My alarm clock was ringing loudly.
That meant it was time for me to go to the Academy.
However, I chose to stay asleep. Reluctantly, I turned it off and drifted back to sweet dreams.
Shortly afterward, there was a knock on my bedroom door.
Knock, knock, knock.
"..."
"Ryuumin..." my mother's voice rang out from outside.
"I'm not going to school today, Mom!" I answered loudly.
"KANG RYUUUMINNNNN!"
My mother's loud shout made me sit up straight. Grimacing, I quickly got ready.
"Yes, yes, Mom!"
A few minutes later, I was ready. I left the room, grabbing a piece of bread from the table.
"I'll take this, Mom!" I shouted with a wide smile, showing my slightly protruding front teeth.
My mother just shook her head anxiously. "Hey, be careful. If you want to eat, sit down, don't run."
I pretended not to hear her and ran out of the house.
My name is Kang Ryuumin.
I'm 19 years old.
With bread still between my teeth, I ran to catch my class.
"Hurry, hurry, I'm going to be late," I said as I chewed the bread.
I ran as fast as I could to catch the bus, causing my neat, mid-parted hair to become messy and disheveled.
Eventually, I managed to board the bus, but it was packed, and I could only stand in the back row.
"It's so crowded today," I thought to myself.
On my way to the Academy, I was still standing in the back row, wearing the navy blue academy uniform and the signature tie. At about 185 cm tall, I watched a TV show on a major station I saw on the street.
On the screen, an ability user was showing off his powers.
"Look, Touch Luciounus!" he said confidently.
"With this ability, anyone I touch will be weakened for a few seconds! That's how I passed through this Gate!"
I almost laughed.
Really arrogant just because I can weaken someone for a few seconds? Huh... this world is really strange.
Upon arriving at the Academy, I was greeted by my two friends.
Someone tapped me on the shoulder.
"Hey."
I turned around and checked who it was.
I saw a girl with an idol-like body, a cute face, and a ponytail.
And next to her was a boy with square glasses, slightly shorter than me, about 173 cm, with messy hair and a build like a marathon runner.
I approached them.
It turned out to be Kang Hyuuri and Na Jong Jun.
"You said you didn't want to go to school today?" Hyuri asked.
"My mom threatened me, hehe..." I replied shyly.
"Hahaha!" Jong Jun laughed out loud. "That's why you're like me! Join the Gate raid, earn money, and then you won't have to ask your parents anymore!"
I snorted, while Hyuri tried to calm me down.
"Jong Jun, not everyone can awaken their Abilities as easily as you, you know."
Forty-nine years have passed since the day of the first Invasion.
The world I live in now is no longer a normal one.
Not everyone who witnessed the initial disaster gained Abilities. And for those who did... not all of them were useful.
After the monsters were suddenly expelled by the system, some people began to feel relieved.
The impact of the attack remained palpable, as the resulting destruction left its mark on land and sea.
Some began to celebrate their return to freedom, but others suddenly became stronger than normal.
They suddenly wreaked havoc everywhere, just like the monsters that had just left.
However, the government quickly stopped this attempt, punishing those who caused the damage.
After that, the world's governments formed an organization called the World Order Alliance and immediately held a joint meeting to prevent the situation from escalating further.
During the meeting, several things were ratified and agreed upon by the governments.
The contents of the meeting included:
1. Every country that joins the World Order Alliance must work together to help stabilize the world.
2. Each country is allowed to have a government system for ability users.
With these two outcomes of the meeting, each country began to develop its own territory.
In Korea, the first year was spent building and reconstructing areas damaged by the monster attack.
Then, over the next 10 years, they created several systems for ability users and ordinary citizens.
1. Ability User System.
Ability users' strengths are classified from S-Rank—the strongest—to the nearly useless F-Rank.
2. Guilds
The strongest ability users are given permission to establish their own guilds. In Korea, there are five main guilds:
1. Neverbonds Guild
2. Lava Guild
3. Smashed Guild
4. Lotus Guild
5. Restrictions Guild
3. Gate
When monsters are expelled from the earth, they leave behind holes that lead them to the earth. These holes can be cleared within a time limit. If this time limit is exceeded, the gate will break.
The danger level of a gate is divided into several types.
1. Red Class: The most dangerous type of gate and falls into the world raid category.
2. Yellow Class: The type that is closest to the most dangerous but can still be resolved by the country itself.
3. Blue Class: A medium type where the monsters are strong but have many weaknesses.
4. Green Class: A normal type where the monsters inside are mindless but still possess great power.
5. Grey Class: Like its color, Grey means empty. This gate is too easy because the monsters inside are relatively weak and cannot think.
And with that, every country finally experienced peace.
However, because of this, everyone became careless.
20 years after the disaster.
There was a Red-Class gate in Kyoto, Japan, that had been unfinished for years, and finally, a gate break occurred.
At that time, powerful monsters emerged from the gate and caused chaos again.
However, this attempt was quickly prevented by the government.
The governments of each country sent their S-Class Ability Users to assist.
Finally, within three months, the gate was successfully closed.
Each country suffered heavy losses as several of their S-Class Ability Users, symbols of their national strength, died in the raid.
Of the 128 who participated, only 67 survived.
One of the survivors of the raid was Choi Jumin, my idol.
His ability is the Founding Sparrow.
He can summon birds from tens of thousands of miles away to fight alongside him. The birds can even form weapons at will—swords, spears, or shields.
And with this ability, he became an ability user who can cover all roles on the team except healer.
Back to the Present.
I stared at the sky as I walked, followed by my two friends on my right and left.
As I gazed at the sky, I muttered to myself,
"If only I could have an Ability too... a unique Ability that belonged only to me."
But until now, I had never shown any signs of awakening. I was just an ordinary human.
As soon as Hyuri, Jong Jun, and I arrived at the Academy gate, something unexpected happened.
A blue window floated in front of me.
[System Window: Host Ability Detected]
[System Window: Host's awakened Unique Ability is...]
[System Window: Starfall Greedy]
To be continued