Fate Is Fucking Unfair Too

Fate was actually unfair.

This was another truth Fang Ran had come to understand in life.

Some people were born with silver spoons in their mouths, while others were born in impoverished mountain villages. Then there were all sorts of things—some people were born good-looking, some were born smart, and some were born losers~~

But!

As Fang Ran looked at the transparent interface floating before him, he felt for the first time just how unfair Fate truly was.

"No. Way. Right!?"

Let's rewind half an hour.

Boom!

With a tremendous crash, the entire station collapsed without warning. It collapsed cleanly, decisively, and without hesitation.

Crash!!!

A deafening roar came from overhead as massive chunks of concrete and steel reinforcement came crashing down. There was nowhere to take cover in the empty station hall.

Fang Ran was dumbfounded!

His mind went blank for a second, then he instinctively turned and ran toward the station entrance!

His head was filled with overwhelming shock and confusion!

What the hell was going on?

I was just waiting in the station, and then the perfectly fine station suddenly collapsed?

Huh?

Wasn't I in one of the country's biggest cities?

How did this huge station, built just last year and even featured on TV, turn into a goddamn tofu-dreg project?

I didn't do anything heinous today, did I?

Did I pull out an internet café's network cable in my past life or something?

Fang Ran ran for his life as a whole pile of fucked-up thoughts flashed through his mind.

Then, just as Fang Ran began wondering whether he had murdered someone or committed arson in his previous life—

Everything went black, and he was buried alive.

So that whole thing about time slowing down and your life flashing before your eyes right before death really was bullshit.

That was Fang Ran's final thought.

"Wait!!"

With a sudden jerk, Fang Ran startled awake from the chair!

He was drenched in cold sweat, his entire body still remembering the icy sensation of being crushed to death.

"What... happened to me?"

Fang Ran looked at himself, somehow sitting safely on the station chair again without a single injury. He swallowed nervously, then finally realized the fact that pulled him back from that chilling moment.

I'm not dead.

"Ha... ha..."

The moment he understood, Fang Ran went limp in the chair and gasped for breath. Then, after calming down enough to look around, he discovered two things and promptly collapsed onto the floor.

It was dark, and there was no one around.

An unnatural silence hung in the surroundings—or rather, in the entire world.

The moment he saw this, his palms turned icy and his pupils contracted. Fang Ran froze stiffly.

Hey, hey, no way. Don't mess with me. Shouldn't it be the hottest part of noon right now? Why was it suddenly nighttime?

And why was there nobody here?

"No! Stay calm! Calm down! Fang Ran, twenty years old, no criminal record, doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, virgin, single for approximately his entire life."

Fang Ran muttered nonsense he did not even understand himself, trying to calm down and assess his surroundings first.

Then he stood up and looked around.

No one ahead. Mm.

No one on the right. Good.

No one on the left. Not bad.

Fang Ran sat back down. There was no one here. Though he was terrified, at least nobody was threatening his safety. That was what he thought—

Then, just to be safe, he casually glanced behind him.

And saw a Zombie standing there.

"Phew, it's just a Zombie."

Fang Ran let out a breath of relief. Good thing it was not a person. Nothing dangerous.

Then he took off running!

"Fate, fuck your ancestors!!!!"

"Awooooh!!!!!"

Fang Ran's furious cursing and the Zombie's howl rang out through the station together.

Bang!

Fang Ran slammed the glass door shut, grabbed a broom beside him, and jammed it through the handles as a bolt. Without even choosing a direction, he fled for his life. He thought movies had not been a waste of time after all; that calm maneuver in the middle of chaos should at least buy him some time. Then he looked back—

The Zombie smashed straight through the glass door and charged out.

I fucking knew movies were all lies!

Seeing that the Zombie had not been stopped at all and was still rushing after him, Fang Ran cursed through gritted teeth and ran at full speed!

His breathing grew harsher, his throat burned like it was on fire, and the sour ache of being unable to keep running in the final stretch of a long-distance run spread through his body. Only then did Fang Ran truly feel regret for all the things he had failed to do in the past.

I'm sorry, PE teacher. I was wrong. I shouldn't have thought your classes were useless or that taking attendance all the time was insane. Next time, I'll definitely run the thousand meters seriously.

"So bless me!"

Fang Ran shouted like he was about to cry as he fled, while chaotic thoughts about his situation surged through his mind.

What the hell is going on!?

Where did this Zombie come from!?

And more importantly—

Why was there even a Zombie!?

Was this the first dungeon for some infinite-flow webnovel protagonist!?

And Zombies? Why not just use that overdone Raccoon City while you're at it?

I'm telling you, Resident Evil is already over, Umbrella Corporation went bankrupt, and Zombies are outdated! Do you even understand!?

(╬╯◣д◢)╯︵┻━┻(Flip!)

If you understand, make this thing that's about to bite my ass go away!

As he gritted his teeth and sprinted, Fang Ran desperately screamed all these nonsensical thoughts in his heart. His memories rose like a tide, washing over the fragments of thoughts that usually made up who he was, endlessly surging and dragging things from the depths toward shore—

Then, as he ran, dodged, turned, and looked back, at the moment some long-buried emotion deep within his eyes was about to spill forth—

Ding! Accidental entity detected. Survival time exceeded 60 seconds. Primordial Qualification granted.

Ding! Welcome to Night Battle.

Something that made him freeze appeared before his eyes.

The pale-blue transparent screen still floated before him. Looking at the Zombie that was about to catch him, Fang Ran, with nowhere left to run, could only shout at the screen!

"Anything is fine, just stop that thing behind me!"

Fang Ran twisted around to look at the Zombie pursuing him. It was only moving at an ordinary person's speed, but it did not seem to tire. At this rate, he would be the first to collapse.

Ding! Request received. Would you like to draw an ability?

"Draw, draw, draw!!! Hurry the hell up!"

His breathing sounded like a bellows as he gasped desperately, still turning back to watch the Zombie while shouting at the interface that had suddenly appeared before him!

Ding! Please touch freely or make a sound. Describe or speak the deepest thing in your heart. Good luck.

With a hum, the pale-blue square interface transformed into a disk covered in intricate, elegant patterns. Fang Ran had no time to care about any of that. He kept looking back at the rapidly approaching Zombie, his eyelids twitching. After barely understanding the instructions amid the jostling of his run, he shouted without thinking!

"I want SSR!!!"

The pale-blue disk seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then all the patterns drew together, the disk shrank, and a new page formed.

Congratulations, you have obtained an SSS-rank ability (smile).

An incredibly peculiar page appeared, but Fang Ran was too busy looking back at the Zombie to notice it.

Ding! Congratulations, you have obtained a new ability.

Hum!!!

The previous, somewhat unusual system notification seemed to be quietly covered up. In its place came another prompt, and the entire space instantly froze.

Bang!

It felt as though he had crashed into a wall. Fang Ran fell straight to the ground. After his heart suddenly went cold, he discovered that the Zombie behind him had been put on pause, completely motionless.

Then he looked blankly at the interface telling him he had gained a new ability.

Fuck, was this really some infinite-flow webnovel cliché?

He hesitated, but eventually fell silent. With a helpless, bitter smile, Fang Ran sighed and lightly touched the ability interface before him.

Then a locked book dropped into his hands.

The first thought that came to him, making him pause slightly, was—

Huh? Why did this book look kind of familiar??

Beginner Tutorial

Night Battle—A hidden urban scenario trial.

Fulfill unknown conditions to make a wish. Fulfill victory conditions to obtain this round's reward.

You have obtained an ability.

The Time Stop effect will last until this Beginner Tutorial ends.

Looking at the series of pale-blue message windows, Fang Ran opened his mouth slightly. Finally sorting one thread out of the utter chaos in his head, he swallowed and asked blankly:

"So, I have an ability now, right? I can kill that thing behind me?"

Yes.

Night Battle abilities changed according to the user's state of mind. They were broadly divided into the Tech Side and the Mystic Side. There were cultivation, battle aura, ancient martial arts, Abilities, magic, witchcraft... all sorts of manifestations born from what the world acknowledged and what the participants themselves longed for.

"Cultivation... Abilities! Really?"

Fang Ran stared blankly, utterly unable to believe it. At the moment he heard those words—

Something seemed to rise from the ashes in his heart.

Wielding Qing Feng three feet long, soaring freely through the heavens and across the earth; or hiding among ordinary people, with strange arts and supernatural powers curling from the corners of one's lips amid the bustle of the world; breaking free from all restraint—or, on the other side of technology, in forgotten corners of the age, clad in archaic robes, mysterious and unknowable power lighting up from a staff and spreading into a magic circle that shattered reality!

Living in this world, perhaps everyone had once looked forward to such a thing amid the repeated dull routines of tomorrow.

They had looked forward to a power that could shatter the ordinary.

Remembering certain long-distant memories, remembering the days when that child had believed without a doubt, Fang Ran reluctantly picked up the book. Then all his thoughts shattered the instant he sensed something was wrong.

Wait, this seemed different from what he had imagined!

Why did it look so familiar—

Fang Ran stared at the thing in his hand, which should have been some kind of Magic Book. Feeling that something was off, he watched it gradually overlap with something he had seen on television many years ago.

"No. Way. Right!?"

The moment he recognized what it was, Fang Ran suddenly raised his face without expression. All the emotion from before retreated back into the depths of his mind as he asked the pale-blue system:

"Didn't you say abilities were things like cultivation, battle aura, ancient martial arts, Abilities, magic, and witchcraft?"

Ding! Correct.

"Then explain why the hell you gave me something exactly like the Clow Cards from Cardcaptor Sakura!!!"

With a frantic roar, Fang Ran raised the Magic Book in his hand like he was about to smash someone with a brick, his hair standing on end as he nearly threw it away.

Oh, heavens.

Why did it have to be this?

What happened to cool, badass abilities? Even if it was not cultivation or Abilities, even if it was not something classy like magic or alchemy, you could at least have given me something weird and unusual!

Fang Ran felt the expectation that had revived for that single second die completely.

Why was it that, even though they had both been chosen, every protagonist's ability was so ridiculously cool and overpowered?

Ding! Repeating: ability manifestations vary according to the user.

Fate really was unfair!

For some reason, those words appeared in his mind. Trembling with rage, Fang Ran viciously threw down the book in his hand and cursed!

"Fuck your Clow Cards! I'm not a Magical Girl!!"