"Huh, my phone!" I blurted out unknowingly.

My hand instinctively flew to my pocket.

No… It couldn't be.

[Is it because you aren't dead that's why you think your phone also won't die...]

Just shut up. Do you know that my phone was expensive? Have some respect.

It was a stupid thing to say, mourning a piece of electronics while standing in a field of rubble with broken ribs, but it felt like a last straw.

A piece of my normal, scrappy life had been shattered.

[At this point I don't even know who you are.]

I brought out my phone hurriedly, my hope crumbling as I looked at it.

The system was right. It wasn't just dead. It was a tragedy.

The screen was a spiderweb of cracks so dense I could barely see the black beneath.

The casing was dented and warped, and a fine trickle of glass dust fell from its seams when I moved it.

It refused to switch on. No faint glow, no vibrating plea for a charger. It was just a cold, dead weight in my hand. It was gone.

A strange, hollow feeling settled in my chest.

All my downloaded anime, all the stupid game I played when I was bored, and most importantly, Blue Ice, all of it gone.

I took a deep breath in, and out.

"Don't worry," I whispered to the useless slab of metal and glass, which was utterly ridiculous. "I would get revenge for you."

I put the phone back in my pocket, the gesture feeling like a funeral.

I sighed.

The system had made its point with brutal efficiency.

There was no way to order for a healing potion.

I was alone, broke in every sense that mattered, and critically injured.

The core wasn't just an option now; it was the only option on the table.

Without wasting any more time, I pushed away from the wall and walked unsteadily towards the main storage door.

Each step sent a jolt of pain up my spine, a constant reminder of the clock ticking down on my body.

I placed my hand on the cold, reinforced metal of the door. It was solid, unyielding. It looked strong, built to withstand a siege.

And most importantly, with a sinking feeling in my gut, I confirmed... it was locked.

Of course it was. I didn't expect anything less anyways.

Why would a main storage room, with something that important not be heavily locked and protected.

I sighed again.

"It looked like I have to do it the hard way." I muttered to myself.

The hard way was the only way now.

I drew my hand back, ignoring the scream of protest from my shattered ribs, and channeled every ounce of frustration, pain, and sheer bloody-minded will into my fist.

This wasn't about finesse or technique. This was about wanting it more than the door wanted to stay closed. I punched the door.

The moment my fist connected with it, it burst open, swinging inward on shattered hinges with a pathetic whine.

I stepped inside, looking around the room.

It wasn't that spacious as I expected. No grand vault, no intricate security displays. It was austere, almost clinical.

The walls, floor, and ceiling were a seamless, dull grey metal, absorbing the light and sound, making the room feel like a pocket of absolute silence.

And at the center of the room, the ability core was there, floating.

It hung in the air, unsupported, rotating slowly.

I reached towards it, my steps cautious on the silent floor, studying it for a brief moment.

The ability core was a perfect round sphere, but its blackness wasn't a color. It was an absence.

It was black in colour like a void, a depth that seemed to swallow the very light around it.

And surrounding it, like a captive storm, were dark fog-like things, shifting, tendrils that coiled and uncoiled without sound. It was terrifying and beautiful.

It was surprising to me. I have never seen an ability core in real life, only heard of it.

[Just carry it. You've seen it enough already.]

The system's text was impatient, shattering the awe-filled silence in my mind.

I ignored the system for a moment longer, my fingertips inches from the swirling darkness.

Finally.

After a lot of moving up and down, planning just to enter Aegis, and suffering after entering… I found it.

My hand closed around it.

I held it in my hand and sighed. It was cold. Not the cold of ice, but the cold of deep space, a chill that seeped into my bones without any sensation of temperature.

It was heavier than it looked, its weight feeling less physical and more… significant. Like I was holding a star's worth of potential.

[Destroy it.]

The system's command was so absurd, so utterly insane, that I actually laughed.

System, what are you smoking? This is the most powerful object I've ever touched, and you want me to break it? After all this?

[I didn't mean actually destroying it, you dumbass, I mean squish it with your hand. Crush the container.]

And? What happens then?

[And then you would have the power]

It replied, as if it were explaining something simple to a child.

[The core is just a lens, a focus. The true energy is contained within. Break the lens. And you get the ability. Simple.]

I looked at the void-black sphere in my palm, then at the empty air where the system screen appears.

I looked at it suspiciously for a moment. This felt like the ultimate trust fall.

It had gotten me this far, through a plan that had involved me being used as a living battering ram.

But in the end, I had no other choice but to obey, they wasn't any much time left.

I clenched my fist. And crushed it with my hand.

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