"What the hell is this?"
Stan sat up fully and stared at the glowing notification floating in front of him.
He reached out and touched it instinctively. His finger passed right through it but the screen responded, expanding slightly like it was acknowledging him.
> [Divine Cuck System]
> Status: Activated
> User: Stan Carter
> Talent Rank: 0
> Class: Unclassified
"Okay." He said it out loud to nobody. "Okay what is happening."
He had heard about personal systems before. Rare cases where awakeners developed unique system interfaces tailored specifically to their abilities. It happened maybe once or twice a generation and the people it happened to usually ended up in history books. He had never heard of one activating for a Rank 0.
He had also never heard of one with a name like this.
He scrolled through the interface carefully, the way you handle something you aren't sure is safe. The system responded to his focus, expanding sections when he concentrated on them, collapsing them when he looked away. It felt intuitive in a way that was almost unsettling.
> [System Mechanics]
>
> When a woman with a current partner develops genuine feelings for the user and acts on them, the user permanently absorbs a portion of both partners Talent Rank, skills, and traits.
>
> Authenticity required. Manufactured feelings yield no transfer.
>
> Current Active Skills: 3
> Current Stats Transferred: 0
> Total Talent Absorbed: 0
He opened the skills tab.
> [Skill: Presence — Level 1]
> Passive. The user projects a subtle aura that makes others instinctively aware of them. Effect at current level is minimal.
> [Skill: Resonance — Level 1]
> Active. When engaged in direct conversation, the user's words carry a faint emotional weight. Effect at current level is minimal.
> [Skill: Read — Level 1]
> Passive. The user gains faint insight into the emotional state of people in close proximity. Accuracy at current level is low.
Stan read through all three twice. Then he leaned back against his headboard and looked at the ceiling.
Everything he had gotten was level 1 across the board. The system was essentially telling him he was bad at this too. Even his cheat was starting him from the bottom.
He almost laughed.
He thought about how Jake had crouched in front of him on the concrete.
The way he said 'Kiss my shoes.' Like Stan wasn't even worth raising his voice for. He thought about the girls filming it, laughing at something he couldn't hear, making a memory out of his worst moment.
Jake was Rank 5. The highest ranked student on campus. His girlfriend was a Rank 3 awakener named Cara who walked through the academy like she owned the air in it. They had been together since first year. Everyone knew them. Everyone respected them or at least pretended to.
Stan stared at the system interface floating patiently in front of him.
The mechanics were clear enough. He couldn't force anything. He couldn't fake anything. The system had locked that out entirely, which meant this wasn't going to be simple or fast. Level 1 skills that barely did anything, a Rank 0 that made him invisible to everyone worth noticing, and a system that required him to actually become someone people would choose.
It was the worst cheat he had ever heard of.
It was also the only thing he had.
He thought about his parents again then about the rift over New York and the government representative at his uncle's door and thirteen years of moving through a world that kept making it clear he didn't belong in it.
He thought about the academy scholarship that was one bad semester away from being revoked. He thought about the front lines and what happened to low-ranks who got sent there.
Then he thought about Jake's face when the system sent him the notification.
He didn't know if it worked that way. He didn't know a lot of things yet. But the image sat in his head and something in his chest that had been cold and quiet for a long time started feeling something adjacent to warm.
He closed the system interface and lay back down.
He had a lot of work to do.