The seconds ticked by.
He waited for longer... perhaps the orb was just taking longer to respond.
Or was he just too magnificent that the orb was having difficulty registering his power...
After many seconds had passed by, he realized he was just being delusional.
Victor pulled his hand back, staring at the orb in disbelief. It didn't glow, didn't spark, didn't even flicker.
"Well," he said loudly as he turned back to the crowd, "Looks like I'm the chosen one! Chosen to stay a loser, that is."
A few students chuckled, but the ache in Victor's chest didn't ease.
As he returned to his seat, Jake patted his shoulder. "Hey, man—"
"It's fine," Victor forced a grin. "I've still got my good looks, right? And my humor. Can't put those in a system interface."
The Awakening ceremony continued and after everything was over, only around five students awakened out of over a hundred.
It was a higher turn-up than last year's three, but still, the air remained heavy.
The five were called to a separate room where they had a meeting with the government evaluators.
Victor trudged up the steps to his apartment with heavy footsteps as his head hung low. His arms swung loosely at his sides as the empty feeling in his chest grew heavier with every step.
He had joked his way through the failure earlier, laughing it off with his friends, but now that he was alone, the reality of it hit him in full force.
No class. No awakening. Just Victor Revenant, the same kid he had been yesterday, and the day before that. Except now, there was no hope of being anything more.
The familiar creak of the apartment door greeted him as he pushed it open. Before he could step inside, an explosion of sound and color startled him.
Confetti burst from a party popper, showering him in bright paper bits. His parents' faces lit up with wide smiles as they stood in the small living room.
His mother had an apron tied around her waist as she held a tray of cupcakes decorated with what looked like shaky attempts at class symbols—tiny swords, flames, and vines iced in mismatched colors.
His tall and broad-shouldered father, who was still in his dusty mining clothes, with traces of dirt from the mana stone mines on his face, also grinned from ear to ear despite his exhaustion.
In his hands, he held a wrapped gift.
Victor froze in the doorway as his stomach twisted.
"Welcome home, champ!" his father voiced while stepping forward to clap him on the shoulder. "Your mom told me today was the big day, so I thought we'd celebrate! Got you something special."
Victor looked between them as his chest further tightened. He dropped his gaze to the floor, shuffling awkwardly.
"I didn't awaken," he said flatly.
The silence was immediate as if the air had been sucked out of the room. His mother's face fell.
Her hopeful smile was replaced by a flicker of sadness. She couldn't fathom how her baby boy felt at this moment.
His father stood still with the gift in his hands as his grin faded into something more subdued.
"Oh, sweetheart," his mother said softly, setting the tray of cupcakes on the counter and stepping toward him.
"It's okay," Victor said quickly, forcing a laugh that sounded hollow even to his own ears. "It's not like I was expecting much, right? One in a hundred thousand and all that. No big deal."
"Victor—" his father began, but Victor cut him off, waving a hand dismissively.
"Really, it's fine. I'm fine. I'm just gonna… head to my room for a bit."
Before either of them could say anything else, he brushed past them, retreating to his small bedroom and shutting the door behind him.
The room was quiet except for the faint sounds of the mana-powered streetlights outside his window. Victor sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the scuffed floorboards. His mind churned with thoughts he didn't want to have.
Of course, Amara had awakened. Of course, Derek had too. Even Danny, one of his best friends, had managed to break the odds. But Victor? Victor was still Victor.
He lay back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Time passed in a blur. The muffled voices of his parents seeped through the walls at one point, but he ignored them. Eventually, the apartment grew silent.
When he finally emerged from his room, the sky outside was dark. The moon had cast a pale light over the city, drowning it in a more sombre mood.
The apartment was empty. A note sat on the kitchen counter, written in his mother's neat handwriting.
"Victor, we had to attend an old friend's party. We'll be back tonight. There's food in the kitchen if you're hungry. Love, Mom and Dad."
Victor sighed, crumpling the note and tossing it into the trash. "Sure, yeah. Go have fun while your kid wallows in mediocrity," he muttered to himself.
He opened the fridge, pulled out a leftover sandwich, and leaned against the counter as he ate in silence. His eyes wandered across the room, landing on the small package his father had left on the coffee table. The wrapping paper was crumpled and the bow was slightly lopsided, but it was clear how much effort had gone into it.
Curiosity got the better of him.
Victor set the sandwich down and walked over, picking up the package. He unwrapped it slowly, revealing a smooth box with bold letters across the front: 'Ascendant Realms: Cultivation Chronicles.'
Victor's eyebrows rose. The game had been making waves recently. It was a VRMMORPG set in a fully immersive cultivation world. It was supposed to be one of the most advanced games ever made, with mechanics so detailed that players could practically live the life of a cultivator.
It was also ridiculously expensive—far out of reach for most people, especially his family.
Victor stared at the box as his chest tightened again. His dad must have bought it thinking it would be a celebration gift. A reward for awakening.
"Well, that didn't work out," he muttered, dropping onto the couch and turning the box over in his hands.
The more he thought about it, though, the more the idea of playing appealed to him. If he couldn't be a real awakened, maybe he could at least pretend in the game that he was something.
It was better than sitting around feeling sorry for himself.
Victor grabbed his VR headset from his room and set it up. He powered on the game, watching as the interface flickered to life.
"Ascendant Realms, huh?" he said aloud as he put on the headset. "Let's see if you're worth all the hype."
The world around him dissolved into light, and a moment later, he found himself standing in a vast, glowing field. The game's logo appeared in the sky, shimmering with vibrant colors.
For the first time that day, Victor felt a flicker of excitement.
"Alright," his grin returned. "Let's see what this game's got."
He stepped forward as the world of Ascendant Realms unfolded before him. For now, reality could wait...