In the grand, celestial theater of the Gods' Union Association, the air was thick with the scent of burning stars and manufactured peace.
Twelve Supreme Beings sat in a circle of light that transcended space-time. To a mortal, they would look like nebulae shaped like men; to each other, they were simply rivals holding their breath. For eons, they had ground the multiverse into dust, fighting for the title of Supreme God. Now, they shared a "Union"—a desperate, blood-stained pact to stop the killing before there was nothing left to rule.
But Gods are, by nature, greedy bastards.
"The barrier of Nova remains," boomed a voice that sounded like grinding tectonic plates. It was the God of Iron, his gaze fixed on a shimmering blue sphere floating in the center of the hall. "Our essence cannot descend. The planet Earth is a vault we cannot crack."
"Then we don't crack it," purred a goddess whose hair was woven from solar flares. "We leak into it. We send our shadows. We grant the mortals 'Gifts.' We turn their world into a game, and when the barrier thins from the inside... we claim the prize."
The gods nodded in silent, treacherous agreement. They would send their troops. They would crown their champions. And they would wait for Earth to tear itself apart.
They didn't realize that the universe has a sense of humor. Because while the Gods were planning a cosmic takeover, the most important person on Earth was currently trying to figure out if he could sleep standing up.
Seoul, South Korea
Hwan-young High School
"Look at that pathetic piece of shit."
The whisper was loud enough to carry across the classroom, followed by a chorus of stifled giggles.
Raven Desmerk didn't even twitch. He was slumped in the back corner of the room, his face buried in the crook of his arm. To the rest of the world, he was a sixteen-year-old failure—the only "Zero" in a family of titans. In a society where your "Talent Rank" determined whether you were a god or a footstool, Raven was the dirt under the footstool's leg.
"Hey, Trash-can. You dead yet?"
A crumpled ball of paper hit Raven in the back of the head. Then another. This one was soaked in spit.
Raven opened one eye. His vision was blurry, his head felt like it was filled with wet cement, and his soul felt... heavy. It wasn't that he was depressed; he just couldn't find a single reason to give a damn.
Three more hours, he thought, his internal monologue a slow, rhythmic crawl. Three more hours of this hellhole, then I can go home, ignore my sisters, and sleep for twelve hours. Maybe fourteen if I skip dinner. Yeah. Fourteen sounds like a plan.
"Raven!" The teacher's voice cracked like a whip. Mr. Han, a C-Rank with a minor talent in [Vocal Projection], glared at him. "Since you find my lecture on Mana-Circulation so boring, perhaps you'd like to demonstrate the basic flow for the class?"
Raven sat up slowly, his joints popping. He looked at the chalkboard, which was covered in complex diagrams of the human meridian system.
"I'd rather not, sir," Raven said, his voice a low, gravelly rasp. "I might pull a muscle."
The class erupted.
"Pull a muscle? He doesn't even have any!" Kang-dae, the class bully and a B-Rank [Strength Enhancement] user, barked with laughter. "The only talent Raven has is being a disappointment to the Desmerk name. My dad says your sisters are ashamed to even mention you in interviews."
Raven's expression didn't change, but his fingers tightened slightly under the desk. Juno and Serena. The Golden Goddesses. His sisters were the pride of South Korea, SSS and SS rankers who lived in the clouds. And here he was, being roasted by a B-rank nobody in a sweaty classroom.
"Quiet!" Mr. Han snapped, though he didn't look at Raven with any less disgust. "Desmerk, if you fail the midterms, not even your father's CEO status will keep you in this academy. Get your head out of the clouds."
I'm trying, Raven thought, closing his eyes again. The clouds are the only place that doesn't smell like cheap floor wax and failure.
He drifted.
In his mind, the grey classroom faded away. It was replaced by a meadow of impossible green. The sky was a soft, twilight purple, and the air smelled like jasmine and ozone. This was his "Happy Place"—a recurring dream he'd had since he was a kid. Tiny, glowing figures—fairies, maybe?—flew in circles around him, their wings humming a melody that vibrated in his chest.
This is it, Raven sighed in his sleep. No ranks. No sisters. No gods. Just... peace.
The melody grew louder. One of the fairies drifted closer, its tiny face glowing with a soft light. It reached out a hand, its wings buzzing faster and faster.
Bzzzzzz.
The sound changed. It became sharp. High-pitched. Aggressive.
BZZZZZZZ.
The meadow began to rot. The purple sky turned a bruised, sickly red. The fairies didn't look like fairies anymore; they looked like skeletal shadows.
And then, Raven felt it.
A sharp, searing pain erupted on his left buttock. It wasn't a sting; it felt like someone had driven a red-hot needle through his jeans and into the bone.
"MOTHER—!"
Raven bolted upright, his chair flying backward and slamming into the radiator with a deafening clack. He clutched his backside, his face contorting in an expression of pure, unadulterated agony.
"Desmerk!" Mr. Han roared.
"It bit me!" Raven gasped, his eyes wide and bloodshot. "The bastard bit me!"
"Who bit you? Kang-dae?"
"The bug! The... the..." Raven looked down. Hopping away from his seat was a mosquito. But it wasn't a normal one. It was the size of a thumb, its body a translucent, pulsating gold, with wings that left a trail of red sparks in the air.
It looked at Raven—actually looked at him—and then vanished into thin air.
Raven's vision began to swim. The pain from the sting wasn't fading; it was spreading. It felt like liquid fire was being pumped into his veins, rushing toward his heart, and then, most terrifyingly, toward his brain.
"I... I don't feel so good," Raven wheezed.
"Sit down, Raven," Kang-dae laughed. "Did the big bad bug hurt your feelings?"
Raven didn't answer. His heart gave a massive, violent thud against his ribs—a sound so loud he was sure the whole room could hear it. His lungs seized.
Stamina: 5... 4... 3...
A golden light flickered in the corner of his eye.
"Someone... call... a doctor..." Raven managed to choke out before his knees gave way. He hit the floor hard, his forehead bouncing off the linoleum.
The last thing he saw before the darkness took him wasn't the worried face of a teacher or the mocking grin of a bully. It was a screen. A golden, translucent rectangle floating six inches from his nose.
[Initialization Sequence: 1%]
[Target: Raven Desmerk]
[Source: The Nova Core]
[Warning: Host is exceptionally lazy. Calibration required.]
"He's fine. It's a mosquito bite, for God's sake."
Raven opened his eyes to the smell of antiseptic and the sound of a ticking clock. He was lying on a thin cot in the school's infirmary. The school doctor, Dr. Kim, was standing by the desk, looking at a tablet.
"He fainted, Doctor," a soft voice said.
Raven turned his head. Sitting on a stool by the cot was Suji. She was a C-rank with [Hydro-kinesis], one of the only people in school who didn't treat Raven like a contagious disease. Beside her stood Min-ho, a lanky kid with B-rank [Enhanced Sight].
"He probably fainted from the shock of actually standing up," Min-ho muttered, though his eyes were full of genuine concern. "You okay, man? You went down like a sack of potatoes."
Raven sat up, rubbing the back of his neck. The fire in his veins had cooled into a dull, strange hum. "Yeah. I'm... I'm good. Just a bug."
"A bug?" Dr. Kim scoffed, walking over. She tapped a sensor against Raven's forehead. "Your vitals are normal. Sub-normal, actually. Your mana-count is still a big, fat zero. You haven't awakened, Raven. You just had a panic attack because of an insect. It's embarrassing."
She pulled the sensor away, her lip curling. "I've already sent the report to your parents. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to hear you're causing scenes in class over a mosquito."
Raven felt the familiar sting of shame, but it was quickly replaced by a weird, pulsing sensation in the back of his skull. "Can I go?"
"Please do," the doctor sighed. "I have students with actual injuries to treat. Students who will actually contribute to the Association one day."
Raven stood up. His legs felt heavy, but there was something else. A clarity he'd never felt before.
"Thanks for staying, guys," Raven said to Suji and Min-ho.
"No problem," Suji smiled weakly. "Just... try to stay awake for the rest of the day? Kang-dae is already telling everyone you screamed like a girl."
"Let him talk," Raven muttered.
As he walked out of the infirmary and into the crowded hallway, the world suddenly shifted. The colors became too bright, the sounds of lockers slamming too loud. And then, the screen returned.
[Initialization Sequence: 100%]
[Welcome, Raven Desmerk.]
[The Nova System is now active.]
Raven froze in the middle of the hallway. Students swerved around him, cursing and shoving his shoulders.
"What the hell is this?" he whispered.
[Current Status: Trash-Tier Human]
[Level: 1]
[Stamina: 12/100]
[Mana: 0/0 (Locked)]
[Title: The Disgrace of the Desmerks]
"Hey! System! Whatever you are!" Raven hissed, looking around frantically. "Is this a Talent? Did I finally awaken?"
[Negative. You have not 'Awakened'. You have been 'Selected'.]
[The Gods of the Union have their pawns. The Nova Core requires a King.]
Raven's heart skipped a beat. A King? Me? I can't even pass Algebra.
[First Objective: Survival of the Fittest.]
[Description: You are weak. Your family hates you. Your peers despise you. If you stay this way, you will be the first to die when the barrier thins.]
[Quest: The Long Road Home.]
[Objective: Walk home from school. Avoid all forms of transportation.]
[Reward: +5 Stamina, +1 Strength, Unlock: 'The King's Eyes'.]
[Penalty for Failure: The 'Sting' will be reapplied to a more sensitive area.]
Raven winced, his hand instinctively moving to his butt. "You're kidding. My house is five miles away! I always take the bus!"
[119 minutes remaining.]
[118 minutes remaining...]
"Fine! Fine!" Raven turned and started walking toward the exit. "I'm going. But I'm going to be really annoyed about it."
As he pushed through the front doors of the school, he didn't notice a black SUV parked across the street. Inside, a man in a dark suit with glowing green eyes watched Raven through a pair of binoculars.
The man tapped a comm-link in his ear. "Subject 9-4-4 is moving. There's a strange energy signature around him. It doesn't match any known Talent Rank."
"Eliminate the anomaly," a cold voice replied over the link. "The God of Greed does not like loose ends."
Raven Desmerk stepped onto the sidewalk, complaining under his breath about the sun being too bright, completely unaware that he was no longer just a "Zero."
He was a target.
And for the first time in his life, his stamina was starting to drop toward the one number that would change everything.
[Current Stamina: 8/100]
[Warning: Approaching Absolute Zero.]