The morning barely rose over the lower city, stretching dirty shadows across the metal ruins.
Seo-jin stumbled out of the dormitory, his muscles screaming in protest with every movement. His ribs burned. His right hand trembled slightly, unable to close properly.
He had never felt such exhaustion before.
And yet, Ko was waiting in front of the main building, arms crossed, his massive silhouette outlined against the gray sky.
Beside him, an old man watched him with a cold eye.
— "You're here," Ko grunted. "Good. This is Jin-sang."
Jin-sang. A living legend within Lotus. Missing one arm, replaced with a crude iron prosthetic. A face marked with old scars. An aura of steel, broken and reforged a thousand times.
The veteran stepped forward.
— "You want to survive here, kid? Then follow me."
Seo-jin nodded, clenching his jaw to keep from groaning in pain.
**
They walked to an abandoned lot on the outskirts of Lotus: a field of cracked concrete, littered with rusted wrecks and twisted beams.
The wind howled between the debris, sounding like a distant, mournful cry.
— "No audience here. No excuses," Jin-sang said.
He pointed to a metal rail placed across two concrete blocks.
— "Your objective: make this rail vibrate by controlling your fragment. Not break it. Not split it. Vibrate it. Three seconds. No less."
Seo-jin clenched his fists.
He extended his hand, took a deep breath... and activated his fragment.
A sharp pain stabbed through his temples.
He saw the fissure appear—unstable, trembling—before collapsing into a burst of invisible sparks.
The rail didn't move.
Seo-jin staggered backward, his stomach twisting with nausea.
Jin-sang let out a humorless laugh.
— "That's what you call a fragment, brat?"
**
For hours, Jin-sang forced him to repeat.
Each attempt was torture.
His arms trembled so violently he could barely lift them. His breathing came in ragged gasps. His field of vision narrowed into a black tunnel each time he drew on his fragment.
Failures piled up like slaps to the face.
By noon, he collapsed onto his knees, his face pale, muscles locked in spasms.
The concrete scraped his palms, but he no longer had the strength to stand.
He heard Jin-sang's heavy steps approaching.
The veteran crouched beside him.
— "You think you're special? You're just a worm who stumbled onto power by accident."
Seo-jin clenched his teeth, feeling hot tears of rage and frustration rise.
Jin-sang smiled cruelly.
— "You want to know what happens to the weak? My best student once. Smarter than you. More talented. One day, he tried to force a breach too large."
Jin-sang's tone hardened.
— "It turned on him. His own reality crushed him. When we found him, he had fused with the ground. No legs. No face. Just a whisper trapped inside a mass of flesh and stone."
The veteran straightened.
— "Strength without control is a death sentence."
**
Seo-jin stayed there, trembling, fists clenched against the cold concrete.
Every breath was torture.
He closed his eyes.
And in that inner darkness, an image surfaced:A little boy, alone in the slums, watching glorious fragments pass by like untouchable gods.
He remembered the hunger.The cold that pierced through bone.The scornful looks.The humiliation of being weak in a merciless world.
"I didn't survive all that to fail here."
He inhaled, gathering the last shreds of his will.
One step. Then another.
Every movement was a victory over his own body.
**
— "Again," growled Jin-sang.
Seo-jin closed his eyes.
This time, he didn't force it.
He listened.
He felt the very fabric of reality tremble under his fingers, like fragile skin.
He guided his fragment, gently.
A fine, pure fissure appeared.
Seo-jin directed it toward the rail.
His legs wobbled. A trickle of blood ran from his nose. But he held on.
The rail vibrated.
Not much. Not for long.
Three seconds.
A subtle ringing sound cut through the oppressive silence of the wasteland.
Seo-jin immediately collapsed afterward, gasping, his body ablaze.
But he smiled through his moans of pain.
He had succeeded.
**
Jin-sang approached slowly.
He looked at the rail, nodding.
— "Not bad," he murmured.
He crouched again next to Seo-jin, his voice heavier.
— "Remember this feeling. You'll never be a bulldozer, Seo-jin. You'll be a scalpel. Invisible. Lethal."
Seo-jin struggled to respond, his throat dry, but his gaze spoke for him.
"I understand."
**
But Jin-sang wasn't satisfied yet.
He pulled out a small dented metallic sphere from his jacket.
— "Second exercise."
Seo-jin, still half-conscious, looked at him without understanding.
— "This ball is unstable. Saturated with fragment energy.Your goal: weave a subtle breach around it to deflect its trajectory. No explosions. No running away.Understood?"
Seo-jin weakly nodded.
Jin-sang activated the ball.
It began to vibrate, emitting a menacing hum.
— "Now!"
Seo-jin forced his fragment, his vision exploding into white flashes.
He launched a micro-fissure... too late.
The ball exploded in a cloud of vapor.
Seo-jin was thrown backward, landing painfully onto rubble.
The pain tore a hoarse cry from him.
He lay there, gasping, stars dancing before his eyes.
Jin-sang slowly approached.
— "First failure. Get up."
Seo-jin groaned, feeling his left arm refuse to move.
But he rolled onto his stomach. Dug his scraped fingers into the dust.
And stood.
Millimeter by millimeter.
**
The second attempt was barely better.
The third saw the ball ricochet dangerously off a beam.
On the fourth try, Seo-jin finally managed to create a tiny breach field around the projectile, just enough to nudge it off course without detonating it.
The ball dropped harmlessly at his feet.
He collapsed afterward, unable even to lift his head.
**
Jin-sang nodded, arms crossed.
— "Today, you're no longer just a survivor.You're on your way to becoming a predator."
There was a rare glimmer of respect in Jin-sang's voice.
Seo-jin barely heard him.
His body was nothing but pain.
But inside, a new certainty had been born.
He was alive. He was growing.
**
That night, lying on his mattress, every breath costing him a silent war, Seo-jin stared at the cracked ceiling.
The pain kept him awake.
But he didn't care.
He thought of the rail vibrating.Of the ball he had deflected.Of the fleeting spark of approval in Jin-sang's eyes.
"One day... I will bend reality itself."
His eyes closed.
And despite the agony, he fell asleep smiling.