Year 251, Origin Convergence Era.
It was close to midnight. There were just a few short minutes until the clock hit 12 AM.
"Hello, students. My name is Principal Haris. You might know me." The principal of Fortis-01 Academy swept his gaze across the hundreds of students standing inside the grand academy hall.
All of them wore serious expressions as they faced the principal.
Nobody dared to breathe or talk. They were far too nervous to even think about anything other than what was going to happen today.
Today was the grand day.
It was the first day of the first month of the new year on the Azure Origin Planet.
And on this exact day, the Origin Ascension Domain would open new servers across the entire world.
A brand new generation of players would be born today.
All kinds of new, world-shaking talents would emerge from this very place.
Ranging from the ages of sixteen to eighteen, every single eligible student of the academy was present here.
"I know everyone is nervous." Principal Haris adjusted his eyeglasses with his index finger as he spoke with a warm, reassuring smile.
"Today is the big day where everyone will undergo awakening as a player and enter the Origin Ascension Domain."
He paused for a moment and glanced around the quiet room, his gaze lingering on the front rows of the hall.
There, several well-kept and high-status young individuals stood with calm, confident expressions.
They were the elite students of the academy. Those who had the luxury of coming into direct contact with the transcendental power known as mana from a very young age.
They were the privileged sons and daughters of regarded households within Fortis City.
The principal continued his speech as he eyed them. "And today, among all of you, many will awaken rare instances known as Origin Talents. Those who awaken Origin Talents will, without a doubt, have a massive head start compared to others."
"But an Origin Talent is not the sole deciding factor. Your path to success also depends on your innate compatibility with the mythical energy known as mana. The better your physical affinity with mana, the better you can utilize your awakened skills."
"There are many ways to become successful within the Origin Ascension Domain. Your path will not end because you lack an initial talent or a high affinity. The Origin Ascension Domain is filled with endless possibilities, and we humans have not even unveiled one percent of its true secrets."
"Make the academy and the Solaris Kingdom proud. Starting now, you will no longer be ordinary civilians. You will be Players."
With those final, heavy words, the principal concluded his speech. Following that, a crisp, robotic voice rang across the entire world.
[System: New servers of the Origin Ascension Domain will open in five minutes.]
[System: New players, please be prepared.]
The tense students erupted into loud chatter. Some were worried, some were excited, and some felt numb to it all.
Amidst the growing chaos, a single young man with messy jet-black hair and dark lines beneath his eyes stood silent.
"I am so done for," Caelus Kross muttered, standing there with a blank expression.
Compared to the excited others, he looked out of place.
He didn't seem excited, nervous, or happy about the grand situation at all.
Because he was worried about something else.
'Where the hell is my cheat?' Caelus screamed in his mind.
Caelus Kross was not from this world.
He was a traveler.
He had crossed over from another world about five days ago.
As for how he died in his previous life, he didn't even want to think about it.
But that was beside the point.
Now that he had transmigrated here, he had learned everything he could about this bizarre world and its history over the past few days to familiarize himself. This was important since he possessed just hazy, fragmented memories of the previous host.
He remembered a few specific people and a few isolated incidents, which he believed were things the previous host hated.
And while going through the world's history, he had been waiting for something else to happen.
His cheat.
As a transmigrator, it was an iron rule of the universe to receive some sort of cheat, yet for some strange reason, he seemed to possess none.
Did the universe stop handing out free cheats to fellow travelers nowadays?
Often, this was the exact moment where the protagonist awakened his overpowered cheat, right before the actual system awakening began.
Yet there were just five short minutes left until the Origin Ascension Domain opened, and he still had not awakened a single thing.
'The world is such a cruel, unfair place,' Caelus lamented in his mind.
But he wasn't discouraged yet.
Maybe he would awaken some overpowered Origin Talent inside the game itself and become the chosen one of fate.
Coughing at his own fantastical thoughts, he cleared his mind.
Him becoming the chosen one of fate? Yeah, right.
Today was the big day, and he needed to prepare himself.
Because today was the exact day he would enter the game-like world.
When he had first woken up in this body, he was dumbfounded.
What did it mean that this entire world functioned like an RPG game, and the powerful, ruling beings were called players?
At that moment, Caelus was caught between laughter and tears.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, the original world underwent a fundamental, apocalyptic change. Natural resources were exhausted, ecosystems collapsed, and rampant pollution pushed humanity to the very brink of extinction. Survival itself became a brutal, day-to-day struggle.
Then, everything changed.
The world awakened.
Reality collapsed and was reforged as the Origin Network descended from the cosmos, restoring the dying planet to its prime and erasing the deep scars of decay.
But the world did not return to normal.
Physical reality merged with the Origin Network, forming the Origin Ascension Domain.
From that historic day onward, the world functioned like a video game, and humanity became its players.
The old era of the ordinary world ended that exact day.
And the new Era of Players began.
At the exact same time, magical dungeons began to form and gather across the entire world. Out of those rifts, all sorts of fantastical, terrifying monsters emerged into reality as a result of the cosmic merge.
As of right now, this new world was called the Azure Origin Planet.
It was more vast than his old Earth, and its history matched in many ways, except that this world had ended far faster than his Earth.
With the descent of the Origin Network, a transcendental energy known as mana also emerged. It eliminated the modern need for gas or oil, and everything transitioned into advanced mana-infused technology.
After arriving in this new world, Caelus had just one singular thought driving him forward.
Conquer the Origin Ascension Domain!
Before transmigrating, he had been a dedicated full-time gamer. He was even a professional FPS player who had earned many prestigious titles and awards in his home country. However, right before going global, he quit professional gaming altogether to focus on college.
Shaking those old thoughts away, he focused on the present.
As an avid gamer, this new world was a literal dream come true.
And more important, this game-like world wasn't just a waste of time. The stronger a person became inside the game, the stronger their physical body would become out here in reality.
In this new world, high-level players ruled everything. They wielded terrifying, transcendental powers brought back from the Origin Ascension Domain. The top-tier beings could split entire mountains apart with a sword strike and soar through the skies faster than fighter jets from his old world.
How wonderful was that?
He was snapped out of his deep thoughts by a familiar voice calling out to him.
"Hey Caelus, Lena is running her mouth again."
Caelus turned toward the speaker.
It was his sole "friend" in this place, Albert.
Yes, to his surprise, he had a genuine friend in this ruthless world.
Although he possessed no clear memories of their shared past, during the few interactions they had shared since his arrival, he could confirm that this guy was someone he could trust.
"Let me guess," Caelus said, his voice flat. "She is still using my trash E-Grade Mana Affinity for cheap laughs?"
Albert just sighed, tilting his head toward the front row of the elite students.
There stood Lena Ashborn.
She was the golden daughter of the influential Ashborn clan. It just so happened that he lived with the Ashborns as a so-called ward.
He had no living parents in this world. They were said to have died as heroes in a brutal war a few years back, and the Ashborn clan took him in "out of the goodness of their hearts."
No, it would be far more accurate to say they took him in to hoard every single cent of the massive benefits the child of the brave martyrs received from the Solaris Kingdom government.
His parents had died as heroes, doing a great deed for the kingdom, and the regular government pension was astronomical.
But the greedy Ashborn clan swallowed all of it.
However, the previous Caelus was a complete fool. The Ashborns had presented a sickening, twisted argument. Since Lena held a genius A-Rank Affinity and was in the special class, they claimed they needed to funnel all available resources, including the orphan's inheritance, into her training.
They convinced the poor kid that his financial sacrifice was for the "greater good" of the noble house he was now a part of.
And the previous Caelus? That fool listened to the head of the Ashborn household to a T. He agreed to it without question, thanking them for robbing him blind just because he was a massive simp who admired Lena.
He bought her expensive lunches, carried her heavy bags, and ran errands like a base servant, all while funding her luxurious lifestyle.
In short, he was her loyal lap dog who catered to her every single whim.
As Caelus watched in silence, one of Lena's snobby friends in the elite circle leaned in, glancing back at him with a mocking smirk.
"Hey Lena, look. Your loyal dog is staring at you again."
Lena didn't even bother turning her head. She kept her eyes fixed on the stage, her posture perfect and freezing cold. "So what?"
"How cruel," the friend giggled, though her voice was loud enough to carry over to him. "Doesn't he run all your errands for you in class? He buys your snacks and carries your equipment. Shouldn't you be a little kinder to him?"
Lena scoffed, a harsh sound sharp enough to cut glass.
"Kinder? Why should I ever waste my kindness on a defect?"
She at last turned around, her gaze sweeping over Caelus with the exact same indifference one would show a dead bug on the sidewalk.
"He has a pathetic E-Grade Mana Affinity. I am a genius A-Rank. We belong to different worlds," Lena said, her voice dripping with intentional humiliation. "A dragon does not thank the ground it walks on. He should be grateful my clan even lets him live under our roof."
Caelus watched this public display, his face expressionless.
He was very familiar with this exact type of setting, and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Because of his predecessor's sheer stupidity, he had become the biggest laughingstock of the entire class.
Just Albert stuck around through it all.
"What a cliché setting," Caelus clicked his tongue in annoyance.
It left a bad taste in his mouth.
But now that he had taken over this body, he wasn't just going to sit by and take it. This gross injustice wouldn't stand for a second longer. He would ensure every single wrong was corrected.
He would wring every single benefit he was owed right out of their greedy hands, with heavy interest.
And receiving a high-grade talent in the Origin Ascension Domain was the key to doing so.
"I hope that annoying woman isn't sorted into my server," Caelus mumbled to himself, his dark eyes turning cold.
Just then, the Origin Network chimed once more.
[System: The time of awakening is here.]
[System: Servers have been activated.]
[System: The Mark of Origin will now awaken.]
[System: Players, please prepare for Origin Ascension.]