-na. I'm back."
Mi-na was lying under thin blankets, her face pale and translucent. On her neck, faint blue veins glowed with a sickly light—the mark of Mana Poisoning. She looked at him with hopeful eyes: "How was the... Awakening?"
Jin's heart twisted. He remembered the laughter at the Academy and the grey, lifeless Awakening stone. He lied to her, his voice cracking: "It went... okay. I just need to wait for the official license. I'll get a high-paying job in a dungeon soon. I promise."
He checked his bank account: 12 Credits. Not even enough for a single dose of medicine. As he left the room, his desperation reached a breaking point. Something snapped in his mind. The cheap [Analyze] skill began to hack the world's code itself.
A red spark flickered in his vision, displaying a line of code: [Do you wish to 'Edit' the reality that rejected you?]