The needle slid into my arm like a promise.
"Relax, Mr. Chen," the Awakening Center nurse said, her smile practiced and empty. "Most people don't feel anything during the injection. The System integration is entirely painless."
I wanted to believe her. God, I wanted to believe her.
Around me, two dozen other eighteen-year-olds sat in identical chairs, arms extended, faces bright with anticipation. This was supposed to be the best day of our lives. Awakening Day. The day we'd receive our Classes, our stats, our chance to become something more than ordinary.
My best friend Jake sat three chairs down, practically vibrating with excitement. He'd been talking about this moment since we were kids. His older brother had awakened as a Spellblade last year and was already making decent money clearing dungeons on weekends.
"I'm hoping for anything combat-oriented," Jake had told me on the bus ride here. "Even something basic like Warrior would be fine. Just... not a crafting class. Can you imagine? Awakening as a Baker or something?"
We'd laughed. Back when I still thought the worst thing that could happen was getting a boring class.
The nurse removed the needle and pressed a cotton ball against the injection site. "There we go. The System should initialize within sixty seconds. You'll see your status window appear automatically. Take your time reading through everything—there's no rush."
She moved on to the next person. I sat there, arm tingling, and waited for my life to change.
The first sign something was wrong came at the forty-second mark.
My vision blurred. Not the gentle shimmer that the orientation videos had shown, but a violent distortion that made my stomach lurch. The fluorescent lights overhead seemed to pulse in rhythm with my heartbeat, and I could suddenly smell everything—the nurse's lavender perfume, Jake's nervous sweat, the chemical tang of the injection, even the faint scent of someone's breakfast three rows back.
"Fuck," I muttered, gripping the armrests.
Then the window appeared.
[SYSTEM INTEGRATION COMPLETE]
[Welcome, Marcus Chen]
[Analyzing potential... ]
[Analyzing affinity... ]
[Analyzing soul composition... ]
The messages scrolled past faster than I could read them. Standard stuff, according to the videos. Everyone got slightly different variations, but it was all just the System's way of determining which Class suited you best. Some people got Mage. Some got Merchant. Some got Knight. The System supposedly knew you better than you knew yourself.
[Analysis complete.]
[WARNING: Forbidden Class detected]
[WARNING: This Class has a 99.7% fatality rate]
[WARNING: Psychological corruption likely]
[Do you accept your Class? Y/N]
I stared at the words, my mouth dry. Forbidden Class? I'd never heard of that. And what the hell kind of Class had a fatality rate?
Before I could even think about selecting "N," the window flickered.
[Choice overridden.]
[Class assignment is mandatory.]
[Congratulations! You have awakened as: SERIAL KILLER]
The words hung in front of my eyes like an accusation.
No.
No, that couldn't be right. There had to be a mistake. Serial Killer wasn't a class. It was a—it was a crime. It was a sickness. It was what my mom and I watched true crime documentaries about while eating takeout on Friday nights, horrified and fascinated by the broken people on screen.
New windows cascaded open, each one worse than the last.
[SERIAL KILLER - Level 1]
[A hunter of humans, you gain power through the act of murder. The more creative, premeditated, and personal the kill, the greater the rewards. Your strength grows with your body count.]
[Primary Stats:]
Strength: 8
Agility: 12
Endurance: 9
Intelligence: 14
Charisma: 11
Killing Intent: 1
[Class Skills Unlocked:]
[Predator's Eye (Passive) - Level 1]: Automatically assess potential victims' threat levels, weaknesses, and emotional states.
[Clean Kill (Active) - Level 1]: Your first strike against an unaware target deals 50% additional damage and reduces blood spatter by 30%.
[Hunter's Patience (Passive) - Level 1]: Gain stacking bonuses to perception and planning while observing a target. Maximum 10 stacks.
[Current Kill Count: 0]
[Warning: This Class requires regular kills to prevent stat degradation. Time until first mandatory kill: 29 days, 23 hours, 47 minutes]
I couldn't breathe.
The room spun around me, voices blending into meaningless noise. Someone nearby was laughing—probably just got a good Class. Someone else was crying, but they sounded happy. Normal Awakening Day emotions.
And here I was, staring at a countdown timer that apparently tracked how long until I had to murder someone.
"Holy shit, I got Flame Mage!" Jake's voice cut through my spiral. "Marcus, what'd you get?"
I blinked rapidly, trying to dismiss the windows. They vanished—thank God—leaving just my normal vision. I turned to see Jake grinning at me, his eyes still glowing faintly with residual System energy. In the air around him, I could see it now. Little floating indicators that my new Predator's Eye was automatically generating.
[Jacob Morrison]
[Level 1 Flame Mage]
[Threat Assessment: Minimal]
[Emotional State: Elated]
[Weakness: Exposed throat, minimal combat training, trusting nature]
[Optimal Kill Method: Approach from behind, quick strangulation, body disposal in—]
"Stop!" I gasped, and the analysis window vanished.
Jake's smile faltered. "You okay, man? You look like you're gonna puke."
"I'm fine," I lied. "Just... dizzy from the injection."
"So what'd you get?"
The question every newly Awakened person asked. The question that would define how people saw you for the rest of your life. Flame Mages got respect. Warriors got nods of approval. Even Bakers got friendly teasing.
What did Serial Killers get?
"Rogue," I heard myself say. The lie came easily—too easily. "Just... basic Rogue."
"That's still pretty good! Rogues can make bank doing retrieval missions." Jake clapped me on the shoulder, and I had to fight not to flinch as Predator's Eye immediately calculated seventeen different ways to turn that friendly gesture into a lethal strike. "Better than my cousin. He got Accountant."
We both laughed, but mine sounded hollow even to my own ears.
The nurse returned, checking her tablet. "Mr. Chen, I'll need you to head to Room 7 for your Class orientation. There should be a packet waiting—" She paused, frowning at her screen. Then her face went carefully blank. "Actually, you'll be meeting with Director Han. Second floor, office 203. Go now, please."
Her voice had changed. Professional. Distant. Like she was already treating me differently.
She knew.
The System had told her what I was.
I stood on shaky legs, my chair scraping against the linoleum. Other newly Awakened kids chatted excitedly around me, comparing Classes and stats. A girl near the window was crying because she'd gotten Healer—apparently she'd wanted something more combat-oriented.
I would have killed for Healer.
The thought made me freeze mid-step. Poor choice of words, Marcus.
"Want me to wait for you?" Jake asked.
"Nah, you go ahead. I'll catch up."
I walked through the Awakening Center on autopilot, my new Class skills painting the world in predatory calculations. Every person I passed got an instant threat assessment. Every room got automatically evaluated for ambush potential. Even the security guard by the stairs triggered an analysis of his weapon, his stance, his blind spots.
This was going to drive me insane.
Director Han's office was at the end of a quiet hallway. I raised my hand to knock, but the door opened before I could.
The man who stood there was thin, middle-aged, with graying hair and eyes that had seen too much. He wore a suit that looked expensive but rumpled, like he'd been wearing it for days.
When he looked at me, I saw the same careful blankness the nurse had shown.
"Marcus Chen," he said. It wasn't a question. "Come in. We have a lot to discuss."
I stepped into the office, and he closed the door behind me with a quiet click that sounded far too much like a cell door locking.
"Sit."
I sat.
Director Han moved behind his desk but didn't sit down. Instead, he pulled out a folder—an actual physical folder, not a System interface—and dropped it in front of me.
"Open it."
My hands trembled as I opened the folder. Inside were photographs. Crime scenes. Bodies arranged in grotesque positions. Evidence markers scattered around scenes of violence that made my stomach turn.
"Those," Director Han said quietly, "are from the last person in this country who Awakened as a Serial Killer. His name was David Park. He killed forty-three people before we put him down. He lasted eight months."
I looked up at him, and for the first time since my Awakening, I felt something other than horror.
I felt hope.
"There are others? This has happened before?"
"Forbidden Classes are rare, but not unheard of. Serial Killer, Torturer, Tyrant, Cult Leader..." He counted them off on his fingers. "The System occasionally generates Classes that are fundamentally incompatible with civilized society. We don't know why."
"What happened to them?"
"Most died within the first year. Either they embraced the Class and were hunted down, or they tried to resist and..." He paused. "The System doesn't like being starved, Marcus. It finds ways to make you comply."
The countdown timer in the corner of my vision seemed to tick louder.
28 days, 23 hours, 12 minutes.
"What if I just... don't kill anyone?"
Director Han's expression softened with something that might have been pity. "David Park tried that. Lasted three weeks before the System started inflicting penalty debuffs. Weakness, pain, deteriorating health. By the end of week four, he was bedridden. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with him—it was purely the System punishing him for not feeding the Class."
"And then?"
"Then he killed a nurse. Felt better immediately. Tried to resist again. Lasted two weeks that time before he killed a janitor. Each time, the intervals got shorter. The compulsions got stronger." Director Han finally sat down, suddenly looking very tired. "The last entry in his journal said that killing felt like breathing. That not killing felt like suffocating."
I swallowed hard. "So what are you saying? That I'm going to become a monster no matter what?"
"I'm saying that you have a choice, Marcus, but it's not the choice you want." He leaned forward. "You can try to resist, go mad, and eventually kill indiscriminately. Or..."
"Or?"
"Or you can try to direct it. Criminals. Dungeon monsters. People who deserve it." He met my eyes. "I'm not going to pretend there's a good option here. But there might be a less terrible one."
A soft chime echoed in my head.
[New Quest Available: First Blood]
[Objective: Claim your first kill within 30 days]
[Reward: Skill Evolution, +5 to all stats, Class advancement progress]
[Failure: Severe stat penalties, health deterioration, psychological degradation]
I stared at the quest notification, then at Director Han, then at the crime scene photos spread across his desk.
Somewhere in the building below, Jake was probably celebrating with the other new Awakened, talking about their bright futures.
And I was here, in a locked office, being told I had thirty days to become a murderer.
"What do I do?" I whispered.
Director Han closed the folder, hiding the photographs. "For now? You go home. You act normal. You don't tell anyone about your real Class—not your friends, not your family. Rogues have some skill overlap with Serial Killers, so that lie will hold."
"And then?"
"Then we see if you're strong enough to stay human while doing inhuman things." He pulled out a business card and slid it across the desk. "My number. Call me when you're ready to talk about targeting options."
Targeting options.
He said it so casually, like we were discussing job interviews instead of murder.
I took the card with numb fingers and stood to leave.
"Marcus," Director Han called as I reached the door. I turned back. His expression was grave. "David Park's last victim was his own sister. The System had degraded his mind so much that he couldn't distinguish between deserving targets and innocent people anymore. Don't let it get that far."
I nodded, not trusting my voice, and left.
The walk back through the Awakening Center felt like moving through a dream. Everything looked the same as an hour ago, but the world had fundamentally changed. I had fundamentally changed.
Jake found me in the lobby, still grinning. "There you are! Some of us are going to grab food to celebrate. You in?"
I looked at my best friend, and Predator's Eye automatically highlighted the pulse point in his neck.
"Yeah," I said, forcing a smile. "I'm in."
[Quest Timer: 29 days, 22 hours, 33 minutes remaining]
To be continued...