Ryker Ackryl, a 21-year-old man sat cross-legged on a dusty couch, looking at his right arm with an unusual gaze.
Behind his right palm was the letter 'S', written in bold with a dark ink, emanating an otherworldly blue light.
His eyes twitched and he slowly shifted his gaze to his metal ceiling with numerous bulbs, bright lights hitting his eyes.
"What fuels my thirst to grow stronger?" He paused, returning his gaze to the letter on his palm. "Nothing?" He questioned himself, his faint voice a testimony of the emptiness he felt inside.
An entire century had passed since the Great Pandemonium; a revolution and entry into what was supposed to be the 'Bright Era'.
It turned out quite opposite from what the corporations that began the Great Pandemonium proposed. Anyone who went against their ideologies were slaughtered on the spot and after a few mass murders, everyone kept quiet.
All inhabitants of Earth were forced to get implants and newborns got theirs at birth randomly from Class-E chips being the lowest to Class-SSS as the highest.
"It's for the future of our planet. We need soldiers to fend off aliens when they arrive." Those words kept echoing in Ryker's empty mind — the words of the current ruler of Earth.
"Hell, what if those aliens don't even exist! With all our tech, why haven't we spotted even a single one!" Ryker burst in tears, his palms immediately covering his mouth as he screamed into them.
'I lost my mom... even my dad. I lost everything,' he thought to himself as tears danced down his cheeks.
Despite all Ryker's losses, he abandoned his past, embracing his future with a single goal — to become stronger to fend off the 'aliens'.
Perhaps, it was his way of coping with his situation or maybe the fear of falling into the same fate as his parents, but rather than completely abandoning the mission of the world leader, he dedicated his entire being into it.
He enrolled into the army, fought relentlessly against opposing forces and defeated them, but something always bothered him. The Class-S Chip embedded in him didn't upgrade to an SS or even SSS, defeating the entire purpose of joining the army.
He trained his body and mind, hoping for the best scenario where his chip would automatically upgrade itself but nothing ever happened and the letter on his arm reminded himself of how much of a failure he had become.
He couldn't save his mom or dad, or anyone. Yet, he still failed to achieve his personal goal? That was the definition of a failure he had engraved into his brain.
Everyday, he sat on the same dusty couch, never bothered to clean it and thought of how much he had failed in this cruel world, and there he was again looking at his arms, debating whether to end his life there and then.
The streets and neighboring apartments had gone silent, everyone was either dead or ran away out of despair. He looked out the window in awe, gazing at the colorful neon lights that lit up the streets.
"What if I end my own life? My entire family is gone, no one will notice," he whispered to himself, his voice shakier than ever as a crooked smile spread on his face.
He shifted his sight to a knotted rope hung at a corner of his house, a neck-sized hole on the knotted rope already prepared. He had kept the rope ready, each day reminding him of the suicidal choices he could make.
He sprinted towards the rope, grabbing it tightly in a mix of rage and despair. "Let me be done with this already!" He placed his neck in the rope, grunting as he tightened it.
*Arghhh!*
He pressed on his neck, and made his final adjustment to the rope before he hung himself on the ceiling. His eyes watered as he slowly crossed the line separating the living and the dead.
With a violent cough, his eyes closed and his vision went dark. He soon found himself in the emptiness of his mind, reliving his past memories just before he would die.
"Did you really think we would let S-Class soldiers like you, Ryker Ackryl die?" A commanding voice, similar to that of the leader echoed, taunting him even after his attempt of ending his life.
"So, I can't achieve simple suicide? I truly am a failure," his already fleeting voice whispered as it slowly returned.
The empty space in his mind suddenly felt eerie, bombarded by surges of cold winds. The world leader's voice kept resounding, taunting him with each word he spoke.
In an instant, his vision locked at a spot, the room immediately filled with an overwhelmingly blinding light. Scribbles of golden text appeared out of nowhere, forging letters on a blue panel.
[Achievement: Suicidal Maniac
Reward: Assimilation System]
"Is this one of those MindLink games the rich kids play?" He froze, lifting his finger at the unusual sight in an attempt to interact with it.
As his voice slipped through the blue panel, the letters began reshaping, and the taunting voice faded into the distance. Before him hovered a new panel, this time filled with white text rather than golden.
[Assimilation <
Placing your index and middle fingers on the center of the forehead on a defeated being triggers this ability.]
Ryker read through the text, his eyes flickering as he constantly shifted his gaze on the panel.
'System? It's not magic but it's close to the fantasy novels I've read,' he thought slowly being pulled from the emptiness of his thoughts.
His eyes opened slowly and they met the rope tied tightly on his neck. He breathed heavily as he rapidly untied the rope and released it from his neck.
He dropped to the floor, immediately collapsing on the ground. Lifting his pale hands, he spotted a strange glow on the letter at the back of his palm. It alternated between a blue and green glow before settling to it's usual blue glow.