One day, I got an email.
> "You've been accepted into Diamond Academy."
At first, I thought it was a mistake. I wasn't planning to go to the academy. Not since Big Sis left the orphanage. I wanted to say no.
But I didn't.
---
My name is Paul Wayne.
Just an ordinary kid with no background.
I poured all my effort into not standing out. Diamond Academy was for the elite. Only the strongest survived there. But the email came.
> [From: Big Sis]
Please. You can do whatever you want. I won't tell anyone. Just… choose what you really want to do.
It was a long message with only one real meaning — she cared.
She always called herself Big Sis, even though I never used the name aloud. We'd only met recently — a weird coincidence where I gave her directions and she saved me from traffickers. Since then, she stuck close. Like family I never had.
---
Still… I didn't know why I got into Diamond.
It wasn't my world.
It wasn't even my story.
---
I seemed to have woken up in a stranger's life.
I, Paul Wayne, lived in a modest apartment with no parents, no relatives. I didn't even know what my parents looked like. I had no answers — only a strange tattoo on my left hand:
A Stigma.
---
When I looked in the mirror...
> (?)
That's all I saw — a question mark.
A system? An identity? A curse?
I tried to reason through it. Maybe I was dreaming. Maybe this was all a prank. But no dream lasted two weeks with this much clarity.
---
Another look at the email:
> "Congratulations on your admission to the top combat academy in the world. We hope to see you at Diamond."
I spent the next two weeks doing nothing — just eating, watching TV, scrolling the internet, waiting for the dream to end.
It didn't.
---
Ding ding—
My phone alarm rang.
> "Why the hell do I have to go to school?"
Diamond was for combat cadets. Even after basic training, you had to study three more years to become a licensed hero.
Somehow, I was one of them.
No clue why.
No clue how.
> "Ah… how frustrating."
I stared at the ceiling. Eventually, I got up and shuffled to the bathroom. The mirror still showed a question mark.
My 'system' was just a glitch — no stats, no guidance, no name.
> "Screw this thing. Is it ever going to go away?"
---
I washed my face and changed into the Diamond uniform I got at the entrance ceremony. No luggage. No family. No idea what I was doing.
I glanced back at the small apartment I'd stayed in for two weeks. It already felt like home.
Diamond floated on an island in the East Sea.
Once I left… I probably wouldn't return.
> "Haaah."
With a deep sigh, I opened the door and stepped out —
into a world that wasn't mine, to play a role that wasn't meant for me.