It would be difficult for him to kill his boss if the latter decided to attack him. He knew that right now, his boss was considerably more powerful than him. Even so, it was better to be cautious and prepared for anything that might come up.

  When he opened the door, his boss greeted him.

  "Elliot. I came to see how you were and to give you a pay bonus. You've worked hard these last few days, I think you deserve a bonus and a rest too."

  His boss didn't care if Elliot let him in; he did so directly and nodded in acknowledgment.

  "You still manage to keep everything in order, despite living in the most disorderly place in the city. Not bad, kid." He smiled.

  But Elliot ignored him.

  "Boss, I was about to go to sleep. The bonus is fine, but I don't think I need a break."

  Elliot had nothing to offer him, so he walked cautiously behind him and stopped a few steps away, stepping on the syringe he had injected himself with earlier so that he wouldn't notice it.

  Although the boss noticed something strange, he didn't say anything. He was used to his subordinates injecting themselves with strange liquids, but it was regrettable to see that one so young was already doing it.

  'Sigh, the world is complicated,' he thought.

  Although he said nothing about it.

  "Haha, I understand you don't want to take a break, but believe me, it's necessary. If you don't, you will certainly die." He said with a stern look. He was entirely sure of his last words, so he spoke again.

  "I'll give you a good pay rise and 6 months' holiday, then you can go to another city to enjoy yourself or something like that. Try to live your life for a few months, then you can come back to work."

  Elliot found this strange and was prepared to reject his proposal, but he insisted, "I'm doing it for your own good."

  That silenced Elliot momentarily. The pressure emanating from his boss's eyes gave him a clue about what was happening.

  'It's them...'

  The hatred that had been dormant in his heart came to the surface.

  Before, he could accept his boss's words, but now he had awakened. His new power gave him hope, and his desire for revenge increased severalfold.

  "Okay, boss. I understand what you mean." He shook his head in reply. 'But I can't leave. Not now."

  His boss was momentarily stunned by his response and then sighed. 'He's stubborn. Too bad...'

  He took an envelope of money from his pocket and held it out to him.

  "Take the money. You can think about the rest after you have it."

  Although Elliot didn't want to accept it, in the end, he got it. He would need some money now that he was awake.

  Just as Elliot grabbed it, he felt something move between the envelope paper and his fingers. He immediately withdrew his hand, and a small snake fell to the floor.

  'Yellow poison snake.' He quickly jumped back, recognizing the type of animal it was.

  If that thing bit him, he'd be dead in a minute.

  "Oh, you managed to avoid it. You really are tough." His boss sneered and got out of bed. "You won't be so lucky twice. How will you avoid a little yellow snake bathed in your blood?"

  Elliot looked at him fiercely, but he was too busy trying to escape from that little thing that was disappearing from his view every so often.

  "You bastard, you work for the damned Clarks!" he roared.

  His boss started to laugh out loud. "Hahaha, for killing a little idiot like you I already got 50 thousand dollars, who wouldn't work for such good people?"

  He took a knife out of his clothes and then pointed it at Elliot. 'Come and die, you ungrateful little brat.' Then he moved to try to ram him and lock him up with the snake.

  Elliot noticed, but while he was so busy dodging the little snake and trying to get out of the room, the bastard managed to jump up and get behind him; he was much more agile than him.

  "Elliot Clark, your biggest mistake was being born." He said coldly and then stabbed him.

  Elliot noticed that he could clearly see his boss's movement at that moment. He didn't think his statistics had increased, but somehow, he could see an energy moving with the wind, and it was thanks to that that he was able to dodge his boss's attack, moving smoothly to the side.

  Then he noticed that the little snake had jumped straight to his leg, seeking to bite him when he was defenseless, and moving that leg seemed impossible.

  But he hadn't reckoned on Elliot having a plan.

  Although he dodged his boss's stab, he didn't quite manage to avoid it completely. It still managed to hit him a little on the side. Pain overwhelmed him, but he gritted his teeth to resist it and took advantage of the slight movement caused by the blow to bend his body completely, forcing his leg to move, and for a few millimeters, he managed to dodge the teeth of the little snake.

  And this one couldn't stop in mid-air. This kind of snake is agile at jumping forward, but when it does, it can't go back. It had to bite what it found, which was the boss's leg.

  The boss took several steps back when he noticed and shook the snake off his leg. They hit the nearby wall, and he died instantly, something he wasn't worried about.

  "You bastard!" He roared at Elliot and tried to jump at him to kill him, but his leg began to lose mobility almost instantly, so he fell to the ground, rolling in despair.

  It was the poison from the yellow little snake; something that can kill you in a minute is not a simple poison. It takes away your mobility with astonishing speed.

  Seeing this, Elliot plucked up his courage: 'I can do it'.

  After falling to the ground, rolling in the sudden movement, he quickly took out his knife and lunged at his boss.

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  He had never killed before, so he hesitated for a second; even so, his mind was filled with one thought: 'If I don't kill him, he'll kill me. I must kill him so I don't die. I can do it!'

  As he was nervous, he couldn't control his body and fell forward. Fortunately, he was holding his knife in his hand, so it stuck firmly in his boss's neck and went right through him, drowning his screams and killing him instantly.

  "..."

  Silence reigned in the room again, but this time, it shook Elliot when he realized what he had done.

  He was just an 18-year-old who had suffered hardship, but he had never killed before. He was striving for a dream, a longing in his heart, and although he was thirsty for revenge and had prepared himself mentally to do so, he was still affected.

  But his mind kept repeating: 'If I don't kill him, he'll kill me'.

  With that, he gained some strength until a message from the system woke him from his stupor.

  [You have killed a System Rejected. You have received 1 stat point for the Strength Attribute]

  Statistics:

  | Strength: 4. [+1]

  | Resistance: 3.

  | Agility: 3.

  | Sense: 5 (Maximum achieved by the ordinary human).

  Remaining: 1 Stat Point.

  Pt.2

  Looking at his stats brought him back to reality.

  'Right, I've awakened...'

  In his mind, an awakening could not be so weak, so he didn't hesitate to press the button to add a point to his strength as if he wanted to get some strength to hold on to and get up.

  Honestly, he wasn't weakened; it was his mind that didn't want to get up for fear of looking at the corpse beneath him.

  By adding that point of strength, his mind was not naturally affected, but the change he felt in his body made him open his eyes with clarity.

  'That's right, I've awakened...' he repeated to himself.

  His mind cleared, and a situation that he had thought was terrifying suddenly became a little more understandable. It was as if his body's strengthened muscles had told him it was the natural life cycle.

  And with that thought, he stood up. Some of his clothes had been stained with the blood that came out of his boss's neck, but he didn't bother.

  He bent down and tried to grab the body to put it in a bag or do something with it, but as he did so, a system announcement appeared between him and the body.

  [Do you want to put it in the inventory?]

  For a moment, he didn't know how to react.

  'Right, there's an inventory in the system of the awakened...'

  That was convenient, although terrifying in a way. Even so, he wasn't in a position to think about whether something was terrifying or went against morality; he was in a position to preserve his life, and if someone - the Clark family - found out that his boss failed the mission because he killed him, then he would be finished.

  He knows very well what bastards the Clarks are because he is related to them. They are bastards capable of killing their own relatives just for a few dollars.

  For that reason, although he hesitated briefly, he eventually added the body of his boss, now ex-boss, to his inventory after removing all his belongings.

  Among those belongings, he found almost nothing of value, but something caught his attention, and he held it in his hand.

  It was a broken mirror; it didn't seem to have anything special, but he was drawn to it without wanting to.

  'Is it an item? Why doesn't the System register it?'

  Although it looked like an item, if the system didn't register it, it meant something strange was wrong with it.

  Technically, the system of any awakened being can register everything in this world, including powerful items, and it doesn't matter whether the awakened being is weak or strong.

  However, the system was not registering this one, which made him curious. He looked at it for a while to see if it had anything different, like a button to activate something, but there was nothing. It was a simple broken mirror that the system could not register.

  'It's so damaged that it doesn't register it, surely.'

  He went to throw it away without thinking about it, but before the mirror left his hand, the system suddenly registered it.

  'Oh? Did it take that long?'

  When he went to read what it said, curiously, the item was activated, and different messages, not concerning the system, appeared in front of his eyes.

  [Fortune telling activated]

  [When you see the Energy Thread connecting to the body you just killed, you will know who is to blame for your misfortunes.

  Clue: Dungeon of Rank E Goblins, Final Boss.

  Stay strong, destiny seeker.]

  With that message, the mirror returned to inactivity, leaving Elliot stunned.

  "Fortune telling? The culprit of my misfortunes?"

  He couldn't help but think of the Clark Family. If there was a culprit for all his misfortunes, it was that family. They murdered his mother and his sister and made him live in misery, where escaping the city was complex because he was under surveillance.

  Suddenly, his mind seemed to connect with the item, which was unconsciously stored in the inventory. At the same time, he felt that he saw a strange vision. For a moment, he felt dizzy and thought he was going to fall, but the vision ended as soon as it began, showing only a place in the city.

  "The E-Rank Dungeon of the association? I see, that's the Goblins' dungeon it mentioned."

  Although he didn't know what secrets one of the city's weakest dungeons could hold, he knew that if he wanted to get stronger, he would have to go there sooner or later. So he nodded, determined to investigate.

  But not right now.

  Right now, he's not qualified to go to that little dungeon; he's too weak even for an E-Rank Dungeon.

  At the moment, he was barely an Awakened Beginner or, as the system calls it, a Newbie Player. And he was among the lowest rungs of all.

  For this reason, he needed to strengthen himself, and his talent was the best way to do so.

  'Generally, new Awakened Ones must undergo intensive training lasting several months before they can go to these Rank E dungeons. But, if what my talent says is correct, it could save me a lot of time.'

  Elliot didn't want to waste more time thinking about nonsense. He put all his belongings in the inventory and bandaged the wound on his side. It would take a while to heal, but it wasn't too dangerous, so he didn't worry too much.

  He soon set off for the nearest gym.

  Despite the hour, gyms are usually very busy. Many are looking for strength before they awaken; others have already awakened but are too weak to go to the dungeons, so they train in these places.

  When Elliot arrived, he was stunned.

  There is a reason why his talent told him to stay close to the places where the energy was created.

  Attribute Energy doesn't come from the rocks; there isn't a centralized source because it is created in people's bodies.

  If you exercise to increase your strength, you will create Physical Attribute Energy. The same happens if you try to increase your resistance or agility. Therefore, this is created with practically any type of effort that a living being makes.

  On the other hand, sense is created by mental exercises, such as studying, reading, or, in general, doing something that increases the mind's resistance, agility, or 'power' since Sense is the attribute that encompasses the mind.

  That being the case, most people use gyms and training centers to strengthen themselves safely.

  That's why Elliot was shocked when he entered.

  His eyes scanned the place, and he could see an enormous amount of Attribute Energy scattered everywhere.

  He never thought that when someone trained, they left energy scattered everywhere. Besides, he could see a strange color among the energies.

  The predominant colors here were red, yellow, and green.

  The first was above all.

  'So, the energy of attributes has color, huh.'

  Looking more closely, he realized that red energy was created when people exercised to increase strength. Yellow was for resistance, and green was for agility.

  A very subtle and almost imperceptible blue color blended in with the other colors, possibly the attribute of Sense. Being in a gym, they don't tend to work the mind much, so less is created.

  Knowing all this, Elliot couldn't help but step forward.

  'This should be what I have to collect,' he thought, his heart tightening a little as he didn't know if that was how his talent worked, but knocking on the door is not the same as entering.

  So, he started walking.

  It didn't take him long to realize that he was right.

  All the surrounding energy of attributes began to cling to his body and enter it with determination.

  Although it was barely perceptible, he could feel his body passively strengthening.

  'Although it hasn't created any statistical points for me, it still works incredibly well.'

  He walked around the gym collecting all that attribute energy, not wanting to miss anything. Although people gave him strange looks, he didn't care.

  After doing this for several minutes, he was forced to sigh.

  He hadn't scored a single point, even after collecting so much energy.

  Even so, he wasn't discouraged.

  Although he didn't have a meter to measure his energy deficit, he felt that his body was filling up with that mystical energy he had heard about, and that was enough.

  So, he paid the monthly fee for the gym and started training.

  He didn't know much about it, but the gym was quite good and had training routines for different people, depending on how long they had been doing it, their strength, and so on. These routines were divided between 'Normal People' and 'Awakened', simultaneously dividing them into the awakened ranks.

  Well, there were only two ranks: Awakened Beginner (Newbie Player) and Awakened (Player).

  Elliot naturally chose Awakened Beginner and then began his training.