[ Awakening Failed.]
The middle-aged woman’s voice echoed through the hall; quiet, flat, and emotionless, as if those few words couldn’t possibly crush someone’s future.
The young man standing in front of the purple sphere froze for a few seconds.
His fingers were still on the clear surface of the sphere, and the weak purple light passed through the gaps between his fingers.
It was like he was in shock, or for some reason his ears couldn’t process what he had just heard. Or at least the news was so painful that his brain preferred to pretend it hadn’t heard it.
Then he let out a long sigh, his shoulders dropped, and he stepped aside without a word.
Whispers immediately rose in the hall.
"That was his second time, right?"
"Yeah... I heard his father Awakened as a C-rank with a two-star class."
"What bad luck... If he could have gotten a two-star class like his father, he could have lived the rest of his life without worrying about money."
The boy lowered his head and walked through the crowd; just like the dozens of others who had walked the same path during the past hour.
The secondary awakening hall of the National Academy was always like this.
Stuffy and heavy, full of hopes that were slowly being extinguished.
Unlike the main hall, which was for geniuses and newly awakened students, this was the place for those who had been rejected by the world once... but still weren’t ready to give up.
On both sides of the hall were rows of metal chairs. Young people with anxious faces, families who had fallen silent, and looks trapped between hope and fear.
In the middle of the hall, a huge purple sphere sat on a silver-colored platform. The sphere was filled with mana, and an amazing amount of this magical energy radiated from its surface.
Of course, it was this mana that made the awakening process possible. A person can only experience the awakening process when their body comes into contact with a very large amount of mana.
The test administrator took a quick look at her list.
"Next."
A girl with short pink hair stepped forward. She paused for a moment before placing her palm on the sphere, as if she was afraid of failing again.
But if she failed, what then? Would her future be destroyed?
A few seconds of silence filled the hall, and then a faint blue light glowed inside the sphere.
The girl’s eyes went wide.
The sphere suddenly became brighter, and glowing lines formed on its surface.
[Awakening Successful.]
[Class Awakened]
[Class: Mage (2 star)]
The crowd reacted immediately.
"She did it!"
"What’s her rank?"
"At least 1 Star or higher, it seems."
An unbelieving smile appeared on the girl’s face. Her hand was shaking. For many people, this moment was the border between two lives.
A normal life and the life of an Awakened.
"Congratulations on your awakening. You have obtained a two-star Mage class. You can see information about your talent in your panel," the middle-aged woman explained lazily, then gestured for the girl to step aside.
"Thank you so much!!" The pink-haired girl bowed happily and excitedly, then went toward her family.
Lian watched that scene from the end of the hall in silence.
His hands were in the pockets of his black jacket, and he was leaning against the cold wall. His appearance looked calmer than he really was.
But only he knew how heavy his heartbeat had become.
Two hundred and fifty years had passed since the day the gates opened. Since the day the world’s sky changed, and since the day monsters crawled out of dark cracks and swallowed cities.
In those days, humanity was pushed to the brink of destruction, until "The Will" appeared.
No one knew exactly what it was. A god? A system? The will of the world?
But that unknown thing was what gave awakening to humans. The power that allowed them to resist the monsters.
And since then, everything had changed.
Power was no longer just power. It was identity, it was status, and it was worth.
And those who failed to become an awakened were almost always pushed to the margins.
Although their country was more or less in a better situation, because of that disaster, many countries collapsed, hundreds of millions of people were killed, and even now, large parts of the world are unsafe and dangerous.
"Hey, do you see that guy?"
The whispering of two people near Lian grew louder.
"Which one?"
"The one over there... in the black jacket."
A few looks turned toward him.
"Wait..."
One of the boys’ eyes widened a little.
"Isn’t that Lian Vonhelm?"
There was a short silence, and then the whispers grew louder.
"Damn... it’s him."
"The only son of the Vonhelm family whose awakening failed?"
"I thought it was a rumor."
"I heard that even after his failure, he didn’t give up and trained for two years."
"Well, apparently he still hasn’t accepted that he’s a normal person."
Lian didn’t react. Not because he was used to it, but because he no longer had the energy to care.
The Vonhelm family was not a small name. They were incredibly well-known both nationally and globally.
And precisely because of that, Lian’s failure stood out even more.
The first awakening process happens at age 16, and each person can only go through the awakening process twice in their life. If the first fails, you can always try a second time.
But almost 99% of people who fail the first time will also fail the second time, and there is no third time, because a normal human body cannot handle the shock of mana three times.
And he had failed to become an Awakened. He was considered a stain on their family name.
The woman in charge, without paying attention to the whispers, read the next name.
"Lian Vonhelm."
The hall went quiet for a moment. Lian pulled away from the wall and walked toward the platform.
His somewhat tall height made him easy to see even in a crowd.
His black hair had fallen slightly over his forehead, and his eyes were... darker than they should be for an eighteen-year-old.
Many looks followed him.
Some curious, some mocking, and some just waiting for failure. In the past, he was seen as a little celebrity with a great future.
But failing the awakening process had turned all that admiration from back then into mockery. Mockery that almost seemed born from jealousy.
Lian stood in front of the sphere. Its purple surface pulsed in silence.
This was his last chance.
After eighteen, you were no longer allowed to apply for a second awakening.
Meaning if he failed today, it was over.
"Put your hand on the sphere," the woman in charge said impatiently.
Lian breathed slowly and placed his palm on the cold surface of the sphere.
At that moment, light exploded.
The entire hall was flooded with purple brightness. The crowd stepped back in shock.
The sphere began to shake. Glowing lines moved across its surface at a crazy speed.
For the first time, the woman in charge’s eyes widened a little.
"Huh...?"
Even Lian froze for a moment.
His heart pounded hard. After two years... maybe?
But then the notifications appeared.
[Awakening Failed.]
The light suddenly flickered.
[Error! ERROR! Error 44##]
[Error! Error!]
[Subject Not Registered Within The System.]
Silence. Several full seconds. No one said a word. Lian stared motionless at the floating words.
They were familiar. Exactly the same messages and the same errors. The same thing he had seen two years ago, and back then they had just said it was a problem with the device.
"...Did the device malfunction?" The woman in charge frowned and looked at the sphere a few times. This sphere was one of the best of its kind and could even handle the pressure of a five-star class.
So what was going on?
But she was too lazy to care. Then she shrugged.
"Awakening failed. Next."
As if nothing special had happened, the whispers started again.
"Huh? What was that Error?"
"Doesn’t matter. It ended in fail anyway."
"The Vonhelm family should really be ashamed."
"What an insult to that name."
"Now I understand why his fiancée left him..."
"That girl got a three-star class! How could she be with a nobody?"
Lian slowly lifted his hand from the sphere.
A strange feeling twisted inside his chest. It wasn’t anger or sadness. It was just... emptiness.
The last small hope had gone out. All this time, part of him had still been hopeful.
Hopeful that maybe the second time would be different. Maybe those errors meant something else.
Maybe there was finally a place for him in this world.
But now it was really over. He had no talent. He had no awakening.
And from tomorrow, he would just be an ordinary Analyzer at the academy. A normal person, in a world that no longer had a place for normal people.
Lian stepped down from the platform without a word. The sound of whispers still flowed behind him.
But he didn’t care anymore. He just wanted to get out of that hall.
Just as he reached the exit, his phone vibrated. Lian glanced at the screen.
A familiar name appeared on the screen. He answered the call.
"Are you finally done?" A boy’s voice came from the other end.
Lian was silent for a moment.
"Yeah." Then he said quietly.
"Good. I’m waiting for you in front of the academy entrance."
The call ended. Lian stared at the dark phone screen for a few seconds, then opened the hall door and went out.