There was nothing remarkable about Losen as eyes fixated on him in the middle of the square. A thin body, messy hair falling over his face, and dull eyes—as if life had abandoned his body years ago. He stood among the crowd like someone who didn't belong—neither to the earth beneath his feet nor to the sky he had never lifted his head toward.
Around him, they were born with Cores Or in other words, a nucleus. In their chests, those pulsating crystals lit their souls, granted them strength, and gave them status. But he… he was born empty.
"Losen, you have no Core. You can't stay here. The System does not spare the weak."
The evaluator's voice came cold, as if announcing a death rather than an administrative decision. Losen didn't lift his head, nor did he protest. He knew. He had always known.
Since birth, he was like a shadow trailing the light from afar. He watched them train, fight, rise—while he was kept from the arenas, barred from the halls, never invited to the councils.
In that moment, under their stares, he felt no sadness. There was something else… something ancient. Like rage, but deeper. As if it had been born with him.
A young man stepped forward—elegant in appearance, one of the radiant cores glowing in his chest with a deep blue hue. He stood before Losen, a sneer tugging at his lips.
"You know what's strange? Even trash usually gets a Core. But you… you're not even trash. You're less than nothing."
Faint laughter followed. Whispers. Words hurled like knives. Yet Losen didn't move. He didn't respond. He didn't blink.
He heard the sound of the wind… or perhaps it wasn't the wind. Perhaps it was the whisper he had always felt inside him. It was there. Always.
"You are not empty… you just haven't been opened yet."
He didn't know if he had truly heard it or imagined it. But it planted something in his chest. Something small… but alive.
He slowly lifted his head. Looked at the young man who insulted him, then at the evaluators, then at everyone present.
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a weight heavier than mountains:
"I'm not one of you… but I will be the highest among you all."
Silence.
A moment of stillness that froze time.
Then—
Laughter. A wave of it.
"Has this wretch gone mad?!" "The highest? With no Core?!" "Throw him beyond the walls. He belongs with the trash."
Without another word, Losen was grabbed and dragged out of the academy. The iron gate slammed behind him with a sound like the sealing of a grave.
He sat there, beneath a cloud-covered sky. The rain began to fall slowly.
But inside him… something had begun to ignite.
Losen stood amidst the crumbling stone steps, cold eyes of his former peers staring at him like he was a pile of garbage that dared to move.
One of them muttered,
"He's still here? After being expelled?"
A mocking laugh slipped from one student:
"Doesn't need a Core to know he's done."
Losen could've responded. Could've screamed. Could've attacked.
But he didn't.
He looked at his thin hands, cracked from aimless training, and once again felt that deep emptiness in his chest—where his Core was meant to be. But there was nothing… only the void.
The Core… the essence of existence in this world.
Every person is born with the possibility of receiving one, activated at a certain age. Some possess first-grade Cores, others rise to greatness with flawed or even fractured ones.
But him?
He had no Core at all.
"Empty… without essence… without meaning."
Anyone who didn't receive a Core by age sixteen was deemed a Reject. They were expelled from housing, stripped of care, and erased from the city's registry. As if they never existed.
A pale sunset covered the sky, as if the sun was embarrassed for him.
Losen pulled his torn bag. Inside: a piece of bread, a damp cloth, and an old notebook labeled:
"He who has no Core… has no right to exist."
A phrase carved above the academy's gate.
He stepped through the great gate, and as he closed it behind him, he felt something else shut inside him as well. Perhaps… hope.
But he didn't stop.
"I'm not one of you… but I will be the highest among you all."
He walked through the back alleys where the Rejected, the sick, and the lost gathered.
Some reached out, begging for food. Others sat staring into nothingness.
Suddenly…
A man appeared before him—features blurred, wearing a coat coated in ash, eyes glowing oddly under the faint light.
He spoke with a strange voice:
"You lost your Core, didn't you?"
Losen took a step back.
"I never had one."
The man smiled, then pulled a small black crystal from his pocket, radiating a strange glow… dark, yet alluring.
"But… what if I told you there was another kind of Core?
Cores not given by the System… but ripped from the heart of the impossible?"
Losen froze.
The man stepped closer, whispering:
"What you have isn't emptiness. It's… a vessel.
And every vessel… can be filled."
Then he vanished.
And the crystal remained in Losen's hand. Pulsating… like a living heart.
It was pitch-black, opaque, but the more Losen stared into it, the more it felt like it was swallowing him… like it knew him…
Like it had been waiting for him.
He stood there, in the dark alleyway, hearing nothing but his heartbeat—and the trembling crystal in his palm.
"A vessel, huh?"
The man's words echoed in his mind.
In this world, no one acknowledged Cores not granted by the System, that divine mechanism which awakened the Core inside human bodies.
But this thing… it was beyond the System.
A Core of rejection?
Or a curse?
"It's a Core… but it's not ours."
That's what the man had said before fading like smoke.
Slowly, Losen closed his fingers around it.
Suddenly, it felt like a blade had stabbed his heart.
A sharp scream erupted from within, choking his voice. He collapsed to his knees, and the crystal flared with a bloody flash!
It was burning his veins.
As if it was weaving something new inside him.
Strange visions flashed before his eyes:
Monsters devouring the land, cities melting, people standing before a dark entity, and an army of the Rejected… led by a young man who looked like him, but whose eyes glowed with two different colors.
Then he fell.
The crystal disappeared… or rather, melted into his chest.
Minutes passed. Maybe hours.
And when he awoke, the sky was dark, and the rain had begun to fall lightly.
But something had changed.
He could hear heartbeats… not just his own, but from everything around him.
As if the air itself pulsed.
As if the darkness spoke to him.
Losen stood.
He looked at his hands.
And something faint began to appear on his skin: thin black lines, like forgotten runes.
Then he heard the voice.
[Activation complete: Core of Rejection – Grade Zero]
It wasn't a human voice.
Nor was it the known System's robotic tone.
It was something else… older, deeper.
The voice said:
"Welcome to the Void. Your first step toward the throne has begun."
Losen, who had no Core just hours ago…
Now possessed one.
The rain fell softly, but each drop hitting the ground echoed in his ears like an explosion.
His world had changed… not just on the outside, but from within.
He raised his hand slowly, the hand that once trembled in weakness, mocked by all—
Now steady, heavy… as if something within it was ready to erupt.
[Integration: 2%]
The voice inside his head still lingered. It didn't resemble the System's cold automation, but felt like a living entity speaking through him, breathing with him.
Losen walked quietly through the backstreets. The district was abandoned. The generators that lit the neighborhoods didn't work here, and Core Hunters had no interest in such a place.
"How will I return?"
He thought.
"The annual test happened today… and I was expelled."
"No one will believe me… no one will welcome me back."
But that no longer mattered.
He felt something new.
As if his body wasn't entirely his own… as if he was breaking out of a shell built over years.
He stopped suddenly.
At the end of the alley, three young men appeared.
People he knew.
They were academy trainees, some of them from his own batch.
One of them laughed:
"Look who crawled back from the trash! Isn't that 'No-Core'?"
The second stepped forward, eyes filled with hate:
"We heard about your expulsion, how tragic… I was hoping to beat you down myself before they threw you out."
Losen didn't move.
[3%... 4%...]
The voice was returning. The percentage rising.
One of them said:
"Hey, ignoring us? You think you're strong now? Haha, come on, show us what you've got!"
One of them raised his hand.
It held an orange core — a "Faint Lightning" core, low-grade but capable of paralyzing the target.
He threw a spark toward Losen…
But in an instant…
Losen vanished!
He reappeared behind him.
Silence.
A single strike…
"KRAAAK!"
The young man fell to the ground, his arm bent at an unnatural angle.
The second didn't even have time to react…
Black shadows, like threads of nothingness, coiled around his leg and yanked him backward.
The third froze in place. He couldn't even scream.
[6%... 7%...]
Losen stood in the center, his breathing calm.
But inside… he was boiling.
For the first time in his life… fear wasn't in control.
Something else was.
[Alert: The first trait of the Rejected Core has begun forming – "Dominion of the Void"]
Ability: Weakens cores of mid and low grades when within the inner shadow field.
The fight ended before it even started.
He left them behind, not looking back.
This was the first clash… a simple one.
But it wouldn't be the last.
[7%... 8%... 9%...]
And when the core finishes merging…
The world won't recognize "Losen" as they once did.
They will beg him instead.