More than 5 years had passed since the war with the Sulckers. Every adult was conscripted in order to stand a chance at winning against the monsters that had invaded Earth from outer space.
Unfortunately, approximately a trillion people perished during the war. Roughly 40% of the world's population had died.
The war resulted in numerous children becoming orphans. To help these children, the government decided to pay for the living expenses of those whose parents contributed greatly in the war.
The government provided them with the bare minimum of food expenses, and a 10-meter by 10-meter apartment.
Erix Miller was an orphan living alone in the apartment provided by the government.
When the war started 9 years ago, his parents were conscripted and never returned.
4 years into the war, a government official told him that both of his parents died on the battlefield.
At that moment, Erix's eyes turned sad and lifeless. Written all over his face was the sorrow of the tragedy caused by the war.
The news was just too much to bear for the 9 years old child. He simply couldn't accept his parent's death.
He had no other relatives alive so now that even his parents were gone too, he was completely alone in this world.
Luckily for Erix, the world government offered to take care of his living expenses and accommodation.
The deal was for the government to take care of his expenses while he was still in middle school and after he was old enough he would be sent off to military school.
When the Sulckers invaded humanity from beyond space, humanity couldn't defend itself.
Humans were too weak, whereas the Sulckers were fearsome beasts in humanoid forms.
They were like animals but a hundred times more intelligent and dangerous.
They had advanced technology, even more advanced than what the humans had.
As a result of their overpowering aspects, in just a single day, a large portion of earth was destroyed.
Humans couldn't even fight back because their war machinery that was coming near the monster's flying fortress was disabled instantly as though they were hacked.
Even nuclear bombs didn't manage to do anything because each time they sent one, it was just being transported somewhere.
Where? No one knew. The coordinates were unknown.
Thankfully for the human race though, some people and families came out from the shadows with strong abilities. They were called 'Nobles'. These were the elites that awakened their mana beforehand and therefore, yielded strong abilities.
Some of them controlled natural elements such as air, fire, and water, whereas others were doing different but great things too.
Some of these people shared their knowledge with the others while the rest refused, deeming their abilities to be too precious; referring themselves as 'Original Nobles'.
But who could blame them? One swift motion of their hand and an entire city could be reduced to dust.
With the assistance of these people, humanity managed to fight these monsters until a treaty of non-attack was signed between both races.
Humanity mourned not too long over the death of their loved ones because they gained something valuable; abilities.
Those abilities were then passed down to the younger generations. And as time passed by after the war, a new system of life came into place.
A system where the powerful were at the top of the food chain.
And Erix was at the bottom of this food chain. A system where humans were graded in ranks.
The Illusion of 'all humans are equal' disappeared after the war. Humans were graded from [F] to [SSS] rank.
The [F] rank was considered the weakest while [SSS] was the strongest and highest rank.
Orphans were regarded as garbage after the war. They were poor, however, they didn't have any influence.
And most of it all, they had no ability.
Why?
Because ability costs money. A lot of money. As the most common one was expensive for orphans like Erix to acquire.
However, since Erix was regarded as garbage in this society, he was frequently bullied.
Because of this, he was isolated and ignored all his life.
In school, he was constantly bullied and beaten up by his peers.
He had no ability nor a means of acquiring one, so his peers see him as a suitable target to prey on.
The teachers at his school turned a blind eye to his situation.
He lived his life in loneliness and pain. No day has passed without getting bullied in some sort. If it wasn't at school, it would be outside.
"Hey, Erix, I told you last time that the amount will double from now on. C'mon, transfer 60 points to my watch this minute." The boy commanded as he stretched out his hand to Erik.
Today, Erix was returning from his lunch break when he came across that boy. The boy frequently steals from him.
"Bu-.."
"Shut up, who told you to speak, huh?" Erix tried to speak but the boy waved his hand and water splashed him.
The boy went forward to empty the whole point Erix had on his watch.
"If you had just shut up and obeyed, this wouldn't have happened." The boy sneered at him before walking away.
There were a lot of people in the corridor since it was lunch break, and they all witnessed what happened. And as if it was a daily occurrence for Erix, they all began to laugh uncontrollably.
He was just a level one without any ability, after all, so why would they care about how trash would be treated?
The teachers that were walking in the hallway passed by the soaked Erix without even bothering to stop. They barely glanced for a second before walking away...
This was the cruel world Erix has been in ever since his parents died.
However, after completely being soaked, Erix didn't move for a long time.
A lot of students approached Erix to help him but after beholding the number on his wristwatch, they all went away.
Sometime later, the bell rang indicating that lunch break was over and that it was time for students to go to take their last few lessons before dismissal.
However, Erix didn't move anywhere. He just stood there facing down with tears flowing down his face.
'But why?' He thought. 'Why do I need to endure all this suffering and torture? You guys left with a motherfucking necklace that ain't doing any shit for me? Why?! Why?!'
He thought multiple times of throwing away the necklace, but he somehow managed to hold back.
It was the only thing he had left from his parents, so he needed to act wisely with it, not emotion-based actions.
He has suffered a lot in school. Not a single day has passed without receiving any sort of bullying yet he managed to endure.
He had managed to hold on for a long time, but today, just one day before school ended and military school began, he broke.
He was fed up and couldn't contain any of the shit in him anymore.
However, instead of heading to class, he decided to retire to his apartment.
Once he exited the school building, a strong gust of wind came upon him.
At first, he thought it was someone with wind ability trying to bully him but then he found out it was just nature.
'Seems nature itself is a bully,' He muttered to himself.
It was about a ten-minute walk from the school to his apartment.
It was pretty quick usually since he would most times run to his apartment to avoid being bullied by street kids.
But today, even though there weren't any kids in the street, he was just too tired to run.
He didn't know if it was because of the water the boy had sprinkled him with, or the heavy wind that was making him feel cold to no end, or both, but he didn't have the strength to run.
"At this point, I think I'm gonna catch a cold," Erix said to himself. "How nice, just a day before I go to military school," Erix muttered in sarcasm.
Once he was in front of his apartment building he immediately entered it.
It was getting cold outside so he ran up the stairs without stopping until he finally got to his room.
He wasted no time in changing his clothes and instead, he fell on his bed.
He tucked himself under the bed quilt and began sleeping. He was freezing from outside so to keep his body warm, he closely hugged his leg.
Though before he slept, he took his pale-looking necklace between his hands.
"Mom, dad, I don't know if you're hearing me right now but I want to inform you guys that by tomorrow I will be leaving for military school. Please, make my fate change there. I beg you," Erix asked whoever could hear him with his necklace in his hand.
After saying that, he fell asleep.
Sometime later, something happened, and since Erix was fast asleep, he didn't see it happen.
The necklace suddenly started to emit a blinding radiance as it rose and began hovering in the air.
The glow from the necklace made Erix's room emptier with the stuff in it, even illuminating him under the bed quilt.
It shook uncontrollably while it hovered in the air until the shaking finally died down.
And slowly, the necklace began to dissipate into tiny red particles until it completely disappeared into thin air.
[Congratulation, you have been granted the 'Demon System']