Marcus woke up with a groan, blinking at the ceiling as his brain booted up. The events of the previous day—the book flashbang, the weird sigil, the gacha game screen—all flooded back into his mind like a bad fever dream.
"Ugh," he muttered, rolling over to see Josh sprawled across his bed, one sock missing, and a bag of Doritos clutched in his hand like a lifeline.
Classic josh.
Shaking off the weirdness, Marcus forced himself into his routine. Classes. Small talk with classmates. Lunch. More classes. Josh's weird antics. It was all familiar, comfortable, normal.
Well, as normal as it could be when you're secretly hosting a glowing, potentially magical sigil on your hand.
——-
That evening, Marcus headed to the public library, his usual study haunt. His plan was simple: ignore the existential crisis, bury himself in schoolwork, and pretend everything was fine.
The plan was going great until curiosity got the better of him.
With an almost painful slowness, he approached the bookshelf where the book had been. He stared at the empty spot for way too long, half-expecting the book to magically respawn like some cursed RPG item.
Nope.
It was gone.
"Hah! Cool. Great. Love that," Marcus muttered under his breath. He could ask the librarian about it, but that would require actually explaining what had happened.
"Yeah, so, that old dusty book? It glowed, exploded in my face, and now I have a mysterious sigil on my hand. Any ideas?"
Nope. Hard pass.
Instead of spiraling into another panic, Marcus did what any responsible college student would do—he ignored the problem and threw himself into his studies like a man possessed.
——-
Hours passed. The sun dipped below the horizon. The library's overhead lights buzzed faintly. At some point, Marcus realized he had gone through three notebooks and was running on caffeine fumes.
"Alright," he sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I need food. And maybe therapy."
Packing up his things, Marcus glanced down at his hand. The sigil sat there, still as ominous as ever.
For most of the day, he had shoved the thought away, but now? Now he had to decide what the hell he was going to do about it.
A doctor?
Yeah, right.
Best-case scenario? They slap a 'Gifted' label on him, which meant government registration, endless questions, and probably some weird tests.
Worst-case scenario? They think he's crazy and ship him off to a psych ward where he'd spend the rest of his days trying to convince people he wasn't hallucinating glowing runes.
So that left only one real option.
"Guess I'm testing out the mystery menu," he muttered.
——-
Stepping into a quiet alleyway near the bus stop.
Taking a deep breath, Marcus rubbed his fingers over the sigil. The texture was still rough, almost like carved stone. As soon as he made contact, the mark pulsed, and—
FWOOOSH.
Runic symbols burst into the air, shifting and rearranging before forming the same ridiculous gacha game interface.
The banner at the top flickered, flashing an all-too-excited message:
[WELCOME BACK! YOUR FREE PULL IS STILL WAITING!]
Marcus glared at it. "You've gotta be kidding me."
The golden summon button sparkled like it knew he was hesitant. It was practically daring him to press it.
"This is a trap," Marcus muttered. "This is definitely a trap."
…But also, what if it wasn't?
Maybe it was harmless. Maybe it was some weird latent ability he had and just never knew about.
Maybe it was—
Before he could talk himself out of it, Marcus smashed the summon button.
The runes twisted, light flared—
And then everything exploded in his face.
Again.
"SON OF A—!"
The last thing he saw before the world blurred into chaos was the sight of something materializing in front of him.