Riven Kael had gotten used to being ignored by the universe.
It didn't matter how many times he changed homes, how many times someone promised to come back for him and didn't, or how long he sat at the edge of rooftops like this, watching the city breathe below. The world just kept turning. Without him.
New Mumbai stretched out like a concrete graveyard lit with LED bones. Dirty neon signs flickered in Hindi, English, and whatever hybrid dialect the locals were calling "modern street-speak" these days. The rain drizzled without conviction, soaking through his hoodie as he sat on the rooftop of the East Docks Shelter — a crumbling, state-run building most people pretended didn't exist.
He didn't care. Up here, at least, it was quiet.
He looked up at the sky — gray and bruised — and let the cold sink into his bones. It reminded him he was still here. Still real.
Below, the streets hissed with wet tires and the hum of mag-trams. Life carried on, fast and uncaring. Somewhere, people were laughing over cocktails. Somewhere else, someone was getting stabbed for pocket change.
Here, on this rooftop, Riven just breathed.
And then… everything stopped.
It didn't fade. It didn't slow. It just — stopped.
The raindrops froze mid-fall, suspended like glass beads. The wind died. The city noise vanished, cut clean like someone had yanked a cord.
Riven sat bolt upright, blinking.
"What the hell…"
He looked around, heart hammering. His breath fogged the air, and even that moved sluggishly, like the world was trapped under ice.
Then he heard it — a chime, clear and soft, echoing in his skull instead of his ears.
[Absolute Choice System Initializing…]
Soul Signature Detected: Riven Kael
Timeline Thread: Locked
Entanglement: Confirmed
Welcome, Candidate.
Riven stood, eyes scanning the air like he could find a speaker hiding behind a chimney. Nothing. Just silence. Stillness. And glowing words — floating in front of him like they'd been stitched into the air with light.
Make your first Absolute Choice:
Accept the Contract. Awaken your path.
Reject the Contract. Remain forgotten.
He stared at the words, heart still pounding. This wasn't a hallucination. He'd had those before — hunger, fear, trauma — none of them came with floating interfaces.
And deep down, somewhere he couldn't quite touch, a part of him knew this was real.
The system didn't pressure him. No ticking timer. No threats. Just… a question.
A choice.
And for once, he had the power to answer it.
"I accept," he said softly.
Choice Accepted. System Bonded.
Path: Sovereign Thread
Quest Generated:Locate the First AnomalyTime Limit: 24 hours
Reward: Passive Skill — Arcane Sensory
Failure Penalty: None
Then the world snapped back.
Rain slammed against his hoodie. The wind returned in a slap. Down below, the city roared back to life — honking, shouting, blinking, living.
Riven staggered backward and dropped to one knee, breathing hard.
It was like someone had thrown a switch inside him. Not painful — just different. Something had changed, deep in his bones. A door had opened somewhere, and part of him had walked through it.
He could still see the faint glow of the system interface if he focused — a translucent overlay only he could see, quietly pulsing with that first quest.
No flashy powers. No upgrades. Just a glowing arrow hovering in his periphery, pointing off toward the older part of the city.
Riven stood slowly, shaking the water off his hands. His breath was sharp, focused.
He didn't know what the anomaly was, or what he'd just signed up for.
But for the first time in years, he felt something more than just anger or emptiness.
He felt curious.
Later That Night
Back in the shelter dorm, he sat cross-legged on his cot, the flickering lights above casting long shadows across the peeling walls.
Most of the other kids were either asleep or pretending to be. The room smelled like mildew and sweat, and someone had scratched "FUCK THIS LIFE" into the wood of the bunk bed above him.
Riven stared at his hands.
They felt the same.
But he wasn't.
He pulled up the system screen again, just by thinking.
[Absolute Choice System – Core Menu]Status: ActivatedAbilities:– Arcane Sensory: Locked (Complete Quest to Unlock)Traits: None
Active Quest: Locate the First AnomalyTime Remaining: 22h 38m
Progression: Passive.
Future updates pending.
He let it linger there for a while, half afraid if he blinked it would disappear.
But it didn't.
He turned the medallion over in his hands — a strange silver coin that had appeared in his pocket the moment the system activated. Spiral inside a square. It pulsed with faint warmth.
He didn't remember grabbing it. But it was his now.
He glanced at the clock. 3:17 a.m.
He didn't want to sleep. He wanted answers.
And so, when the medallion gave a faint tug — not a sound, not a pull, just a feeling — he slipped his boots on, tossed his hoodie over his shoulder, and crept down the back stairwell into the city.