The headset hissed as David pulled it off and for a moment the silence of his apartment felt heavier than the chaos he had just left behind.
He sat there on the worn couch, the thin fabric cool against his skin despite the sweat that clung to his back and temples. The living room was small, barely large enough for the couch, a coffee table stacked with old magazines, and a holographic display mounted on the wall that currently showed nothing but the time blinking in soft blue numerals. 11:47 PM. The game had ended at exactly 11:45, just as every source had predicted.
David exhaled slowly and set the headset on the table. His fingers were trembling slightly, though whether from exhaustion or adrenaline he couldn't tell. The final boss had been brutal, a multi-stage nightmare that had pushed him further than anything in the game before. He had won but only just barely and only because he had refused to lose.
His reflection stared back at him from the dark display. Tall, lean, with the kind of build that came from years of running when others walked and moving when others stood still. His hair was the first thing people noticed. Red, but not a natural red. It burned with shades of copper and crimson, streaks of deeper amber woven through like embers clinging to dying wood. More than one person had called it flame-like. More than one had stared too long.
His eyes were grey. Not the warm grey of a cloudy sky but something cooler. Steel, maybe. Or ash.
The surname fit, he supposed. Ashborn. Like he had crawled out of something burned.
His fingers drifted to his neck, tracing the chain that rested against his collarbone. The pendant was small, a sunburst set in metal so old the engravings had worn smooth. Warm. It was always warm, though he had never understood why. The orphanage matron had given it to him when he was old enough to leave, saying only that it had been with him when he arrived. No note. No name. Just a baby and a necklace.
He had worn it every day since. Eighteen years and it had never left his skin for more than the few minutes it took to shower. It was the only proof he had that he came from somewhere, that someone had cared enough to leave him with something.
A sharp buzz cut through the quiet and David glanced at his phone lying facedown on the table. The screen glowed and then a holographic image flickered to life above it. Lucas's face, projected in miniature, already mid-sentence before David could even reach for the answer button.
"Bro! You there? Pick up, pick up, pick up!"
David smiled despite himself and tapped the screen. Lucas's full upper body materialized in holographic form, hovering above the phone like a ghost made of light and noise. He was practically bouncing, his broad frame shifting back and forth in a way that made the projection flicker at the edges.
"Brooooo, the game ended," Lucas yelled, his voice carrying even through the phone's modulated output. "It actually ended, like twenty years of this thing running and we are the ones who finished it, do you realize how insane that is? My heart is still pounding, I think I pulled something, can you pull something in a VR game, is that a thing?"
David leaned back on the couch, letting the familiar rhythm of Lucas's rambling wash over him. "You're fine."
"I'm not fine, I'm exceptional, I'm top four baby, top four! They announced the rankings right, you saw it, everyone saw it? My mom called me crying, my dad pretended he wasn't crying but I heard him sniffle and grown men can sniffle, it's allowed."
"I saw," David said.
Lucas squinted at him through the projection. "And what rank do you think you got? You were climbing those leaderboards like a man possessed these last few weeks so don't tell me you're not curious."
David shrugged one shoulder. "Worry about your own rank first, dumbo."
"Ouch, low blow, I'm wounded, absolutely devastated." Lucas clutched his chest with exaggerated drama. "You know what, I'm going to pretend you didn't say that, I'm going to blame it on post-game exhaustion, you're tired, you're emotional, you didn't mean it."
"I meant it."
"See, this is why you don't have other friends, because I'm the only one who can tolerate this level of honesty."
David snorted softly but there was no heat in it. Lucas wasn't wrong. Through middle school, through high school, through every awkward phase and quiet lunch period, Lucas had been there. They had met in the worst way, David finding Lucas cornered by three older kids behind the gymnasium, fists raised and face bloody but refusing to back down. David hadn't thought about it, he had just moved, one moment he was at the edge of the scene and the next the bullies were on the ground and Lucas was staring at him like he had grown a second head.
After that Lucas had simply decided they were friends. No discussion, no negotiation, just a constant cheerful presence that refused to be shaken no matter how many times David tried to push him away.
David had stopped trying eventually.
"You should sleep," David said now. "Big day tomorrow."
"Big day? BIG DAY?" Lucas's voice pitched higher. "Tomorrow we awaken, David, we awaken, we're going to walk into that government center and touch the obelisk and walk out with actual powers, real ones, not game abilities, not simulations, the real thing, mana, skills, levels, I've been waiting for this my whole life, my whole life!"
"Eighteen years."
"Same thing!"
David shook his head but the smile lingered. "Go to sleep, Lucas. I'll see you tomorrow."
"You better and wear something nice, this is a historic moment, we're going to be in the news probably, future legends, make sure your hair looks good, actually your hair always looks good, that's annoying, forget I said that. Goodnight bro, don't dream about rankings too hard."
The holographic flickered and died.
David sat in the renewed silence for a long moment then pushed himself off the couch. His legs carried him to the small bathroom where the lights flicked on automatically at his presence, one of the few modern upgrades the building had bothered to install.
He turned on the shower and stepped under the hot spray, letting the water run over his face and shoulders. The heat felt good against his tired muscles and he stood there longer than necessary, eyes closed, mind drifting.
Tomorrow everything changed.
Everyone who turned eighteen this year would awaken. The system had arrived twenty years ago, that voice echoing in every mind on Earth announcing that humanity was ready, ready for mana, ready for contact with the world of beasts, ready to level. The VR game had been the gateway, a training ground, a test, a way to prepare the first generation for what came next. For two decades every eighteen-year-old had entered that game, competed, ranked, and then awakened to their true potential.
But David's generation was different. The rumors had been circulating for months. This year's cohort wouldn't just awaken with F-ranks and E-ranks like most before them. Something in the mana had shifted, grown denser. The system itself had hinted at it in the game's final weeks, hidden messages, unusual spawns, quests that felt too tailored, too personal.
S-ranks, people whispered. This year would see the first S-ranks.
David shut off the water and stood in the steam, dripping onto the tile.
He thought about the game, about the final boss, about the way his body had moved, faster than the simulation should have allowed, more precise, more instinctive. The game was supposed to be perfectly balanced, everyone on equal footing regardless of their real-world bodies. But David had felt something different, something that had been there long before the game began.
The faster healing, the lighter steps, the way he had always excelled at sports without really trying, his body responding before his mind could catch up. Track coaches had begged him to join their teams, basketball scouts had shown up at his high school games. He had turned them all down, the same way he turned down most things that would put him in the spotlight.
Better to stay in the shadows, better to watch than be watched.
He looked at his reflection again, water streaming down his face.
The necklace glinted against his chest, warm as ever.
David Ashborn didn't know what he was, didn't know where he came from or why his surname drew strange looks and whispered questions, didn't know why the orphanage records showed nothing before the day he had been found, didn't know why the matron had looked at him with something like fear in her eyes when she handed him the necklace and told him it was time to leave.
But tomorrow maybe he'd start finding out.
He dried off, pulled on a pair of loose pants, and collapsed onto his bed. The ceiling was cracked in one corner, had been for years, and he had memorized every line of it during long nights when sleep wouldn't come. The crack started near the wall, forked twice, then ran diagonally toward the window. He had counted the length once, two point four meters, not that it mattered.
Tonight though, sleep came easily.
And in his dreams, fire danced behind his eyelids, great wings of flame stretched across burning skies, a woman's voice soft and desperate whispering words he couldn't understand, a man's hand strong and warm pressing the necklace into a tiny fist, and then darkness and cold and the sound of something breaking.
David woke with a gasp, his hand clutching the pendant, his heart pounding against his ribs.
The clock on his display read 5:23 AM.
He lay there breathing hard, staring at the ceiling.
The dreams had been coming more frequently lately, always the fire, always the wings, always the voices. He never remembered the details, only the feelings. Loss, love, fear, hope.
He swung his legs out of bed and stood, padding to the window. The city was already awake below him, hover-vehicles gliding through the pre-dawn light, their soft hum mixing with the distant sound of trains. Neo-London sprawled in every direction, towers of glass and steel reaching toward a sky that was just beginning to lighten.
Somewhere out there Lucas was probably already awake too, bouncing off walls, driving his family crazy with excitement. Somewhere thousands of eighteen-year-olds were about to discover what they would become.
David touched the necklace one more time, feeling that familiar warmth against his fingers.
"I'm ready," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else. "Whatever I am, whatever I become, I'm ready."
The pendant warmed a little more, and he could almost swear it was laughing at him.
He snorted softly and turned from the window, grabbing his clothes from the chair where he'd dumped them the night before. Grey shirt, dark pants, the same thing he always wore. No point dressing up for the end of the world.
His phone buzzed again and he glanced at the screen. Lucas, of course, already sending a stream of messages too fast to read.
wake up wake up wake up
are you awake
bro answer me
I'm outside your building
okay I'm not outside your building but mentally I'm outside your building
David shook his head and typed back quickly.
*Relax. I'm up. Give me ten minutes.*
The response came instantly.
TEN MINUTES?? WE DONT HAVE TEN MINUTES WE HAVE DESTINY
David laughed out loud, actually laughed, and it felt good.
Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.