When morning came, I didn't even bother checking the number. I knew it was low. The way my desk leg gave out the second I leaned on it was enough proof.
"Cool. Starting the day off strong," I muttered, balancing the table leg with my shoe.
The system pulsed faintly in my vision, pale blue text flickering across the corner of my sight.
[ Daily Fortune Rating: -76 ]
[ Probability of minor accidents: 64% ]
[ Suggestion: Stay vigilant. ]
"Yeah, you stay vigilant," I grumbled, grabbing my bag.
By the time I got to school, the hallway was already alive, footsteps pounding, sunlight slanting through the windows like ribbons. I tried to ignore the glows. Tried to pretend I didn't see the faint halos around people anymore. But once you've seen it, you can't unsee it.
Some were soft, grayish, steady. Some pulsed unevenly, like faulty lights.
One guy's aura flickered red for half a second before his drink slipped from his hand and fell on the floor. He cursed, and the glow sputtered out.
I kept walking. Head down. Not wanting to look too long.
I walked towards my desk, smacking the back of Renji's chair with my notebook on the way. He yelped and twisted around, ready to glare, until he saw my grin.
"Relax," I said, pulling out my seat beside him, "The teacher isn't even here yet."
"She's gonna yell at you," Renji muttered,
"Wouldn't be the first time," I said,
A laugh rose from the row beside me. "You're actually proud of that, huh?"
I shot her a lazy smile, pen spinning between my fingers. "Better than being a try-hard, like you"
The bell rang before she could throw something at me. The room shuffled, chatter fading, and the teacher's heels clicked across the floor.
"Books out"
Groans rippled across the room. I dropped my forehead to my desk, letting out one louder than the rest.
"Don't be dramatic," Renji hissed.
I peeked at the page. Numbers blurred. My pen felt heavy.
Then the glow crept in. Threads, faint and wavering, flickered across the room, blue, silver, pale green. They tangled around my classmates, pulsing with every nervous tap of a pen, every whispered curse.
I dragged my gaze down, jaw tight. I hadn't asked for this.
But then—The air went taut, like a held breath. My eyes moved on their own.
By the window.
Perfect posture. Collar buttoned. Pages already turning while the rest of us still groaned. Zhen Xueqin, The top student in the whole school.
His threads weren't threads. They were ropes, burning gold and crimson, woven too tightly to fray.
The system chimed in my head:
[ Critical Variable Identified ]
[ High-Luck Target Detected ]
[ Distance: 6 meters ]
[ Suggestion: Maintain proximity for stabilization. ]
My pen slipped, ink blotting the page.
"Huh, You good?" Renji whispered.
"I'm fine..," I muttered.
Renji turned a page beside me, the quiet flip blending into the teacher's voice., as he started muttering something about math being the real curse of humanity.
I barely heard him.
Even as Zhen sat in the front row desk beside the window, across from me as I sat in the back, I could feel it brushing against the edge of my senses. Zhen's aura pulsed slow and steady, the gold threads drifting like sunlight through water. Every flicker of his pen sent tiny ripples through the air.
And somehow, those ripples reached me.
[ Stabilization in progress… ]
[ -76 → -66 ]
My breath caught. I blinked hard, the world momentarily sharpening like someone adjusted a focus lens.
No buzzing in my ears. No headache. No sudden banging in my head.
For the first time in weeks, the air around me felt a little more normal.
'Okay. Okay, maybe this system wasn't completely messing with me. Maybe this really is real and I'm not going crazy.'
I risked another glance his way.
Zhen was still at his desk, by the window, posture impossibly straight. The morning light hit his hair, catching strands of dark brown. His expression didn't change,calm, unreadable.
He turned a page, slow, deliberate. The motion stirred another ripple of gold across my vision.
[ Luck balance rising: -66 → -54 ]
I pressed my pen against my notebook to ground myself. The ink left another blot. "You've got to be kidding me," I whispered.
Renji looked up. "Huh?"
"Nothing," I said quickly, covering the mark with my hand.
I forced myself to look forward, pretending to listen to the teacher drone on about parabolas. But the pull didn't go away. If anything, it grew stronger, like gravity, quiet but inescapable.
Every time I tried to look away, my eyes would drift back, drawn to that same golden glow around him.
Then, without warning, he moved, Zhen turned his head slightly back, just enough that his eyes met mine across the room.
My breath stopped, I quickly looked away
'Damn it, he caught me staring..'
Then the teacher's voice cut through the silence. "Lianyu, you answer question three."
I blinked. "Me?"
A few heads turned. Renji muttered under his breath, "Good luck, man."
I forced myself to stand up, trying to focus on the problem on the board. My pen hovered uselessly above the page. Numbers swam, blurring in and out of focus.
[ Focus instability detected ]
[ Suggestion: Maintain proximity to stabilizer. ]
I swallowed hard. My mind was blank, completely empty, until my eyes flicked toward the window.
Zhen sat there, posture perfect, gaze down on his notes. The sunlight caught the edges of his hair. That same calm energy radiated off him, faint but steady, threading through the air.
And just like that, the noise in my head faded.
The equation rearranged itself, lines and variables falling into place.
"The answer…" I said slowly, "…is negative two. You substitute before differentiating."
A brief silence. Then the teacher nodded. "Correct."
A few people murmured, surprised. Jun stared at me like I'd just performed witchcraft.
I sank back in my seat, gripping my pen tighter than I needed to.
An hour passed and the class ended with a tired sigh from the teacher.
"All right, review the next section on your own. I'll be back in twenty minutes."
Chairs creaked, a wave of noise rising as soon as the door closed. Pens clicked, wrappers crinkled.
Jun kept staring at me long after the teacher moved on.
"What?" I whispered.
He raised a brow. "You didn't even study for that."
"Lucky guess."
"Yeah, sure," he muttered, flipping a page.
I smirked faintly, but my hand stayed still over my notebook.
The air around me was… calm. For once. My head wasn't pounding, and the system's constant hum had quieted to a faint static at the edge of my vision.
I tilted my gaze, just slightly, toward the front.
Zhen pushed back his chair and was about to gather his things when someone called out,
"Zhen, the teacher wants to see you."
He stood up calmly, his golden threads flickering softly as he moved. Without saying a word, he walked out of the classroom.
dragged my eyes away, watching the system text fade and waiting for the tension to return.
[ Stabilization decreasing… ]
[ -54 → -64 ]
It was subtle at first, a faint buzzing behind my eyes, a light pressure in my temples.
Okay, so distance mattered.
I leaned back in my seat, shifting my body slightly to the left closer to the direction Zhen went, farther from the window.
[ -64 → -74 ]
Renji frowned. "Can you sit still? You're making the desk shake."
"Science experiment," I muttered.
He stared. "You're testing how to annoy me?"
"Kind of."
He leaned back in his chair, half-asleep in seconds, muttering something about snacks.
The headache pulsed again, sharper this time. I rubbed my temple, glancing toward the door.
[ -74 → -84 ]
I exhaled slowly, the pressure increasing .
So it really worked. The system wasn't lying, being near those with high luck balanced everything.
But that just made it worse.
Because now, the only thing between feeling like myself and feeling like a walking disaster… was him.