The flickering neon sign of 'Lucky Dragon Noodle Shop' cast a sickly green glow on the rain-slicked alleyway. Inside, the air was thick with the scent of stale broth and despair. Kai hunched deeper into his worn-out coat, the collar pulled high against the biting wind. His stomach rumbled, a constant, gnawing reminder of his empty plate.
He wasn't always like this. Once, he was just Kai, a kid with messy hair and a knack for fixing things. But that was before the System. Before the whispers of power and the promise of a better life. Before the System chose everyone but him.
The air crackled with the unseen energy of the System. It was everywhere, a pervasive hum that throbbed beneath the surface of reality. People walked with an extra spring in their step, their faces illuminated by the invisible glow of their System-granted abilities. He'd seen it all: the farmer whose crops grew tenfold, the tailor whose clothes mended themselves, the warrior whose fist could shatter stone.
But Kai? Kai was nothing.
A group of teenagers, their faces glowing with the soft light of minor System buffs, shoved past him, their laughter a cruel echo in the confined space. "Look, it's Ghost Boy," one sneered, nudging his friend. "Still waiting for the System to notice you?"
Kai clenched his fists, the knuckles white. He knew the drill. The taunts, the jeers, the casual cruelty. He'd learned to live with it. But today, something in him snapped.
He didn't have the System's gifts, but he had something else: a simmering rage, a desperate hunger for power. He wouldn't let them, or the System, define him. He would find his own path, even if it meant walking a road less traveled, a road paved with shadows.
As he slipped out of the alleyway, unnoticed and unseen, a glint of defiance sparked in his eyes. He would show them. He would show the System. He would become something more than just a ghost. He would become a villain.