The Mysterious System

It was a day like any other of Jin as he walked past the hallway of his school. It was only less than a year until students have to enrol into the army or choose a different path in life. Jin, an 18-year-old, had no options of what to do with his future.

Considering Jin was a cripple with no ability, he could do nothing other than joining the army as cannon fodder.

"In this modern society of mine, everything is dependent on having an ability, from manual labour to specified professions.

Doctors have healing related abilities or those that helped with concentration, procedures etc. Manual labour was usually left to those who could use physical enhancement abilities.

People would usually receive an overall rating of their strength from 1-10, with 3 being the average rating for regular manual workers. Anyone with a higher rating would usually aim to use their abilities for their own advantage.

With age peoples, abilities can increase over time, and some are able to improve them over time with hard work naturally.

So what am I supposed to do when I was born with no ability at all.

Even though I have spent the last few years of my life continuously working on my body, improving my strength and flexibility, all that hard work is nothing compared to even a grade 2.0 ability user.

Many people are born with the capacity to use multiple abilities, with the only limitation being the possible potency of their abilities related to the grade of their overall strength.

This natural limitation led to human traffickers kidnapping weak people with extraordinary abilities and, through what government thinks is a mix of experimentation, and ability usage, are able to transplant those abilities to those with a high-grade ability gauge.

I would kill for ability, but I wouldn't even be able to use it since, well, my ability gauge is as low as can possibly be".

As Jin was busy thinking and walking, he was startled as he heard a too familiar of a sound.

*Crackle* *Zip* *Boom*

Jin found himself thrown 8 meters to the side with the attack.

As Jin felt excruciating pain throughout his body, he looked up and could see jack walking by. Jack was a grade 5 ability user with dual abilities in lightning and fire. His hand was still covered in lightning from the attack.

Jack looked at Jin and stated, "Know your place and get the fuck out of my way, cripple trash."

"Fuck you, Jack. I swear I will slaughter you one fucking day. Even if it means the death of me, I will fucking kill you. All of you fuckers with abilities think you are all high and fucking mighty. One day someone is going to crash that pride of yours", Jin thought.

Jin picked himself up from the floor and decided to go to get healed up with the school nurse.

As he entered the room, "what happened this time?" A male nurse asked Jin as he began walking towards him.

"You need to learn to handle yourself or get good enough at hiding to save me time. Honestly, do you know how much of a bother it is to have to heal you every single day, sometimes even a few times a day?"

Jin clenched his teeth and waited for the treatment to be over. As soon as the nurse finished the healing process, Jin looked at the middle-aged nurse bags under his eyes, unshaven face and messed up blue hair.

"This guy really is a lazy fucking slob," Jin thought as he stood up and without a word opened the door, but before leaving, he said sarcastically ", really sorry for the inconvenience" before shutting the doors closed.

"When I was younger, I appreciated the army, doctors and most people with abilities and admired them, but when around those people in person, I realised that as soon as people find out you do not have an ability, you become trash in their eyes."

"People born with no ability or a really weak ability gauge usually off themselves, but the deaths of anyone that is not strong are so irrelevant that they are not even covered in the news."

"What is even worse is that if Jack wanted to, he could kill me any day he would like with no consequence since birth someone like me is so disposable that for the sake of me, they would not want to punish an important asset to the country like him."

"Fuck it. The school is practically over anyway. I will grab my stuff and wait the last period out so that I can go home."

"If it can even be called home", he murmured to himself.

"My father was a pretty high up soldier, and my mom was an average gauge, three ability holder. After my father was killed on duty, we were left alone only with the governmental monetary compensation for his death."

"My mother was later kidnapped for the sake of stealing her ice ability, after which she ended up found dead after being sold into human sex trafficking, no longer having an ability to defend herself."

"I managed to live pretty comfortably from the governmental monetary compensation, but it will soon run out, and with no other choice, I have to enrol myself."

Jin looked at the sky, thinking about how different his life could have been; "honestly, the best I could hope to become would be an essential casualty if this were a webcomic".

Jin slowly walked toward his locker at the academy to take his belongings and go home.

As he approached his locker and could see the barren hallways, he could not have been happier. He managed to grab his belongings and began walking towards the exit.

As the bell rang and school was over, he exited the building, happy he no longer had to stay in that hellhole.

"Finally, I can go to my home and be safe for at least a little bit he said as he tried to pull out his phone from his pocket.

"Fuck", he said out loud. "It's smashed again; this is getting ridiculous right now, but no company makes phones or cases that can withstand attacks like those."

"I guess even if they are holographic and nicely portable, there is no level of protection that can expect the unexpected", he thought.

Jin was approaching his home slowly with no interruptions until...

"Argh", escaped his mouth. He was bleeding from his mouth as he received a powerful kick to his back.

"What the fuck" escaped his mouth as he looked towards the person that kicked him.

"Oh no", he thought. The person in front of him was Alice, the strongest student in their academy. She had four abilities: Ice, Hypervelocity, Strength Enhancement and Fire.

"There is no way I can survive this..." his thoughts were interrupted.

"Who do you think you are to run your mouth as you did" she coldly stated.

Jin was confused. He said, coughing up blood, "I have not even said anything".

"I see you may act dumb, but I will make sure you never run your mouth ever again.

She activated her ice ability and began freezing Jin.

The feeling in his limbs began disappearing.

"Is this really where I die in some random back alley".

As he lost the feeling in his limbs, a holographic message appeared.

"Would you like to survive and become a player? Otherwise, you will die within the next 6 seconds.

Yes or No"

Jin instantaneously shouted, "Yes."

"Welcome to the system Jin Sung."

A bright light appeared, and he found himself surrounded by endless light.  "You have been chosen to become the incarnation of the gods. You will walk a path or a mortal with a taste of the power of those immortal.

Let your adventure begin.

Best of Luck", a female voice finished speaking before he found himself back on earth, now no longer frozen on the ground but instead standing on both his legs fully rejuvenated.

Alice was on the ground, badly hurt.

"I do not know what she did, I do not know what just happened, but I can't just leave her here in good conscience after what happened to my mother."

He picked her up and placed her on his back.

"I guess I will bring her over to my place, and maybe she realises I never did anything worth killing me over when she wakes up."