Jin stared at the floating window in front of him.
The reply had come earlier than expected. He blinked once, then clicked "Accept."
The interface faded quietly, replaced by the familiar translucent status screen.
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Status
Template: Tae-sik Cha – 100%
Template: Red Riot – 10%
======
A small note appeared beneath the data.
Note from A: Once a template reaches 100%, it fuses into your core. You no longer switch to it — its skills become a permanent part of you.
Jin exhaled slowly, reading it twice.
"So Tae-sik's strength... is now mine."
. well that's a milestone passed.
A smile tugged at the corner of his lips, faint but real. He isn't borrowing strength anymore. He has strength now.
He closed the screen with a whisper:
"Alright... time to go to school."
He grabbed his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and stepped out of the house.
The walk was uneventful, but for the first time in a long while, Jin felt… still.
Not happy. Not peaceful. Just… not feeling like he had to run toward something.
He walked past the same route, the same vending machines, the same old rusted fences on his usual route — but something was different.
"Why do I feel calm today?" he asked himself quietly.
"After everything… this feels wrong."
His thoughts drifted back — the past months had been a blur of constant motion. Training. Pain. Silence. The need to control his fate before it was yanked from his hands again.
And yet today… a part of him had stopped running.
"I killed someone," he thought. "I should be haunted. I should be seeing his face. But there's no nightmare, no collapse."
Jin's jaw clenched. The memory was still sharp — the crack of bone, the warm spray of blood, the moment life left a man's eyes.
It didn't make him proud. But it didn't break him either.
"I'm disturbed," he admitted internally, "but not crushed. I didn't run away. I made the call It left a foul taste . And i don't want others make choices for me again."
That truth twisted something deep inside him. Not guilt — not yet — but a quiet grief. A grief for the kind of boy who would've hesitated. The kind of boy he no longer was.
"My head's a mess," he muttered. "What am I becoming?"
But even as the question rose, the usual wave of anxiety didn't follow. The white noise that had buzzed in the back of his skull for weeks was... gone.
It was unnerving.
"It's like I'm changing, and I don't know where this ends."
He paused in front of the school gate, still lost in thought, as the bell chimed in the distance.
Inside the school, Jin moved like a shadow — quietly slipping into his routine.
No greetings. No smiles. No glances.
He didn't offer any. Nobody gave him any.
That's how it had been for weeks. He had played the part of the old Jin — the loner, the silent ghost in the back row. Even when someone had tried to reach out, he had closed the door gently but firmly.
But now…
Now that door felt suffocating.
"I've kept my distance too long."
"I've survived worse. I can talk to people again. I'm tired of being a ghost."
He entered his homeroom, heading straight for his usual seat by the window — second from the back. The sunlight slanted across the desk, warm and indifferent.
He sat down slowly, mind still ticking.
"Alright… who should I talk to first?"
Before he could pick someone, movement caught his eye.
The class president is approaching.
She stopped at his desk, eyes narrowing slightly.
"Good morning, Jin-kun."
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Okay guys just a small chapter has been thinking how to progress story forward . Drop some positive review .