In my youth, I watched the 21st century rot from the inside out. Corrupt leaders bled the nation dry, and families like mine were left to wither, buried under wartime inflation and empty pantries.
But I'm not here to beg for sympathy.
I'm here for revenge, on behalf of every soul too broken to fight back.
A century has passed since the Great Awakening. While most of humanity tapped into hidden power, I remained a relic of the old world, unawakened. For a hundred years, the empowered elite manipulated the gifted and harvested the world's riches, leaving the "Dormant" like me to starve in the shadows.
This time… I intend to return the favor.
The rumors led me to a shop marked by a golden lion. I was told to look for a man in a "mysterious outfit," but the figure leaning against the doorframe looked less like a kingmaker and more like a corpse.
He looked half-dead, like he hadn't eaten in weeks. Yet despite the grime and gaunt features, something about him felt… familiar.
"Are you the one selling the drug?" I asked, leaning closer.
"Yeah," he rasped, holding it out. "Take it. No need to pay."
A suspicious offer.
"You sure about that?" I said. "Because I'm drinking this right now."
I downed it in one gulp.
The world tilted.
My vision fractured into light and shadow, and the ground felt like it was dissolving beneath my feet. As I collapsed, his voice followed faint, broken, like a signal cutting out:
"P***se… this time… it ****"
"Damn it…"
I bolted upright.
The bed was too small. The room too… whole.
The air felt different, thicker, missing the metallic decay I'd grown used to. I stumbled toward the mirror and froze.
A younger face stared back. Untouched by a century of bitterness.
It worked.
The drug was real.
"Status Window!" I snapped.
Silence.
I stood there, arm raised like an idiot, waiting for something, anything to appear.
Nothing.
"Great. Just a lunatic yelling at glass," I muttered.
If instinct didn't work, then I needed logic.
I grabbed my phone, an ancient piece of tech that now felt like a toy and searched: How to tell if you've awakened?
Results flooded the screen.
I tapped the first link.
A clean, official-looking site opened, a detailed guide with step-by-step instructions and sensory benchmarks.
Thorough. Precise.
Almost too precise.
If the power was inside me…
This would drag it out.