Chapter 1: A Sketchy Offer
* Beep! * * Beep! * * Beeppepepepepeep! *
The never-ending sound of the alarm clock saturated the air.
"Does this thing ever shut up!? It's like it's built to annoy people", a voice complained whilst yawning.
"What time is it anyway?", the young boy stated whilst looking at the clock. Peering at the clock he could see the digital time, 7:30am. Seeing this his hands started trembling in rage. They quickly shot out from underneath his blankets grabbed the alarm clock turned it off then tossed it across the room at projectile like speed.
The alarm clock zoomed through the air heading towards its impending doom as it crashed into the wall (Poor alarm clock).
* Crash! *
"I could've sworn I set that thing up to wake me up at 9:00am, what sort of witchery is going on", declared the boy as he sighed. Now that most of his pent-up frustrations were gone, he started to calm down.
"Another long day of trying to find a job and not being a NEET. I wonder when you're finally going to get a girlfriend, powers or anything Blake? Oh, wait your powerless! Hahahahaha". The young man laughed to himself.
For Blake today was just another day to remind himself that he was a broke talentless bum. In fact, on his very wall, he had a poster saying, 'broke talentless bum'. Blake looked at the wall and sighed. If only he could be a ranker. To him that was just a fleeting dream.
Blake was just your typical citizen, nothing special. In a world where the majority of people got stat increases, intelligence increases and many other abilities, he had nothing. Every day of his childhood he would wait expectantly for his powers to show up, after all there were cases when powers didn't show up until the age of 16. However, 16 was the final deadline.
Blake was 19 now, he was permanently going to be a suckerfish (name given to non-enhanced people). His dreams, his aspirations to become a high-level ranker, all of them had been shat on by a bully called fate. It was his fate to be weak, bullied and ridiculed after all he didn't have even a spec of power inside him. However, Blake wasn't going to let that stop him, he had to make something out of his life.
Quickly the young adult scuttled towards the mirror. Blake had long blueish scruffy unkempt hair and was about 175cm in height, pair that with the most average of average faces it was if his whole existence was built to be a background character. A person who if was being chased in the crowd would be easily lost, that was Blake's pitiful existence.
After gazing in the mirror and freshening up Blake sat on his bed. He grabbed the phone which laid on his desk and scrolled through his emails. Maybe today he would find an appealing job that was willing to keep him.
Most of the time finding a job wasn't too difficult for Blake because ultimately, he looked like your regular run in the mill guy. Therefore, it wasn't that hard to get the regular run in the mill job. Keeping it was the problem though, once the organisations found that he had no powers and abilities at all, they would quickly replace him with someone with actual powers. That meant that Blake only kept a job for a minimum of two days and a maximum of about a week.
At this stage Blake had cycled through at least 75 different jobs.
Looking through the list today, he hadn't received any comments or replies for most of the job applications that he applied for.
"Guess I'm going to have to take that miner job for later today", he smiled.
'What time was it for again, 12:30 or something like that'. Blake thought to himself
It was during this time, whilst he was pondering that he received a phone invitation. He was just about to swipe delete thinking it was one of those spam posts when he glanced at the sender of the message.
"Japanese Ranker Association, why are they messaging me!", Blake shouted out in shock. He quickly tapped on the email to read more.
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𝘛𝘰 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘒𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘰,
𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘙𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴. 𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵.
𝘐𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘢 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶.
𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵,𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦. 𝘈𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘰 𝘐'𝘮 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨.
𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘻𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺.
𝘈 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘤𝘢𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦.
𝘐 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦
- 𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘻𝘰 𝘠𝘢𝘣𝘶𝘬𝘪
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After reading the email Blake stood there in shock for a few moments.
"The Ranker Association, they want to have me as a scout!". He shouted unable to contain his excitement. Well, they did say that they would pay him a massive sum of money and he would get a recommendation from the association helping him find a new job, so of course he was elated.
It was such an amazing offer, a once in a lifetime opportunity that had been given to him. Although, it did seem a bit sketchy. Why did the ranker association need him, a powerless? Surely there were a lot more suitable people for the job?
Well, whatever the reason he was sure to ask them when he met them. This was the ranker association; whatever scouting job they gave him surely it couldn't be that hard.
'This is probably going to be some easy task, maybe a little challenging but hey free money'. Blake thought to himself whilst grinning.
He gazed out of the window only to see a black car waiting outside the neighbourhood. It was exactly where the director told him it was going to be.
Blake's previous expression had now changed into a full-blown smile 'easy money this jobs gonna be a breeze', at that moment Blake didn't know how wrong he was. He didn't know that from the moment he set his plan to follow through on the associations plans, things would change for him forever.
Whether a curse or a blessing. A positive or a negative. Fate or coincidence, who knows?
The only thing known was that Blake's life would never be the same ever again.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone