Chapter 1: The World's Most Useless Transmigrator
The morning sun baked the green grass of Aetheria High School's massive stadium. The heat was already bad, but the noise was worse. Tens of thousands of people were packed into the giant circular stands. Vendors were shouting about hot dogs and cold drinks, parents were nervously chatting, and banners snapped wildly in the morning wind.
Down on the field, hundreds of fourteen-year-old students stood in neat rows, all wearing matching white uniforms. Most of them looked like they were marching to their own funerals.
"Hey, Ran," a voice whispered from behind. "Stop shaking. You're going to sweat right through your uniform, and it's gross."
Ran Aldric turned his head and glared at his best friend, Ken. Ken was short, wore glasses, and always looked like he was doing complicated math in his head.
"I'm not shaking because I'm scared," Ran lied, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead. "I'm shaking because I'm ready. I'm practically vibrating with power."
"Right. Sure you are," laughed Leo, standing on Ran's other side. Leo was tall, messy-haired, and possessed way too much energy for eight o'clock in the morning. "Look on the bright side, Ran. At least you didn't get a kitchen utensil for a soul. Did you see poor Timmy from Class 3? He awakened a soup spoon. A literal spoon! What is he going to do, aggressively feed the monsters?"
Ken pushed his glasses up his nose. "Actually, a support-type utensil soul can get him a job in a high-end restaurant. It's a stable career."
"Boring!" Leo groaned. He held out his right hand. With a small flash of red light, a tiny lizard made of pure fire appeared on his palm. The lizard looked around, let out a tiny, squeaky sneeze, and shot a spark that almost caught Ken's uniform on fire.
"Hey! Watch it!" Ken yelped, jumping back.
"Sorry, sorry!" Leo laughed, canceling the soul. "But seriously, a Fire Lizard is awesome. Normal-tier, but an attack type. I can join the City Guard for sure. Ken got a Phantom Cat, which is great for scouting. We are set. Now we just need you to awaken something cool so the three of us can form a team."
Ran smiled weakly at his friends. "Yeah. Something cool. Let's hope."
He turned back to face the giant stone platform at the end of the field. His stomach did a nervous backflip. Today was the Awakening Ceremony, the single most important day in this world.
To understand why Ran was so nervous, you had to understand how unfair this world really was.
In this society, everyone is born with a Martial Innate Soul sleeping inside their body. It could be a beast, a weapon, an element, or even a tool. You don't get to choose it. You just get what you get. Fusing with your soul gives you special abilities, and by hunting monsters or training, you can level it up. At Level 1, you might be able to light a campfire. By Level 300, you could punch a hole through a mountain.
Your soul and your level completely decided your life. If you had a strong soul, you became rich and respected. If you had a weak soul, you spent your life cleaning up after the strong.
Of course, rich families had a cheat code. They could pay millions of credits to buy extra souls and fuse them into their kids' bodies. It was a classic "pay-to-win" system, and Ran hated it.
I shouldn't even be dealing with this, Ran thought bitterly, staring at the sky.
Ran was a transmigrator. Fourteen years ago, he died on Earth and woke up in this magical world as a baby. He still remembered everything about Earth—video games, cell phones, pizza, and action movies.
In every novel he had read back on Earth, the transmigrator always got a magical "System" or a crazy cheat code that made them overpowered on day one.
Ran had spent his entire childhood waiting for his cheat.
When he was five, he spent hours screaming, "System! Status Window!" at pigeons in the park. Nothing happened, except his mother had to apologize to the neighbors for her weird son.
When he was eight, he read that near-death experiences could trigger a hidden power. So, he ran head-first into a large oak tree. All he got was a massive bump on his forehead, a mild concussion, and a very long lecture from his crying mother.
After fourteen years of trying, Ran finally accepted the truth: He had no cheat. He was officially the most useless transmigrator in history.
Ran sighed and looked up at the crowded stands, searching for his family. It didn't take long to find them.
His father, Randolf, was a huge, muscular man with tanned skin. He was a carpenter, and his soul was a 'Spring Rabbit'. It let him jump really high, which was great for reaching the roof of a house, but completely useless in a fight. Next to him was Aurora, Ran's mother. She was small, with beautiful white hair. She used to work as a healer at the hospital, but she was fired a few months ago when the hospital bought automated healing machines.
Sitting right between them was Mia, Ran's thirteen-year-old sister. She was jumping up and down in her seat, holding a massive, sparkly banner.
Ran squinted to read it. The banner said: GO RAN! KICK THERE BUTS!
Ran couldn't help but chuckle. She spelled 'their' and 'butts' wrong, but the sheer amount of glitter she used proved how much she cared.
But looking at his family also made Ran's chest hurt. They were incredibly poor. They had skipped meals, worn clothes until they fell apart, and emptied their tiny bank account to pay for Ran's awakening registration fee and tutoring classes. They had bet their entire future on him.
"Next student: Ran Aldric!"
The booming voice of the Academy Elder echoed through the stadium speakers.
Ran's heart stopped. This was it.
"Go get 'em, tiger," Ken said, giving him a supportive push.
"Don't trip on the stairs!" Leo warned with a grin.
Ran stepped out of the line and began the long walk toward the dark stone platform. Every step felt like his boots were made of lead. He could feel tens of thousands of eyes staring right at him. In the VIP section, military scouts and university recruiters watched with bored expressions, waiting to see if he was worth their time.
He climbed the stone stairs and reached the top. In the center of the platform sat the Crystal Orb. It was a massive, perfectly clear glass sphere resting on a stone pedestal. It glowed with a faint blue light.
The Elder, an old man with a long grey beard, didn't even look at Ran. He just tapped his digital tablet. "Ran Aldric. Place your hand on the orb. Clear your mind. Let the crystal read your soul."
Ran nodded. His throat was completely dry. Please, he prayed to whatever gods were listening. I don't need a dragon. Just give me something useful. Let me help my family.
He reached out and pressed his bare palm against the smooth, freezing cold surface of the Crystal Orb.
For a long, agonizing second, nothing happened. The stadium went quiet.
Then, the orb began to vibrate. A light sparked deep inside the center of the crystal. It swirled like smoke trapped in a bottle. Slowly, the light expanded until it filled the entire sphere.
The light was grey. A dull, boring, flat grey.
Above the stage, the giant holographic projectors buzzed to life. Huge letters flashed across the sky for the entire city to see.
[Name: Ran Aldric]
[Martial Innate Soul: Basic Orb]
[Tier: Normal]
[Elemental Affinity: Zero]
The stadium was dead silent for a moment. Everyone knew what the color grey meant.
Then, a sharp, cruel laugh rang out from the front row. It was Victor Alfonso, the richest kid in their class.
"A Basic Orb?!" Victor laughed, pointing up at the screen. "What the heck is that?! It's literally just a grey ball! It doesn't even have an element!"
"He's got a rock for a soul!" another rich kid shouted, holding his stomach as he laughed. "That is worse than the soup spoon!"
"Zero affinity? That means he can't even learn basic magic. He's a complete blank!"
The laughter spread through the stands like a nasty disease. The rich kids were laughing the hardest, pointing and making jokes.
Ran stood frozen on the stage. The cold from the crystal seemed to spread all the way up his arm and straight into his chest. A grey ball. Zero affinity. It was the absolute lowest result a person could possibly get.
He slowly turned his head to look at the stands where his family was sitting.
His father, Randolf, looked like the life had been drained out of him. His broad shoulders slumped forward, and he buried his face in his rough hands.
His mother, Aurora, had turned her face away from the field, her shoulders shaking as she desperately tried to hide her tears from the crowd.
And Mia... Mia was still standing. She was still holding the sparkly banner. But her arms were trembling, and big tears were rolling down her cheeks as she listened to the stadium laugh at her big brother.
Seeing his little sister cry made something snap inside Ran.
He didn't feel sad anymore. He felt a burning, furious anger. All those years of his parents working until their bones ached. All those nights eating watery soup just so he could go to school.
And this was his reward? A useless grey ball?
Ran bit his lip so hard he tasted blood. He refused to cry on this stage. He wouldn't give Victor or these arrogant scouts the satisfaction of seeing him break.
He tightly gripped his fist and pulled his hand away from the Crystal Orb, preparing to walk down the stairs and face his ruined future.
But the exact second his skin lost contact with the glass...
Ding!
A sharp, electronic bell rang loudly inside his brain. It was so clear and sudden that Ran actually flinched, looking around.
But nobody else had heard it. The crowd was still laughing. The Elder was already calling the next name.
Then, right in front of Ran's face, the air shimmered. A glowing, semi-transparent blue screen popped into existence.
[System Initialized.]
[Scanning... Transmigrator Soul detected. Secret condition met.]
[Martial Innate Soul 'Basic Orb' confirmed as a World Key.]
[Link Established to Private Pocket Dimension: SAYFRID.]
Ran stopped breathing. He stood completely still, his eyes wide as he read the glowing blue text floating in the air.
Sayfrid?
He knew that name. On Earth, Sayfrid was a legendary open-world survival game. He had spent thousands of hours gathering resources, building bases, and hunting bosses in that virtual world.
[Welcome, User. Out of zillions of souls in the universe, you are one of the few chosen to be a Lord.]
[Would you like to enter your Private World for the first time? YES / NO]
The cruel laughter of the stadium faded away into complete silence in Ran's ears. A slow, massive grin wanted to spread across his face, but he forced his cheek muscles to stay perfectly flat.
Common sense screamed at him. If he tapped 'YES' right now, he would vanish into thin air right in front of tens of thousands of people, including military scouts and the academy elders. It would cause an absolute panic, and he would become a wanted lab rat before the day was over. He needed to hide this.
He hadn't been abandoned. He hadn't failed. His cheat had just been waiting for fourteen years.
"No. Not yet," Ran whispered softly, mentally closing the screen. "I need to get home first."
Keeping his head down to play the part of a defeated student, Ran walked down the stone stairs.