Chapter 1 – The Crimson Gem
Ring! Ring!
The school bell blared, signaling the end of another grueling day.
Edem Qwasi slung his worn backpack over one shoulder and stepped out of the classroom. His black curly hair was a mess, and faint shadows under his eyes hinted at the weight he carried — far heavier than any homework or test.
His mind was elsewhere, trapped in the same loop it had been for months.
How do I cure Troy?
Troy — his younger brother. The boy with the brightest smile in the world and the weakest body. Diagnosed with sickle cell at a young age, every hospital visit, every fever, every pained breath had burned itself into Edem's heart. Medical bills piled up like mountains, and the so-called treatments only kept the illness at bay, never curing it.
As Edem's shoes squeaked against the tiled hallway, a commotion caught his attention. Just ahead, the usual group of bullies had cornered a trembling first-year student. One of them shoved the boy against the lockers, sneering.
Edem didn't even break stride.
It wasn't that he didn't care — it was just that they wouldn't dare involve him. Not in this school. Edem wasn't just another student; he was the undisputed number one martial arts genius here. Even the teachers knew better than to provoke him. And the bullies? They made sure to pretend he didn't exist.
Instead, he muttered under his breath,
"Time for the part-time grind..."
Every day after school, Edem worked at a local supermarket. The pay wasn't great, but every coin mattered when your family was drowning in debt.
He took a shortcut through an alley near the market, the dim sunlight stretching shadows along the cracked pavement. That's when something unusual caught his eye.
A faint glimmer.
In the middle of the path lay a small, blood-red gem, no larger than a marble, pulsing faintly as though it had a heartbeat.
Weird...
Edem crouched, reaching out. The moment his fingers brushed the gem—
WHOOSH!
It shot upward like a streak of crimson lightning and slammed into his forehead.
What the—?!
A searing pain exploded in his skull, like molten metal pouring into his veins. His vision swam; his knees buckled. The world blurred into a haze of red.
He collapsed to the ground, his consciousness slipping away.
Just before everything went dark, a deep, metallic voice echoed in his mind:
[Welcome to the Crimson Evolution System.]