The walk home took forty-five minutes. I hated walking.
Even at almost four in the morning, the city was awake. Bright signs flashed above the streets. Cars drove by. I looked up and saw a man in a shiny red suit flying past a skyscraper. He left a trail of bright fire behind him.
He was a Pro Hero. Probably high level. He looked happy.
Then I looked down at the street. A guy in a dirty jacket was using a weak fire Blessing to keep his hands warm over a trash can. He looked miserable.
That was the reality of our world. Your Blessing and Level decided your whole life.
I stopped at a crosswalk and waited for the light to change. I closed my eyes and thought of a single word in my head.
Status.
A blue screen popped up in front of my eyes. Only I could see it. Everyone gets a System screen when they are born. It tells you exactly who and what you are.
I looked at my numbers. They were pathetic.
Name: Shay Fawn
Age: 19
Level: 1
Title: None
Blessing: Master of the Elements (S-Tier)
HP (Health Points): 100
BP (Blessing Points): 20
Attributes:
Strength: 5
Agility: 6
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Constitution: 5
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 4
Charisma: 5
I sighed and swiped the screen away.
Whenever people hear I have an S-Tier Blessing, they think I am some kind of demigod. They think I can summon hurricanes and freeze oceans.
They don't understand how the System works.
Having an S-Tier Blessing is like owning a military tank. Sure, it is incredibly powerful. But a tank needs gas to run. If you don't have gas, it is just a useless piece of metal.
My gas is BP, or Blessing Points. Every time I use my power, it costs BP.
Using a tiny gust of wind to pick up a bag of chips? That costs 1 BP. Freezing a spilled soda? That costs 2 BP.
If I tried to summon a real tornado to fight a villain, it would probably cost a thousand BP. My maximum BP is twenty.
If your BP hits zero, you get Blessing Exhaustion. Your nose bleeds, your muscles lock up, and you pass out. If you try to force your power past zero, you die. Your brain just melts.
The only way to get more BP is to increase your Wisdom stat. And the only way to increase your stats is to level up.
To level up, you have to fight System Constructs. You have to go into Zones, risk your life, and grind for Experience Points (XP). You have to train your body every single day.
I didn't want to do any of that. Sweating is gross. Bleeding hurts. Grinding is boring.
That is why I am nineteen years old and still Level 1. I never trained or fought. I just coasted through life doing the bare minimum.
The crosswalk light turned green. I crossed the street and finally reached my apartment building. It was a ugly brick building. The front door was covered in graffiti and the elevator was broken, which meant I had to walk up four flights of stairs.
By the time I reached my door, I was out of breath. My Strength and Constitution stats were so low that climbing stairs felt like a workout.
I put my key in the lock and turned it. The door squeaked open.
I stepped inside my messy apartment. I was exhausted, jobless, and completely out of money. I needed to figure out how to pay my rent, but my brain was too tired to think.
I threw myself onto my cheap mattress. I will figure it out tomorrow, I told myself.
I closed my eyes and went to sleep.