Tokyo.
Raymond High.
Class 12-A.
It was lunch break. Normally, the classroom would be super noisy with loud yelling and annoying chatter, but today it was eerily silent. Everybody talked in hushed voices and a look of nervousness was apparent on their faces. Lucas sat in a corner of the class with his clique of friends and listened quietly.
"Damn, this is THE day man. I am so freakin nervous. Statistically, there is 0.00001% chance that any of us normies can awaken today, but a chance is still a chance isn't it?"
Lucas looked at Peter animatedly talking about the ceremony and sighed.
"You are right. A chance is a chance. Who hasn't dreamed of becoming a Psi-warrior here? I still remember that one time I went to Moon on my 12th birthday. My parents couldn't afford the Mars tour but I still saw a Centaur-X19 warp in front of our ship and disappear in a flash. Our ship was a poor one, so I couldn't even experience warp travel myself. It was so cooooool."
Lucas's eyes shined with excitement. His friend nodded in approval.
Becoming a Psi-warrior and roaming the space. The adventures, the mystery, alien civilizations. This was the dream of every youth born in the New Galactic Era. Although space could be experienced in VR as well, powerful Psi-warriors could traverse through space without any suit or equipment. They literally could fly through air and space. Some supreme beings could even warp with their own powers. Just listening to such stuff was awe-inspiring and goosebumps inducing.
And that wasn't even the most attractive part of being a Psi-warrior. 'Transcending mortality'. It literally meant increasing lifespan. The moment you become a Psi-warrior, you could live a few hundred years more. The more powerful you become, the longer you can live. Some supreme beings among the Luvians were even rumored to have been alive for thousands of years.
But reality was cruel. Even among the countless races inhabiting the universe, humans had an awful compatibility with Psi-energy. Only a very very small percentage of humans were born with Psi-energy aptitude and most of them awakened extremely normal and weak abilities. Natural born Psi-aptitude was rare these days and most people just took the route of using gene enhancing serums to improve their aptitude and increase their chances.
Recalling the '0.00001%' that Peter mentioned, Lucas sighed again.
Among his three friends, the person most likely to awaken was Noah. He came from a rich family and regularly took gene serums to increase his Psi-aptitude. Looking at the dark haired handsome boy standing in front of him with a cool posture, Lucas was slightly envious. But he was also somewhat glad to have known him. Noah was a true brother who often shared some serums with them once a year, despite them having sky high prices. And if Noah became a Psi-warrior, Lucas will be someone with a Psi-warrior as a friend. His future will be super bright no matter what.
But, but...no one wanted to be ordinary in this era. Just looking at videos and holograms of powerful wariors flying or using cool superpowers was no longer satisfying. Everyone wanted to experience that power, that authority, that prestige.
Just then, a blonde girl with cute freckles grabbed Noah's cheek.
"Hey, you better not forget about me once you awaken. You have the highest chance among us anyways and with the amount of serums you dumped in your body, it will be a waste if you don't awaken."
Looking at her teasing smile, Noah calmly grabbed her hands and pushed it away.
"Stop fooling around. Those serums that I took were of the lowest grade, with the worst effects. I will still need to depend on my luck. Also, you better worry about yourself. If I do happen to awaken, there will be huge lines of girls just waiting to date me. Can you handle them?"
The blonde girl narrowed her eyes.
"Look at this cheeky guy. You dare!?"
Looking at the bickering couple, Lucas shook his head. The blonde girl was Claudia, one of his close friends and Noah's girlfriend. Him, Peter, Noah and Claudia were childhood friends who went to the same elementary and middle school. They were like a second family to him and he really hoped they could maintain this friendship in future as well. Even without the possibility of awakening, once they finished their high school, they were bound to go their seperate ways.
Suddenly.
The classroom door opened with a bang and a middle aged man with thick glasses entered the room. The studensts hurriedly returned to their seats by the time the man walked to the podium.
"Hello students. Welcome back to school. I hope you have made sufficient preparations during the week long preparatory holidays. Now, let's discuss what we all came here to do. The Awakening Ceremony. I am sure all of you are already aware, but let me repeat some points you must keep in mind during the process. First,....."
While Prof. Kyte explained, Lucas zoned out.
"Psi-awakening. I wonder if I am lucky enough. The chances are too low though. I envy those Luvians. They have a 0.01% chance of awakening."
"What should I do after high-school? Software? Finance? The competition is too tough these days and standard for those galactic corporations are too high. Do I really have to settle for a 9-5 job?"
Out of corner of his eyes, Lucas noticed a blue-haired girl sitting in the front row. Her unique hair and pruple eyes were manifestations of rare genetic mutations due to gene strengthening. It was a very complicated and insanely expensive procedure which started the moment she was conceived. She was incredibly talented in almost everything and was very smart. How much of that was because of her strengthened genes, Lucas wasn't sure. She could be an incredibly hard worker for all he knew.
Leila Atkinson. The top scorer and the best student of their class, with a freakin 80% chance to awaken today. People were naturally envious, including Lucas, but since she never looked down on her classmates and had an easy-going personality, nobody trash talked behind her back.
Lucas recalled the day she had appreciated his speech in the morning assembly with a slight smile. It was long time ago, during the beginning of their high school years and it was then that Lucas had also developed a slight crush on her, just like all other boys in the school. And just like them, Lucas just appreciated her from a distance and never tried to interact with her.
Her friend circle was full of kids from high society and normies like them had practically no chance at all.
"Unless....."
*Bang*
Just then, Prof. Kyte banged the table and shouted.
"All right, that's enough warnings. The time of the ceremony is near. Everyone, line up and move towards the training field."
With that, everyone stood up.