Revealed True Value

In the winter of my twentieth year, I was filled with unfounded conviction. Or more precisely, it was less conviction and more the desperate prayer of a cornered beast.

The dazzling hunters who dominated TV screens and community front pages every day. A world of superhumans who cleaved through dungeon beasts with a single stroke and pocketed billions in signing bonuses. Sitting in the corner of a creaky wooden chair in the rundown orphanage auditorium, I'd imagined myself a thousand times over: accepting a scout offer from a major guild amid a barrage of camera flashes at a press conference.

In truth, it was nothing more than the delusion of a shut-in nerd projecting himself onto the protagonist of some fantasy novel. With my scrawny build and utterly mediocre grades, I was the very definition of an 'NPC'—the kind no one noticed even if I just breathed in the corner of the classroom. Awakening was my one lifeline, the only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rope to pull me proudly out of this suffocating orphanage.

I knew better than anyone that the meager independence stipend given upon high school graduation wouldn't even cover a moldy single room under Seoul's sky.

If I just awaken and succeed... I can repay Director Nun and buy the kids something delicious.

But on the day of the awakening test, the crisp Awakener ID Card thrust into my hand slapped me across the face without mercy.

"......?"

The chill air from the measurement room's AC stabbed into my lungs. I rubbed my eyes and double-checked the numbers over and over, but the printed ink remained cruelly sharp, refusing to smudge.

Excluding Luck, it was a惨めな report card with no redeeming qualities even if you squinted. Average stats of 3—and dropping to 1.5 without Luck. Considering even regular people post-awakening averaged 5, this was a fresh stamp proving I was F-grade trash.

Still, the 9 in Luck made some sense. Abandoned by my parents and raised in an orphanage, I'd somehow graduated middle school unscathed even as anti-bullying measures strengthened and kept the delinquents at bay. That had to count as 'luck' of a sort.

But in the hunter world, no amount of high Luck mattered with Strength 1 and Vitality 1. It was useless across the board.

Clinging to my last hope in the trait Status Window, I activated my unique trait. But the translucent window that bloomed in my mind plunged me into deeper despair.

"Is this... it?"

It only let me check the info on my Awakener ID Card in real time. Others with unique traits got body enhancements or stat bonuses and all sorts of effects, but mine was just a monitor displaying my pathetic reality live.

The precision examiner asked about my unique trait.

"Mr. Kim Jihoon, what does your unique trait do?"

".... It lets me view my stats in real time."

"Ah.... Is that all?"

She looked at me with pitying eyes, stamped my card for military exemption, and added curtly,

"......Cheer up. There are plenty of paths in life besides being a hunter."

Her consolation stabbed like a dagger. Having given up studying in high school to focus on becoming a hunter, college wasn't even an option for me. Society was brutal to an orphanage grad about to be kicked out upon graduation.

The Status Window's 'Int' measured mana aptitude and computational power, but companies and job markets treated it like actual IQ. With 'Int 1' below the average 5, even a convenience store gig was a stretch.

"Can you even ring up orders right?"

Store owners took one look at my ID and shooed me away with the same pitiful gaze.

In the end, I had only one path left: gate porter.

Not even big guild raid teams would take me with my low Vitality. All I could do was tag along with freelance low-rank hunters in E- or F-rank gates.

Each trip left me bedridden for three days with muscle pain like I'd been beaten all over, but I couldn't quit.

If I level up... maybe, just maybe, even a slim chance of getting a good skill.

That faint hope and my desperate struggle to survive shoved me into the gates.

"Hey, porter! Hurry up and pick that shit up? The slime goo on the mana stones is hardening!"

"Leave him. He's famous, y'know. The average-3 dud awakener. The Association's the problem for assigning trash like him. Sigh."

I swallowed the jeers with dry saliva and silently scraped the sticky goo from the beast corpses. My back felt like it would snap, and my boots squelched with blood and filth.

While classmates enjoyed campus life, guild internships, or bragged about their first paychecks, I crawled the pitch-black dungeon floors.

A year passed like that. After leaving the orphanage and blowing my stipend on a cramped goshiwon room, I scraped together the tiny EXP shares from gate clears based on contribution.

It happened at the end of my 100th gate raid.

My heart pounded like it would burst. A grand bell tolled in my head.

At level 2, all stats would rise a bit, making porter work easier and more frequent. If a good skill dropped by some luck, I might even build a foundation as a real hunter.

But the following message shattered my expectations.

"......Huh?"

My fingertips trembled. Hadn't hunter communities always complained that the system randomly assigned stats on level up, turning you into a dud if luck was bad?

I steadied my ragged breath and murmured softly.

"......Status Window."

"Hiiieek?!"

"What? What's wrong, yelling like that all of a sudden?!"

The nearby hunters glared sharply at my sudden screech. I bowed hastily in apology, but my mind was a fireworks explosion, spinning wildly.

This was insane. A revolution.

Normal hunters were helplessly bound to the system's whims. Dream of tanking but get Agility? Laughter and a dud build. Land a powerful magic skill but Strength rises instead of Int? Swallow tears and swing a club over a staff.

The modern hunter society was utterly ruled by 'system luck.' Great skills were worthless without matching stats; great stats meant nothing without skill synergy. You ended up just another mid hunter.

But me... I could design myself exactly as I wanted. Not the NPC Kim Jihoon cowering in the orphanage corner.

Right now, I held a 'perfect opportunity' no one else in this world possessed.