"You're twenty-three now, Ren."
"Still no ability."
"I think it's time you accepted what you are — ordinary."
Those words again.
Different mouth, same tone. His manager this time. But Ren had heard it from so many people over the years, he lost count. Neighbors. Teachers. Even his own father.
He stood silently in the small office, rain tapping against the window behind him.
His black jacket was still damp from his last delivery, but the cold didn't bother him anymore. Nothing really did.
No reaction.
No argument.
He just turned and walked out.
---
Five years.
It had been five years since his eighteenth birthday — the day when people across the globe awakened their supernatural abilities. A system built into human DNA, triggered by age.
Some could control fire.
Others moved like lightning, bent space, manipulated sound.
And Ren?
Nothing.
No power.
No aura.
He was a Zero.
---
The city lights flickered through the rain.
Neon signs painted the wet streets with glowing colors, but everything felt... grey. Dead.
He sat at a nearly empty bus stop, hands clutching a plastic bag with a discounted loaf of bread inside.
Across the road, a massive billboard flashed:
> "Fifth Annual National Awakening Expo!"
"Watch Class S ability users demolish tanks with their bare hands!"
Ren stared at the screen.
Then he smiled.
A bitter, empty smile.
He used to go to those expos when he was younger, hoping to see someone like him — a late bloomer.
But there were none.
The system didn't make mistakes, they said.
If you didn't awaken by eighteen, you never would.
He remembered one time, he even asked a vendor, "What if I awaken at twenty?"
The guy laughed and said, "Then you're either a medical anomaly or a liar."
---
Five Years Ago
"You'll awaken late, like your father," his mother had said.
"Maybe it'll happen after lunch. Or maybe tonight while you're asleep."
But night came. Then morning.
Then a week.
A month.
A year.
And still… nothing.
He watched his classmates leave for elite academies while he worked part-time jobs just to stay alive.
He remembered the disappointment in his father's eyes — the way they stopped making contact after his eighteenth birthday. As if Ren had become a ghost in his own home.
He had once wanted to scream. To prove something. To run until the sky tore open and asked why.
But in the end, he just endured.
One breath at a time.
---
Now
Ren leaned his head back, letting the cold drops hit his face.
Maybe they were right, he thought.
Maybe I really am nothing.
Then—
BZZZ
A sudden pressure. A sharp pulse behind his eyes.
His heart skipped.
His breath caught in his throat.
> 📣 [SYSTEM DETECTED]
📣 Activation Confirmed
📣 Core Function: REPLICATION — Unlocked
📣 User: REN KADE
📣 Compatibility Rate: 98.7%
Ren froze.
A transparent interface flickered in front of him, as if projected from his own vision. Lines of glowing blue code scrolled across his sight.
> "Replication?" he whispered. "What the hell is this?"
> 📣 Copy ability: Loaded.
📣 Replication Level: Locked [1/???]
📣 Awaiting first target...
For the first time in his entire life…
Ren felt something inside him stir.
Not just energy.
Power.
And something more: clarity.
A terrifying, beautiful clarity.
He looked down at his trembling hands, feeling a pulse move through his fingers like static — sharp, cold, alive.
> Was this what they felt?
That rush? That certainty?
That proof that you were more than just skin and bone?
A voice echoed in his mind again, synthetic but calm:
> 📣 Target proximity: scanned. No compatible ability within 30 meters.
He exhaled sharply. People had left the bus stop already — it was just him and the storm.
The bus pulled in. He stepped on, sat at the back, the interface still hovering faintly in his vision like a ghost.
He closed his eyes.
> If this is real...
Then it's my turn.
And for the first time in five long years, Ren Kade smiled — not the bitter kind, not the empty kind.
A real one.