--
It wasn't until his turn to walk up to the podium that TJ felt everything sinking in. All of a sudden, he could relate to what others had been feeling since the start of this day.
He couldn't tell if he liked this feeling or not...
Still, that doesn't change the fact that moments later, the general trend of his future will be set, and the world of the Professionals will truly be opened to him.
Before touching the crystal ball on the podium, TJ looked to his left and saw the pale-faced and knee-wobbling Sieg. He extended his hand, and with a firm smack on his back, the big oaf was pulled out of his mental quagmire.
Sieg gave him an appreciative smile, and so did some of the professionals who were about to step in to calm him down.
After that, TJ took a deep breath to center himself.
"Alright, guys. You can now touch the crystal ball," the kind and gentle-looking pro told them.
TJ did just that, and then he closed his eyes.
Swoosh!
Suddenly, he felt like his soul was being pulled up to somewhere. He inhaled sharply and felt panic rising in his chest. He did his best to remain calm, though, constantly telling himself that he's fine, he's safe, and that this was just the effect of the ceremony taking place.
[Connecting...]
A rigid and feminine mechanical voice rang in his ears. It sounded so similar to those AI voices he heard before.
[DNA Scan: Complete.]
[Citizenship: District 13, Confirmed!]
[Bloodline: Human. Confirmed!]
[Age: 16 years old. Confirmed!]
[Eligibility for Initial Profession Archetype Awakening: Confirmed!]
[Affinity: Calculating...]
TJ discovered that he doesn't seem to have any control over this process at all. The AI he kept hearing was doing all of this without his input, which wasn't surprising at all. Though he's really surprised that something like this happens in the first place, nobody really told him about this before.
And so, all he could really do was to wait for the verdict. And that didn't take long at all.
[Archetype Affinity: Determined.]
[Combat - 80%]
[Lifestyle—10%]
[Hybrid - 10%]
[Alert! Due to the user having the highest affinity for the Combat Class Archetype, it is hereby chosen as the default archetype.]
[Initial class affinity analysis results are as follows:]
[Warrior Class: 75% Affinity]
[Caster Class: 25% Affinity]
[Personal Information updated! Initial Profession is set to Combat Type, and Initial Class is set to the Warrior Class.]
[Alert!]
[The Boon Wheel will now manifest.]
All of a sudden, TJ found himself 'awake' in a sense.
He found himself standing in the middle of a vast white space. He was completely alone; not even a soul or a single blade of grass could be seen anywhere.
Before he could plunge into an even deeper sense of existential crisis, a huge color wheel suddenly emerged from the ground in front of him.
The division of colors in this wheel isn't equal or fair. At least 50% of it was covered in white; the second largest color was green, then blue, purple, gold, blue gold, violet gold, and finally, scarlet gold.
Actually, if TJ didn't approach the color wheel closer, he wouldn't have seen the portion for the scarlet gold at all since it was too little.
[Hello, User. In front of you is the Boon Wheel.]
[As you can probably guess by now, this wheel will determine what boon grade you'd be bestowed with.]
[The lowest and most common Boom rank is D-rank, and that occupies the white color on the wheel, which also occupies the largest portion of the wheel.]
[As you can expect, the smaller the area occupied by a color, the rarer its grade is.]
[To spin the wheel, all you have to do is to press that big red button in front of it. You can start whenever you're ready.]
'So this was the Boon Wheel everybody's talking about...' TJ mused to himself.
Although he had never seen it before, TJ had heard multiple mentions of it in the past. He mostly saw the term on online forums where people asked stupid or nonsensical curiosities about it.
He once read an article where the poster asked if the Boon Wheel could be manipulated somehow. There's also one who asked if it's possible to hold the Boon Wheel in place to secure the results.
Tons of people have commented in these posts, rebuking their blatant stupidity.
If it really was possible to cheat the Boon Wheel somehow, then there's no way rare boons would still be so rare nowadays.
Shaking his head at the thought, TJ got rid of any distracting thoughts. Through this, he also discovered that the voices in his head were gone, which came as a surprise to him.
Anthony's temporary relief was so good that he's able to ignore it for the most part, but it never really goes away. Here, though, they were gone. He couldn't even hear a peep.
TJ closed his eyes for a moment, relishing in the peaceful silence in his head. Oh, how he wished it was like this permanently, alas...
As much as he'd like to stay here just a little bit longer to enjoy the silence, TJ couldn't afford to delay. He didn't want to be a bother to other people. So, he walked up to the button and pressed it firmly, making the wheel spin.
The wheel spun fast, and it kept spinning, much to TJ's mounting anxiety. As it slowed down, TJ felt more and more anxious. While he could manage his expectations somehow, he just couldn't help but hope for the best now that he's here.
Tick! Tick! Tick!
On the final tick, the wheel completely stopped. And much to TJ's disbelief, it stopped on the tiniest portion of the wheel stained by scarlet gold.
Poof! Poof! Poof!
Party poppers emerged and popped next to the wheel in celebration of the results.
[Congratulations, User. Your awakened boon will be set to be at 'Unique' rank. The system has already generated it and added its information to your personal profile. Please check it once your consciousness returns to the real world.]
[Thank you for participating in the Awakening Ceremony. We are looking forward to your future as a Professional!]
Before TJ could even marvel at his luck, his consciousness was swept away from the white space.
What he didn't know was...as soon as his boons were generated, a protocol in the system had been triggered.
In that same instant, all functions relating to that protocol had been triggered and worked extremely precisely and fast to conceal everything that has happened just now.
The birth of a child possessing a Unique-Ranked Boon was a huge deal. Huge enough to shake the foundations of this world.
If this wasn't handled with care and finesse, the world would be plunged into absolute chaos, and that's something that the government wouldn't want to see. That's why, in the very rare, almost impossible case of this happening, a protocol was installed into the system to handle it.
And if the protocol worked just as they expected, then nobody, not even the government itself, will even know about it happening.
They won't be alerted of this activity. TJ's name won't be flagged in their systems, and most importantly, nobody will know that he's a possessor of a Unique-Ranked Boon.
All of this happened beyond TJ's awareness.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself back in reality. He looked around and saw that the others had just regained their consciousness too.
It was then that a system message flashed in his eyes, catching him by surprise.
[Don't tell anybody about your Unique-Rank Boon. This is for your safety.]
[Details about this have been concealed under private protocol designed to protect people like you.]
[The decision is up to you in the end. If you want to show it off, go ahead. Pretend that you never received this message at all.]
[But if you don't want others to know. Please follow these instructions...]
TJ's heart thumped wildly in his chest. He felt a great itch to immediately check his profile to see what kind of boon he got exactly, but he prevented himself from doing so.
In fact, he even made it a point to look bored. He stepped down from the podium and went to Sieg, who's now vibrating with excitement. It seems that the big oaf was lucky.
TJ rolled his eyes and pulled him down so they could sign the papers and leave this place. TJ remained careful and casual to prevent others from suspecting him.
The forms he signed asked for his general information, such as his name, age, gender, and so on. It also asked for his initial archetype, so TJ chose 'Combat' for it.
Then, just below that, the form asked him if he's willing to leave an official record about his boon.
He was reminded that he's not being forced to do so. He could leave this blank if that's his wish. However, if he's feeling generous enough to share his private information, the government will also be generous in return and will send him a thank-you package for his efforts.
[They all saw you glow purple, a clear indication that you awakened an A-rank boon. The system did that on purpose.]
[You can inform them of that since they've all seen it happening anyway. As for the greater details, don't bother with them. Leave the rest blank; they won't blame you for it.]
[With your Boon, that so-called 'Thank You' gift package they'd send is worthless to you, so don't feel guilty.]
[Once you're done, you can go home. Only then can you check what you got.]