They say if you're born without a Quirk, you're useless.
They're not wrong.
My name is Renjiro Kaito, and I was born with exactly zero percent of the flashy superpowers this world obsesses over. No flames. No lightning. No super-strength. Not even the ability to change the color of my damn eyes.
Though to be fair… my actual eye color—deep crimson—was already creepy enough.
For sixteen years, I've been "that guy." The background character in a world full of protagonists. If you're Quirkless, you're treated like trash. The most I ever got was pity. Sometimes fear, thanks to the eyes. But mostly? People just ignored me.
I was fine with that.
Until today.
It started like any other crappy day. I took the train to school, kept my hoodie up to avoid people, and slid into class ten seconds before the bell. No one said hi. Again, totally normal.
What wasn't normal was the giant sludge monster that crashed through the wall during lunch.
One second I was ignoring my tray of cafeteria mush, the next, glass was flying and people were screaming.
"Everyone out! Villain attack!" someone shouted.
But I didn't run.
No… I was too busy staring at the thing.
It had already grabbed one of the girls from class—Eiko, I think—and was halfway through absorbing her body like some kind of gooey horror monster. The "heroes" were late, of course.
I should've run. I wanted to run.
But something in me snapped.
I threw my damn backpack at the thing and screamed, "HEY! OVER HERE, SLIMEBALL!"
It worked. Lucky me.
The thing turned toward me with this sick, bubbling gurgle. Eiko dropped to the ground gasping, and I got a face full of sludge as it lunged.
Right before it hit me—everything froze.
Literally.
Like the world pressed pause.
Screams stopped mid-air. The sludge stopped moving, inches from my face. Debris hung like decorations in the air.
And in the middle of that frozen chaos… a blue window appeared in front of my eyes.
! SYSTEM ALERT !
[You have completed the Hidden Quest: "Defiance of the Powerless"]
[You qualify to become a Player. Accept this offer? Y/N]
I blinked. My heart was hammering. "What the hell is this? Some kind of... delusion?"
The message flickered as if getting impatient.
[Time remaining to accept: 00:00:10…]
I didn't know what it meant. I didn't know if this was some Quirk screwing with me, or if I'd finally lost it.
But I wasn't stupid.
"Fine! I accept!" I shouted.
Big mistake.
Or maybe the smartest thing I've ever done.
The world exploded in white light.
I woke up three days later in a hospital.
No pain. No burns. No tubes down my throat. Just… weirdly fine.
Physically, anyway.
My head? Yeah, not so much.
The nurse looked surprised when I sat up and started questioning everything.
She said a Pro Hero showed up and handled the villain after I was knocked out. That I was the only one hospitalized. That my vitals had been stable the whole time, and they had no idea why I wouldn't wake up.
They didn't see the system message. No one did.
Not even the part where I apparently died for a few seconds.
Oh yeah, I left that part out.
Call me paranoid, but you don't just wake up with perfect skin and no injuries after being eaten by a walking sewage pile.
Unless something's changed.
And it had.
The second they left the room, another screen popped up.
[Welcome, Player]
[You have 1 unread message]
[Daily Quest: "Prepare to Become Strong" has arrived]
I stared at the glowing text hovering above my bed like some kind of augmented reality game.
"Open quest," I whispered.
Daily Quest: Prepare to Become Strong
– Push-ups: [0/100]
– Sit-ups: [0/100]
– Squats: [0/100]
– Running: [0/10km]
Time remaining: 00h 00m 10s
[Failure to complete this quest will result in penalty.]
Penalty?
Okay, cool. So now I'm in a video game with punishment mechanics. Great.
Time remaining: 00h 00m 03s
I was still trying to figure out whether this was a dream, a side effect of trauma, or divine trolling when the timer hit zero.
Time remaining: 00h 00m 00s
[¡Activating Penalty!]
And the ground vanished beneath me.
Sand.
So much sand.
I was dropped—no yeeted—into a blazing-hot desert. Sun beating down, mouth dry, feet burning.
And then came the centipedes.
Big ones. Like... building-sized, nightmare-fuel, "screw this planet" kind of big.
Penalty Quest: SURVIVE
Time remaining: 4h 00m 00s
Spoiler alert: I barely did.
I ran, screamed, dodged, cried a little (don't judge me), and ran some more. My stamina burned out halfway through hour two. But the moment that timer hit zero—
BOOM.
I was back in the hospital.
Face down on the cold-ass tile floor. Covered in sand. The nurse nearly had a heart attack.
That was the moment I realized… this wasn't a Quirk.
This was something else.
A system.
A game interface only I could see. A second chance handed to me by… I don't know. God? Fate? An angry dev from another dimension?
Doesn't matter.
Because now, I can level up. Gain skills. Boost stats. Clear dungeons.
And most importantly?
I can finally fight back.
Over the next few days, I started grinding like a maniac.
Running laps around the hospital courtyard. Doing push-ups till my arms gave out. Eating protein bars like a starving raccoon.
The quests gave me rewards—stat boosts, healing, sometimes even items. My body grew faster, tougher. My reflexes sharper. I even got a [Dungeon Key] from a random loot box.
I kept it secret.
No one knew.
Not my mom. Not the doctors. Not the students who still ignored me at school.
But that was fine.
Because they'd all see soon enough.
"Yo, Kaito! You spacing out again?" a voice cut through my thoughts.
I blinked, snapped out of my inner monologue. We were back in school. Somehow, life had gone on like nothing ever happened.
"Oh. Yeah. Sorry," I muttered.
The voice belonged to Mina Ashido, one of the few girls who ever talked to me. Pink hair, bubbly personality, borderline chaos gremlin. She grinned at me with sharp teeth and leaned closer.
"You okay? You look like you've been through a war or something."
Heh.
If only you knew, Mina.
"I'm good. Just tired," I lied smoothly.
"Hmm…" She narrowed her eyes. "You've been kinda... different lately."
"Different how?"
She leaned in even closer, lips just inches from my ear.
"Hotter."
I blinked. "W-What?"
"Nothing~!" she sang, skipping off to her seat with a wink.
What the hell was that about?
Later that day, I made my way to Endeavor Station, standing in front of the third subway entrance.
I took out the Dungeon Key from my inventory.
It shimmered gold, pulsing with power.
[Dungeon Key: Use to open an instant dungeon. Location: Endeavor Station, Entrance 3.]
This was it.
My first real test.
I wasn't the weak, pathetic background character anymore.
Not a victim. Not a side character.
Not a hero, either.
No…
I was something different now.
A Player.
And it was time to start playing.
---
NT: It's Written By An Artificial Intelligence If You Ask