I never believed in karma. Not until the day I found myself face-down in a toilet bowl at Silverbrook Academy, listening to Marcus Whitmore laugh while his lackeys held my head underwater.
"That's what you get for existing, Carter," Marcus sneered, finally letting me up for air. "Scholarship trash."
I gasped, water dripping from my brown hair, my secondhand uniform soaked through. Around us, other students walked past the bathroom like nothing was happening. Nobody helped scholarship kids. Not here. Not at the most elite private academy in America, where tuition cost more than my mom made in three years.
Marcus—tall, blond, and richer than God—smoothed his designer blazer. "My father owns half this city. Your mother cleans toilets at his company. Know your place."
My fists clenched. I wanted to punch him. Wanted to scream. But I'd learned the hard way: fight back, and you get expelled. The scholarship contract made that crystal clear.
So I swallowed my rage like I always did.
"Good boy," Marcus patted my cheek like I was a dog. "See you in class, scholarship."
They left laughing.
I stared at my reflection in the mirror—brown eyes hollow with exhaustion, bruises hidden under my collar, the face of a kid who'd learned to take it. Seventeen years old and already broken.
My phone buzzed. Mom's text: Working double shift. Leftovers in fridge. Love you.
She worked herself to death so I could attend this hellhole. So I could have "opportunities." Some opportunity.
I splashed water on my face and headed to Advanced Calculus, my last class of the day. The teacher, Mr. Pemberton, barely glanced at me as I slid into my seat at the back. I was invisible here. That's how I survived.
I opened my textbook, trying to focus on derivatives, when something flickered in front of my eyes.
A blue screen.
Right there. Floating in the air.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]
Welcome, User: Ethan Carter
Congratulations! You have been selected as the host of the EVOLUTION SYSTEM.
I blinked. Rubbed my eyes. The screen remained.
What the hell?
My heart hammered. Was I hallucinating? Had Marcus given me a concussion?
The screen shifted, text reorganizing itself:
[STATUS PANEL]
Name: Ethan Carter
Age: 17
═══════════════════════
STATS:
Strength: Level 1 (0/100 Stat Shards)
Physical power and combat ability
Stamina: Level 1 (0/100 Stat Shards)
Endurance and energy capacity
Intelligence: Level 1 (0/100 Stat Shards)
Mental processing and learning capability
Charm: Level 1 (0/100 Stat Shards)
Social influence and attractiveness
═══════════════════════
SKILLS:
Studying - Level 1 (0/100 EXP)
Effect: Proficient in high school subjects
Learning Speed: +100% (increases by +10% per level)
Skill EXP increases by +1 with each use
═══════════════════════
TALENTS:
⟨ INFINITE EVOLUTION ⟩
Effect 1: All stats and skills can level up infinitely with no cap
Effect 2: Fixed upgrade cost - 100 Stat Shards per stat level / 100 EXP per skill level
Effect 3: Each skill use automatically grants +1 Skill EXP
⟨ EQUAL GROWTH ⟩
Effect: When ANY stat increases by 1 level, ALL stats increase by 1 level simultaneously
Note: This creates perfect balance with zero weaknesses
═══════════════════════
Current Stat Shards: 0
Inventory: Empty
IMPORTANT: You are the only person who can see and interact with this system. You have no Personal Level. You have no Quests. All growth depends entirely on your actions and effort.
I stared at the glowing text, my breath caught in my throat. This was insane. Systems like this existed in web novels and manhwa, not real life. Not in the bathroom of an elite academy after getting your head dunked in a toilet.
But there it was. Floating. Real.
"Mr. Carter."
I jumped so hard my knee hit the desk. Mr. Pemberton was glaring at me from the front of the classroom. When had class even started?
"Since you seem so distracted today, why don't you come up and solve problem seventeen on the board?"
Snickers erupted around me. Marcus, sitting three rows ahead in his perfectly pressed uniform, turned with that trademark smirk. "This should be good. The janitor's son doing math."
More laughter.
Problem seventeen was brutal—a multi-step calculus problem involving chain rules, related rates, and optimization. I'd studied it last night for two hours and barely understood it.
I stood slowly, my wet uniform clinging to me, and approached the board. The blue screen followed me, hovering at the edge of my vision where only I could see it.
I picked up the marker with shaking hands and stared at the problem:
A ladder 10 feet long rests against a vertical wall. If the bottom of the ladder slides away from the wall at a rate of 1 ft/s, how fast is the top of the ladder sliding down the wall when the bottom is 6 feet from the wall?
My mind went blank. The numbers blurred together.
Then new text appeared on the blue screen:
[SKILL DETECTED: STUDYING]
Current Level: 1
Current Effect: Learning Speed +100%
Current EXP: 0/100
Would you like to activate this skill?
[YES] / [NO]
I didn't even know how to select "yes." I just thought it desperately: Yes! Activate!
The moment I did, everything changed.
It was like someone had turned up the resolution on my brain. The fog cleared. The problem on the board suddenly made sense—not just sense, but perfect, crystal-clear sense. I could see the solution pathway like a lit-up highway in my mind.
My hand moved across the board almost on autopilot, but I understood every step:
Let x = distance from wall to bottom of ladder
Let y = height of top of ladder on wall
Given: x² + y² = 100 (Pythagorean theorem)
Given: dx/dt = 1 ft/s
Find: dy/dt when x = 6
Differentiate both sides with respect to time...
2x(dx/dt) + 2y(dy/dt) = 0
When x = 6, y = √(100-36) = 8
Substitute: 2(6)(1) + 2(8)(dy/dt) = 0
12 + 16(dy/dt) = 0
dy/dt = -12/16 = -3/4 ft/s
I circled the answer and stepped back.
The classroom was dead silent.
Mr. Pemberton's eyebrows had climbed so high they'd nearly disappeared into his hairline. He walked up to the board, checked every line of my work, then looked at me like I'd just spoken fluent Mandarin.
"That's... that's absolutely correct. And you used the most efficient method. You even remembered to include the negative sign to indicate downward motion." He paused. "Well done, Mr. Carter. Exceptionally well done."
I returned to my seat in a daze. Marcus was staring at me like I'd grown a second head. The girl next to him—Sophie Chen, daughter of a tech billionaire—was actually looking at me for the first time all semester.
Then I saw it:
[SKILL USAGE DETECTED]
Studying EXP: 1/100
Note: Continue using this skill to increase proficiency. Each use grants +1 EXP.
One point. Just from using the skill once.
My mind raced. If every skill use gave me one EXP... and I needed 100 to level up... that meant I just had to use the Studying skill 100 times to reach Level 2. And at Level 2, my learning speed bonus would increase from 100% to 110%. At Level 3, it would be 120%.
The growth was predictable. Controllable. Infinite.
But the real game-changer was Equal Growth.
I pulled the status screen back up and stared at that second talent:
⟨ EQUAL GROWTH ⟩ - When ANY stat increases by 1 level, ALL stats increase by 1 level simultaneously.
Most RPG systems forced you to specialize. You could be a strong warrior with high Strength but low Intelligence. You could be a genius mage with high Intelligence but pathetic Strength. You had to choose. You had to have weaknesses.
Not me.
With Equal Growth, when I raised my Strength from Level 1 to Level 2, my Stamina, Intelligence, and Charm would all automatically jump to Level 2 at the same time.
I wouldn't have any weaknesses.
I could become perfect.
The bell rang. Students flooded toward the door, chattering about weekend plans and parties I'd never be invited to. Marcus passed my desk and deliberately knocked my textbook to the floor.
"Lucky guess, scholarship," he muttered. "Don't let it go to your head."
I watched him swagger out, surrounded by his entourage of trust-fund kids who'd never worked a day in their lives, never gone hungry, never had to choose between buying lunch or saving bus fare.
That familiar rage bubbled up inside me—three years of accumulated humiliation, of being invisible, of being less than.
But this time, something else mixed with it.
Hope.
I picked up my textbook and allowed myself a small smile—the first genuine smile I'd felt in months.
"Enjoy it while it lasts, Marcus," I whispered to the empty classroom. "Because everything's about to change."
I stood and walked to the window. Outside, I could see the parking lot where luxury cars waited—Marcus's BMW, Sophie's Mercedes, the various Audis and Teslas that belonged to kids who'd never ridden a city bus.
Beyond that, I could see the city skyline. Somewhere out there, my mom was on her hands and knees scrubbing floors in a Whitmore Industries office building.
Not for much longer.
I pulled up the status screen again and focused on the key question: How did I earn Stat Shards?
As if responding to my thought, new text appeared:
[SYSTEM TIP UNLOCKED]
Stat Shards can be obtained through targeted actions:
Strength Shards: Physical training, weightlifting, combat practice
Stamina Shards: Cardio exercise, endurance training, sustained physical activity
Intelligence Shards: Mental challenges, studying, problem-solving, learning new skills
Charm Shards: Social interactions, public speaking, fashion improvement, building relationships
Note: Quality and difficulty of actions affect Stat Shard gain rate. Experiment to discover optimal methods.
Physical training. Mental challenges. Social interactions.
I could do that. I would do that.
Starting today, everything changed. No more taking beatings. No more swallowing rage. No more being invisible.
I had a system that rewarded effort with guaranteed results. Every pushup, every math problem, every social interaction would make me stronger.
And with Equal Growth, I wouldn't just get stronger—I'd get better at everything simultaneously.
I grabbed my bag and headed for the door. I had a long bus ride home, and I planned to spend every minute of it studying. Every page I read, every concept I mastered, would push that EXP counter higher.
100 uses to Level 2.
Then 100 more to Level 3.
Then 100 more...
Infinitely.
Marcus Whitmore had no idea what was coming.
None of them did.
[END CHAPTER 1]
[CURRENT STATUS]
Studying Skill: Level 1 (1/100 EXP)
All Stats: Level 1 (0/100 Stat Shards each)